The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant — Restaurant in Manchester

So I went here to catch the football game and a beer and everything was going fine until I went to go to the bathroom. There was a group in the way, as normally happens in crowded bars, and I asked them to move. They didn’t hear me. Again, it happens in bars, not mad about that. I then tapped one of their group on the shoulder (gently, in my opinion) so I could get through. After that, the person I tapped confronted me, saying I tapped the bouncer and that I had to cash out and be kicked out. I told him I thought that was a little extreme, but that I wasn’t gonna fight him on that. I then went to cash out and was handed strictly a pen cap to sign my tab. I tried to get their attention for a good 4-5 minutes but to no avail, so I left my check blank. I didn’t want to leave no tip as the confrontation wasn’t the bartenders’ fault, but the experience definitely left me feeling less guilty about not tipping than I normally would have.

I get that any physical contact is a hot wire for a lot of people, but I feel that if you’re blocking the entire route to the bathroom and don’t respond to a gentle, but generally audible “excuse me”, you don’t have a right to be mad when someone physically alerts you of their need to get through. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive about this, but I felt pretty disrespected by this encounter as though my need to maneuver through the bar was less important than the bouncer and his friends’ comfort of taking up the entire throughway to get to the bathroom.

The food I had was “fine”, but not quite “good” and the prices weren’t outrageous but nor were they generous. Place is ultimately somewhere between “meh” and “fine” outside of the encounter I had, but that level of confrontation over something so minor left a pretty sour taste...

My wife and I went there together on Saturday evening, as we were out celebrating St Patty's day weekend. After finally making our way through the crowd to the bar, I asked the bar tender if they had "any St. Patty's Day Beer Specials going on"? The bar tender laughed at me and told me, "if you want something for free I can give you some water". Then he walked away. I was very offended. We had been to a few different places that day that had various specials. I was perfectly fine with them not having any, but if they did it may have determined what I ordered. That simple!. When he came back around I asked him, "is it customary to treat your customers like jerks"? He told me not to lecture him and that me asking for specials was the worst question you could ask a bartender. Which is funny because I was in the business for many years, and could think of a lot worse. He proceeded to tell me that he was the "owner" and did not care if I was offended. I have never in my life seen a restaurant owner be so openly disrespectful to a patron. We left shortly after. The place was absolutely disgusting behind the bar with half eaten food sitting all over the counters, trash everywhere, etc. The bartenders were eating fried foods with there hands and then making drinks for customers without washing their hands first. It was honestly one of the poorest showings of any pub I have ever been too! Filthy, rude, and completely...

Ate here on Saturday night before heading to Boards and Brews down the street. The place was very busy, but we still got a table relatively easily.

Atmosphere is great, but definitely noisier than expected. That was mainly due to a couple large groups near us though. The live music added to the already good atmosphere.

We were looking forward to trying the scotch eggs, but they make fresh once each week and had already sold out for the week.

We both ordered the Guinness beef stew and cannot understate how awful it was! See the picture I've included. It was inedible and tasted worse than it looked (which is saying something). I have no idea how they can even serve this slop. It was the worst thing we've ever been served in a restaurant and it wasn't close.

The meal was so bad it was comical.

We decided not to complain to our server (I think her name was Olivia) since she seemed to be the only one serving all of the tables and still managed to provide great service. Very impressive! She was working so hard and we didn't want to add any stress to what looked like a very busy and difficult night.

I'll probably come back for some great Guinness draught, but there's no way I'm ever ordering food here again. As it was we ended up having chicken fingers at Boards and Brews since we were starving by the time...