Scholars Lounge Irish Pub — Restaurant in Rome

Dirty, a bar full of glasses waiting to be washed, making it so people can’t sit. I moved them over myself. A wipe only came after having to ask. The sign says, Irish owned, Irish staffed, a pleasant Asian man helped me by giving me a drink menu, while he was off through a door to wherever he got my beer from an Italian girl asked me if I wanted anything, I asked her for a food menu, she told me that the menu that I just had was a food menu. I told her that no it was drinks only and then she really rudely told me I was wrong that they only had one menu and then bought me back a menu that had drinks and food on it. Well me being me don’t like to be told that I’m a liar or that I don’t know what I’m talking about called her on that. Then a waitress who seemed to actually be Irish asked me what was wrong and I told her what was going on and she goes. Yes that’s the only menu we have I said no you have a menu that has nothing but drinks on it and then she says oh that must’ve been our whiskey menu and I say I guess so. I don’t know. I’ve never been here. All I know is I don’t like being called a liar and have people be rude to me because they don’t know what the heck they’re doing or what they actually have in the establishment then she rather rudely asked me. Do you want to order anything, and I told her I don’t know. I just got my menu and I have to look at it to decide what I want. After a couple minutes, the Italian girl came back and asked me if I knew what I wanted and I ordered a hamburger with french fries and I asked if I could have the french fries crispy well she didn’t know what the word crispy was and I didn’t know how to say it in Italian and I tried to say cooked longer, well done and she then told me they only have one type of french fries, so I gave in and just ordered the french fries. When the food came out to no great surprise. The french fries were under cooked ,and the hamburger was mediocre at best. Funny where I was sitting there were two signs both identical sitting right in front of me. They were awards for being the best pub in Europe in 2017. Well that was a long time ago and it showed. In the past two years I’ve been to pubs and Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, London, and so I figured I would try one of the Irish pubs in Rome, big mistake. down below while leaving this review, they have an option on what foods I would recommend there. I can’t really answer that question. It certainly isn’t the hamburger and french fries I had and did. In fact I wouldn’t even recommend walking into the place. there are other Irish, British and Scottish style pubs in Rome. Maybe I’ll give one of those a go but the Scholars lounge Irish pub...

I find myself writing this after a terrible experience with the grumpy bodyguard. I usually never write reviews because I’ve never experienced something like this.

My friend and I were walking around Rome and bumped into this pub. We put ourselves in line to enter at around 11:30PM and when we got to the bodyguard my friend asked if we could enter. The bodyguard asked for our documents and since my friend left his at home we moved away from the line for 2 minutes to search for an online copy of his ID. We figured that the bodyguard, a white old short man called Francesco, was Italian due to its Italian sounding English. When my friend found his document we got back in line and handed him the document asking, in Italian, if an online ID was accepted. The bodyguard, at this point, probably alerted that we were Italians started to escalate by saying that we were joking with him, then he said that the pub was full and so on. The problem is that we would’ve understood if he bumped us for the online ID, after all is ok if he didn’t trust my friend’s document; but that was not the case… He got quite stressed and started to ignore us while letting other people in without even asking for a document… We just wanted a beer and head home, we didn’t pay much attention to which language we were speaking in since, after all, we were trying to enter in an IRISH pub. I think you see the point I’m trying to make…

After 5 minutes wasted in trying to explain that there was a misunderstanding and we were Italians that can, as a matter of fact, speak English we figured it was worthless. He had already made up his mind that we were “joking with him” and that “we were not real foreigners so we shouldn’t speak English to confuse him”. We literally found ourselves arguing with a brick wall that just wanted to fight (he started to raise his voice like we were disrespecting him or something) and went away quite enraged at what happened. With such an aggressive and reckless attitude I wouldn’t be surprised if someone would pick up a fight with the bodyguard at some point in time.

I never thought I would find myself getting discriminated for being Italian and going out in my own country…

What I want to ask is, is this pub racist against Italian? If so, why not write it somewhere?

I want to advise everyone who wants to go there not to change language between Italian and English. After all, it can be quite difficult to speak two languages at once, especially for an old angry man… If the owner reads this kind of reviews I would really appreciate a clarification for what happened; I wouldn’t want to assume that the bodyguard was just applying a racist rule...

I would come here when passing through Rome however after my last visit that will end. I came here with my family after trekking through the Vatican and was looking for a Guinness. I was with my wife, 15yo and 3yo. I ordered food and drinks then ask if I could change seats as my wife located an open booth at the other end. This was ideal as I did not wish to potentially disturb patrons with my child. The staff told me that was not an issue so we moved. My original server brought me the check prior to my food coming and I asked if that is normal as the situation just seemed odd. He replied “it’s pay as you go”. I knew this not to be the case as I come here when I visit Rome or take a connecting flight. Right after I paid I asked him for another Guinness and my son a coke. He made a face and stated he wished we told him prior. I replied “I thought it was pay as you go???” The waiter left and there were different servers tending us. I ended up requesting the bill and paired my difference. On my way out the original waiter came rushing out to stop my exit and ask me about paying the difference. This was a little bit embarrassing and I showed him my proof. I then left with my family. My wife told me she felt odd as they targeted us to potentially skip on the bill. I will never come back here again after this. I dont think anyone should have to feel this way. The server could have handled everything different from the beginning. Overall the fish and chips is not the best and the burgers are horrible as the beef patty is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter when grilled and the bread is about 5 1/2 inches in diameter so unless you want a bread sandwich. This experience left me angry for the rest of the day as I was thinking about how I was left treated and knowing my wife felt the same way verified my experience here. It’s crazy because I gave no sign of being someone to skip out. It was about $100 euros in the hole to make them make you feel like...