The Old Bag of Nails Pub - Mason — Restaurant in Mason

As local sports bars in the area go, this place was pretty good. Dark but not too cluttered. Open Spaces. Very large good size booths and tables to accommodate small or large groups. Quite a few TVs, but maybe not as many as some of the other local sports bars. But what they do have though that is different is a row of booths with private TVs. We went at around noon on a Sunday afternoon in October. Good place to go watch the game with a group of guys or with the family.

The food.

As an appetizer, we ordered the breaded mushrooms. They came with a creamy horseradish sauce. These were probably some of the best breaded fried mushrooms that we've ever had. The reason being, because they weren't greasy and slimy. These were large fresh mushrooms that were breaded and fried. One of the key things that we noticed was that the breading was actually fused to the mushroom. You know how typically the breading just slides off the mushroom in the mushroom is kind of slimy? These were not like that at all. Breading had good flavor and the mushrooms were fantastic as well.

We actually tried this place out because my wife, a native of England, read reviews that highlighted their fish and chips. Her being from the UK, and me visiting frequently, we are fish and chips snobs. You don't find too many places in The States that do fish and chips like they do over there. For that reason, I had no interest as I've been burned too many times when I do try to somebody's "great" fish and chip claims. She did order the fish and chips and they are fantastic! These are worthy of the kind of fish and chips that we get over in the UK. Picture is included. Very large fresh Cod. They do get a fish truck every 2 to 3 days, depending on the day and the fish is about as fresh as you can get. The chips, or fries, we're good and the coleslaw was really good as well.

I got the grilled chicken cobb salad and wished that I had gotten the fish and chips. For those of you that like a good Cobb salad, you'll understand what I mean when I say that the salad was dry. When I get a salad of iceberg lettuce I wanted to be wet and crisp. Not dry and kind of crisp. Cold, wet and crisp! The salad was a bit dry. It was a large salad and it seemed very fresh. A little heavy on the Gorgonzola and a bit light on the egg for my taste. It wasn't a bad salad it just wasn't a great salad.

The kids got the mac and cheese, which was pretty standard Kraft mac and cheese and a burger which was a pretty standard kids burger and fries. Kids eat free on Sundays, so that was a bonus we weren't even aware of.

Good beer selection. I didn't get too deep into it and only ordered a blue moon. They are a Coca-Cola establishment.

The service was excellent as well. Granted, we only really dealt with our server Brooke, but she was extremely knowledgeable, extremely friendly and was around when we needed her to be and didn't crowd us when we didn't need her to be.

Would I go back? Absolutely. I can't wait to go back to this place and actually order the fish and chips myself. Now, I left one of the best parts the review for last, for anyone that has read this far. There is a very little known fact, that the restaurant doesn't even advertise, about their fish and chips. Their fish and chips are all you can eat, everyday! Ask your server about it. If you like fish and chips, real fish and chips, then I highly...

This had to be the worst location that I've been to for an Old Bag of Nails. We came in for a later dinner due to being at Winterfest Kings Island around 8p. There wasn't a host at the front to seat people, took about 5 minutes to be acknowledged. Once the guy did come up he seemed very socially awkward and proceeded to cough in my face. Disgusting. After he did a quick clean of the table we were able to sit down. What's unfortunate is that the waiter was decent but I didn't catch his name. I ordered the "fish tacos" and a side salad. The salad was almost all cheese. Maybe I should have checked but there were no tomatoes or onions, yet I saw a few tables around us that had these options. The biggest disappointment had to be the so-called "Fish Tacos", basically two slivers of the fishy fish fried, slapped on top of some smothered iceberg lettuce with a heaping amount of spicy salsa. Soggy and gross, also not visually appealing. They also put a heaping pile of stale tortilla chips on the side. If the food wasn't the worst let's talk about how the server that delivered the food spilled salsa all over the floor next to my feet and into the walkway.... Not a single worker attempted to clean up (carpeted area). There was actually one server walk by and said gross. That was really just the icing on the plate. Made me feel so uncomfortable knowing that there was a mess that was associated with me due to the location. I'll never return and DO NOT recommend this location. You give an Old Bag of Nails a a bad taste in the mouth...

Okay fish and great atmosphere! My fiancé and I went here for his birthday last week and we both enjoyed the experience. I ordered the "spicy" fish and chips, and my fiancé ordered a burger.

The spicy kick to the fish was new for me. I can handle a lot of spice, so it was not too spicy. It was actually the perfect amount - only a little kick at the end of the bite. The breading on the fish, however, was not crispy enough for me. It was very soggy and greasy, but the fish meat itself was nice. Now let's discuss the steak fries... They were very basic. No salt was added and I've had better fries at Wendy's.

While I did not try my fiancée's burger due to the toppings he had on it, he said the meat was very tasteless. He commented that it seems that they rely on the toppings to be the flavor, which is not good if you order a burger plain (he didn't).

As for pricing, I think it was a little expensive for the quality but not for the quantity. I was given two large pieces of fish along with fries for around $17. A little expensive for soggy fish, in my opinion. My fiancé's single-stacked burger with fries was $9, which I think is fairly reasonable.

Overall, the environment was great. We couldn't see many TVs from where we were sitting, but the dimness of the restaurant and our polite waitress were a plus. Great for date night. I recommend you come here if you're nearby to try it out, but as someone who loves fish and chips, this isn't my...