McCleary's Pub — Restaurant in Marietta

It breaks my heart to leave a review like this, however...my experience was bad enough that it warranted one. To note, my wife and I had frequented McCleary's often in the past. When we lived in Lancaster, it was very much a monthly(sometimes more than once a month) visit, and we loved it. Best fish and chips, best wings in the area, best salad, best soup...it was great. Last night however, everything changed. A Wednesday night at 5:45 resulted in a relatively slow evening; so expectations were not too high. It took almost 20 minutes for our server to even come to our table for the drink order. Drinks (mixed and a beer) took almost 15 minutes to come out. We placed our order (Wings, Soup, 2 salads) and that was the last we saw of our server. We saw her visiting other tables, but never once came to ours. The food took about 35 minutes to come out, and when it did they forgot the soup. No big deal. The wings were very different than they were previously and were breaded and fatty. Bad start... The chix caesar salads were the next disappointment. Two entree sized salads require adequate dressing, however we received what had to amount to half an appropriate amount. It was enough to lightly cover 1/3rd of the salad. The chicken had 0 seasoning and was incredibly bland. I'm also pretty sure it was undercooked and they threw it in the microwave to bring it to temp. (Having worked for a decade in the industry, I know chefs do this and get it, but it's still rough). The soup, my wife says, was still quite good. So, good marks for that at least. We sat for almost 25 minutes after we finished eating waiting for our server to show up. When she finally did, we got our check and left. There was no check-up mid-meal (so we couldn't ask for more dressing or order more drinks which we wanted to do), which was disappointing but did save us some money. The bill came to about $72, so with tip was $90. I understand there are staffing issues, but at most I counted 10 tables and 3 servers in the atrium area. It's unacceptable to never have a server check the table after food is served, and food should be seasoned. A little salt and pepper go a long way.

I'm not sure when/if we'll ever go back (I still need to try the Fish and Chips again), which is a real let down. After being away from the area for so long, we were excited to visit one of our favorite restaurants. Maybe it was a bad night (Wednesdays are notoriously the slowest days of the weak for restaurants), but man...it was an incredibly disappointing experience; and for the cost of transportation/food/peoples time, those things shouldn't be ok now a days. Maybe we'll try again some day, but for the next few years, McClearly's is sadly off the list :( *To note, the busboy who delivered our food and got my wifes soup was prompt in his service, so props to him. And again, the soup was...

Update 2: We were able to score a reservation on a Friday night. I tried the prime rib melt this time. It tasted good, but the bread to meat ratio wasn't great so I would skip this next time. The fish and chips were spot on as usual and the Smithwick's on tap was awesome as always.

Updated: we stopped back in on a Thursday with just 2 in our party without reservations and there was an hour wait due to short staff, common right now everywhere it seems. Luckily the bar was open seating and were able to grab a seat here. We tried the pretzel appetizer and the cheese dipping sauce was great, we saved it for our fries. We also tried the fish tacos and the reuben. Both were very good, but I thought the fish in the tacos were a little small. I definitely could have used a 3rd taco, since they only came with 2. We saw a waitress make a drink with Guinness on top, she said it was a black and tan, which we had heard of before, but they make them with Smithwick's and Guinness here, of course no many other places can do that since they don't have Smithwick's on tap hardly anywhere, so I had to try one, very good! The young lad bartender was very good as well, very busy, but kept up with everything.

As we were guided to our table we weaved in and out of the pub area of the restaurant which really made you feel like you were in Ireland. We were sat in the enclosed patio area which a really cool feel, which you can see in many of the pictures. I started with their Old Manhattan which was very good and I really loved that they had Smithwick's on tap. I ordered the crab soup and the tips on toast. The crab soup was excellent and the tips were also very good, but some of the pieces were a bit chewy. Other's at the table ordered the famous fish and chips and the pulled pork sandwich. The fish and chips were very good. They had a very nice flavor and it made me wish I had ordered that over the tips and toast. The pulled port had a wonderful smoke flavor to them, also tasted very good. The service started out strong which a friendly waiter that was attentive, but as they evening went on we had some trouble finding him. My crab soup didn't come until after my meal, but I wasn't charged for it so I was still very happy. Other notes I'd like to make is the parking behind the building was a bit messy, so I wouldn't bring a freshly washed car, but there is street parking available. Also they charge a 3% fee to use your credit card. I can understand why they do this, but I think it would be better to offer a cash discount, as no one likes extra fees, especially when the vast majority of restaurants are not doing the same. We will definitely be back, it was a...

Went to McCleary’s for the first time last night. I met two friends, we try to get together every few months. Service was great, server was nice. The food and drinks were good. The reason I am giving a one star is because after finishing our dinner, we were “told” that we needed to leave our table because they needed it for others. Mind you, I just paid the check (3% automatically added for using credit card and I gave a 25% tip on top of that) I still had 1/2 a cocktail to finish and after the comment, I look around and there were 4 tables available (1- 2 top and 3- 4 tops) 3 mature adults (50-60’s) to be “Told” to leave a table, is rude. Move us to another table if that area is reserved. My friends and I get together every few months at different local establishments and have NEVER been told to leave our table. On our way out of the patio area, we noticed additional seating available. I questioned the hostess (the person who told us to leave the table) as we were walking out “can you please tell me why we were told to leave our table when there are many tables available”? Her comment is that it was reserved for upcoming reservations. Totally disappointing, put a damper on what usually ends up as a memorable get together with a few friends. Remember, let’s all be a little kinder to one another. I don’t want to make this an issue, however after seeing the comment from the owner. I felt this deserved a phone call as his staff was not honest about telling us the table was reserved nor did I raise my voice to anyone. Freddie, I believe that your response should be edited or removed as it includes false...