The Celtic House Irish Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Arlington

Server Darragh remade the night grand after a hellacious week. Always, always, always some delish Irish pub fare, nice peeps to chat, favored times! Jackie, Neve, Rachel, Mike… everyone here making the days beautiful! Slainte ☘️🇺🇸💛

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Pleasurable-like-heaven outdoor evening with The Contessa, “Marshmallow”, and our dawg 🐶“Jack Daniels”. Delish evening to relax in the open air, all served up by Waitress Neve (apologies for spelling, if wrong 😖) and yeah also God above. Best weekday after-work location along Columbia Pike! 🇺🇸☘️🤠

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Some days punch 🥊 ya so damn hard 😣… and all ya just need then be a tasty Celtic fish sandwich, crispy fries, and a helluva smile from any “Angel Waitress”… Irish or not! ☘️ 🙃

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Haigh! Welcome to The Celtic House. For me and my “Paris Latina” wife — a Lass who enjoys on occasion a margarita — here means recollection of our days together long pre-Covid, before our two sprouts graced the bassinet, those early years when us not yet having the bit o’ earned gold in pocket kept our leisure expenses to a pained minimum. My my my! As Dylan doth sang, the times… they are a changin’!

Been a long time since my vocals hit the key notes on “Danny Boy”…. Good thing, too!… Because the owner here is named Mike (how cool is that, eh?) hailing well from County Clare. Nicely appointed, amicable and amiable, he makes this neighborly pub a friendly place just himself… and can be seen jostling through steady at any open hour amidst the zinc and the comfortable chairs astride solid tables/booths on his personal rounds to greet all the patrons. Clearly evidenced, Ireland 🇮🇪 and her masterful glory floweth still in his vibrantly youthful veins.

We tried the buffalo wings on several occasions, and the flavor richness is some of the best found in South Arlington. Order them during your favorite sports event whilst at the lengthy zinc, or at an indoor table, as the TV’s are plentiful and viewable from all angles. Also delectable for me are the fish tacos, and only bettered by my recently noshing the fish sandwich. Oh my goodness… was that the tenderest fried fish filet ever (double, on a brioche bun) with a tangy tartar sauce, crisp fresh lettuce, and tomato (if desired, not my choice). A hefty portion of french fries, cooked just rightly — “chips”, the ubiquitous side that here actually rivals some hidden locations once known to me in Cite Bruxelles back in the day. The Contessa herself enjoys the steak and cheese. Large, filling, and some to take home. Surprisingly so, for ne’er does she try, let alone enjoy, a sandwich! The steak pieces are palatable, cut perfect, and covered in a simple cheese without a drowning, greasy mess so often done.

Another dinner excursion among family saw me ordering the precious and delectable and thick lamb burger, which, for this man who usually eschews the carnivore tendency held within, proved to be a sandwich unlike any other found inside the DC Beltway fold. Satisfy you much it can, left overs to take for tomorrow possible, and yet you won’t feel that gut-bomb which often occurs from so hearty a meal.

Once a young’un in Paris, viewing tv rugby 🏉 games at the James Joyce in Les Halles or The Quiet Man (both stalwarts for a good Guinness pour), now here be me giving thanks to God that The Celtic House in S. Arlington isn’t itself across The Pond. To reiterate for erudition: County Claire Mike (owner extraordinaire) & Princeton Steve manage a happening, vivacious crew known for excellency in pleasing the clientele. 🍻

[Instead, perhaps Finnegan can have his blessed wake here?]

☘️ Slainte M’Haith!

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*Live Celtic music every Thursday — a true pot of gold at the end of the...

My wife and I have been going here for the past 2 years. However, last night will be the last of us going there ever again. It was the usual amount of people there, about half way full. We were sat down and took about 15 mins before our waiter came over. We ordered 2 appetizers and drinks. Our waiter brought out our drinks 15 mins later. Our appetizers came out from the kitchen workers 5 minutes later. Then we were waiting for our waiter to come back to order our entrees and more drinks and we had to wave down a different waiter in order to do so and ordered. Kitchen workers and the bartenders brought our stuff out in good time. I saw our actual waiter in the corner texting on his phone, as he looked up we tried waving him out and he completely ignored us. We finished up our food and got our check from a different waiter again. Put the card in and our actual waiter came over and took it. Came back and told us to have a nice day. We paid around $80 and left a $0 on the receipt because we typically like to pay tips in cash. He saw that there was a zero and told the manager on us and had the manager come to our table and coerced us to pay a 50% tip for our waiter who only came to our table twice for our entire 2 hours we were there. I was going to put down $20 in cash and decided against it after the manager confronted us. THAT WAS COMPLETELY DISRESPECTFUL TO DO TO A CUSTOMER! The food isn't bad but if you don't pay a hefty tip for a negligent worker they'll try to force to pay one. Sad to see the management go down the route they did, I really liked this place....

Nice renovations and added whiskey bottles. ATTENTION Bourbonites: I'd definitely pay attention when ordering whiskey here as the waitresses/bartenders are not familiar with bourbon. You'll see several misprints on their whiskey menu and also watched them pour the wrong drinks twice (for ex. ordered EHT SiB and they poured Small Batch). As prices very widely between pours this was concerning .Food was not the best considering the prices for it. Scotch eggs were just hardboiled eggs with a paper thin wrapping with mustard squirted on them at $16. Shepherd's Pie was all mashed potatoes with almost zero meat, again at $16. The Reuben and wings/ranch were the only saving grace. Service was OK. We were bombarded by 4 different servers within the first 10-15 mins of sitting down so no clear idea who our server was. The manager (Im assuming - older gentleman in shirt/tie) bumped the chair of a guest in our party and touched him all 4-5 times he passed by. It wasn't offensive just continual unwanted touch by a stranger. You can spend alot of $$ on renovations to become a whiskey bar but much more is needed to be considered one. Will return again to give it another shot...