P.J. Whelihan's Pub + Restaurant - Lehighton — Restaurant in Franklin Township

This is our first time, because a friend of us recommended this place. And we did. Let’s start with positive things. The food was good we ordered chilis, burgers and Taco, the foods was on point. We loved it. The food was good, nice presentation. The place was clean, live music Sunday. It’s a good vibe.

We order water and Coke. Water and Coke were served in a plastic cup (not an issue) but smell and taste off for us, either filter was off or something. It could have been higher chlorine in water and it taste almost like you inhale small trace of spray can. I didn’t drink much of both water and my coke bc it was so off putting. I ask my friend and he agreed. I wasn’t gonna say anything maybe the water in this area is like this. So I don’t want to bother the server and think maybe I can just go back to the car and get my bottled water. So I debating if I should bring this to our server attention or not but I did since I am also a manager at a restaurant and I’d appreciate if something went wrong.

I decided to call for our server at the end of the meal. And said hey I think the water and our soda taste and smell alittle funny. She replied with annoyed attitude to me “ I can’t do anything about it bc it was at the end of your meal, if you said something earlier I could have done something” so I told her “oh , I don’t want anything from it I just want to let you know that it feels off”. I drink soda and water regularly I know how my Coke and water should taste like (didn’t say that to her). She walked to the bar, poured water and looked at me “I didn’t feel anything wrong” and make it seem like I’m crazy. so I said ok never mind then. We pay, we left quick and got our drink from the car.

Overall it was an okay experience for us first time. Food was great, vibe was good. The server could have response differently to make us feel appreciated our observations but instead get back the attitude and assume that we didn’t want to pay (that what it feels when when she responded)

Although the service was on a slow side (we are ok with a little wait, not a complain here), Our server walked by us a few times, cleaning tables and stopped to have a bite during the shift. Which is acceptable but I feel like the server could be a bit faster or pay more attention to the customers who is waiting to order, or pay.

We will come back again, and will give another chance to this good and...

There were a few issues with our lunch....our server: Savannah was great.

My first issue (a pet peve)...we ordered a basket of fries as an appetizer. On the menu, it states a pound of fries for apx $5. I thought this would be plenty with our meal....we were given a basket of fries (in my opinion, a small basket). I mentioned this to Savannah and she brought us another basket full of hot fries.

My wife ordered nachos loaded (chili, cheese and sour cream) and I ordered a pj burger (a cheeseburger with bacon and grilled onions).

When our meals arrived: my burger (at best) was warm and the bun it was on was much much larger than the piece of meat (remember 'where's the beef commercial?'), that's what it was like and my wife's nachos were cold (not hot nor warm). I split my warm burger with my wife as we needed to eat something. My wife sent the nachos back.

A short time passed and Savannah brought out more loaded nachos. Still cold! Savannah continued to apologise and took the nachos off the bill. Savannah added she told the Manager about our issues and he/she will stop by.

Well, the Manager never stopped by....here is where Savannah went above and beyond (in our opinion)....she came back to our table with the check (nachos removed) and a bowl of vanilla ice cream loaded up with hot chocolate and whipped cream. She again apologized.

We paid and thanked Savannah several times for the ice cream.

This was our first time at this PJ Whelan's and our last. Not only was all the food (except the fries and ice cream) not correct, no one could heat up nachos? Then they sent cold nachos back out to the customer ... Poor service and the Manager couldn't even make it to be our table....

I hope everyone else that eats at this location has better luck on...

We have been here probably a dozen times in the past 5 years and it has always been reliable and a good experience. Today we stopped by for lunch. A server (not ours) dripped sauce from a plate on my wife’s shirt and jacket. When we asked our server for a towel to clean it, she got us one and said she was sorry. The manager came over with club soda and took 5.00 off the bill. No offer to have my wife’s clothes dry cleaned. Stuff happens and I could have shrugged that off.

I ordered scallops. They were out of them. I switched my order to steak and crab cake. Steak ordered medium rare. Food came out and steak was cold. Told my server. She said she would take it back. She brought it back and it was the same steak i sent into the kitchen. I knew that because I had sliced it and it was missing a bite. They didn’t replace it. They threw the formerly medium rare steak back on the grill to warm it. Now it was over cooked and rubbery. Also, the crab cake was now cold. I do not know why they didn’t replace it the first time. Told hostess and she was kind enough to take it off the bill. That was good because i couldn’t eat it. Hostess explained how they were very busy and sometimes the kitchen falls down. Waitress apologized and made sure to tell me a few times that this was “not her fault”.

Had they offered to pay for dry cleaning I would not have expected them to take 5.00 off. Had they replaced the cold steak with a new one and not ruined it by overcooking and sending it back out I would have been happy to pay full price for my meal and not expected any discount.

I hope that today was a bad day and not evidence of a formerly good...