Lansdowne Pub — Restaurant in Boston

ZERO STARS!!!

I had one of the WORST experiences at Lansdowne Boston. After being told that the outdoor tables were first come first serve, we told the hostess we would grab a drink at the bar to wait for someone to leave. After ordering drinks at the bar, my fiancé saw that people were getting up from an outdoor table and proceeded outside to grab it. Once seated the tiny blonde female bartender delivered our drinks. I then told her that we were eating as well and since there was only a singular seat at the bar, my fiance had found a table outside. She said "no problem, would you like to cash out then" and my response was "yes please." I then I carried the two drinks over to sit at an outdoor table and had walked through the middle open doors. I then returned inside to receive the two pickleback shots we had ordered. I again was heading towards the middle open doors, but this time the young hostess said I had to use the main entrance door and could not go through the middle entrance. At no point did the bartender (who was also watching the shots as I delivered the drinks) or the hostess or any waitress say I could not bring drinks from the bar to the outdoor seating...if I had known this I would not have done so and I would have never ordered as we were waiting for an outdoor table.

When placing the two shots down on the table, OUT OF NOWHERE, a bouncer stormed up to me and started yelling in my face about it, in front of everyone. Not a polite reminder, not even a firm explanation—just aggressive, unnecessary shouting that I was told I could not take the drinks from the bar to the outdoor table. Even after telling him I was sorry and no one had told me, he continued to respond in a rude and demanding tone accusing me over and over of being told. It was humiliating, completely unprofessional, and set the tone for an awful night.

We then went inside with our drinks, lost our outdoor table, the one seat at the bar was now taken and we were left with nowhere to sit and left immediately without finishing our drinks. I must also add, both my fiancé and I are attorneys and had just walked from the train directly to the bar -- with not one ounce of alcohol in our system during this confrontation.

There are plenty of bars in Boston that know how to treat paying customers with basic respect. Lansdowne clearly isn’t one of them. I won’t EVER be back, and I’d recommend anyone who values decent service...

The restaurant has a cool, authentic Irish pub atmosphere and it steps from Fenway Park.

I'll start with the good first, the host was friendly and seated us fairly promptly. The food we ordered (just appetizer and beers) were also pretty good overall. The hot/sweet wings with cilantro bleu cheese were very crispy and delicious and were some of the better wings that I've had in a while. The hot pretzel was just 'okay.' The cheese and Irish mustard that came with it was tasty but the pretzel itself was sort of bland and dry, even with the everything bagel seasoning on it.

Now for the bad: the waitress was pretty terrible and virtually non existent. After being seated, we were not approached by anyone for at least ten minutes. Finally, a female waitress came over to us and kind of just looked at us with her notebook out ready to write down our order. No interaction or greeting or anything. It reminded me of the kind of service you expect out of an old school greasy spoon diner. We were a party of two and never received one of the drinks we ordered (however we never saw the waitress again until it was time for the check so we couldn't ask her about it).

The waitress didn't bring our food out (a runner did) and the waitress never once checked on us to see if our food was okay or if we needed anything. She walked by us twice while we were eating, looked at us, and kept walking.

After done eating and done with our drinks, she came over and asked us if we wanted the check. She gave us the check and a different person subsequently came over and rang us up.

Keep in mind, this was about 3pm and there appeared to be two servers on duty for a handful of tables both inside and outside.

Overall the food and atmosphere were good and this restaurant would have warranted a much higher rating from me, if it weren't for the poor service. I never hold kitchen mistakes or crowd levels/being understaffed against the servers in a restaurant as A) they are not cooking the food and B) they cannot control the crowds or staffing levels, however when the restaurant is not crowded, I think you can spend a little more time with each guest.

Overall experience: not...

We have come here for 15 years..(2018)

. Consistently good food and service IN YEARS PAST ...perfect atmosphere and 20 foot screen for Patriots games and Red Sox. ...BUT It is now 2022. It has now been 17 years that we've lived in Boston. Visiting various restaurants around town. Just stopped into the Lansdowne pub by Fenway Park today. Had known the original owner, Steve, and the manager, but now the Lansdowne Pub is under management of the Lyon's Group and is a sad skeleton of its former self. We went in at 1:00 on a Sunday during a Red Sox game and we're told that there's no breakfast on Sunday, they've already closed down there kitchen!!. We then tried ordering bloody Marys and they told us there is no tomato juice !!! And then we went next door to Loretta's bar, and they said they had no tomato juice also. Loretta's is also owned by the Lion's group. Management is really dropping the ball. I can walk across the street to Target and buy 50 cans of tomato juice but these restaurants owned by Lyons can't keep a simple tomato juice in the restaurant for bloody marys? When we walked in at 12:30 , 1:00, we were sitting at the bar for 4 minutes before i asked an employee if there were any bartenders? There were like eight people in the entire restaurant,. A person finally walked over to us take a drink order. We ordered Bloody Marys. Then we were told that the restaurant doesn't have any tomato juice so they don't make bloody Marys !! It is so sad to see this pub in the state is in. It used to be so welcoming and accommodating, now you get this terrible corporate feeling with staff doing the bare minimum.... we had our wedding party here for goodness sake when Seve ran the place in 2011, Now I wouldn't have a wedding party here if they paid me to do it. I mean, there's no tomato juice for bloody Mary's? The kitchen closes at 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday during a Red Sox game?!! Just really subpar, I hope in the years ahead the management can get there sloppy act together. Give this badly managed...