Riverfront Bar & Grill

Great location when you’re boating on the Hudson and want to grab some sustenance. I wish more of the Hudson was being utilized like this because even though restoration efforts for the Hudson have been underway for years, people still shy away. They’ve got a great location, but it kind of appears to be a gimmick (sorry!). We ordered the steamed clams, calamari, and wings. Even though the portions looked right, the clams and wings were baby-​sized (although a baby eating either thing would probably be considered a culinary savant/​slob). The calamari was moderate size in comparison. The flavor of the calamari was good, the wings were good (a little oily for some reason), and the clams were just so small I don’t really know what to say. My beer was … Sort of chilly. Needs fixing. My pa ordered a well drink and they serve them in big glasses and that was definitely a plus. They had a lot of tables open but could not keep up (although I didn’t experience anyone being rude, so it doesn’t really bother me). My review is kind of a 3.5 star.

Came back here for another concert and had the food. The other reviews aren’t very good, so I was expecting the worst, but everything I ate was solid bar food at bar food prices ($ 8-​$ 12).
The quesadilla really good. It came with fresh spinach, tomatoes and onions. They used a white cheese which was a nice change from the Mexican bled that usually comes on quesadillas.
The boneless chicken wings (hot) had a good spice level, but, they arrived a little cold. That was the only thing disappointing about our meal.
My friend had the penne pasta dish. I almost ordered that, so had to ask for a bite. It came with an ample amount of a thin vodka sauce and two pieces of bread. Next time I come back, I’m ordering that.
Overall the food was OK, but the fact that this is on a boat and walking distance from downtown makes it a four star for me. Sitting on the water, with a beer and live music is magical!

Just about the only thing nice about the place was the view. We ordered the «Clam Casino» appetizer and were unpleasantly surprised to learn that it consisted of 5 tiny clams with luke-​warm topping for TEN DOLLARS. We thought it was a joke. Specialty drinks were overpriced for the amount of alcohol given. The BAKED vegetable scampi was bland and not at all baked! The cajun tilapia was alright, if you like greasy fish! I would only say go to this place if you want a decent view and are only looking to buy a couple beers.

Having a cool view, being on the water doesn’t redeem this terrible restaurant in any way. The service was incredibly slow and we felt ignored the whole time. That isn’t to say the staff aren’t, they just can’t do their jobs. I ordered the crab cake appetizer which was described as being on a bed of cooked spinach with pico de gallo. The patty came out on a big plate with nothing else except a lemon wedge. When I asked the waitress she said they ran out of spinach and offered no substitution. It was $ 12. Unbelievable. Ice tea and Coke are $ 2.25, which is typical these days, but they serve it in a tiny plastic cup and refills take forever. My companions also complained about the taste of the chicken wrap and the lobster roll. The bruschetta was delicious though. If you sit on the top level at sunset you will cook in the sun the entire time. Not much you can do about that. We asked to move to a table in the shade but they told us we couldn’t sit there because the it was going to be removed soon when the band got there. We accepted that– then became pretty pissed when they sat a group of people there a full 20 minutes later. Beware that since the restaurant is actually ON the water you may experience motion sickness if it moves on the waves.

Though it was a unique and interesting experience to eat on the water, the cons definitely outweighed the pros.
The food was sub-​par, the service was average, and though it was fun to see a few motorboats & ferries cruising the river, surely there is more excitement to be had for the $ 100+ I wound up spending on my tab.

4 stars for location! A little confusing to get to since gps doesn’t calculate– Use the Corning Preserve address for accuracy. Also construction going on currently so allow for that. Went on Wednesday while in town visiting family. Great place to go for after dinner drinks. Good beer selection. Have not tried food. Perfect location for a summer night!

Horrible service, slow slow slow! Food is poor quality. Only thing cool is being on the river…

I have definitely experienced better. Service was exactly what I would expect for this divey kind of bar on the water. To me its a pub or dive bar so I am expecting good fast drinks maybe some good apps. The drinks were good, well priced but the food not so much. The apps and sandwiches we ordered were pretty bland and not cooked properly but awesome location and I personally love their beer selection. Great place to go for a beer after work in the summer.

Poor beer selection, mediocre to bad food. Why would you go here? Maybe for the slow service.

