Ripples Riverside Bar & Grill

Just to clarify, one whole star is for the view.  The service could definitely use some work!

Went in on a Thursday afternoon (5:00) to meet a friend.  The bar was full, as there was a retirement party going on, and most of the tables were full.  It appeared that there were two servers, who were making and serving drinks, delivering food, doing EVERYTHING.  Ridiculous.  We sat for 25 minutes before anyone came to our table to take a drink order.  No eye contact, acknowledgement that they were super busy and would get to us soon, nothing.  I understand being understaffed and slammed, but I don't understand ignoring customers.  We were about to leave, when one of the servers finally came over.

We ordered two cosmopolitans, which were not very cold, no lime -- cranberry juice and vodka.  We looked over the bar menu, and there were quite a few nice sounding things on it for very reasonable prices.  I ordered a french dip sandwich ($4.50) with fries ($2.00 more), which meant that my dinner cost less than one of my drinks.  The sandwich was pretty good.  My friend ordered a BLT, which was served on a good-looking ciabatta bread and was about the same price as mine.

Because of the convenient location, decent food for good prices, and view (we moved out to the patio area - very pretty), we will probably give this place another try.  Maybe on a night when it isn't so busy, we will get better, quicker service.  Maybe when they have 2/3 of the place reserved for a party, they will bring in more help!

The restaurant's imagination is getting worse.  Went (12/10/11) to dinner with a group of friends and family to enjoy the annual Tri-Cities Lighted Boat Parade.  It looked like the restaurant used their limited lunch menu for the evening.  Background music was too loud and hard for everyone at the dinner table to hear our conversations.  Wine service has always "sucked".  The waitress did not know how to open a wine bottle / wine glasses were too small / she did not let the customer sample the wine and approving prior to pouring to everyone else / and then she filled the glass completely full!  Come on Red Lion, your hotel is in "Wine Country" train your staff!

So this place can be anywhere between 3 and 5 stars depending on your server.  The first time I went I got Jose, ALWAYS ASK FOR JOSE!  He was really nice and made some killer mojitos.   When we were there they also had a special on them and they were only 3.75.  They also appear to have some decent happy hour food.  Most of the food during happy hour is under $5 which makes it a perfect complement to the cheap mojitos.

I went back a different time and I didn't get Jose, that time was not nearly as nice.  The lady couldn't make a drink to save her life and I gave her a really small tip because she took so long with the check.  As it turns out Jose was there and was getting frustrated with how long we were waiting so he just took the bill and took care of it for us.

This place also closes really early.  It seems to be done around 9pm.  It is a great place to stop if you are going to be hanging out at one of the festivities at the park and need some food and a good drink.

ASK FOR JOSE!