Hugh O'Neill's Restaurant & Pub — Restaurant in Malden

This place is ok. It’s not all bad, but not that awesome either. I like it a lot more than All Seasons Table across the street, but not as much as Mystice Station or exchange street Bistro. I’ve been to every bar in that area and tested the food, drinks, and people watched when I’m by myself or with someone. I will say, All Seasons Table, Mystice Station, Exchange Street Bistro, 3 Amigos, and this place Hugh O’Neill’s all have their own different taste and vibe.

If you want to come by yourself because you want to try this place out and people you know have an excuse to not go out, then do it. You won’t be alone. I did some people watching and saw that a few people showed up, drank, and ate independently on their own. Some people chose to stand even though there were plenty of seats at the bar. I discovered that people who showed up in groups were a lot less social/friendly than the people who showed up by themselves.

This place has a lot of older crowds but some decent amount of younger crowds, but the younger crowds tend not to show up by themselves and behave like they are still in high school. They seemed very immature and haven’t learned to be an adult yet. The older crowd were much nicer and friendlier. I noticed the women were a lot louder than the guys. There were a lot of families in this venue also. They didn’t appear to be very social either. The people who arrived in groups behave like they have never learned how to be independent after high school so it would make sense why they would be terrified to go out and enjoy exploring independently or why they can’t socialize with people they didn’t grow up with. I found the most social people were mostly people from out of state or arrived alone.

The place itself is very spacious. During this past Christmas holiday, it was decorated very nicely in there. It’s a very nice looking venue. The servers and bartenders seemed like nice people to me as long as you have a positive attitude when you go in there.

Comparing All Seasons Table across the street and Mystice station a few buildings down, I’ll say this place has better bar service than all seasons table. At all seasons, they would rush me to finish my drink or food to accommodate their Caucasian customers and they would even try to tell me to push down and make room for them. Both Hugh O’Neill’s and Mystic Station NEVER do that. They treated me like an equal. Hugh O’Neill’s is a lot more fun than all seasons and play better music. They let me finish my drink and food and order again when I was ready. I can’t rush through my orders because it makes me want to throw up. You can sit anywhere at the bar here since it’s on a first come first serve basis as it should be. You want to reserve a spot for multiple people, get a table.

Out of the three I just mentioned, I’ll say it seems to be the most aggressive. If I was to guess that if a fight broke out at any of the three venues, I would guess Hugh O’Neill’s would be the first. It was my first time seeing someone get kicked out of a bar, but he had it coming for giving the bartender a hard time. It’s not likely to happen often or at all, but if it did, I see it happening here than anywhere else.

This place has a lot of social events such as open mic night on Wednesday’s. You can sign up for it too if you show up before 8pm to get listed.

That wraps up the environment. It gets a lot busier in the evening than the afternoon. As for the food, I thought it was delicious! Everything tastes great! Also, if you want a drink that is not on the menu, you can order something like a Manhattan and they will make it for you if they know...

Experience began quite poorly, but ended fabulously... We decided last minute to try this place for dinner & drinks. We were not impressed with our waitress (who, we later learned, is new)... We ordered a beer flight and they had ran out of one of the beers but rather than ask us what other beer we'd like to replace it, she brought a different beer and didn't mention the substitute, then when we asked, she explained the bartender had substituted; we didn't care for it and when we told her, she offered to bring a new beer but stated the bartender "knows best" so it seemed she didn't want to be hassled to get a new beer, so we let it slide. We hoped she'd offer to get us a new beer since we didn't drink it, but she cleared the glasses without hesitation. We waited about 30 minutes before getting to put our meal order in, which then took about 45 minutes to arrive... By the time we got our meals, we had been there almost 2hrs. Oh, and one of our meals was not what we ordered, but we were tired and just wanted to go home. I felt awful, but considering the series of multiple events, I decided to inform the manager of our experience. The general manager (Derek S) responded fabulously - he was busy but stepped away to give us his attention, and didn't make us feel bad. He explained our waitress was newly trained and it's been a busy holiday week and assured us that our experience with the waitress was not suitable for his staff standards, apologized, and offered to take care of the tab. We insisted to pay for the correct items we received as were ordered, but when the tab came back he had covered both our meals, which we didn't expect. He was very respectful, approachable, professional, and clearly cared that we enjoyed our experience. OH, I forgot to mention that this guy - the GM - was also hosting, bussing, and food running throughout the 2hrs we were there - he was killing it across the board - we were very impressed by his commitment and work ethic and continued to talk about him during our drive home. He made a frustrating, long dinner experience take a 180 in a matter of minutes, for which were very appreciative of and surely will spread word of the phenomenal management of this place!...

This is one of the better spots in Malden. Servers are friendly and accommodating. Decor is heavy wood, big tables, pub-style Irish. Lots of big screens; emphasis on European soccer and all Boston pro games. Noteworthy: all UEFA cup games are shown. There is decent outdoor seating in fair weather, and with a nice flowers and fencing enclosure put up a while back, you can sit there comfortably without the usual Malden Square riffraff coming right up to your table to panhandle etc., as used to happen. The weekday clientele is mostly professionals. Happy hour cheap appetizers in the early evening. Dinner crowd is young locals, professionals, families. There's trivia night, open mic night, live entertainment night etc. Weekend mornings there is a quite decent brunch menu and clientele of all ages. Kids menu is what you'd expect. They have crayons etc. On weekend nights, Hugh O's has a completely different vibe. Loud, local, drunken youth. If you're 21 and into "partying," this is your spot. If you live within earshot and are over 25, you will loathe this clientele. Noisy, intoxicated fights at 2AM are completely par for the course. The police intervene very regularly. Both men and women screaming quite vile stuff can be counted on Friday through Sunday from midnight to 2:30AM. Clientele urinates and throws up on nearby sidewalks. It's gross! But those are the clientele, and not the employees...and during the day and early evening Hugh O's is actually a decent spot.

UPDATE [Aug. 2014] - Since I originally posted, Hugh's has hired a police detail on weekend evenings. I don't know if they were made to do it or if they came to their senses voluntarily, but no matter. It is a huge improvement and the amount of drunken street behavior is way down. There are even nights with no noise at all as the young'ins leave...