The Piper Pub - Potential Dashed

The Piper Pub has long been one of my favorite downtown restaurants. The location and patio are hard to beat and they sell schooners (32oz) of beer that are hilariously fun to drink. Haven't partaken much as of late, but I love me a good schooner glass. Today is Addie's birthday and she requested corn dogs for dinner, which left us with either Piper or The Ram, and an unexplained 45 minute wait time at The Ram made it an easy choice.

See what I mean? Awesome location, even though recent construction has given it a bit less of a view. We chose to sit inside, but still a nice atmosphere. Addie particularly liked the belt driven ceiling fans.

Presentation - Awful dead for a Saturday night, eh? Doesn't hurt the layout of the place, though the vibe suffers a bit. Good service, enough so that I left a 20% tip even though I wasn't particularly happy about the amount (more on that later). The tacos were also presented nicely, the first I've had that came with a side dish of toppings. A small gripe here, they put a napkin under the taco holder, which normally wouldn't be an issue, however when coupled with a small side of macaroni salad, left a small bit of inedible mushy paper/macaroni slush. 4/5

Aroma - Nothing to report, they smelled like tacos. The mahi was a bit on the fishy side, decent amount of citrus too. 3/5

Value - This is where things start to go sideways. Three tacos and a small bit of macaroni salad is a $11 meal, maybe $12 if the servings were generous. They were not. I remember Piper being relatively cheap, so it was extra upsetting. Gotta be divisive here, worst value yet. 2/10

Fish - Grilled, not a great start. Well spiced, I'll give them that. A tad dry, but tasty. Not a lot of it in the tacos. Something's keeping me from hitting them too hard here. 5/10

Not Fish - The potential was there. I liked the toppings on the side, they allowed for great customization. I had the first taco naked, the second with everything on it. The guac and salsa were pretty mild, as were the already installed toppings. Same goes for the macaroni salad (still not sure what to make of that as a side though). Nothing offensive. Until I found a nice long hair under one of the tacos. Nope. 3/10

Overall Taste - I didn't hate them, not bad, just not memorable. Maybe they'd be better fried? Or hairless? 5/10

Bonus Points - I'm tempted to give them a negative here, but I already hit them for the hair in Not Fish. +0

Overall Overall - 22/50

Bummed about the failed potential here. I really liked this place, but after tonight don't expect we'll return any time soon. It could have been worse overall, just didn't live up to my expectations. Bwa bwa.