Pier i Cafe

Lovely spot on the Hudson, super friendly service, and tasty coffee & muffins. Agree with prior reviews, that weekday mornings are a DREAM here. No wifi — the cost of a peaceful oasis, to be sure!

Peaceful and scenic views of the Hudson River, quality food, friendly service and dog-​friendly outdoor seating area — what more could you ask for?
Pier i Café is a bit hidden, tucked under the highway overpass right along the Hudson River… I would’ve never ventured this way if I didn’t know about this place. Best way to get here is through the park entrance on 68^th Street, go down the long incline pathway and you’ll see the green umbrellas.
You order your food at the counter and pick up at the end of the counter, no servers, which is a plus! Friendly service at the counter. There are plenty of things to choose from like burgers and hot dogs, but I went with the lobster roll, which was good — could’ve used a bit more seasoning — but it was a good portion of lobster. I was pleased with the quality, wasn’t expecting it from an outdoor café. It came with a side salad and fries, both good. Love their selection of draft beers, got an Ommegang white, seems to be my favorite brand lately. You can get something for cheap, like a hot dog and beer and spend very little or you can splurge on the more expensive items like the $ 22 lobster roll.
My favorite part about this place is that it’s dog friendly — yay!!! That means you don’t have to leave you pooch at home, you can bring them and they can enjoy the outdoor time too :)

I’ve come here a few times each summer since I’ve lived here (2015 was my 4^th summer).
You can get cheap food, like a $ 3 hot dog, or you can spend $ 22 on a lobster roll. Your call.
Easy system where you order at the counter and take a buzzer. Come back up when your food is ready, which gives you time to stake out a table. If you’re buying wine, you might as well get a bottle, because a «glass» of wine is actually just a tiny plastic cup.
So nice to sit and relax on the pier, in NYC and looking at Jersey over the Hudson, with something to eat and drink.

I’m giving this place 4 stars more for how it used to be than how it is today. This was a hidden gem for several years and I loved coming here in the summer months to hang out. I still love coming here but now its always busy and full of strollers/​families from the UWS.
They have a great selection of beers and cocktails and a pretty good, if over priced (especially the lobster roll) menu. I recommend the burger as its the best value, delicious and comes with amazing seasoned fries too.
I like the fact that this place is seasonal and only open in the summer to leave you wanting more. If you’re on the Westside looking for a great place to hangout and kick back with a bucket of Corona, but don’t want to deal with the obnoxious bro’s and ho’s who now frequent the Frying Pan, then check this place out.

Out of the way a bit. Kind of hard to walk to. Just bike here early before the crowds and grab a coffee or something. Lots of tables with umbrellas. People watch for pier joggers, stroller walkers and tan ppl. Come back later for bite and a beer.
Also decent public bathrooms!

I last reviewed this spot in 2008 and things have changed a lot. It’s still a lovely spot. It’s still got my five stars. But it’s not the same. Pier I Café is an open air eatery in Riverside Park South, under the West Side Highway and beside the Hudson. Its seventy-​or-​so tables are shaded by lime-​green umbrellas swaying in the breeze, and depending on time and day, it is either a place to chill in silence, or a bustling outdoor cafeteria. Its food is simple but not bad – a solid burger, excellent fries, a few salads of the kale-​and-​quinoa variety, chicken nuggets for picky toddlers – if you’re familiar with the Boat Basin on 79^th, or the Frying Pan by Chelsea, it’s a similar menu. For drinks, there’s a small list of simple cocktails, sangria pitchers, and some absurdly sweet lemonade, but the beer’s your best bet – they recently switched to a local, all-​New York State beer list for their drafts – Coney Island ale, Bronx IPA, Kelso lager, Ommegang witte, for example – good stuff. You can opt for a bucket of Coronas too, which kind of never loses its novelty.
Back in 2008 this place was less developed, and more charming for it. It had only port-​a-​potties, and felt more like a shack, its permanence seemingly in doubt, like it might not be there the following summer, or like a strong river gale might blow it away. It was less known and felt like a secret. You could come here on a weekend and not be crowded, on a weekday evening and feel the stillness of the water and hear only murmurs from the folks at neighboring tables. And they served actual pints, if memory serves me right, and the veggie burger was some kinda perfection.
Now it’s more developed. It gets packed in the evenings, and it’s overfull with families and strollers on weekends. None of this is a bad thing, it’s a sign of success, but it makes the place less relaxing. I hesitate coming here on weekday evenings and on weekends, for fear of not finding a seat and of being surrounded by more people and energy than I’d like. And I can’t convince Brooklyn friends to hike up to my neighborhood for the Pier any longer, for those same reasons.
I’ve discovered a different, perfect time to come here, though: weekday mornings. For various reasons, I’ve had the pleasure of spending many weekday mornings here for two summers. Before it opens for lunchtime, Pier I Café is a tea and coffee stand, with muffins and scones from Corner Bakery. Nothing wildly special here, but the setting makes up for it. At 10am or even 1pm, the place is near empty – you might share it with ten people and a few dogs, and those people are as likely to be quietly reading a paper or painting as anything else. The overhead highway’s white noise isolates you, the river smells of the sea, the ants on the retaining wall are ceaseless. You can come here to read, to zone out, to work. I’ve written some published fiction here. I’m writing this Unilocal review here. I’ve read most of several books here and tons of news. There’s no Wifi, but I suspect this is a benefit – it keeps the place emptier. On weekday mornings and occasionally even afternoons, Pier I Café doesn’t feel like a part of the city. It feels like it used to, a sleepy open secret at the edge of things, where the city ends.

