Irish Inn At Glen Echo — Restaurant in Glen Echo

My 3 star post is based on the automatic 20% gratuity that was added to my check. I apologize for my long review but I wanted it to be detailed and thorough so you can reach your own conclusions. I used to live in Glen Echo and I have been coming to Irish Inn At Glen Echo since 2009. I now live in Honolulu and Arlington. Since my return I have visited this restaurant twice in a week. Last week with friends and today alone. The food and drinks today were delicious as usual. The pear and pomegranate salad with champagne dressing was so good that I ordered 3 servings of it. The salmon I got on the side of the salad was one of the best salmon I have ever had. It was so fresh, perfectly seasoned and grilled. Had the most delicious glass of apple martini. No one makes better apple martinis anywhere in the US. I ordered the strawberry lemonade just to taste it and it was delicious but I still prefer my apple martini. I ordered the flour-less chocolate cake for dessert. The waitress, Valarie, who was just lovely, allowed me to substitute a scope of the Irish Bailey's ice cream instead of the vanilla ice cream. The homemade Irish Bailey ice cream was to die for and I ended up ordering a second serving of just the Bailey ice cream. Now for the bad part. I almost always dine alone because I travel extensively throughout the US for work. Having worked as a server in college, I never leave less than 25% tip and I usually leave between 30% to 35% to compensate the wait staff for taking up a table since I'm usually dining alone. If it is a small order/check I will usually leave 50% tip. When I got the check I was shocked to see almost 20% gratuity was automatically added. There were 2 waitresses who helped me. And I was just going to sign the check, add an additional gratuity and leave. But I had that horrible feeling in my stomach that I was being singled out. Since I was sitting outside, I asked the tables around me if any of them were being charged an automatic gratuity and they all replied no. At that moment I felt the dread of feeling in my stomach I was being singled out. The only thing that separated me from all the other patrons was that I was the only non-white. Having lived in Honolulu I had forgotten what it is liked to be treated differently based on race. I truly hope this was an honest mistake but then I started replaying the interactions I had with the wait staff in my head. The other waitress was not very friendly with me. But again perhaps she was just busy and this was just an honest mistake. I called over my waitress Valarie, who by the way was just lovely. But there was another woman who was helping with my table. And she was the one who dropped my bill at my table even though I had not yet asked for a check because I was planning on ordering a few things to go. After all, I was at one of my favorite restaurants. Having spoken to the other tables I decided to very politely ask why my check had the added gratuity when none of the other tables did. I asked Valerie if I had done anything to offend anyone. She was very apologetic and said I was her table and this should have never happened. She insisted on taking the check and removed the 20% additional gratuity. I signed the second check and added my usual 35% tip. But all day this dining experience has bothered me. I am so sad that I feel I can no longer go back to one of my very favorite restaurants that as soon as I got home I just crawled into bed. This was a restaurant I used to go to at least twice a week. I did call the restaurant tonight at 8pm and spoke to one of the managers, Frank. He was very apologetic and said he was not there for lunch service today but he will look into the matter. I really hope it was an honest mistake but the pandemic has brought out a lot of anti-Asian racism. For now I will not be returning to my favorite restaurant. I guess it was very fitting that my last meal at the Irish Inn was the best meal I've...

UPDATE 3/30 I just received a call from the general manager, apologizing for the St Paddy’s Day chaos. He explained that the restaurant had far more people than they had in 2022. So many that they essentially ran out of everything Irish! In addition, the valet company was new this year. That puts a whole new spin on the problems we experienced. We will happily return to give it another go, this time on a weeknight. Stay tuned!

So, I’ve only been to the Irish Inn once before, and it was, oddly, for coffee. We decided to go for St Paddy’s Day as we wanted to hear some music, eat corned beef and cabbage and have a bit of fun. We had a 6:30 dinner reservation. The best thing I can say about the experience is that we didn’t get food poisoning. Two stars for that! First, it took fifteen minutes to get into the parking lot for valet parking. Then, thirty minutes to get our (incorrect) drink order. My daughter never did get her cider, as the waiter came to our table just as we were finishing our entrees to tell her they were out of cider. They charged us for the incorrect drink anyway, and we had to ask to have it taken off the bill. The corned beef, cabbage and potatoes were completely flavorless, having apparently been boiled in separate pots with too much water. No bread, Irish soda or otherwise was offered. The service took forever. Now for the music. There was a band, but it was in the front parking lot. We were seated on the patio, and heard the occasional note. No loudspeakers we’re mounted so that diners could enjoy the music. Then, when we finally corrected out check and managed to find our waiter to pay the bill, the parking valets lost our car key. It took forty minutes to find it and get our car.

Now, they do this every year. And, presumably, they’ve been doing it for a very long time. How could it possibly be that they haven’t figured out how to manage the party, cook a large quantity of corned beef and cabbage, and have the bar properly stocked? I’ve gone to St Paddy’s Day parties at restaurants many times in different cities, had delicious food, and listened to wonderful music. This was an utter fail and we went home sad and...

I will admit that the atmosphere, and location of this restaurant are undoubtedly nice, so I have to add a star for that. The décor is so nice that you wonder what exactly went wrong with the dishes that come out of the kitchen. It's pretty clear that the cooking staff doesn't have a reason to actually care about the food that comes out. This could be that people frequent this place for the atmosphere and are willing to pay regardless, but the price is not indicative of food quality.

I came here with the full intention of trying out their take on Guinness stew, but it was not listed on the menu. This was a big disappointment since it was listed on their website menu. I decided to go with the lamb rigatoni, which I thought might be an interesting combination. When my food arrived, the rigatoni noodles were clearly from a box, and clearly overcooked. So much so, that they had begun to fray at the sides of the pasta. The lamb and sauce were devoid of flavor beyond salt, and the pasta sauce was watery. I've never been served such a low effort pasta dish at a restaurant in my entire life. The grated parmesan was a nice touch, but it wasn't enough to save the dish. To add insult to injury, the portion size was tiny.

I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to food, but this was just a clear lack of any sort of effort or love put into cooking the dish I ordered. The corned beef and cabbage my girlfriend ordered similarly looked like there wasn't much effort put into it. I'm flummoxed by the high reviews this place seems to get from patrons. Did I just catch the cook staff on a bad day? Because other pictures don't look very appetizing either. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend going here unless you really enjoy Irish pub vibes and low effort dishes for top...