Hole in the Wall — Restaurant in Dublin

Visited here before and was fine, however this visit was horrendous and needs to be highlighted & addressed and manager needs to be seriously retrained.

Family of 11 booked a meal here, ordered as normal but then we didn’t hear from a waiter for an hour after. Within this whole hour, nobody had came to check on us or top up our drinks. Worried about our food, we approached 3 staff, one at 35 minutes, another at 45 mins and finally a manager at 55 minutes after ordering to ask if there’s any updates on our food. 2 initial waiters told us they were checking and that it was coming, then the manager went to check and then came back an HOUR after ordering to tell us that the roast beef was gone and 2 of us would have to change our order with no apology.

My only assumption is our order was forgotten about and not put into the kitchen until an hour after. After changing our order we had our food within 10 minutes or so, about 1 hour 15 total waiting for food. Chips were undercooked in some of the dishes, at this point we were so hungry we didn’t bother to ask to change them. Overheard another family in the room next to us also waiting an hour for their dinner.

Dinner was very rushed as we had plans booked for 7, we were coming up to 6:30 by the time food was served. Only 3 of us could get dessert and eat it within 2 minutes and others left early for our plans at 7pm. No mention from the waiters about an apology for the delay.

On paying the bill we had to get some items removed that never arrived, and again no apology of any sort from the delay or hour long wait just to be told our dishes weren’t available. When we asked the manager about the delay and said that we had a bad experience and the chips weren’t cooked, he blamed the staff and said they will be trained. No accountability, no apology, nothing. He then blamed us for not mentioning the chips, as I said we were so hungry we’d have eaten them raw or cooked. We asked for some sort of apology, and he said ‘what do you not want to pay?’.

Never in my life have I seen a manager take such a bad attitude and deal with a situation so badly. He then began publicly arguing with my mother over the bar in front of the entire restaurant, something I’ve never seen in my whole life at any restaurant in the world.

At this point I stood up and told him his attitude towards my mother was absolutely fn horrendous and he seemed to take more interest in that than making anything right. Telling us how ‘our dishes were out in 10 minutes’ after it was brought to his attention, like it was somehow an achievement that we only waited 1 hour 15 mins total for food? He also said ‘this is how our restaurant is run’ and didn’t seem to care at all about anything other than being right. We know this is not how the restaurant is run, because we’ve eaten here frequently and never had problems like this before.

After more arguing half the restaurant began looking over at the scene, the manager stormed off. Eventually another manager came over and offered an actual apology and an explanation for the delay, which is all that was asked for in the first place. He also took 3 desserts off the bill which was appreciated.

Realising then afterwards that our €110 deposit was not taken off the bill we had to come back again, the manager then told my mother she ‘forgot’ to tell them about it. Every single seat in the restaurant was booked and had paid a deposit, I had heard it mentioned 6 or so times to other people, it wasn’t on us to remind them of a deposit we paid a month ago.

The poor display of attitude and zero accountability by the manager was what really let this visit down. A simple apology and goodwill gesture would’ve fixed it all, instead we got a public argument and nothing but a horrible memory. It really is a shame as most of the family loved eating here regularly enough, but I can’t say we’ll be back...

Went on the afternoon of 2 January, a fairly quiet time, to see the interior Christmas decor we heard so much about as well as have some lunch. The actual pub is lovely and decorated to within an inch of its life - but in a tasteful way. However that's not what I'll take away from this place.

The first thing was the eye-watering prices. €5.10 for a pint of Guinness was a joke and things just shot up from there. Lager was another 30c on that and the mains started at close on €20 and went up from there. The food was fine; nothing against it really but I paid over €18 for fish and chips that were decidedly average. My wife's tiger prawns were plentiful and served very hot but then for €20, it'd want to be.

Our toddler was getting impatient, so while my wife took her to the bathroom, I asked for the bill. That took 5 minutes, despite the waiter walking back and forth to serve the handful of people there at the time.

Then when I got the bill, I asked to pay by card. Again, no rush on them so we put on our costs, which I figured most working in hospitality would understand to mean we were in a hurry (we were). Nothing. So I got up and walked to the bar, where our waiter was busy avoiding my gaze as I waited to pay - still nothing. I just said out loud, to no-one in particular, "ok I give up" and started walking to find someone else I could pay.

I found a willing barmaid just metres away who happily took my bill, gave me the machine to pay with and at that point, a manager asked if I'd had a nice time. I explained my struggle to pay (15 minutes at that stage but again, I stress they were NOT busy!) and how it left a bad taste for our first visit.

Not only that but it cost €58 for two adult main courses, a child's portion and two pints. The Hole In The Wall doesn't charge admission into their wonderful interior lights; the admission charge is simply added to everything they serve you! As a local, I felt mortified to think of the tourists coming here to be ripped off like that. Luckily we know far...

Sat for an hour waiting to order food, spoke to three waiters in that time only to be told 10 more minutes. This pub gets by on cramming up decorations and calling it atmosphere. When really it's a novelty. By all means go see it just don't expect to get any food.

I decided to add more details of my experience. I sat at the front of the bar, right inside the door, as it was fairly crowded. We were sat here for about 20 minutes before any member of staff approached us. Despite us trying to signal a few staff members, we even got a wave back at one point. Eventually a man who seemed to be in charge came over to tell us to order drinks at the bar, we asked about ordering food. He apologized took our drink orders and dropped off menus. The drinks arrived and he said ten minutes some one would take our food order but not him.

15 minutes passed a girl came to us asking if we had ordered a brownie, we informed her we had not but when she located the brownie order we would love to order food.

Another 10 minutes went by and a waiter went to the table beside us who say after us to give them menus and take their orders. They let the waiter know we were waiting for a while so went to get a notepad to take our order.

This waiter returned after 7 mins or so, he informed us the kitchen was closed for the evening. We asked to speak to the manager as we were given menus and told their would be food for us. It was now 2.30. a manager came over to explain it was a miscommunication the kitchen was not accepting orders for 10 mins as they were overbooked in the restaurant and had to catch up.

Eventually this manger came back to us, he said he could take our orders in another 10 mins and provided we didn't order anything big, i.e. a main course, we might get food 15 minutes after that order so we would be seating for another half an hour of waiting. At this point I paid for the...