Paddy Whelans Irish Pub & Sports Bar — Restaurant in Riga

Very bad service. Waiter couldn't remember our orders .While we were pointing out his mistakes with the orders, he and all the other waiters seemed openly irritated. At the end of our meal, we received one joint bill for everything ordered, instead of separate bills for each person's order as we had originally requested. One of our colleagues asked the waiter why this had happened. His response was to answer, in a hateful tone of voice, 'Shut up........... ( using a racially abusive term for a person of a different skin colour). We were absolutely outraged by this behavior, and called for the manager, but she did not even see fit to apologise, and she herself acted as if we were the ones behaving in an unseemly manner. We were extremely upset and offended by this behavior; we were paying customers at this restaurant ,and entitled to be treated with courtesy and respect, not made to feel like idiots by the staff. We were made to feel dreadful by these people. We encountered this rude and racist behavior in the tourist center in the Old Town in Riga, where we most certainly were not...

This place might serve Guinness and call itself an Irish pub, but it didn’t feel like one. It lacked the warm, familiar atmosphere I associate with a proper pub. The staff were young and not very friendly, and the overall vibe was more like a generic bar than a welcoming pub.

What really unsettled me was being approached by an older man who barely spoke any English(only Russian) and who made me feel very uncomfortable and even started to touch me. No one behind the bar stepped in or even seemed to notice. That’s exactly what I don’t expect from an Irish pub. One of the reasons I usually choose to go to a pub like this, even alone, is because I trust that it’ll be a safe and relaxed environment. Unfortunately, this one failed on that front.

Thankfully, a girl nearby pretended to be my best friend and helped me out of the situation. After that, I quickly finished my drink and left. The whole experience felt unpleasant and unsafe.

It’s a shame. A proper Irish pub should make everyone feel welcome and secure....

I went to Paddy Whelan’s based on the advice from a local travel guide, drawn by amount of interesting beers on offer.

As we approached I immediately had a sinking feeling as the place looks like an ‘Irish bar’ that you’d see in any city. However, the waiter outside was pleasant and said there was more outdoor seating out back.

The waitress who served us was equally pleasant and that’s all the good stuff out of the way. I ordered a Latvian wheat beer but what arrived was some other type of nondescript fizzy amber liquid, the beer that arrived for my girlfriend I can only describe as flat, murky, malty pond water, which was pretty much undrunk when we left.

I’m not sure what I found more offensive, being fobbed off with drinks we hadn’t ordered or the sign that read “men - no shirt, no service. Women - no shirt, free drink’.

I paid a visit to the bathrooms to be confronted with the sight of a plumbed in sick bucket for patrons to use. It was clearly time to leave and...