Blarney Rock Pub — Restaurant in New York

My wife and I went to Blarneys on a Saturday night at 5PM. We had a party of three with the third person arriving shortly. They seated us saying that was fine, and our third arrived about 5 minutes later. During those five minutes, we were asked for our order 3 times by 2 different people. Bad coordination, maybe? Either way, no thanks. Within 5 minutes of our third arriving, we were asked twice more for our order. I guess they assumed my friend had studied the menu in advance, or that we weren't interested in exchanging pleasantries. They're running a business, and by God they aren't going to let the customer get in their way.

We order, and 10 minutes later our food comes. It is exactly okay. The burgers were overcooked, but the bacon on top helped. The fries were clearly junk pre-frozen pub fries. Generic bun, generic tomato, generic shredded lettuce, pickle spear. Nothing special, but the price ($12/burger) wasn't too over the top I guess for Penn Station area places.

With food still on the table, we were handed the bill. I get it. It's a Saturday night. I'm sure the waitresses are busy. It was a little weird though, as from this point forward, nobody was interested in getting us to buy more drinks or anything else. Neither of the two persistent waitresses from the start of the meal even asked. This was the first sign they wanted us to leave.

The second sign that our departure was desired was when we were straight up told to leave. This was at 5:45PM. After a 45 minute meal (30 minutes after we got our food), we are told someone is waiting for the table.

What in the ef? My party dropped like $70 on this meal and we're getting kicked after 45 minutes? No loss, I suppose as in that time the music became noticeably louder and the bar had been inundated by women with orange sun tans and men who unironically referred to each other as "Bruh". These last two bits I garnered during the few minutes it took me to weave through the crowd towards the front door. Admittedly, the bar area had gotten quite busy. Maybe if you're just interested in getting hammered at the bar, this place is fine.

As a restaurant though...

Aggressive wait staff. Ho-hum food. Questionable clientele.

I'd...

I entered the restaurant at approximately 8pm. When I entered, I asked if the UFC fight was playing. They said yes.

My wife and I sat and had some appetizers and drinks. It was 9pm, so we went upstairs to the bar to get some good seats for the fight (scheduled to start at around 11:30pm - 12pm). The bartender upstairs notified us that there were no drink menus. So, we wandered back downstairs to get a seat at the bar.

There we sat until about 10:30pm, I had many drinks, she ordered more appetizers.

Then, a bouncer/staff member, notified both of us that we were required to pay $40 ($20/each) to stay for the fight. This, after, I had discussed my intentions to watch the fight with: 1) the bouncer, 2) our waitress, 3) the upstairs bartender, and 4) the downstairs bartender.

I just thought it was poor taste to spring a fee on us after we spent nearly 3 hours, and a lot of money, in the bar.

We decided to return to our hotel room after a strenuous day of walking around NYC.

Hence, my 1-star review.

Suggestion: Notify customers in advance of any fees associated with sporting events, especially if the customers express an intention to stay and...

Pissed poor experience. The staff were awful, walking bags of trash past the table and bumping them into my wife's chair for more than 20 minutes. Furthermore, the trash was coming from outside and the door was being opened and closed next to were we sat on a frigid day. Why does trash have to be carried through a dining area during dining hours? Wait staff were inattentive, spending too much time texting and talking amongst themselves 4 feet from our table to notice that our water glasses were empty before finishing the appetizer. Made it through the meal without water and flagged the waitress for more to wash dinner down, was brought one glass. Food was not good. Okay, the pickle tasted fine. I'm also not a fan of the neighboring table being used to refill condiments. We might as well had a table in the kitchen, next to...