Shenanigans — Restaurant in Dahlonega

Walking into Shenanigan's is like walking into any other Irish Pub that borders on the traditional. A large group of fun, lively active people who have come together to share a pint and a good meal. There is almost a festive feel to the place even for a mid-week dinner outing.

Instead of traditional Irish music, the background music if more a natural listening mix of classics. Many of the guests were even singing along, and the staff all seemed happy if not jovial.

Service, we were seated immediately, and our server was attentive and efficient. We both ordered the Rueben on Rye, and my wife asked for no cheese. This was handled efficiently, and our order was brought to our table quickly and correctly. My wife ordered a glass of Pinot Noir and ordered an unsweet iced tea with lemon. My tea was brought out as a sweet tea, and I had to send it back as with Diabetes I cannot drink sugary drinks without it negatively impacting my blood sugar. I was brought three more glasses, and finally, it was determined that somebody had added sugar to both the sweet and unsweet tea buckets. I was not offered any other drink options so ate my sandwich dry.

The Reuben was a nice size, but it seemed to lack much sauerkraut and thousand island dressing as I am used to on Chicago style Reuben's. This gave the sandwich a very dry taste for me but with nothing to drink that may have made a difference.

I do feel like the server was attentive and tried to help but at a minimum, I should not have been charged full price for a drink that I could not drink, did not order and was incorrect. This really hurt the overall score I could deliver for this establishment on this visit, and honestly, I think a 3 is overly generous for our experience.

They have a great full menu, and I would like to try a few more of their dishes. As I mentioned, it looks like it would be a fun, lively...

My husband and I recently dined at Shenanigans Irish Restaurant and Pub. While we had a mixed experience, there were definitely some highlights and areas for improvement.

Let's start with the food. My husband ordered the Irish stew, which was supposed to have carrots, potatoes, and meat in gravy. Unfortunately, the meat in the stew was scarce, and the gravy was overpowering with pepper. It made the dish quite challenging to eat. On the other hand, I had the Dublin stew, a veggie soup with beef. The veggie soup was absolutely delicious, but there was disappointingly little meat in the entire cup, despite paying extra for it.

Despite the hit and miss with the food, the service at Shenanigans was outstanding. Our hostess, a quick gal with black hair and an awesome attitude, was on top of things. When I received a text notification, she promptly came to seat us. Our waitress was quick and efficient, and we were later attended to by a waiter who was exceptional as well.

Now, let's talk about the fries. We ordered them beer-battered, but they arrived without the beer batter. However, they were still the best fries we've ever had. Even when they cooled down, they remained absolutely delicious.

In conclusion, while there were some shortcomings with the food, the exceptional service and the mouthwatering fries made our experience at Shenanigans enjoyable. We hope that the restaurant will take our feedback into consideration and work on improving the meat portions in the stews and ensuring the accuracy of orders. We would definitely give Shenanigans another try...

SUMMARY: My husband and I wanted to try lots of different restaurants while visiting Dahlonega, but loved Shenanigans so much we ended up coming back for several meals, even driving about an hour in some cases just for a meal at Shenanigans. The staff are friendly and helpful. The food is great.

FOOD: I highly recommend the Irish Paradise Burger, and bring some wet wipes. The Irish Paradise burger was AMAZING. My husband said the Reuben and Irish stew were excellent. After having both, he said he would choose the Irish stew over the Dublin stew every time, though both were good. Be sure to ask for the bread with the soup for dipping. The shepherds pie was also very good. I also had the Guinness chicken and mashed potatoes. It was alright, but not a ton of flavor. I tried the Dreamy Chocolate Pudding (gluten free, dairy free dessert - cashew based) and it was alright, though it tasted heavily like coconut to me and it was a little overpowering so I didn’t taste a lot of the chocolate. Nothing was bad that we tried.

OTHER NOTES: They have merchandise souvenirs you can purchase, but were out of sized medium zippy-hoodies when we visited for lunch on New Years Eve. It is a very busy place without a lot of space to walk around, so I recommend keeping your phone in your pocket and staying aware of your surroundings as you walk from entrance to table (or vice versa) to avoid getting underfoot of the staff or other customers. We also enjoyed the punk rock music selection when we ate there, though they said the music selection varies based on...