McDonagh’s Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Keyport

After sitting at our table for 10 minutes having not received any silverware or visit from the waitstaff, my chum and I decided we'd get up and leave if no one showed up in the next four minutes. The waiter showed up with two minutes to spare. Given how the experience went after that, I honestly wish he hadn't and that we'd gone somewhere else.

I came here this past Saturday with my Millennial Chum for a late lunch around 2, 2:30pm. Initially it looked fairly busy with the remnants of the lunch crowd, but the place got progressively emptier as the meal went on. McDonagh's is centrally located in downtown Keyport and the restaurant interior is very spacious - the main room with the bar island was large, and it looked like they had a slightly smaller dining room off to the side, along with an outdoor area for warmer weather. The decor reminded me a little of a Thatcher McGee's, though instead of recreating an Irish cottage, the walls were decorated with what looked like spiffy NYC bar storefronts, if that makes sense. And it's clearly a popular spot with the locals, which certainly counts for something.

Food-wise, I wasn't impressed. I ordered a plain hamburger medium rare, and my chum got the brick oven wings with Thai sauce. The hamburger was cooked medium well instead and was super greasy - every time I picked it up and slightly squeezed, drops of grease would fall down next to the fries. Not particularly appetizing. When I would put the burger down between bites, I had to carefully maneuver it so the grease didn't get soaked back into the bun.

I tried the wings and didn't like them very much. I'm not a huge wing person, but they were super dry and pretty bland - the Thai sauce was fine but sparingly distributed, so I barely tasted it, even when I was intentionally trying to get a saucier bite. For what it's worth, the Millennial Chum liked them more than I did, though admitted toward the end of the adventure that they were indeed pretty dry. The portion for them was pretty decent, especially for an app - it easily could (and was for her) a full meal.

Beyond the mediocre food, the service was super uneven. When we came in, the greeter brought us to a table right up front and said she'd be back shortly with silverware. We never saw her again. As mentioned before, the waiter belatedly showed up almost 15 minutes after we sat down and was very hot and cold demeanor-wise. He seemed utterly miserable and tired when he came to take our orders, but in subsequent visits was apologetic over the wait and friendlier, thanking my friend for stacking up the empty/unused plates for easy pickup. Like Forrest Gump's chocolates, you never knew what you were going to get. To be fair, it looked like he was covering a lot of tables throughout the giant main bar room, so he was racking up the mileage and spread pretty thin. This may have been a situation where they figured they didn't need as much coverage mid-afternoon and underestimated the turnout from an unseasonably warm February day.

The prices seemed pretty reasonable for the area - I think the bill came to around $32 or so (it helped that we moistened our palates with water and nothing else). It's a shame - this is probably the best real estate you could hope to have in Keyport for a restaurant in terms of square footage and location, and it feels like they're...

Update 1-26-18 : we visited McDonaugh’s tonight for the second time since the day of the below review. The Pub was very crowded and the restaurant was nearly full. Our experience was markedly different from out first visit. Although disappointed with out first visit, we stopped by for lunch in the spring and again tonight. Both of those visits were better.

At tonight’s visit, we were immediately seated and the service was very good. Sangria was better, but not the best we’ve had. Our entrees were served quite quickly and were as described and expected. The gift card provided at the first visit nearly covered the cost of this nights visit. It is nice to see they accepted responsibility for the first visit, and we’re happy to see it’s not a common occurrence at the pub.

We plan to return.

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This review is based on our first visit. We had an 8:30 reservation, and arrived at 8:25. We waited almost 10 minutes for a hostess to greet us, and we were the only people waiting. Once seated, the waitress recommended their Sangria, and at best it was a watered down Costco type Sangria. We then ordered 2 appetizers and 4 cups of water. About 30 minutes later the waitress finally appeared and remembered we requested water??? 10 minutes later, the steamed clams arrived and we were informed the kitchen was experiencing "difficulties".... They burnt the GRILLED wings. Approximately 15 minutes after that, FRIED wings arrived with out the correct sauces. We did eat them because we were so hungry. (9:40 approximately). The restaurant side is nearly empty and we were informed the entrees were almost ready. When 10:00pm came and went ,and still no food, we requested a check for what we had been served minus the incorrect wings. Minutes later the manager arrived with 2 of the 4 entrees which we declined. Having consumed the sangria & 2 appetizers, we paid a $33 bill and left a $17 tip. A second manager arrived to explain the difficulties they (the kitchen) had experienced, which amounted to admitting the burnt the wings... Which didn't explain a wait in excess of 1:30 for entrees in an empty restaurant. They did provide us a gift card, in an unknown amount for a future visit.... Which most likely will go unused.

Both managers, while polite and working what appeared to be multiple positions (serving, clearing and seating customers) in our opinion were not experienced enough to efficiently manage a large pub/restaurant.

As a side note, upon our arrival I overheard a couple asking an employee for a check, since that hadn't seen their waitress for over 20 minutes.

All these factors lead me to believe, the establishment was woefully understaffed for a Friday night, and especially the Friday of Labor...

After dinner plans changed in Keyport on Friday, decided to try McDonagh’s since I had heard of it and it looked fairly busy. Went to the check-in stand in the outside area and was told by the hostess of a 15 minute wait. No problem. Went to sit along the wall with several other couples and small groups. After about 10 minutes we began to speak among us all wondering why there were at least 5 tables unoccupied. When we questioned the hostess, who disappeared often and who was obviously incapable of managing the area, she gave a few flimsy excuses that she thought there were reservations or just dismissed our queries. While waiting, I finished one pint of Kona Big Wave that I had to get myself from the bar inside, and, ultimately, about half of a second one while my wife finished a Corona. When we were finally seated, no one acknowledged us for another 15 minutes ( never saw the hostess again) until, finally, a waitress showed up with menus, dropped them on the table and walked off. 10 minutes later she came back for our order. My wife ordered a cup of potato leek soup and an appetizer of boneless chicken wings. I ordered the fish and chips with the Caesar salad which I intended for my wife. 10 more minutes later, a server delivers the salad for my wife. As he starts to walk away, she had to ask for cutlery and napkins for us. Another 10 minutes or more and the waitress, finally, comes back but without any food telling us the kitchen is backed up. I requested that she at least bring the cup of soup. She leaves and 10 more minutes until another server shows up with everything. That’s when it got really interesting. The boneless wings turn out to be skinless strips of breast meat. When my wife questioned the waitress, she responds “Oh that’s how they serve them here". At which point, my wife responded that the menu should state that or the waitress should. She made a weak apology. My fish and chips was another adventure. The coating, ( or whatever that was ) on the strips of fish, was so hard ( almost like the shell of a lobster) that I had to crack it with the side of my fork just to get to the fish. The cracked coating fell off the fish in sections and what remained was still extremely crunchy to chew. And to top it all off, only about 20% of the fries were even edible, as they were so overcooked that they were like cardboard. My wife suggested that I send it all back, and I declined, saying that it would be another half hour wait with no guarantee of any improvement. Ate what we could stomach, paid the bill and left. On the way home, I said to her that we may have had as a disappointing meal before but could not remember where or when . The only thing to earn a star was Kona Big...