Elephant & Castle — Restaurant in Dublin

This beauty in Rathmines is comparatively new but you might get a taste of the food in temple bar area which is much older establishment. I went out with my boyfriend for the first time to the one in Rathmines and I must say the ambience is unforgettable and food delectable. We ordered chicken wings, a jug of mango limeade (same as lemonade but with lime) and créme brulée. So beginning with chicken wings, I must say the portion is huge with around 34 wings and two celery sticks, quite comfortable for a couple, unless you are a demonic eater haha (just kidding ;) ). The wings were juicy and succulent and I found the sauce to be particularly nice. In a lot of places, the sauce tends to be a bit overpowering but this was seasoned to perfection. We loved the mango limeade which was so refreshing and the créme brulée was just heavenly. You can definitely hear the crack as we dived into it. Coming back to cons, I have three things to say - I think the doors in this restaurant is particularly heavy and you can literally see people getting taken aback when they open the bathroom door or the front door. The limeade jug I thought was a bit weirdly shaped because whenever we tried to pour from it, it spilled a bit however the shape of the mouth is. Not a nice experience there. I think you should have ketchup somewhere on the table or in a small container like the blue cheese sauce because when I ordered, they gave us a refrigerated (maybe) ketchup bottle but the ketchup was stuck inside and we spent hours trying to scooch some up but with failure. Other than these, overall the service was amicable and quick and everything else was tasteful. One reminder that this restaurant is quite busy most times , so either you might want to book it ot wait for 2-3 hours to get a seat. Fortunately we went on Paddy's day and it was empty as a lot of people...

On Saturday the 2/02, me and a friend went to the restaurant for dinner, we were seated and we found the light on our eyes quite strong, so we decided to jump to another table (not booked) just beside.

This table had 4 seats, I pushed away the table as we would only use 2 seats. Didn't see the logistics problem with that.

As soon as the person (supervisor it seemed) saw it he ran towards us and said: " absolutely not! No, this cannot be done, you need to go back to your table or wait for me to see if there is another one available. Absolutely not!"

Unnecessarily rude! The tone and the words he chose were just rude. That area of the restaurant had several empty tables.

We both felt ashamed in front of the other customers, we apologised and moved to the other table. Not happy with our apology, he went to the cashier desk and started complaining to his coworkers about what happened, loud and clear, in his own language (it happened to be mine as well!). They started looking at us as if we had done something criminal! It was like this person had a really bad day and he needed to go home. Can't imagine what else it could be to be honest. We decided to leave immediately after that. I apologised once more and said that his behaviour was unnecessary. I never want to go back to a place where they lose their temper so easily, and make customers feel the way I felt. Not saying that about all the staff, but this guy was enough for this review.

Food: haven't got the chance to try Atmosphere: loud Service: half...

terrible food and poor hospitality skills

Starting off the NYE night me and my friend decided to go here for food and drinks. we started with chicken wings which were just about fine but disaster arose when the mains came out. I ordered the seafood pasta while she got the hake… my god the worst pasta dish i’ve ever had, both fish dishes were quite smelly which means it’s not fresh and pasta was served completely plain without oil or cheese or anything?? there really was not a pinch of seasoning on it. The waiter was had was quite nice to us and let us swap our meals out for something new. however my friend said her new dish was ok but my steak was unbelievable chewy for being cooked rare. We got offered complimentary shots with our dinner for the inconvenience, although it’s a nice gesture nobody wants shots with dinner. Then worst of the bill came at 10pm which we were halfway through our bottle of wine. we asked if we could finish the wine because we got no last drink orders or no clue that closing time was so soon. 10 minutes later server came back and basically kicked us out. i still had a full glass left with 1/4 of the bottle left too and we were definitely not being slow drinkers. Nothing comped on the bill, no small discount or an apology from manager. As a bar manager myself this was highly inadequate & unprofessional. Terrible food, service and huge lack of handling bad situations. Making sure my friends and family steer clear...