The Goat Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown

The Goat is a neighborhood icon. It's the smartly dressed old dude you see everyday on the street or at the market that you wave to and make small talk with. He seems friendly enough and everyone says he's nice and an okay guy but you have no idea who he is. It's a good example of how to age well but with strange quirks and it reminds you of every other cliche you can think of.

It's a clean enough place with traditional pub & restaurant decor and vibe with late night weekend dance and music. Have had some of the staff wait tables as if serving you is the last thing in the world they want to be doing (e.g. I got an eyeroll once because I asked for a pen?). Other times you get lucky and have the best waitress in the world.

The food / menu is like every other pub and nothing we tried was spectacular (one dish in particular we had at lunch showed just how little the kitchen cared as it looked like it came straight from the bottom of a steam table to the plate and then out to our table, hours after if was cooked). It's the same old wings, chips, fried fish, chicken, lamb, Chinese food, curries, (enter pub name here) gourmet burger, deserts, etc., etc. You get the idea. None of it is bad really, it's just not that great and it's like all the other pub food with no identity. The carvery lunch buffet is really not that great but it is a pile of food for cheap and to some people, a small check and pile of food is all that matters. If that floats your boat then have at it Hoss, but it's not really my thing.

I'm sure there are some great stories of the best night ever at The Goat, and I'm sure to some people it's their favorite place ever. Maybe the owner is a swell guy or gal or maybe your friend's band played there once. I'm sure it might be great at all those things, it's just that in all my visits, I've left everytime unimpressed. At the end of the day if you want a pint, if you are starving and can't be bothered to go find really good food or you are on a budget, then this...

Tonight’s dining experience was truly bizarre. When I entered the restaurant, I told the hostess that we had five people and requested a quiet corner. She led me to a round private room that could accommodate around seven or eight people.

Shortly after, our group arrived, and we quickly placed our order. That’s when things started to get strange. Two different waiters came over at different times, asking us to change seats. When we asked why, the first one pointed at a TV on the wall and said they needed to repair the equipment. We asked if they could wait until we finished eating—after all, we would only be there for an hour. A while later, another waiter came and pointed at a different spot on the wall, saying they needed to do some repairs there. This baffled us even more, so we asked, “Shouldn’t maintenance work be done outside of business hours? Why must it be done during dinner service?”

The strangest part was that they insisted on moving us after we had already been seated and placed our order. Then, someone who claimed to be the manager came over, pointed at the ceiling, and rudely told us that they needed to repair the roof, demanding that we move. Left with no choice, we relocated to another part of the restaurant. Throughout the entire process, no staff assisted us—we had to carry our drinks ourselves and find seats on our own.

First of all, if they thought our group was too small for the room, they shouldn’t have seated us there in the first place. Secondly, what kind of restaurant does roof repairs during dinner hours? And finally, by the time we left, I noticed that the round room they had refused to let us use remained completely untouched—there was no sign of any repairs...

More like WOAT. The service in this restaurant was absolutely appalling. We had booked a table for 12 people for my sisters 40th birthday, on arrival it was obvious they had completely forgotten about our booking and crammed us into a back room at a very small cramped tables that were at different heights - making it difficult for us all to sit comfortably. There was also dirty dishes left on the side by the windowsill - which we had to clear away ourselves. Luckily 5 people in our party were children otherwise the table wouldn’t have been suitable for 12 adults. We’d booked for a 3pm Sunday roast and had confirmed before going that a roast would still be available at this time. The waitress was extremely rude and brought some menus over without even addressing us. After 20 minutes the waitress came back and informed us that the wait for food would be at least at hour - with 5 small children we felt this would have been a necessary detail to tell us as we sat down rather than waiting 20 minutes. This was also quite frankly unacceptable as we had made the booking weeks in advance and the kitchen was obviously unable to cope with the amount of walkins that day. Not willing to wait for an hour for food with five children we decided to leave and spoke to the manager on the way out to explain that we weren’t happy with an hour wait to be told “this isn’t McDonalds” and that we shouldn’t expect food straight away. A 20 minute wait for food would be reasonable but we think an hour is unacceptable - especially for a Sunday carvery. We are appalled at how rude the staff and manager were and would avoid...