At dinner...

[telophase]

...in Bennigan's, which claims to be an Irish-inspired pub. They are advertising the County Clare Sampler for an appetizer, which consists of nachos, Hogan's Egg Rolls, and Dubliner Quesadillas.

Also, apparently, no servers assigned to the section we were seated in. :/

Comments

[stardustmajick.livejournal.com]

Yeah Bennigan's is a chain not much different that Applebee's or Chili's. I'm surprised to see one open, they all closed down years ago where I am.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

They all closed down here, too. It's reopened in the last year or so, slightly rebranded.

[chomiji]

LOL, nachos ...that's a real taste of the ould sod, that is!

We have a local Irish pub, which has more-or-less genuine things like boxty (potato pancakes ... served un-Irishly with balsamic reduction), potato-leek soup, corned beef and cabbage, and beef stew with Guinness, as well as the usual DC upscale pub chow (steak salad, crab cakes, bruschetta, etc.).

[telophase.livejournal.com]

There's an establishment that claims it's an Irish pub not terribly far away from where I work, but they're more of a drinking establishment than an eatery. They serve sandwiches, but they're more on the order of tuna melts, Italian subs, and Philly cheesesteaks.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

The one and only time I've ever eaten at a Bennigan's (which was for a birthday party for a good friend), everything that could go wrong did. It started off with water being spilled all over the birthday girl and ended with us being waited on by pretty much every waiter and manager working that shift at least once throughout the time we were there. I have no desire to go back there and have actually found a pretty authentic Irish pub (where rugby teams like to hang out after games) to go to instead.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I attended a bachelorette dinner at a Fox and Hound once that went like that. We had a brand-new server who was beyond incompetent at her job. The highlight of the evening was when the she got in an actual argument with one of us over whether the stuff in the soup bowl that was brought out was beer and cheese soup or whether it was queso.

The manager eventually comped our whole meal and all our drinks--we were willing to pay, as we knew it was obviously the fault of a very new, inexperienced server and we didn't want to penalize the restaurant for her incompetence, but the manager was frazzled enough and sick of having to apologize enough that after we brought the (incorrect) bill up to him to pay since the server deserted us by that point and was nowhere to be found (I assume crying in the back), he just took it and said "Don't worry about it. Just go."

P.S. It was queso.