The Irish Horne — Restaurant in Northampton Township

This new Irish pub is in my neighborhood so I'm really pulling for it. I've eaten quite a bit of Irish food all over (especially Atlantic Canada) and I know I'm a harsh critic because of it. That said, I've been here three times for lunch so far but am yet to be really satisfied with my overall experience to give it more than 3 stars.

As of this writing, it appears they just released a new, larger menu. I'll update after trying again.

So far, however, I've sampled the chicken cheesesteak, fish and chips, mushroom soup and a burger. Overall, they were adequate. The Fish and Chips stood out above the others with a large, crispy battered piece of cod as the centerpiece. Still, as I've had it twice, and it just looked lonely on the plate with the fries and lemon wedge. I think it just needed a smaller plate to better present itself so it looked more full. I would have also liked to see something green go with it. A salad would have been nice, or at least some coleslaw.

Oh, and I'd love to see an option to add an additional piece of fish to the meal! ... just an idea...

Also, if I was making a wish list, I'd love to see french fries made from scratch and not the frozen variety. They're not bad, mind you, and thank the Lord they're not the coated/battered variety that so many restaurants have adopted. I guess I just feel like the potato is a sacred Irish treasure that deserves the ultimate respect and also that homemade fries can improve any dish they're served with!

Moving on, the chicken cheesesteak was unfortunately pretty typical, but I get it. It's hard to make a standout in a neighborhood that has like fifty other places that make cheesesteaks. The burger was a little overdone and suffered from the same plating issue as the fish - too little food for too big a plate.

The soup was nice; creamy and full of mushrooms. I'd like to have tried the Shepherd's Pie but when I asked about whether it was made with lamb, I was told it was not. I passed. Shepherd's Pie with ground beef is technically Cottage Pie. I felt this was a little deceptive (perhaps not intentionally) and that any Irish pub worth its salt should know the difference.

As for the feel, the place still needs to get some stuff up on the walls. It feels a little empty in there. The coastal mural is beautiful, but the place needs a little warning up aesthetically. I like to think that will come in time, and that it is hard to balance the warm, homey feel of a classic pub with the modern style they have built for themselves.

Lastly, I want to finish by saying that the bartenders have been outstanding! On each of my visits, whether I was at the bar or a table, they were congeneal, knowledgeable and helpful. They've been a great backbone for this place!

I hope I'm not coming off as too harsh. That's not my intention. I'm just a great lover of the cuisine and my heritage, and I have nothing but the best of intentions. I wish the Horne nothing but the best and hope I'll find reason to spend more time and money there.

I'm excited to try the brand new menu and hope that I can update my review and give the Horne another...

So my wife and I and my daughter have been to the Irish horn three or four times and the food is absolutely fantastic The staffing is is great the servers are awesome very attentive The place can get busy as any restaurant can get... The only issue that I will never be able to get over and now this happened on a Saturday night is the fact that one of the owners Marlene who had come with another server to bring us our appetizers after practically dropping our appetizers on the table had reached over into the middle of our table to take back napkins that we had asked the server to bring us, now mind you there was eight napkins in the middle of the table and this woman reached over into the middle of our table while our food was present to take back half of the napkins to put them back into her stock, I had never seen anything like this in my life I was absolutely appalled I looked at my wife, my wife looked at me ,we looked at the server she looked at us, who was so overwhelmingly embarrassed at what this owner Marlene did I had to stop and actually think did that just really happen, now mind you we are still in a pandemic people's tables are separated people are still wearing masks you don't take something off of someone's table and then put it back into your rotating stock not to mention we're talking about napkins..... are you kidding me... napkins she actually instructs her staff to only put a few napkins on a table.. per table... who runs a business like that,on top of that then she reprimands her staff for putting what she thinks are too many napkins on the table this may seem petty but I just can't get over the fact that she reached over into the middle of our table to do something like that.... nobody in the right mind does something like that she's needless to say a little abrupt and rough around the edges but let me give you some advice if you want to keep a successful business that's not how you act in front of your customers..... Now with that being said again the wait staff they're absolutely awesome very helpful very attentive and their food is really awesome my wife and I think appetizers are very unique. The atmosphere is fun it's a shame that they don't run their TVs for the sports through their speakers especially with Eagles and Phillies fans in this area being we are so gun-ho for our sports teams.... but no place is perfect. Not to deter because of that beer menu is good drinks are good I just think that Marlene needs to go back to customer 101 and this time perhaps pay...

As my mother-in-law was not up to eating indoors we decided to try this restaurant. They quickly got us a table outside however things went downhill from there. A waitress came over introduced herself wanted to take drink orders and then came back and said we would have a different waitress I guess this was because we didn't order liquor.

A few minutes later a very young waitress came over and again asked us if we wanted to order from the bar we said no water would be fine and we were ready to order she said she didn't have a notepad she'd be back.

After seating other tables and getting other people liquor she did come back, we gave her our orders and then waited a very long time for those orders to arrive. She brought them out two at a time no utensils or napkins we asked for them to be brought out as meals get cold when sitting outside. Eventually my husband went inside to get the utensils as two more of our five meals came out. Mine was a burger, which I ordered medium I took a bite and the interior of my burger was blood red and when squeezed red liquid ran out. I tried to get the waitresses attention and could not so again my husband had to go inside . The manager came out and proceeded to try to tell me that it was a medium Burger. I explained to her that I've eaten a million burgers and that I didn't care about her opinion, blood red is not medium. I eat rare burgers at home because I know the Providence of the meat but in a restaurant I eat it cooked to medium so that the germs are killed

When she came back with the burger she told me she would stand there and watch me take a bite and show me that the inside was in fact medium. I did take a bite after she left... it was still blood red inside and when squished ran with red juices I set the burger down and did not eat any more of it as I don't think it's safe.

Ee are a foodie family, my husband is a chef much better than in any restaurant in the area but we do like to go out to eat. Here is where the hostess / manager went wrong, 1, don't argue with the customer, if the customer says the burger is not done well enough do it further 2, don't stand over a customer saying now take a bite as that's just plain rude and 3, don't argue with a customer just apologize and fix it.

We will not be back, my mother-in-law's scallops were super salty (she usually adds salt herself) so they must have been very salty for her to call them salty everything else...