The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse — Restaurant in Sydney

Got into Sydney on a Friday night from Cape Smokey in Ingonish later than expected due to a Ferry delay and arrived in city around 9pm and had planned to go to the "advertised" Sydney Casino "Buffet" but unfortunately it is only available at The Halifax Casino location !! So my group of 3 started calling local restaurants to see who's kitchen was still serving food and every single restaurant in Sydney was already closed or was closing their kitchen at 10 pm !! After calling several restaurants, we decided on The Old Triangle because I had already eaten at the Halifax location several times and was very happy with food/service. When I called ahead at 9:30pm the woman who answered said "they were open till 10pm but were closing kichen soon" and that "we should arrive quickly" !! Arrived at 9:45pm and stood by front door looking around for the woman I had spoken to on phone but there was only the bartender at bar leaning on counter talking to a customer. After a minute or two of waiting with no one greeting or acknowledging us, I identified myself to the bartender as the person who had called about the kitchen !! He looked confused and said the kichen was "closed" but I mentioned that I had just spoken to a woman and that I was told it was open till 10pm, when a waitress came up to me and asked if we were there to eat ? The look on her face told me that she was tired/stressed and that she didn't want to be there !? didnt smile once !! I said yes and that I was the one who had called earlier, she sat us down at a table in rear dining area where there was a live muscian and 5 other customers sitting nearby and asked if we wanted drinks while waiting to order, we said yes and started looking at the menu. First off, I the menu is so busy and jam packed full of writing from border to border with a font that is far too small with a similar size heading (should be much bolder to easily identify item) and description of food item, that you cannot identify one menu item from another !! The waitress returned 2 min later with drinks and asked if we were ready to order and I said no !! because we had such hard time reading the menu and she then told us that we had to hurry and order our food because kichen was closing !! I said we needed more time (the frustration on her face was so obvious it was uncomfortable) and she stood there beside table waiting for us to order !! Now feeling rushed, we started to order our food, but one by one we were told items on menu were NOT available because "they didnt have it" and this continued for until we were able to find an item they had !! Sitting at table with my friends and thinking about how uncomfortable we felt being rushed to order, I got up to go and talk to waitress and tell her !! After explaining to her that her stress/frustration was so obvious and that we felt pressured to order quickly, she told me they were understaffed and that she was alone/overwhelmed/tired !! I explained that I understood because I had worked in bars/restaurants myself for years but that you have to serve customer's with a smile/positive energy regardless of how your day is going !! While walking back to table from waitress station I stepped in something sticky on flloor and looked down to see a huge area on floor covered in some type of liquid that had been spillt and NOT cleaned up !! No one was around so I informed bartender who was "still" leaning on bar talking to same customer and he said "Oh !! I am sorry Sir, I will take care of that right away !! I was now looking around on floor as I was walking back to table and noticed more "spills" and food/garbage everywhere throughout bar and then spotted my 1st mouse as I was sitting back down at table !! When I mentioned the mouse to my friends they told me they seen atleast 8 mice running around dining area since I left and that they were coming right up to table and "begging" for food !! Our food arrived shortly after and we started to eat but did not mention the "mice situation" since were so hungry. As we continued to eat, we started to...

Dear Old Triangle chefs, if you read these reviews, please stop the out-dated and repulsive practice of putting muscles IN SHELLS in your chowder. Most of the best “in tune” restaurants abandoned this disgusting exercise years ago. Where are your brains?

NOBODY likes this, except out of touch, obtuse chefs who think they are doing something “artistic”. This has long been rejected as artistic. It’s not artistic. Ask any real artist. Artistic is producing something people actually like.

NEWSFLASH: None of your customers like it! Nobody wants to order a chowder only to have to dig muscle shells out of it, get your hands covered in chowder, because muscle shells can’t be delicately removed from a chowder with utensils, and the bottom line is, why should this be put on the customer?

The whole point of going to a restaurant instead of eating at home is to have the food prepared for you and ready to eat. READY TO EAT. Any restaurant that continues in 2019 to put muscle shells in the chowder will have them thrown out in a complete mess for your staff to clean up and get a bad review for the whole restaurant. So you are doing everyone a disservice, including the restaurant itself and the staff. Especially if the rest of the establishment is really great and has lovely staff.

The mess that is left on the table is not pretty and I guarantee your staff doesn’t like this extra work you cause them either.

If you insist on putting muscles in your chowder, shell them first. Maybe you don’t want to do that because it is too much work?

Right.

It is.

Too much work.

Don’t make your customers do what you don’t want to do.

Get with the times and stop acting like you are a backward hick joint in Sydney Nova Scotia. Do...

Beer was good, lots of local choices. Service was meh, server seemed pretty aloof. Ordered surf and turf with 5oz steak and beer. The fish was supposed to be fresh beaded with Alexander Keith's beer, but it looked like a frozen fillet. I ordered the steak medium and it came out well done. I told the server, he agreed it was FAR from medium but I didn't want to send it back because we were hungry and were waiting for awhile already. The fries are frozen with skin on and seasoned well.... they were the only thing seasoned. Even if the steak was cooked correctly it still was a flavorless puck. Fish not seasoned at all either and no salt and pepper on the table. My wife and daughter shared am order of Irish nachos and chicken wings. The fried potatoes had zero seasoning and were quite disappointing as well...I don't know why they're scared to season their food but it affects the flavor without. Wings were fine, frozen breaded wings but cooked properly at least. We ate outside on the rooftop patio and when we were finishing the server said we can pay inside. He didn't even bring us the bill, I was expecting a bit of a discount because of my way overcooked steak but he didn't offer any and I wasn't going to ask. Also, not exactly kid friendly, no kids menu...I get that it's an Irish pub but if you want families dining there too you should cater to them as well. Overall, maybe a good place for a drink but I wouldn't go back to eat. Overpriced...