McStew's Irish Pub — Restaurant in Bristol Township

Food is good, drinks are cheap. That's about it. The bar is divided into two separate bars once you walk through the door. Left side bar is non-smoking, with live music and pool tables, right side is a classic bar in the round, with a jukebox, sports games on big screens and this side allows smoking. The smoke of course doesn't know it is supposed to stay to one side of the building so other than the lack of ashtrays, and a non smoking sign taped to the smoke stained wall of the left side bar, it's essentially a smoking area. But I like that aspect, As a smoker (we are literally dying breed I know) I appreciate being able to have a smoke when drinking without having to hoof it out into the elements, to suck down a half a smoke quick like lightening, and not worrying about leaving my drink behind to be roofied, stolen, or messed with in any way etc...what keeps this place from being fun though are the bartenders, who are all fairly miserable as a general rule of thumb, the type that will stand around doing nothing for ten minutes and as soon as you walk up to get a drink, their six sense tells them there is an urgent need to suddenly re arrange all the glasses draining on the mats, or time to open the coolers and organize all the loose six-packs etc..they always find some super engrossing activity that requires them turning their back to your area of approach, and will feverishly work on whatever minute detail they can zero in on, just to avoid having to make eye contact with anyone other than the "regulars" who number just enough to take up the majority of the bar stools, and who monopolize everything going on over on this side. From the music and television selections, to the loud conversations yelled across the bar to each other. Hey at least someone is having a good time here. It is a real mood killer, when you know damn well they are aware of our presence and every time insist on testing our patience, until finally forcing us into awkward waving of arms, in our attempts to grab some attention and are met with a begrudging "sure" as they slowly sidle toward you, stopping to dump every ashtray and replace every cocktail napkin of the patrons sitting at the bar, sharing a laugh and yucking it up before finally dropping your cocktail unceremoniously in front of you, and asking for the twentieth time if I need anything or should she "close out the tab?" its inexplicable. I have been in the service industry for over 25yrs, tip well, am a generally polite understanding and patient customer. The staff of 40 something female bartenders all come across as nothing more than aging mean girls who's best days are behind them and they want to take their saltiness out on anyone not living the barfly lifestyle...it's wild and really hard to muster any enthusiasm to give this place, our business, unless a killer band is booked, or a group of friends are insisting, we avoid this one (despite it being walkable from our house) as much as we can. I would rather hit up the dive bar Sparky's who's bar staff is amazingly welcoming, or the Family Friendly Bailey's for way better food, and a kid friendly interior, or hit up The Capri for friendly service, amazing food, cheap beers and even the rare "smoking allowed." (Meaning leave the kids home) The Capri continues to reign as the OG corner bar. Not quite Dive bar but not exactly a place to entertain coworkers or inlaws either. It's a place to get a little sloppy if you want to, and where you know the service is reliably fast and friendly and the staff is consistently appreciative for faces across the bar, whether they are new faces or same old faces from the day before. At Capri you walk out feeling seen and served and knowing they were committed to making sure people have good time. In an area of town with roughly 10 bars within 4.5 miles, McStews is the bottom of the rung last choice for a night out, and absolutely never one that I feel happy about visiting afterward...TBH it's a bar tinged with regret and laced with hostility. Time to bulldoze it and...

I went on Saturday with a large group of friends, it started off great but turned quick. We were a diverse group of adults. It’s sad to say 3 of the ladies in our group were treat very differently than the rest of the group. One of the ladies did not get her change, when she asked to use it for another ladies drink. The bar tender with the blue hair insisted that she gave it to her. The lady asked for her to look back on the cameras, because she never gave her back the money. The other lady proceeded to pay for her drink, and then the older woman Bartender told her that she was cut off. Not sure why she would’ve targeted the other woman because she had nothing to do with the other one not getting her money back. She said if I’m cut off, then can I get my money back and the bartender threw her money at her, the older woman. Before you knew it, the bouncers were trying to physically remove the woman who paid for her own drink, which makes no sense. The third woman came walking to the group of us with her drink inside the bar, and the bouncer told her she couldn’t go anywhere with her drink that she had to either drink it, or leave it, but she was only going to the other side of the bar which made no sense. She was just walking over to where the other women had just walked over to with their drinks, and nothing were said to the other women. When our group is actually leaving the bar, two of the women walked out with their drinks, and nobody said anything to them. Then a few more women came out, and another one of those women had to drink in their hand, and nobody said nothing to her. The only three people that said something to were the ones of a different race. So I’m taking it if you’re not Caucasian, you are not...

This 2 star rating comes from multiple visits. A few friends and I were in for the football game Saturday night around 10pm. It was pretty dead. We were greeted by a bouncer who was playing a crane game asking for our id. He proceeded to play his game for the next several minutes until asking us if we were ready to give him our ID. We were obviously waiting on him to finish his game, unbelievable. Tried handing my I'd to a waitress walking by and got completely ignored. At this point we nearly walked out of the place. The bar tender was nice but very slow and disappeared several times for 10+ minutes. On the upside the food here is very good but takes a while to come out. Overall o highly do not recommend this place until some staff changes are made. The bouncer especially is completely disrespectful and rude. Not the greeting anyone wants when walking into a bar. I don't know how this place has a 4...