I remember when Kilkenny used to be good. It was a destination. I'd drive across town to meet my friends there. Good food, good service. Now, not so much. The food is okay. They got rid of my Irish pub favourites and replaced them with generic pizza / pasta / burger stuff you get anywhere. As for service, they are chronically under-staffed. If you go for Sunday brunch, the food is good, and the place is busy, but most of the time I get seated at a table with no silverware and it takes 10-15 minutes to get a drink order and a fork - and even then I usually have to flag someone down. Getting another drink is nearly impossible unless you get up and go to the bar or try to find your server.

I keep trying Kilkenny, thinking the last few times were just one-off bad experiences, but I'm consistently disappointed. Maybe I've just been spoiled by all the good restaurants and pubs in Calgary that offer great service. Great service like, getting seated at a table that is clean and well-provisioned, getting a drink order quickly, getting free soft drink refills, a steak cooked properly to order, having the server come around to make sure everything is okay - the stuff that used to be standard. Those things happen only rarely and randomly at Kilkenny.

Last time I was at Kilkenny, the server took my "cran-soda / no ice" order and came back with an icy soda with almost no cran. She took my food order, and that was the last I saw of her. (Someone delivered my food in a reasonable amount of time and it was okay.) I had to go to the bar to get the drink fixed, and the bartender seemed annoyed by my request.

When I moved to Brentwood a year ago, I looked forward to being within walking distance of a great place that I used to drive to. Now I get in my car, drive past Kilkenny, and go somewhere good.

Sub-par Service: 2/5, Decent Food 4/5, overall, meh, 3/5