Dining at this restaurant, the RIVA at Navy Pier was the most unpleasant dining experience of my life. My husband and I had made reservations for Saturday, August 6th so we could celebrate my birthday and enjoy some seafood and the Navy Pier fireworks. We had made a special request to have a window seat with a good view of the fireworks. Gentleman taking phone reservation assured us that it would be granted. We arrive at the restaurant 1 hour early to check on our reservations and again let them know that we were requesting a table at the window with a good view of the fireworks. Our request had been noted next to our name at the time we made the reservations. The young lady at the host/hostess stand made the abrupt comment that all views from the restaurant were good. How difficult would it have been for her to respond with a positive response such as ""not a problem, I see that your request has been noted next to your name, we will take care of this for you"". To cut to the chase, we were brought to our table. It was a window table, THE SMALLEST TABLE IN THE ENTIRE RESTAURANT squeezed in underneath a very ominous steel beam. It was a two seater no bigger than a postage stamp. I respectfully requested to the host that we be seated at a larger table so we weren't so crowded. His response completely caught me off guard and I felt extremely uncomfortable. He was very condescending saying, this table isn't good enough for you, well you'll have to wait for another than. He told us we weren't allowed to request a window table, it was first come first serve. He took us back to the lobby and told us we'd have to wait in the bar. The bar tender saw us coming back in (after having spent an hour there already) and immediately saw we were not pleased. She went to the host station and they responded to her right away. The host sat us at another table in the restaurant, yes a larger window table, with the view of the lake where the fireworks were going to be blocked by a 2' x 6' wait staff station. We were tired and took the table as the host made sure to humiliate us as he seated us saying ""I hope this table is good enough"". We ate very marginal food at best and tried to enjoy ourselves despite the incredibly rude and odd behavior of the host. We had to move our chairs into the area of the table next to us in order to view the fireworks. My husband let the host know we weren't pleased. This host became unglued and came over to our table and began yelling at us in front of the entire restaurant. EVERYONE around us was shocked by him. He began rambling on about his family and how he had to leave them at home while he worked. We had no idea what this meant. We paid our bill and my husband asked to talk to the manager while he waited for me to come out of the ladies room. The host claimed to be the manager and again began verbally assaulting my husband. Literally to the point where another waiter had to hold him back from physically assaulting my husband. I'm still in shock over the experience and want all to know how incredibly unprofessional this place was. We were verbally assaulted, nearly physically assaulted all for a mear $200 (+++) tab. WILL NEVER RETURN.
more