Sitting on the Hudson River under an umbrella, 85 degrees, sipping a cold beer, people watching, eating fun bar junk food! Love it!

The food gets a 2
The drinks get a 3
And the view/​area get a 4
Although I have come here many times, especially when it first opened years ago, I recently came here on a Monday around 8:00PM.
Tips: If you are with more than one person, have them find a table while you go grab menu. Decide what you are going to eat, go order it and when it is ready, your thingi (what is it called?) will began to vibrate.
Ambience: It was pretty packed at 8:00PM but by 8:30pm there were a few tables available. Gets pretty packed on the weekends from opening to closing. Crowd seem to be young professionals coming from work and a few families.
Food: I hadn’t eaten here in a long time therefore I forgot how ordinary the food was. I had the veggie burger and it was not good; the fries were a bit salty. My friend got the chicken tenders and they were alright. Beers were good. If the food actually tasted good I would say prices were decent, but the food was not worth the price.
The view: If you are facing the water, the view is amazing. Also, make sure you walk down the pier to enjoy the scenery, especially during sunset.
I would return here for drinks but not for food.

Went here on a Tuesday night around 9:30; there weren’t many people here which would be expected at that time/​day. Great view of Hudson and Jersey skyline.
Live music was playing. Chairs with lit-​up umbrellas. Friendly service.
Per previous reviews tried the Vodka Blueberry Lemonade, pitcher. I wasn’t a fan– didn’t feel as if there was much vodka in it. It was too sweet to drink an entire pitcher worth.
Would like to come back but would stray from the pitcher drinks.
Didn’t try the food but they had interesting selections that looked tasty.

This is a great spot to hang out on a sunny day. After you figure out how to get here (hint — there is a ramp around 68^th street that you have to walk down), you go to the counter, order some food — the burger/​fries (7/10)and the lobster roll are decent (⁶⁄₁₀). Then you grab a table and hang out till sunset, which you will have an awesome view of.
The 45 – 65 dollar pitchers have generous pours in them and should be enough for about 6 people. Finding a table could be challenging, so figure out what you want in advance and send some of your friends on a scavenger hunt while you are waiting for the food.
This place was extremely clean and the crowd had a good vibe. Live music was an added bonus.

Came here after 4^th of July with a small group of friends. 3 of them ordered food, another friend and I looked for tables. If you’re coming in a group, divide and conquering will be your best bet if you want to grab a seat around here. We came around 7pm so finding seating can be a challenge.
We had a pitcher of a vodka infused peach drink w/​blueberries. Very generous amounts of vodka in this drink so you may want to mix it a few times before drinking it. Nice crowd, nice views. Good place to spend an afternoon

It’s a great spot to relax after work and have a pitcher of beer while you enjoy the beautiful Hudson river view. I’ve been there so many times. Burgers, salad, fries, chicken tenders and service is good. You make your purchase go find yourself a table relax and the buzzer will tell you when your food is ready for pick up while you already have a drink. It doesn’t get any better then this!