My wife and I went here for dinner and some music on a hot July night. Great open floor plan so the temperature was mitigated. They had a Beatles cover band that night, cool, but I wasn’t looking to pay a cover to eat a meal. Oh well.
We sit down to a bout half full place. No service for about 20 minutes and I should have taken that as a sign but I already payed the damn cover so I’m stuck. Server comes greets us and brings menus. EEK! Menus had mildew inside them. I’ll skip the chow!
The service continued to suck even as people left and the staff numbers stayed the same. We only had three drinks and we were there for two hours. I watched my last beer sit on the end of the bar for ten minutes while our server stood around talking to the other staff. Would have drank more if someone would actually come to the table to take orders and then return with the drink. Funny concept, huh?
I don’t get the plastic bar ware though? Maybe they don’t sell enough drinks to afford glass? Why don’t they sell enough drinks? Oh yeah because the service sucks!
One star for the open floor plan.

The service is terrible! The hostess was so rude, I was there on 7÷29÷14 so you know who you are. You lady are the ruddiest. If you don’t own the place, you should be ashamed of putting someone else’s business in jeopardy. And the bartenders where rude too! NEVER ever going back! I can spend my money in a place that the service people don’t treat the customers like shit!

Ultra-​Important Update: I couldn’t resist giving this place another chance to make up for their past mistakes, and this time they found yet another way to screw up. They gave me a crapload of soggy fries and 5 shrimps (what they call a «shrimp cocktail») to go. Their 5 shrimp cocktail costs TWELVE DOLLARS! I could buy 100 shrimp for around that price at most any supermarket. Never ever again. If I had a dog, he wouldn’t touch any of this sorry excuse for food.
Behold the Riverfront Bar and Grill. This place is literally on water. How has it not drowned by now? The service stinks like the Titanic sinks.
When entering, I wasn’t sure whether I’m at a restaurant or alone on a boat by myself, starving. I arrived one time for lunch break, and took a seat so that I could choose something to order. After making a decision, I waited a good 10 minutes, but not one waiter/​waitress showed up at my table, even though there were about 8 of them moving about the place. They must be blind, or I guess since I was by myself and not within a group of people, then the tip would be bad. Surely that’s what they thought, because they did manage to quickly serve other people (groups) who came in well after I did. So thus, I gave them no tip, because I said «screw this crap» and left without ordering anything anyway. Thank you Riverfront Bar for not wanting my money. Please hire workers that are professional and not some summer camp counselor rejects. Also make sure your staff aren’t blind and actually serve people when they come in.
Luckily for me, there’s plenty of goose poop nearby to fling in this establishment’s general direction. If only I had an iceberg too.

If you’re looking for a solid meal, I wouldn’t suggest Riverfront. The only thing this place has going for them is the location on the water, which was peaceful and beautiful.
In general, the prices seemed quite high for the quality of food received. My boyfriend and I started with some cocktails which were decent and the Riverfront Fries. These are waffle fries smothered with nacho cheese, salsa, sour cream, and bacon. They were soggy and the bacon was over-​cooked and tasted burnt; at least they came out hot and the fries that didn’t have stuff on them were crispy.
As an entrée, I ordered the fish & chips, thinking it would be fresh fish at a riverfront place. I’m pretty sure it was frozen fish that was fried too long, as it was not at all flaky as fried fish should be and was strangely flat and uniformly shaped. My boyfriend got tilapia with crab meat, with vegetable of the day (which the server didn’t know what the veggie was when asked) and rice pilaf which was just plain rice with random pieces of carrot in it, that had many uncooked rice pieces.
If you’re just coming for a drink and to catch some live music, it’s a nice spot. But if you’re coming to enjoy a good meal, go elsewhere! The price before tip for this meal was $ 60 ($ 72 after tip, the server still deserved 20% since he doesn’t control the food quality) when I honestly felt that I could have gotten something from McDonald’s and been more satisfied.
Also, don’t put in the address provided, it brings you somewhere else!

The only place to go in the city of Albany to beat the heat of summer. On the Hudson River, the breeze is typically calm and consistent and the atmosphere is a party boat /​midrange eatery hybrid. The food is consistent and always decent from my experience. I’ve never been disappointed. Live music on the weekends is also a big plus. Their beer selection is a little lacking, mostly cheap American beers, but they make up for it with specialty mixed drinks.

Perfect for an outdoor get together, the burgers are amazing, the drinks are affordable, and trivia night brings out great groups!

We enjoyed our experience at this bar/​restaurant. I ordered a pomegranate margarita which was super super sweet. A little too much for my liking. And for dinner I originally ordered the reuben but they didn’t have corned beef so I had to order something else. I went with the pesto chicken. The pesto chicken was really good. The pesto was so fresh.
I was a bit peeved that there was a cover charge. We got there at about 8:30 p.m. on a Saturday. The band didn’t start performing til 10, when we were leaving. So we paid a $ 5 charge to essentially watch them set up. That wasn’t cool.

