Fionn MacCool's — Restaurant in Clarington

Really disappointed with dinner tonight. Was in between Lonestar in Whitby and Fionn McCools here in Bowmanville and decided on Fionn's because of the fish tacos and jameson bites. Argued that apps are always better at Fionns. Couldn't have been more wrong. We are told to pick a booth, sit down, and ~5 minutes in a guy comes up and asks what we'd like to drink. I say we'd be good to order everything now too incase its easier and he leaves abruptly saying he'll get the waitress (as he's leaving). Waitress never comes and 15 minutes later same guy returns asking for our order. We order and he leaves again. Our conversation goes on for a while at the table and we start to notice time has passed with the empty cups sitting there for almost 10 minutes, no refill. We see a waitress leaned over at the bar talking to other guests. No one comes by to check how we are doing. Apps eventually come out. Got the pork bites and jameson bites. Jameson bites had no sauce on them. For the first time in the 3-4 times I've been here they were terrible. Couldn't raise this concern to anyone as we had no one visiting the table to check up on us. Also was not confident the issue would be resolved if we had brought it up. No one seemed to care how long it took to serve us and whether or not we had food or drinks. We had to pull the lady aside when she walked by to finally get us refills and we had to ask when our mains were going to be coming. She tells us (after about 50 minutes into us being initially seated) that they have 2 new cooks in tonight and that is why there is a delay. Would have been nice to know this earlier so we could've had some sort of understanding for the delay. Still doesn't explain the lack of service for an establishment that was at max 50% full. Rest of the food was disappointing. Couldn't finish the fish tacos at all. 2-3 bites in and you still didn't get any fish because of how small the pieces were. Really disappointing quality of food and service, for a place we have gone to quite a few times now. Won't be recommending our Bowmanville location to anyone soon, and certainly won't be coming back. Can't even give you the servers name or the guy that came by to the table because they never introduced themselves and were hardly there. Total interaction time with staff was about 5 minutes throughout the entire visit. I guess bonus points for how quick they were trying to get us out of there. Quickest the waitress came to the table was with the bill. Overall very upsetting that we wasted $90 and over an hour of our night for terrible food and service. Should have just gone to Lonestar.

TLDR: Terrible food (tiny portions and dry apps), terrible service (over an hour wait and zero communication) and server/staff very rarely came to the table and didn't seem to have any interest in...

TL/DR Version: Terrible food, pathetic meat portions, bugs in drinks, mistakes with order. And, to top it off, insulted for asking if a dessert contained nuts.

What a poor experience we had at this restaurant. We wanted to give it a try based on the new management, but sad to say, it was the worst dining experience in recent memory. So many poor moments that I will struggle to relay them here without resorting to point form:

i) Appetizer was not delivered until after the main course. Once sent, included onions despite a request to the contrary.

ii) First main dish served included ingredients not mentioned in the menu. Server agreed that the menus are terrible and that "we try to warn people as much as possible that they might not get what they ordered when they choose one of these two dishes". We were assured that new menus would be created at a later date and my main course was returned to the kitchen.

iii) Replacement main course was penne which was so overcooked it was impossible to spear them with a fork. Frankly I was surprised the noodles themselves were not reduced to soup.

iv) Though chicken was a $5 extra charge,. they elected to serve cheap cuts of BROWN meat in a dish that calls for only white meat. It didn't matter too much though as the portion of meat was so skimpy that it could have been removed from a live chicken without endangering the bird's appointments for the following day.

v) Though we were seated inside, the corner where we were seated was also occupied by at least 3 different species of flies. The gnats constantly drowning themselves in our drinks did not enhance our dining experience.

vi) In a final insult to the whole situation, when we asked if the only dessert choice on the menu contained nuts we were within earshot of the kitchen staff loudly complaining about us even daring to ask.

I don't think this was my worst dining experience ever, but certainly the worst in recent memory. The fact that this disaster cost $75, without dessert, makes me certain we will not return to this restaurant and we actively encourage others to think carefully...

Well unfortunately I have to agree with others who mention the change that has happened here.

We just moved to Bowmanville in Oct and found Fionn's to be one of our faves - we loved the fun pub atmosphere, servers and delicious food. We hadn't been here in 2 weeks as we have been busy, but we went lastnight and noticed a change as soon as we walked in - the front entrance, the walls, the decor, the hostess, 98% of the servers, the "pub" feel is gone where now it just looks and feels like a Kelseys, and more importantly the MENU changed which is now very dull, small text, no pictures and many delicious items removed!

Normally we would start with the deep fried pickles which are now gone and none of the appetizers sound appealing now. By the looks of the menu items, it seems they're now catering to more diet restrictions which is fine but why remove so many popular items along with that?

I had a new item which was the butter chicken wrap. I'm not sure why salad and cucumber is mixed in with butter chicken - that is something that belongs in a Greek wrap! It was a very confusing taste. The entire wrap was cold and there was barely any sauce that the rice inside was still white. My BF had the pub burger which was a basic disappointment compared to the cheesy burger they used to have. There's nothing else we would have picked from the new menu.

It was not busy at all yet our food took forever with all the servers standing around at the bar. We ended up waiting around 25 mins longer than we wanted to because we lost our server and wanted to pay our bill - my BF ended up going to the bar to pay instead!

Not a good change at all! Unfortunately Fionn's will be removed...