Elephant & Castle — Restaurant in Dublin

Unfortunately elephant and castle (the maysons) didn’t quite meet our expectations from other reviews. We had ordered food and cocktails and we received the food which looked lovely but unfortunately one persons food was quite cold but she still had enjoyed it anyway. We then received our cocktails shortly after which also looked lovely. We had ordered 4 cocktails but received 3 when another person at the table had noticed that the last cocktail had been sitting in the bar for a easily a good while probably around 10 minutes and staff seemed to be just standing around chatting, eventually got a waitresses attention that was walking by who had brought it over and you could tell that cocktail had been sitting for some time by the foam. While eating our food there was a man who seemed to be somewhat new with very simple English and just learning the ropes and what we think was the manager seemed very rude to him for when he’d make what seemed like a minor issue from what we overheard. We then had finished and went up to the desk where you pay and we had asked if we could split the bill and the same man as earlier said he thinks he just had to put it through the system first and turned to assuming the same manager mentioned earlier and asked the question and she rudely said something along the lines of absolutely not and said if we want to split the bill we had to do it ourselves which was very unprofessional and a person in our group took it upon themselves to calculate everything and divided everything equally and the poor man seemed quite confused as you could tell he was only learning and then the manager had left to gossip/chat with another co worker who had seemed to just come in and ourselves as a group working in hospitality for multiple years we stayed and made sure everything was perfect and went through alright as we knew the feeling of learning the ropes and not wanting to make mistakes but as customers this shouldn’t have been the case and was very unfair that this lovely man was left alone in a scenario he probably had not yet dealt with before. The customer service was mediocre throughout the meal, we did receive a nice glass jug of water as we sat down but after the food had arrived there was no sign on anyone checking up to see if everything was okay and when ordering a person in our group is a very plain eater and asked if it possible to just get a toasted cheese sandwich and was told no as they didn’t have bread just ciabatta which was fine but after had seen someone getting a sandwich. Won’t...

We made a reservation for 7 PM on a Thursday (10.11.22) and due to some delays on our end called the restaurant to push it back by 30 minutes. Tried to call them 5-6 times without an answer and then finally got through to someone. He then changed our reservation to 8:30 PM but we asked for 30 minutes and he confirmed they had availability but just scheduled us for 8:30 PM. So when we arrived we had to wait at the bar which was not too bad but could be organised better. The service that evening was super slow but rushed when they were with us. The waiter was not really helpful and the waiting times were long (quite to our surprise because it was not that busy). We noticed service staff just standing around near the kitchen area chatting away. The starter was good. But the main course (burgers) were really not nice. No option how you want to have the meat cooked and it tasted totally bland. Also very dry no sauces on the burger. When finally service came back and we asked for ketchup or Mayo or something to get this down they just put a large bottle of each on the table. I think this could be handled better if you are positioning yourself as a quality food diner. By then the fries were stone cold. So overall we rated a 3/5 but with the price tag (140€) this is just not good enough. We don’t think we will be back...

Beautiful setting due to the great design. Great lively atmosphere. Mediocre food. The cold Aranciata beggged us not to call it Italian. The Mexican entre salad had stale tortilla chips and an inedible unripe avocado. The chicken on it was dry, tough and over seasoned. That chicken piece did not remember the time when it was raw. The plate of side chips came limp and soggy as if they were dredged from the bottom of the sea (see pic). The creamy seafood chowder was luke warm and not creamy at all. I considered calling the guards. It really should be an offense in Ireland to make a uncreamy seafood chowder with barely any seafood. How can you fail at this on an island that produces the best dairy in the world?

When the waiter, who never smiled, never said a kind word and never acknowledged our thank yous brought in the course before the drinks I was a bit surprised and said oh, before the drinks. He said coldly: we are fast. In retrospect that should’ve been a harbinger of things to come. Speed is probably their only KPI.

Again. Great ambiance. Go for the meh cocktails and the background cocophony of the drunken knowledge workers on the patio. But if you are keen to waste your hard earned money. Don’t order the food. I’ll send you my Revolut details.

PS we were...