This place is absurdly slow. They screw up orders and charge for soda refills. Never again…
Went there for lunch for a co-worker’s birthday with 14 others. At least ¹⁄₃ of the orders were wrong when delivered. It took someone 15 minutes to come and tell myself and a co-​worker that what we ordered was not available. We then both ordered the same thing as an alternate and got different things delivered.
This all took TWO HOURS at lunch time. Save your time, money and sanity and go elsewhere…

It’s HOT, it’s HUMID, and you want to eat outdoors. But you don’t want to bake in the sun or be enclosed in a close area where the air is heavy.
Solution? The Riverfront Bar & Grill!
Cool breezes come off the Hudson River while you sit on the upper deck protected from the sun. Watch the ducks and geese being fed by patrons, the boats passing by, maybe an Amtrak train or two, the final cruises of the Aqua Ducks, and if you’re really lucky maybe you’ll even see the railroad bridge open to let a tall ship pass through. All of that is certainly worth a star on it’s own.
The food and drink is pretty basic. A recent lunch on a day that met the requirements above, was met with mixed reaction. Unsweetened Ice Tea is good for cooling off on a day like this. The New England Seafood Chowder ($ 4.99/cup; $ 5.99/bowl) had a proper amount of creaminess, not too heavy, but was too salty. It was served hot and some pepper helped to improve it.
The hand-​battered Fried Calamari ($ 8.99) was by default served with a marinara sauce. We were never asked to choose between the marinara and cocktail sauce as offered on the menu. Had I noticed that option I would have requested the cocktail sauce. The main downfall of the calamari was that it was barely warm when it arrived at the table. It had potential if it had arrived hot.
The highlight was the Pulled Pork Sandwich ($ 8.99) — topped with smoked bacon and melted smoked Mozzarella cheese, served on a toasted kaiser roll. The BBQ sauce was not overly sweet, the bacon was cooked lean enough to add a bit of nice chewy texture. The portion was large enough that it would have been very difficult to hold in your hands without making a total mess, so fork and knife were put to good use.
The fries that came with the sandwich were very ordinary. That might explain why so many fries were disappearing overboard to the delight of the ducks and geese swimming about alongside the barge.
Service was prompt, efficient and friendly.

I went here with a group of 6 after taking a sightseeing tour on the Dutch Apple. We’d spotted the restaurant from the boat and decided to check it out. The food was ok. We ordered waffle fries as an app, and they were pretty good. My burger was good. But the fountain drink? Tasted weird and watery. Also, they charge for refills, which is just absurd.
The service was not great. 2 – 3 people in my group did not receive their food the way they asked for it (that’s on the kitchen too), our server did not check in with us much, even though there was only about 2 other tables in the place, and the food took a while, even considering that there were 6 people.
As other reviewers noted, the location is really what makes this place. In which case, you’re probably better off bringing a picnic lunch to eat at the adjacent Corning Preserve and maybe grabbing a drink from the bar. I probably won’t ever return myself.

It’s difficult for me to assign The Riverfront a rating because it has some good things going for it, yet some bad things working against it. So I’m sticking with a mediocre three stars.
The good: Location, location, location. A beautiful spot to relax on a hot summer day. Who needs AC when you can sit right on the water and let the breeze cool you down? This can have it’s disadvantages, though, like when the wind tries to take your napkins off the table or suddenly throws your half-​full plastic cup at the person sitting across from you.
The so-​so: Food. Nothing special, nothing fantastic, but decent. My impression at the Riverfront Bar & Grill is that the focus is more on the *bar* as opposed to the *grill*. (As evidenced by their large whiteboard at the entryway showing a schedule full of evening events, including everything from karaōke to trivia to DJ appearances.) Of course, they do have a more extensive menu than most bars, but the food is basically one step above your average bar food in terms of quality.
And the ‘meh’: Service. I’ve had some good service and some horrible service. On my most recent visit, I came on a weekday with a small group at sort of an odd time — around 3pm. There were a few people seated at the bar, but no one at any tables. We were taken to the absolute furthest table at the edge of the restaurant, which initially seemed nice in terms of privacy. However, the waiter was absent during much of our meal and we really needed him. Particularly after the aforementioned cup was blown over and subsequently flooded our table. He was visible the entire time at the bar, though; hanging out with his cronies instead of paying us any mind. We practically had to send out distress flares to get his attention.
So, what I’m trying to say is, I really only consider coming to the Riverfront on a sunny August day when the temperature is 80+. I have no issue ignoring the crappy service and uninspired food if I’m sitting in the sunshine, sipping a cocktail with good company and the wind blowing in my hair.