Service is excellent. The ambiance is beyond excellent. We ordered the blackened salmon with black bean salad, salad and seasoned fries. I am a fry snob and the fries were very good. The salad was very good. The black bean ‘salad’ was ok. The salmon was great portion size, very meaty but the flavor was lacking, especially for a blackened piece of fish. Cooking it up with a bit of rock salt would probably bring out all the blackened seasoning. I’d go back for sure but wouldn’t order the salmon unless I knew the flavor would pop more.
I was introduced to the owner. A DELIGHTFUL man. Also met the head chef who was very personable. Enjoyed the evening very much.

Two stars only because I loved this place before… but this time, things went downhill!
I hope this place is not turning into S*!t; my boyfriend and I got cold, dry, and PINK burgers, after we asked for very well done, almost burnt… the bread was cold and hard. the cheese was stuck to the bun and it felt like rubber. Those burgers had to be sitting there for so long, it was disgusting! We got extremly salty fries, like someone spilled the whole can of salt on the fries by accident; we could not even eat them…
This sucks because I had so many great times, here, with my boyfriend… like this was one of our first date spots. Now, having this bad experience… wow! I definitely do not think we will be back here!

Most delicious french fries I’ve had in NYC.
I also had the lobster roll and it was delicious.
Love the view, love the service, love the crowd!

If there is anything you hate about Manhattan. This place has it. The overcrowdiness. The invasion of personal space and the snobs.
The drinks are weak and if you go during the weekend you’ll spend forever trying to get a seat as it is self seating.
One lady saw me looking for a chair and placed her dog back in one before I could even ask for it, wow!
Anyways if you like doing stuff just to say you did stuff even though the experience might suck then go. If you’re like me and actually want to have a nice quiet time then pass on this place.
The food was meh.

Gorgeous view of the pier with the jersey skyline
Great service staff & love that it’s self service and free seating! Great for groups or couples
Great tasting American burgers & fries, paired with a pitcher of blonde beer, we had a great time– thank you
Perfect for summer or as it approaches Spring and temperatures are warmer. I personally prefer evenings when the sunsets beautifully over the horizon overlooking the jersey city skyline.
Heard there are events on the pier all summer long! Will be back cheers

I love this place. This is a little getaway for people that live in NYC. I actually don’t want more people to come here that are not from NYC and are not in the know.
But for locals, do come! Beer, views, sunsets, mid day, passable food. Summer is nice here. Not as packed as Boat Basin.

IN SHORT: A shady, summery, seasickness-​proof outdoor bar and grill with vibes and views that will make anyone happy to waste a few hours of the day.
THE STORY: While Upper West residents would certainly prefer to keep Pier i Café a secret, the brightly colored umbrellas and comfortable lounges make it worth a trip from anywhere in the city. Luckily, there are plenty of corners and seats to tuck away, making it easy to relax under the warmth of the sun and the sangria.
Noshing on lobster rolls and Old Bay fries, the crowd, which runs the gamut from 30-​something couples, sometimes with young kids, to cheerful retirees, seems pleasantly at ease in the clean and vibrant space. The better than average bar food just adds to the splendidness of the spectacular views of the Hudson, and gives anyone the excuse to come back every weekend.

My suggestion is wear pants at night before you go here, especially in the summer months. The mosquitoes are vicious and really thirst for your blood.
ANYWAYS, I was brought to this place by my significant other and I was glad he stumbled upon this place on Unilocal (especially after doing extensive research in fear of my wrath).
The mahi taco (which honestly was just a big burrito) and the Pier I burger were delicious. The prices aren’t exactly a great deal, but the view is spectacular. I love that it’s low key, unpretentious and cafeteria style (reminiscent of middle school days with a better setting).
Plus they have alcohol there. Will be back to try the pitcher of sangria I was eyeing across the other tables.

Super leckerer Hot Dog mit Sauerkraut! … leckerer als bei Nathan’s, wie ich fand.
Keine billigen Plastikstühle und –tische, sondern sehr bequeme Stühle!
Netter Blick auf den Hudson River.
Man zahlt und bekommt eine Nr., die dann aufgerufen wird.
Fazit: Für einen Stop auf einer Radtour am Ufer des Hudson Rivers entlang prima geeignet!