McGee's Scot-Irish Pub — Restaurant in Anderson

This review is my opinion after one visit, ordering two entrees. If you have never been to McGee’s Scot-Irish Pub and are looking for something new, by all means give them a try. But, I will not recommend, Here’s why.

After following McGee’s on Facebook and seeing their positive reviews, my wife and I were exited and optimistic to give them a try in hopes that we would find a new spot for both good food and entertainment. (McGee’s has live music and trivia nights.)

McGee’s opens at 11am on Friday. Our reservation was for 5:30. We arrived at 5:20. Having an early reservation we were not surprised that there were very few people at this time. Our first impressions when entering was cramped, old, outdated, with confusing decor. More wanna be sports bar than Irish pub. But, ok whatever. Not a deal breaker. Staff was friendly and we were seated promptly.

Once seated, I noticed that there were no drinks of any kind listed on menu or on table. No beer list, wine list, mixed drink list, or soft drink list. Nowhere. Is this a Pub? Oh well, we ordered sweet tea. My wife ordered the “Deluxe” (lol) Shepherds Pie and I ordered the Guinness Pork Chop. Entrees did not offer side salads or bread. But, they were available as separate purchases on menu. Meals arrived in about 5 minutes after ordering, no lie. First impression was sad, pitiful, and confusing. Both plates looked and tasted like what you would get at an average catered meal event. Explains the quick order time?

Wife’s “Deluxe” Shepherds Pie was anything but Deluxe. More, “What the hell”? Bland ground beef with under cooked peas, topped with a small scoop of thin, watery, lumpy potatoes, barely a drizzle of cheese, and why was there a wedge of tomato in the potatoes? Cold and very disappointing. My Guinness Pork chop was cooked ok. Not tough or undercooked. Just ok. But, over seasoned. Very salty (from resting in a brine I assume) and I tasted no Guinness. Served with the same small scoop of watery, tasteless, pitiful mashed potatoes and literally 2 small bites of spinach that tasted like it was sautéed in oyster sauce? Strange and again salty AF. Over all, not at all what we expected. Pretty bad and over priced for what we got. $47 for 2 sub-par entrees with no salad or bread, and 2 teas. Cancelled our future dinner reservation. Thought we might return at another time for music or trivia and just have drinks. But, after seeing McGee’s management responses to other reviews, we decided that we will not be spending our hard earned money on this overrated establishment. In one of the management responses to a customer review they literally said to the customer, “Bless your heart..”. We all know what that means. How rude! First impressions mean...

First of all, during this pandemic and knowing that small businesses are suffering, not only have I tried to visit more of them since they have reopened, I have tried to convince other people to do so as well. So to that point, while visiting family in SC, we decided to go to McGee's pub. This was a HUGE mistake.

The visit started out on a weird note with 2-3 different people acknowledging us and saying that someone would be right with us. After waiting for around 5 minutes someone grabbed menus and said to follow them. On the way to what we thought would be a table in an almost empty restaurant, the guy asked if it was ok to sit us at the bar. When we said we would prefer a table, he sort of seemed puzzled, even though I think only 2 or 3 other tables were taken at that time. We came here in hopes of having a late lunch and a few cocktails. When we asked about ordering a drink, they said they were only doing beer or wine. Not sure if this is an ordinance thing or just because they didn't have a bartender. Either way, we just got some waters and placed our order.

I then notice the staff seemed to have on latex gloves and the person I was with has a severe latex allergy. There was no sign anywhere to state that the staff is using latex gloves, causing a HUGE risk for him and liability for the restaurant itself. Restaurants have to warn about nuts or raw food, they should also warn about latex gloves being used.

We had to cancel our order and on the way out, I asked to speak to the manager, but the owner came out. When I brought the concern up to him and mentioned that he should put a sign somewhere to warn customers, his response was that the person I'm with should call restaurants before visiting to ask if they use latex gloves and didn't take any responsibility for almost causing him to possibly go into anaphylactic shock. He also said that the last four months have been super hard on the business and that they are just trying to stay afloat with all the new regulations. I said, while I understand, this person's life is far more important than your business. You can start a new business or move on to something else. If your lack of concern, or in my honest opinion, stupidity, caused him to die, he couldn't get his life back.

After some heated back and forth, he definitely was not getting the picture or severity of this issue and seemed like he didn't care at all, essentially forcing me out of the restaurant. I told him what I thought about him (in not so nice terms) and left.

If you want to support a nice, friendly, business, then this is NOT the place to do so. The owner showed very little concern for his customers health and well-being and I will...

Came in on a Sunday around 4:45 pm. First thing to note is they don’t currently have a liquor license so liquor is off the table but they are serving wine and beer.

The first port wine I asked for they were out of but after that everything went amazingly.

Ian was our waiter, incredibly attentive and anything he didn’t have an answer for he was clear and honest about and went to get a second opinion.

My girlfriend ordered an espresso crème Brûlée which was to die for with fresh fruit and chocolate covered espresso beans as a garnish. I asked for whatever port wine the bartender recommended and she brought over a honey forward light orange red Australian port. GORGEOUS. Very sweet very deep very delicious.

Ordered the pimento cheese fondue and the Irish stew. The fondue was tasty (but of course it was its melted pimento cheese) and the crostini it came with while tasty did have a slight edge towards stale.

The stew? My god. The mash was fine but the actual stew itself of just herb lamb shank was one of the single tastiest things I’ve had this year. Warm, seasoned, and perfectly delightful without coming off as pretentious.

Had one last Portugal port wine which was darker in color but lush and exactly what I’m looking for in a port wine. Came in with low expectations as the drink crisis came into play but everything was stunning and delicious!

Once last shoutout to our waiter Ian who gave us...