McCaffertys at the Barge — Restaurant in Dublin

Went to the Barge for Lunch, myself and five of my colleagues. We arrived at quarter to 1 and were left waiting for 20 minutes until we were seen by a waitress. The waitress was very unpleasant, tossing menus onto the table. While we ordered, we were told that we cannot order drinks from her and had to go to the bar ourselves to order drinks. We were then left waiting for 40 minutes before two of the orders arrived, club sandwiches, and was a further wait before everyone had received their food. After we had finished our food, with no sign of a waitress or anyone to coming over to us, we went inside to pay as we had been waiting forever and had to return to work. Inside we were told that we cannot pay at the bar and had to wait for a waitress to come outside to us. When the waitress came out to us, we were only told then that the bill cannot be split and had to be paid in full, with a bill of around 70 euro in total. When we queried this with the waitress she replied rudely "no, do you not have Revolut or something?"

This is the only place on Camden street that we have had issue with splitting a bill, an itemized bill is available from the till in every other establishment. She then asked us how much we owed, with no help in giving us the price of our orders or anything, just showing us the card reader to get us to pay. Upon requesting the manager and one of us going inside to get one, she told the remainder of the group that she was the manger, only for the actual manager to come outside not 2 minutes later.

We are appalled by the service we received, the attitude of the waitress was dismissive and overall unhelpful. Not being able to split a bill is unheard of and the food far below par with other establishments available...

Bit disappointed since the real Barge was bought over by McCaffertys. Was very excited to try the new place and I must say the look and atmosphere is great. I also love that they now have Neck Oil on tap.

Now here comes the negative. First they still don’t have premium tonic (Fevertree), they used to, but not anymore, which is a real shame as they do have premium gins but nobody wants to drink good gin with Schweppes tonic, please do offer fever tree.

Then the food experience was very disappointing, as a Belgian, the way fries are cooked is very important, when I saw they had triple cooked fries I thought we are getting closer to the real Belgian fries (which are always fried twice at different temperatures), but those fries were so soggy, not crispy at all and barely cooked once. Then comes the prices, we ordered cheese and bacon fries, and on the dinner menu the price was 8€, however they charged us 9.95 € (which is the price of the lunch menu) when we complained the server was being annoyed that I complained and came back a dropped a 1€ coin on the table without saying a word or apology. (She should have refunded 2€, but at that point I didn’t feel like it was any worth to complain)

So as an advice and in the hope for this pub to be as good as it was: please offer premium tonic like nearly all Dublin pubs do if you are gonna call your fries triple cooked, then actually cook them three times, as an advice, if they’re not golden brown and don’t look crispy they’re not cooked enough make sure the price you charge are the same as on the menu a little smile and apology when making mistakes...

Booked a Sunday lunch following some good reviews. Tried to call them as we were going to be delayed, no answer for 2 hours. When I arrived they were totally blase (the phone I saw on the bar had 50 missed calls and was on silent). Sat down to eat ordered 8 roast dinners, I chowder and ribs. We also asked for 3 extra "Market Vegetables". 9 Meals arrived and were of a canteen quality (not totally uneatable but not "Gastro Pub".) We questioned the location of the final roast and after an argument between the "chef" and waitress the final one arrived 10 minutes after the others. The fresh "Market Veg" was 3 bowls of diced carrot and swede. I asked if we could have a bit more variety as we already had a heap of the chopped carrot and swede on the roast dinners. We eventually got 3 ramekins of cold cabbage. I assume because we had been complaining a bit a large bouncer in high viz started to wander past us as we ate our meals. as we finished the bill arrived (not requested and not offered the menus for dessert). On a side note one of the party asked for a bloody Mary. Barman did not have a clue what it was, and even after explaining (tomato juice, vodka, Worcester sauce) replied "we don't sell those). Over all a poor meal, poor service and bad customer service. Also if you are planning to go for the nice vibe on the lock, do not buy drink here as you are not allowed to take drinks to the lock side. Pop to the Centra down the road, get so tins and enjoy the lock (avoid the Barge). I did try to call this morning but surprise surpise the phone is still not being...