Cara Irish Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Dover

I've sadly been there twice in two weeks, first time was for an event upstairs and the second because a friend chose it as our meet-up place. Both times were Saturday evenings. Both times were shockingly bad experiences.

First time, upstairs was completely packed as booked for a private event I was a part of. Yet there was only one bartender for the upstairs bar and there was a queue of guests waiting on average 20 to 30 minutes to get drinks instead of dancing or enjoying themselves. Very poor service here so most of us went downstairs to get drinks. The downstairs was quite empty for a Saturday evening. Yet it took on average 10 to 15 minutes to get a drink as no bartender was behind the bar. I've never seen a real Irish pub without anyone behind the bar. When a bartender finally showed up, we got drinks and went back upstairs. At some point, the upstairs bartender was very stressed and guests were getting irritated as they couldn't get drinks because their cash register went down. We went downstairs & it was the same situation. We realized the owner had been sitting on the customer side of the bar drinking all evening, not helping out her staff at all, when she dared to leave her sit to reboot the cash register system.

All evening, there was one lady swamped behind the bar upstairs, dealing with 100+ customers and getting no help while there was barely any customer downstairs but they had two bartenders walking around and the owner drinking at her own bar.

The next week, I went back to meet my friend and I noticed the owner was exactly at the same spot, drinking on the customer side of the bar. There was no one behind the bar and we waited close to ten minutes to get drinks. The owner did not move to serve us. We walked to the back of the place and there were less than ten customers in.

After a while, my friend wanted to get another round, we went back to the bar and after waiting more than 5 minutes without anyone daring to pour us drinks, we simply decided to leave and go somewhere else. The owner was sitting there and again she didn't do anything.

I wonder how this place can still be in business, the service is appalling and the owner clearly couldn't care less. I certainly will not be back! There are so many better pubs in Dover.

Edit to answer the owner's reply: First, it wasn't my event, I was a guest. If it was my event, I would never, ever book anything with you seeing how bad it was (and I didn't even talk about the food that guests like me paid $40+ for that you set as a buffet and people who came "late" literally only had a few potatoes to eat.). This was simply awful.

Back to the PoS, it went down upstairs and downstairs. I was upstairs when it happens and your bartender was left alone with no support.

I then went downstairs and there was a dude complaining he waited to pay for his beer for 15 min and all you offered him was writing down his credit card details which is ILLEGAL! He left without tipping and you blamed him for it while it was a consequence of your own mistakes and negligence!

And the "it was a crazy night excuse" isn't working for the second time I showed up, there was literally no one in your walls, yet the service was as bad and you were still sitting at the bar drinking like a customer.

My advice: take ownership of your business and show the example to your staff! Make sure there is ALWAYS someone behind the bar so customers don't wait for 10 minutes for one drink while there's barely any customers inside. Stand behind the bar YOURSELF! At the end, you are the owner, so why are you just sitting there drinking?

There is literally no excuse for those two poor experiences, you should really start to question your management methods, I guess it would spread the lights on a few things, the likes of "why is the place empty on a Saturday night when it has all the potential to be packed?"

Food for thoughts! Take this as a...

One if the worst pubs of Dover, owner is obnoxious and full of attitude, tap beers all taste really bad, no wonder there's barely any crowd there. Do yourself a favor, go somewhere else, especially if you want fun, good atmosphere, nice staff and good beers. This place has none!

To the owner: I was the guy who stood there for 15 minutes trying to pay for one beer while she sat at the bar drinking with her buddy. The Point of Sales went down, she didn't do anything about it until the staff complained, she just sat there drinking then reluctantly went to restart it. When I asked if I could get my card back, I was told I either have to wait or she would write down my card's details. And she never apologized for the inconvenience. Worst customer service ever! A good owner would have made a gesture for the trouble (what's a beer on tap to a bar owner, 30 to 70 cents, a dollar max) and go behind the bar to help her staff. She did none of this! Indeed, I did not tip this one time (I did tip your staff all evening prior to this incident), as waiting 15 minutes for a beer while the pub's owner hold your credit card hostage because of no fault of mine was pretty poor service.

There was no one behind the bar most of the night because the owner set up the example that sitting at the bar drinking with customer is ok... It's not! And if I didn't tip, it wasn't because of the evasive staff, it was purely because of the owner's attitude.

To finish, this place is defo filthy, lines should be cleaned minimum every 14 days and not every 28 days as this is open door to germs! A simple google search will show the basics and best practices of bar tap lines cleaning and how to ensure your customers safety.

This place is a disgrace of an Irish pub, period! And the owner...

Tried to order food over the phone. Was told i had to come in to order food. Went to the restraunt to try and order the food and got stopped by the security because there was a cover charge. Told security hey tried to order food over the phone they told me to come in and ordet. There first reaction was to ask if i was drinking. I told them yes thinking they might want my business while i wait. They then proceeded with if your drinking well have to charge you the cover. I said okay then ill just order food and then leave. Head of security walks out and other two security guys let him know of the situation. At this point i said you know what ill order the food inside and ill come right back out. Got ignored for 5 minutes. Then they said if your going to be more then 5 minutes we have to charge. I said okay ill come in and out. Then they thought about it again and said its going to be kind of hard to order in 5 minutes. At that point i was fed up and left. I hadnt been to cara before and will never end up going there after this...