Tommy Condon's Irish Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Charleston

While we do live local, we’d had a bad experience here several years ago, until we decided to try it again to see if it had improved. The food was much better than what I remember from last time, but that was pretty much it. While it was not overly busy, it was pretty steady just at the end of lunchtime on a Saturday in the end of Sept and there was no cruise ship in port. We went to the host station and the young lady who said they had outside sweating grabbed the menus and disappeared up a ramp/hall. There were other people trying to walk down the hall and with our 2 younger kids (7 & 4) we lost her for a bit found her standing on the platform placing our menus and left. It was another 10 mins before our server came to ask our drinks - it was kind of noisy on the patio- and he kept forgetting what we ordered the kids to drink….and then he brought out a cocktail instead of a beer that was ordered - and apologized that the buttons were right next to each other. He seemed very concerned that his section had been seated again after us. We were ordering and he did not know what was on the kids menu nor had we been given them. We asked about the kids menu, ordered ours with an appetizer and he said he would check and return to tell us what was available. 20 mins and he returns to tell us that they did not have what we requested available. We said that was fine and changed the kids order to something else on the menu. Another 20 mins or so and he returns to tell us he worked with the manager to accommodate our initial request for the kids meals. While I did appreciate that on his part…we now had been there for close to an hour and only had our drinks (one of which was not even what was ordered). The pretzels and cheese dip were tasty, except for the soggy one that was on top. The kids enjoyed the fish and chips and the other plate ordered and the Bookmaker beef sandwiches were tasty, but the au jus had been spilled on the plate while the food was brought out and they were very soggy. The server was very nice and he tried but we did not see a lot of checking in on any of the tables while we were there or refills and such. We tried again but I don’t plan on giving them a...

Long-time patron here (20+ years). Tommy’s doesn’t seem to be what it used to be. Met some out of towners last night and insisted they had to come check out the place. Had a nice interaction outside with the bouncer. Walked in, it was fairly empty (about 11 pm). Hostess was already off for the night, so we grabbed an empty table. We waited quite a while for service and when a server finally made eye contact, we waved her over. She comes to our table and says, “I can get you waters, but no one feels comfortable serving you.” She also said that we shouldn’t have seated ourselves. She didn’t make any effort to chat with us prior to this to gauge our baseline. Frankly, she didn’t even know whether or not we’d be ordering sodas or alcohol because she never bothered to ask.

For the record, I had 2 5 ounce glasses of wine with dinner at a different restaurant between 8 and 11. My partner had one martini with dinner in that same timeframe. We were polite, friendly (I know a few bartenders and the band), and had not displayed any indication of being difficult, intoxicated, or otherwise. We weren’t in any way disruptive. From what we can gather, our simple act of seating ourselves was a problem.

We asked for a manager and asked that we step to a quiet spot for a conversation to be had. He obliged and stated he had to support his servers since he has given them special training to recognize when someone should be cut off and it’s their right to determine that. He felt if he went against them, it could make them upset. In speaking with us, I take it he could tell that we were without a doubt sober and offered to serve us in the adjacent bar. He even offered to cover our tab. We declined.

I’ve actually been through TIPS training myself (former flight crew). Good idea on the training, poor execution. The whole thing just felt offensive and totally misguided. Teach your servers to engage with customers so you can get a baseline before essentially calling them drunks and refusing service.

And here’s the thing- we came for the music, not the drinks. But who even...

We found Tommy Condon's while walking around downtown. I did a Yelp search for bread pudding. I had the best bread pudding of my life in Charleston a few years ago and have not been able to find it since. The pub has been open for about 20 years. It is styled in the all wood european pub style and is very authentically decorated. The staff was friendly and the bathroom were clean. They have bar, indoor and outdoor seating. We had the Irish Nachos and Bread Pudding. The nachos were excellent. They used a sweet hot pepper that had a great flavor. There was a ton of cheese and bacon and the potatoes were cut nice and thick.

The bread pudding was disappointing. It was more of a loaf of bread that was then sliced and served with ice cream and caramel sauce. I prefer the soggy bread pudding style. Tommy's had a ton of raisins in it as well. I am not much of a raisin fan either. Apart from the bread pudding, I would have given this a 4-star review, but without it, it was just ok. Either way, I would recommend you eat here. It was pretty good.

My reviews are based on my experience where a 3-star review is exactly what I expected, neither good nor bad, just average. A 4-star review means something was extra special; service, food, location, etc. and is a great review for most places. A 5-star review means I was blown away with the experience. These are hard to come by and are reserved for the best of the best. I think may reviewers are too quick to throw five star reviews up for an average experience. A 2- star reviews means something was disappointing and a 1- star review means it was a bad experience all around. I hope this helps to understand my system. See...