Rí Rá Irish Pub — Restaurant in Burlington

Me and my wife decided to go here as an early celebratory st. Patrick’s day lunch as I enjoy Irish food a lot due to my heritage. We first walked in and the host was nowhere to be found. There was already a table of 3 that had been waiting for drinks that were leaving as we got in there, so we could tell service was not going to be good. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited to get a seat. My wife, daughter and I sat down when I realized I forgot my wallet in the car. I picked out what I wanted to drink so my wife could inform the waiter or waitress while I was gone. My return came and no drinks, I asked my wife if anyone had come to the table and she had said “not since you left.” (Just to add, I was gone for about 10 minutes due to where we had to park outside the restaurant.) I took out my phone put on a timer to start my normal countdown with the service. At this point me and my wife were both upset as we feel service is the most important thing in a restaurant. We reached another 10 minutes on my timer when we decided it wasn’t worth our time. Keep in mind, all this time we were waiting, our table was in a high trafficked area and we saw waiters and waitresses checking other tables and bringing food, all of which saw us and not one stopped to check on us. My wife and I got up and put our baby in her jacket and got ready to leave when finally someone decided to bring over water and asked us if we needed help to which we replied “nobody did their job to help us when we made eye contact with all of you and because of it we will go somewhere that deserves our service. Also we have been waiting more than 20 minutes for someone to come take our drink order, this is not acceptable and you will be seeing a review from me.” We grabbed the rest of our things and walked up the street to the bistro that smelt delicious. Went in got a table, drinks and our food was ordered all within 5 minutes of us being their. They know how to give service that is expected. I wouldn’t recommend anyone eat or drink here but rather the bistro right up from them. Terrible service, last time...

I ordered the steak frites and what came out looked like a slab of steak just dropped on top of french fries. I was apparently supposed to cut the steak on a bed of fries, which made no sense. When I finally managed to cut into it, at least half of it was fat, a huge strip around the edge and even more running through the middle. The small parts that were actually edible were flavorless and tough. I took two bites and couldn’t eat it.

I’ve never sent food back in my life. I’ve worked in restaurants and know how that feels, but this was inedible. When the bill came, the full price was still on the check. My friend asked if they could do anything, and the server said she’d talk to the manager. The manager offered only 20% off. That’s completely unacceptable. In every restaurant I’ve ever worked in even basic chains, you would never charge someone for a meal they couldn’t eat. They didn’t offer a replacement or even a comped dessert (which I would have declined, but it’s the principle).

Honestly, I should’ve walked out the moment I saw the bathroom. It looked like a crime scene meets gas station horror movie. Graffiti everywhere, dirty gloves perched on the changing table like a warning sign, one stall out of order, one missing a toilet entirely (??), and one with a toilet paper dispenser hanging on by a single screw. I actually texted my friend to come find me if I didn’t reappear in two minutes.

Between the horrifying bathroom, the awful food, and the lack of basic customer service, I’ll never go...

Nice Irish pub style atmosphere in downtown Burlington. Our food was delicious, drinks were fresh and cold, and our server was wonderful. We had the poutine as an appetizer, which was delicious, though my only complaint about it was the curds were thoroughly melted, rather than left as unmelted as possible. Still enjoyed it though! My wife had the fish tacos, which were phenomenal. I had the chicken curry, which was very interesting. I'd definitely get that again. There was a kid's menu, though they didn't have a copy of it, and it wasn't online. Our server was nice enough to write it down and go over the whole thing with us. We ended up getting them buttered parmesan noodles, which were out of this world good!

Most of the food pics were taken after digging in, so the presentation wasn't well represented, FYI.

The reason I gave it four stars instead of an easy five was the bathroom. The toilet paper was empty, and instead of filling it, they just left the commercial sized roll on top of the toilet. The soap dispenser was also empty, and there was a commercial soap dispenser insert left on the sink to awkwardly pick up and use.

We'd eat here again, though I do hope management takes note of this review and retrains staff on bathroom...