Red Lion British Pub on Tannery Row — Restaurant in Milwaukee

Went in on a Wednesday for my birthday with full intentions of staying for several hours and eating dinner. Walked into the place at about 4:30pm and noticed only 1 other person sitting in the bar, and the 2 bartenders hiding behind the bar. Sat down with 5 people right in front of the beer taps.

After a few minutes, one of the girls finally came to say hi and see what we were looking for. I guess she was counting out the til, or something like that, and was too preoccupied. Whatever, no biggie. She did buy me a shot since it was my birthday, though the cheapest shot on the menu wasn't too impressive (Tullamore Dew). The price was right, though not what I was there for.

We went there because I enjoy Irish and Bourbon whiskey. Their website advertises Happy Hour, 7-Days a Week, 3-6pm, with HALF OFF ALL TOP SHELF IRISH AND SCOTCH WHISKIES. It said that when I pulled it up on my phone, and still says that today. Well, apparently that is now only on THURSDAYS, which the waitress informed me while pointing at the new menus on the bar, quite rudely as if I should have known. So much for that 30 Year GLENFIDDICH... normally $42 a 2oz pour. They wouldn't honor it, of course, nor did I expect them to at that point.

So we decide to get some beers/drinks. My girlfriend asked to try something first, so she poured a taster and proceeded to walk away to chat with the other bartender, as if no one else wanted anything. 5 Minutes later we had to flag her down to get her to take the rest of our drink orders. They advertise a unique Black/Tan Combo of the month, which I wanted to try... but they didn't have the seasonal needed for the Tan. Charming. Had a bottle of Three Floyds Alpha King, good beer! My buddy ordered a Captain and Coke, took her 3 minutes to realize the bottle was right in front of her... C'mon now...

Finally got some beers and started chatting for a bit. We had already determined that we were going elsewhere for dinner at this point. Bartenders standing around, talking about some personal drama in clear view of the entire bar, which was now just the 5 of us. No one wants to hear about that crap! By the time she came back to ask if we were staying for dinner, I could do nothing but roll my eyes and explain that "I'm not here for the damn Sheppards Pie...".

Check please.

Seriously, the place has the right type of atmosphere, selection of drinks (when in stock), and in a decent location. Get your stuff straight! How difficult is it to update the website? How about some half-way enthusiastic or attentive bartenders?

Very disappointed, considering how highly people spoke about...

I was in Milwaukee a few weeks back with some friends. While we were there, we caught a late lunch at the Red Lion Pub. The Red Lion Pub is a multi story British Pub, sports bar, and eatery. I noticed that they even have seating in the outdoor patio on the roof, but this was closed at the time due to chilly weather.

For lunch I had an entree of Bangers and Mash with a side of Scotch Eggs, and a couple beers. My friends had an order of Fish and Chips, Cheese curds, and Scotch Eggs.

The Bangers and Mash was just splendid, some of the best I have had in recent memory. Oh and in case you are wondering, Bangers are sausage links and Mash is quite simply mashed potatoes.

The entire dish consists of Two massive sausage links on top of mashed potatoes and smothered in onion gravy. The sausage links were delightful! Browned on the outside, incredibly juicy on the inside, and perfectly seasoned. The potatoes were so smooth and mashed to perfection, with no lumps. The onion gravy was thick, creamy, and contained large slivers of carrot. The whole dish coalesced wonderfully and I enjoyed every bite.

As for the Scotch Eggs, these also impressed me. A Scotch Egg is an egg that is hard boiled, wrapped in sausage, covered in bread crumbs, and then deep fried. These particular Scotch Eggs also came garnished with some cilantro aioli sauce. Quite obviously the egg and sausage went great together and the whole thing was made even better by being deep fried. I loved them and I am tempted to try and make these at home sometime.

While I was eating I washed everything down with two beers. The first beer I had on tap was a Bumble Bear Brown Ale from Lakefront Brewery. This beer came dark brown with a nice frothy head. The beer was very smooth and had a nice malty flavor with a touch of bitter. Definitely a good beer, especially on tap.

I then followed this up with the classic and always great glass of Guinness beer. What can I say really, it's Guinness and it is great!

In reference too the fish and chips and cheese curds, I did not personally try any of these dishes. There fore I can not speak to their flavor. However I can say that they looked and smelled so good! The fish that came with the fish and chips was huge and it appeared to pull apart wonderfully. The cheese curds also looked really good as well.

Over all I enjoyed this British Pub and I was impressed with the quality of food I received. I will definitely be going back here in the future if I happen to be...

I went to Red Lion Pub tonight, hoping to have a better experience than the first time I came. The food was very good on both occasions, but I was extremely disappointed in the service.

On my first visit, we ordered some drinks at the bar and went upstairs to play on the giant pool table. We sat at a table on the patio after one game and decided we wanted some food. After about 25 minutes of no service, I went to go find the waitress and get some menus. She said she didn't see us in the corner, which was understandable, and then took our orders. We played another game of pool, figuring our food would be done by the end of the game. However, we waited about 45 minutes, and noticed that many of the other tables that came after us were getting their drinks and food, while we sat with empty glasses and no meals. We had to go downstairs and open a tab just get another round of drinks because the server seemed to forget our order entirely. We decided to leave, figuring our order was never placed, and then the bartender came out with our meals as we were packing up. I assumed the bill was shifted to the bartender for some reason, since the server never came back to our table, and we ended up settling the bill with him.

The second visit was not much better. I enjoyed the giant pool table, so I decided to give the pub another chance and brought some friends along. We waited about 20 minutes before the server finally stopped at our table. She was clearly overwhelmed because she was the only server at the pub, so I do think you need to get at least one more server on weekday nights. The online menu was also out of date, which was disappointing because I talked up how good the build your own burger special was. She took our drink order and disappeared. We wanted to play pool, but we're too scared to leave our table lest we never get served. We finally got our drinks, but they were all warm. The food came out quickly this time, so that was a plus. We would've liked another round of drinks to have during a game of pool, but we settled our bill because we had already been there for nearly two hours. We played a quick game of pool and left.

My friends said they want to go somewhere different next time around, and I don't think I'll be returning either. It's too bad, because I really loved the atmosphere and the food, and I definitely would have frequented it. If I ever do come back and the service is better, I'd change my review...