The Black Sheep — Restaurant in Dublin

I've been going to the Black Sheep for over 10 years, and this year, 2024, the service has been only average. There is a big turnover of employees which says a lot about the business. This evening was very disappointing (27/07/2024 around 8:15 pm). My family and I waited at the table for over 20 minutes to order a drink, and since no one came over, I had to go to the bar to order. When I got there, I placed my order and told the bartender I wanted an Espresso Mocktini, among other drinks. We waited for another 15 minutes for him to bring the drinks to the table, and as he served them out, he asked, "Who is having the Espresso Martini?" My partner said you mean, "Mocktini?" And all of a sudden, the employee/ bartender became vicious towards me, lifting his tone of voice and said, "It's an Espresso Martini!!!!" I knew he was wrong because the drink was for a 12 year old, and when I was ordering, he was rattled. It was also extremely busy and super loud at the bar. He was beyond disrespectful, but to cause no problems and stoop low to his level and get rid of him, and to cause no grievance in front of my son, I immediately said, "sorry". He rudly got up and left and then, in a cowardly manner, sent another waiter with the drink. I've worked this business; all he had to say was, "No worries, I'll get you the Mocktini," end of story. I hope he is reprimanded by management as he was extremely rude and is not fit to serve people in this type of job. There is a new pub called, Coopers Corner, where the waiters are efficient, respectful and the food is much better. I will be going there instead....

Can't speak for the food because I didn't get to try any.

They had vegan cauliflower wings, I asked why it had dairy listed as an ingredient, they said it had blue cheese sauce (so don't call it explicitly vegan maybe?).

He said they can do a vegan burger, I noticed egg in the ingredients, assumed it was because of the brioche bun it comes with by default. Server said yeah it probably has egg, and asked if I wanted a gluten free bun. I asked if that was vegan and he was unsure.

Eventually I gave up and asked him to go to the chef to see if anything on the menu can be made vegan, after which he returned with the answer "No".

If you don't have vegan options, so be it. If you have a dish with vegan literally in the title then make sure it's vegan. And for the love of God make sure your staff don't blindly point to things and tell customers something is vegan when they haven't the slightest clue. If had I trusted your menu, or the server, instead of second guessing things, then I would have had an awful evening with an upset stomach. You can make people really unwell with this, some people specifically want vegan things to avoid allergies like egg and dairy.

In summary, uninformed staff, misleading menu, they'll tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to buy something. Good selection of...

Have popped in and out of this bar for the past 15 years or so and am impressed with how the service has been able to be consistently poor for so long. The staff changes but they still are trained up to ignore customers over their phones or just chats with other staff members. Still feeling like you are intruding on their night out rather then trying to patronize their business had become par for the course and the beer was still good, if a little slow to receive and sometimes poured incorrectly. But over the last while the food has begun to head in the same direction as the service. It is a shame, since there were so many other Galway bay pubs that had to close it's door while this badly run pub with such potential only lasted due to it's location. My advice walk a little further on to Porterhouse, Brewdock, Connelly's, Flowing Tide, Pipers, CobblesStones, Slattery's, McNeill's or any of the other pubs that offer better service and/or food at the same cut throat prices dublin unfortunately is known for. TDLR: bad service that hasn't changed, food has begun to match...