ARIGNA IRISH PUB & COAL FIRE KITCHEN BELLINGHAM — Restaurant in Bellingham

The atmosphere is great, especially if you're planning to watch a game or hang out at the bar. A clean and newly refreshed American Tavern atmosphere. Service was totally fine also. The food, however, just really isn't very good. It is a steep downgrade from the previous restaurant that it once was, Rock and Coal, with the food being more bland and less homemade seeming, while at the same time being more expensive. The pizza was sort of doughy and uninspired, with a very very thin helping of toppings scattered for the outrageous price of $4 per topping. I hardly even could see the existence of mine, let alone taste them. The only saving grace to the pizza was the nice Char that the coal oven gives. But Rock and Cole's Pizza before them was far, far superior, with a nice thin tasty crust, loaded with toppings, and significantly less expensive. Appetizers are similarly unremarkable. Nothing terrible, just nothing great at all. If you had told me that they had bought TGIF brand appetizers from the freezer section of the supermarket and simply microwave them, I would have zero reason to doubt that. And yet, still more expensive than their earlier counterpart. Nachos are fairly substandard for the area, just a pile of chips and lettuce, with a chili that not only carries no heat or spice whatsoever, but is essentially utterly flavorless. No more than a can of plain baked beans might be. Disappointing too because I live a stone's throw away and was happy to explore a new local alternative when Rock and Coal had gone away. But despite how close and convenient it is to me, after 2 attempts of trying to enjoy their food, I will now always certainly rather drive further on to Grumpy's to the south or PJ's Bar and Grill to the north. Not as beautiful an atmosphere, but far far superior...

I would not recommend coming to eat here. It may be a fun bar to be at during the weekends, but it is not a good restaurant at all. We sat for 10 minutes before a server came over to see if we were being helped, the same server that walked past and looked at us multiple times. Then we ordered our food including a cup of chowder, which typically comes out before the entrees. As the food started coming out I said I never received my chowder and she just shrugged it off and said oh yeah let me get that for you. A little too late.

As far as the food goes it is extremely over priced for the quality, or lack there of. My chowder was so salty it was almost not worth eating. The other people at my table got the turkey club which had too much mayo and the turkey was kinda wet and slimy, even though my pregnant wife specifically asked if it was deli meat and was assured that it wasn’t. I had the fish tacos which were mediocre at best. The whole meal for the 4 of us was over $100 and wasn’t worth $50.

I thought the first time I came here it was a fluke, but after coming back again it seems like this place just doesn’t know how to provide good service or quality...

First time. Server was very nice. Could have been a tiny bit more attentive. We needed something and looked around for several minutes and she was nowhere to be found.

In the meantime we watched 4 other employees leaning on the bar at the far end. Seeing employees leaning around never sets a good impression of a business. Go out of customer site if you feel the need to lean and do nothing. Otherwise maybe you could help your coworker since she obviously had too much to do and couldn't see that her customers needed something. I spent many years in restaurants and never worked anywhere where there was time to lean. Unprofessional.

Food was just OK, nothing to rave about at all, and nothing to make us want to go back again. Had some pasta and was surprised they don't serve it with even one single piece of bread. Burger was dry. Fry portion was a bit skimpy. Had a couple tasty beers. Didn't see anything on the menu for anyone with food allergy such as gluten, or any vegan options, which almost every place has these days.

That was most likely our one and only visit...