We arrived early in the evening, so it was pretty dead...except for the roller derby girls setting up for their fundraiser later in the evening. Walking in, I wished it was later in the evening so we wouldn't have to see the decor. One word describes it all...GREEN! Now I realize it is an Irish bar, but really, everything was green...the walls, the chairs, the booths, the ceiling (even though it was a cool tin ceiling, it was still green). I let that slide though, cause it was an Irish bar afterall. The feeling I got from the place was that it was much more a bar than it was ever going to be a grill.
So we sit in a booth and wait for Jason to arrive (we don't wait for him to order our food though...we were starving.) Tami, Angela and I all order different kinds of burgers from our grumpy waitress. I got the California Burger, Tami got the mushroom burger (no bun...the girl is on a low carb diet), and I can't remember what burger Ang got..something with bacon on it. Tami got a side of steamed vegies, just $1.25 more. Angela got the fries and I got the seasoned tators. Man was I excited for those. I hadn't had some good ol tators in forever! Tami also got a mixed drink of some kind, can't remember what, but she found that to be very watered down with very little alcohol in it. We quickly reminded her that this was not a gay bar so there wouldn't be as much alcohol in it. She felt that even for a straight establishment the drink was awfully weak!
Jason and our food arrived at about the same time. He ended up ordering the cheese fries from the appetizer menu. Both our food and Jason were looking good :) Unfortunately, that all it was...looks. Our food that is. We had all ordered our burgers medium rare, on the rare side. They were all well done. There was no pink in them at all. Very disappointing. My tators...not good. They were way overcooked and had no seasonings on them of any kind. Tami did like her steamed vegies, which consisted of green and yellow beans and maybe one or two carrots. While I did not try Jason's cheese fries, Ang did and said they were way overcooked.
Oh, also, at about the time we got the food, the fundraiser really started to kick in...with karaoke even! Yes! Lucky for us the only person that had the guts to sing was god awful. Such a pleasant way to eat our meal!
So while it was great company and a good time was had by all, the overall experience of O'Gara's gets an F. Poor atmosphere, poor waitstaff, and very poor food. We will not be going back to that establishment to waste away our money.
Our next excursion is to Moto-I in Minneapolis. I hope this one is better!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You cannot find a pub in America that can replicate the experience of a pub in the Isles. Granted, I've not been to Ireland, just England, but my experience with American copies of British or English pubs is just what you've said. They paint things green or put up a Manchester United pennant, and call it a pub. It incorporates the words Irish (or British) as a marketing gimmick to say, "You can drink Guiness here."
ReplyDeleteOf course, the dullards who go there don't want an actual pub experience where you sit down with your mates and interact. They want 20 flatscreen TVs to watch, karaoke, etc.
Exactly. This one had flatscreens all over the place with sports on it...none of which was soccer which is what they would have been showing in Ireland!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to take and post photos.
ReplyDeleteYes...we are going to be doing that starting at the next location. We keep forgetting that aspect of it!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your review and am posting my ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest).
ReplyDeleteDecor/Ambience: 2 (it seemed pub-like and was spacious)
Service: 1 (slow, grumpy service is not cool)
Food: 1 (everything was overcooked!)
Cost: 2 (inexpensive but not dirt cheap)
Overall Rating: 2
Recommendation: NOT!
Granted, I only had a burger and fries but my burger at Smashburger was way better, cheaper, faster and delivered with a smile. We didn't try much else on the menu but I don't feel inclined to give it another shot.