McGee's Pub — Restaurant in New York

This was the bar the the HIMYM writers used to come and chat. It's the inspiration of the bar in the show. As a long time fan of the series for over ten years, I was extremely excited to know this bar. However, perhaps the excitement over hyped me. This is just a standard bar/pub next to your neighborhood. The food and drinks were what a standard pub would have. While they have menu items for the show, they were nothing special. I ordered the McLaren burger and the Have you met... Cocktail. The burger was a 100% replica of the show. What that meant was in the show, the burger was mostly just a patty and a bun. That's exactly what they served here. No additional sauce, no twisted toppings or marinated flavours. The patty was the most standard beef patty you can imagine. Actually, mine was a bit dry to eat. After the first two bites I was thinking why didn't I get a 5 guys or Shake Shack burger instead. The drink, like any standard bar next door, had 3/4 of ice in it. I couldn't taste my alcohol and I had no idea about why the drink would be using the iconic phrase, Have you met... They existed long before the show. So, they probably want to make sure their loyal regulars are happy. However, as a huge fan who came to this place, aside from taking a few pictures, I felt disappointed on spending a limited time, money, and appetite dining here. For regulars, I'm sure it's a 5 stars, but if you are coming to visit because of the show, I suggest to just order a drink. The staff were very kind the whole time. There was nothing wrong. Just that my expectations was too hyped. When the priority wasn't meeting the expectations, the rest of the posters and merch appeared differently to me.

Perhaps the owner, if they want to appeal to the fans a bit more, consider upgrading the food and make it memorable. For the drinks, add in stories on why the drinks were named as such. So that the fans can relate. Of course, just a thought. No worries on this.

I was hoping to bring it up directly to the waiters, but they didn't ask the question "how was everything". But, this thought bugs me so much that I really wish to let the bar know for...

Avoid this place at all costs, I had no expectations going in here as I hadn’t a clue it was a “special bar” or anything and just wanted breakfast with my family but it was absolutely A$$.

firstly the place smelled dank. bartender seemed fake and made some remarks about other patrons after after they left, but most importantly there’s no physical menu and you have to awkwardly sift through it on your phone.

The table we sat at was wobbly and I kid you not, our food took the guts of an hour as “the printer was broken” whatever the hell that meant. There was like 5 other people in the pub when we were there so it wasn’t a thing of them being busy it was just an example of horrible service. We waited and waited and waited and considered leaving but eventually a strange man appeared with our food and awkwardly set it down at the table. No beans, mushrooms or fried potatoes included in the tiny “full Irish” by the way, instead we got wedges, my brother asked for fries with his burger but got these instead. Burger was average in his words

The food itself was average, I ate most of it but the sausages were horrible for some reason. The rashers and unexpected wedges were nice, the egg and pudding was alright. didn’t go near the cold toast. Worst of all was the butter situation, there was no butter given initially and when it was given after we requested it it was literally rock hard and freezing, so we had to ask again to get butter that was edible, and got 2 pieces for the whole table.

Felt like nobody gave a toss about us in the place and I honestly couldn’t wait to leave, I hated it from the second I went in and it was the worst part about my day. Food for 4 of us came out to 110 dollars which is still making me kick myself, didn’t tip extra on top of their 20% charge and I’m sure the bartender wants to skin us alive but I don’t care, DON’T GO HERE, it’s a pathetic establishment

One positive thing I’ll say is the waiter who was serving us was a good guy and seemed new to the job, he was very apologetic and...

This place is the ultimate tourist trap. It looks nothing like MacLarens, has very little HIMYM paraphernalia, and the drinks are subpar and uber expensive. Dont waste your time like we did!!

I am a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother and was so excited to check it out. From the outside, it didn't look anything like MacLarens. But I held out hope. We walked in to a blast of hot air. Their AC was broken and it had to be 100 degrees inside. We tried to grab a seat but were told since we were only drinking, we had to sit at the bar. We tried to grab some seats but were told they were "reserved" for someone else. The staff seemed to not care that we were forced to stand awkwardly in the corner while there were countless empty tables. After about 5 minutes, we finally got the bartenders attention. She didn't make eye contact, didn't greet us, and barely said a word. It took forever to get our drinks (she stopped several times to take care of other "regular" customers). She came back with the drinks and again, didn't say a word to us. Just grabbed our card and then served yet another customer before coming back with my card. At this point I was fed up and decided to not leave a tip. The drinks were $14 each after all.

We finally managed to grab a seat at the bar and we're trying to enjoy our overpriced drinks. At this point the bartender (who hadn't said a word to us) walked up and asked " were you not happy with the service?". I shrugged, and she proceeding to berate me for not leaving a tip. I kid you not. We finished our sugary drinks as quickly as we could and left. It was the most disappointing experience of our trip. I really don't get how they pass themselves off as the HIMYM bar. They barely had any photos or props and the place looked nothing like the bar in the show.

Overall, I recommend avoiding this place...