Hogs & Heifers Swords — Restaurant in Fingal

I stopped in here last night just before 7pm (Dec 23rd) with my Wife for a drink and a snack after some Christmas shopping. It was busy, but there were plenty of free tables. The Front of House man asked if we had a booking, to which I laughed a little. This place is basically a TGI Fridays (in fact this location used to be TGI Fridays), so reservations aren't the expected norm.

I asked for a table for 2. The FoH said they were busy and asked if we would sit at the bar. Now, we honestly didn't really mind as we weren't staying long, but my Wife is 7 months pregnant, so a table would have been much more ideal. The FoH couldn't have missed this. What actually bothered me was that in the 30-40 minutes were there, I noticed at least 6 free tables that were never occupied and some which had become free in the meantime. It was less busy when we left at 7:30pm than when we arrived and there were plenty of staff available. So big mark down for lack of customer care and awareness.

We sat at the bar. I had a pint of Cider, my Wife had a glass. Service was prompt (as expected at the bar). I ordered Louisiana wings and my Wife got the Calamari. The food was OK and for €10ish per dish, I was happy enough. The blue cheese dip was on the thick side and lacked any flavour. The wings were well done and the sauce was probably the mildest Louisiana I have ever had, which again was fine...just an observation.

I tried the calamari. It was a bit soggy and the rings were anaemic. I only had the one piece, so maybe the rest was fine? I don't expect fine dining in what is basically a TGI Fridays or Captain America and really the food was fair value. The main issue was just the lack of customer focus on this occasion.

If I was FoH, I would not be asking a pregnant woman to sit at the bar when there are free...

This may seem like a low rating. However, I'll try my best to explain my reasoning.

Let me start off by saying that the atmosphere and decor was fantastic, as was the ease of access and cleanliness of the facilities.

The two main issues we had were with both the description of the menus as well as the photos on the website.

It lists both a lunchtime and an 'all day' menu. This in every other resteraunt we've been to means that although there is a lunch menu, you can also order from the all-day menu. Otherwise, it is referred to as an evening or dinner menu.

We travelled up from Cork and came to Swords for the sole reason of trying out the fantastic looking menu only to then find that until 3pm the 'all day' menu is unavailable.

We then settled for the lunch menu instead of going back to look for something else, we looked at the site and the photos of the menu. (I understand they are always presented better than they will look in person. However, we both felt this was incredibly deceptive. The philly cheese steak and the route 66 burgers are not even remotely similar to the photos, and the philly cheese steak was something I would have expected from a general takeaway, which was a real shame. The prices were at least reasonable.

We were planning to come up the next time to film both the food challenges and promote this through our animal rescue (we had set it up that for every €5 donated we would consume one of the ghost pepper wings up to a maximum of 60 wings). As well as for the burger challenge. However, after this experience, we have decided to do this further up north.

Positives Reasonable pricing Clean and well presented location and friendly staff. Great decor and atmosphere.

Negatives Good food that was spoiled by the advertising on the site. Poor descriptions...

Not sure where to start from, it was a weird and awkward experience. I have been going here for over 10 years now but I will not return anymore. Went in on a Monday afternoon for a quick lunch and was left waiting for a table for about 10mins on a Monday afternoon and there were empty seats everywhere and there were only about 7 people in the restaurant. All the staff pretended to ignore me while waiting for a table especially the guy at the entrance. I was with my toddler who needed a table as well as he was crying and uncomfortable. The guy at the entrance gave everyone else tables who arrived AFTER me and still left me standing waiting. I wasn’t too sure what was happening very strange and can’t be explained. I asked another staff who was ignoring me where I could sit and again he pretended to ignore me and later told me in a rude way to go back and wait at the entrance for a table. Finally I was able to get a table by making a stand. Then we had the most awkward experience while eating as the staff then started having frequent awkward conversations trying to make up for ignoring me and being disrespectful and rude. Another staff making a mean and angry face, not very welcoming, very strange and can’t be explained. I just wanted to have a pleasant quick lunch. I think it will be better to have female waitresses. Anyway will not return again....