Shenanigan's Irish Pub — Restaurant in Ocean City

Bottom line up front: Save your money and chose another restaurant to eat at. If you would like the play by play of our dining experience, keep reading. Okay let the fecal fiesta begin!!! To start the seating is that out of a 1800’s Irish cathedral. Wooden pews. Ouch! So my wife, son, infant daughter & I decided to tough it out & see if the pot of golden food at the end of this rainbow was worth it. Just like in reality. No, it wasn’t. I ordered the “Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich” (which how does Nashville have anything to do with Ireland or potatoes, anyway I digress) I subbed fries over chips for a $3.50 fee (do not get me started, I HATE when restaurants do this. Especially Irish restaurants, I mean fries are potatoes! They’re literally known for potatoes!) Anyway, $3.50 down “the jacks”. The chicken sammie which was middle of the road at best, had one of the best STALE ciabatta bread buns I ever had the opportunity of eating. CRUNCH! I ordered a root beer & our wonderful waitress (who really was very sweet) failed to mention it was in a bottle & not a fountain drink. So needless to say no free refills. My wife’s meal consisted of a rack of ribs, green beans, baby carrots and a scoop of mashed potatoes which were right out of the “Idahon Potato Box”. “Just add water”. Again, isn't potatoes like there thing?!?!? The green beans were directly out of the “Green Giant” can. The baby carrots couldn’t have been that bad because my son ate all of them for her, but hey he’s three and his diet mostly consist of fruit juice popsicles, gluten free chicken tenders, & vegan cookies YUCK! so take his pallet for what it’s worth. The presentation of the food was that of an Irish beauty pageant. No color. There wasn’t even a dusting of pepper on the potatoes. Again POTATOES! She did say the ribs weren’t bad but when you’re eating a bunch of things that aren’t great there has to be one that is the best of all the bad ones. Her “crab soup” which came out right before her meal was so good you could taste the Campbells can wrapper. If there was actually crab it was just trace amounts. BYOS - Bring your own spices! $8.75 for some Campbells veggie soup with minuscule amounts of shredded crab, money well spent. The best was it came with gluten free crackers & my wife who eats gluten free stuff all the time took one bite, gagged & told me “those taste exactly what you would expect gluten free crackers to taste like”, so of course I took a bite & it did. Again… YUCK! My son’s meal, a grilled chicken breast & more Idahon Potatoes was on (sub)par with the rest of the overall meal. His chicken breast or more like “slab of chicken” was the most tasteless thing I’ve ever tried. It was almost as if the lad in the kitchen had one to many pints of Guinness and just forgot to add any seasoning at all to it. I could barely swallow it. My son was so over it he just got up proclaimed “I done” then proceeded to walk out. Of course I chased him down and explained to him even though it tasted like who ever made wanted us go down with the titanic we still have to pay. When I read this to my wife she said “fecal fiesta” doesn’t apply but that’s the hidden gem, the meal hit like the Irish version of Montezuma’s revenge. I had to hit the jacks myself 3 times later that night. Since I spend so much time on the can I figured I would save someone else the backache of sitting in the pew & eating the worst Irish food OCMD has to offer. So here is the Angello Review in breakdown: Food Taste: 0 of 5 stars Food Presentation: 0 of 5 stars Food options: 1 of 5 stars Atmosphere: 2 of 5 stars Wait Staff: 2.5 of 5 stars Cleanliness: 3.5 of 5 stars Celiac Safe: 5 stars of 5 stars Cost for what you get: $$$$ And just like Shamwow!!!!! Ohhhh & wait there’s more, the placemat for my son had an ancient hieroglyphics riddle that neither my wife nor I (both college educated adults, her from an Ivy League school) could not figure out. So that was an added bonus. My son is three. Children’s Placemat Activity:...

I love Shenanigan's. I've been going there for many years. The food there is amazing. The atmosphere & hostesses (actually I think the guy that sat us was probably the manager) were great. I had my elderly mother (82) and friends along... so I wanted them to be comfortable. Initially a girl hostess wanted to seat us outside, but a storm was coming and we didn't want to get wet. I spoke with the guy and he got us a table inside. Very sweet.

I had the Athenrey Baby Greens Salad with a crab cake (and balsamic dressing) - amazing, mom had the Irish Crab Cake entrée (she loved it) with mac & cheese (good) and the steamed veggies (not as tasty as she had hoped for asparagus), hubby had a cease with chicken (he said it was good). Friends had the crab dip (and ordered more bread), my girlfriend had the Fish and Chips (she wasn't happy with the prep of the fish - little mushy) & she wasn't a fan of the slaw (but it wasn't her style), her hubby had the Flaherty's chicken. He said it was fantastic. Drinks were good. We had desserts, my mother had two. The Jameson cheesecake was amazing. All and all, it was great food and the guy that seated us was great. However, the waiter could use some training on serving etiquette: 1. serve the dishes without crossing over others and don't hand the plate to the customer. 2. know the menu and be able to recite simple items - like the choices of dressing. If you don't know something, explain that you can ask. 3. don't let the drinks get low. 4. clear empty dishes (the server should & after asking the customer if they can remove them). And if the table is too full, don't have the customer hold empty plates. 5. have a personality that is at least welcoming. 6. don't rush getting paid - this came off as if he wanted to be tipped and that was all he was there for. And there was an issue with the receipts getting mixed up.

For the waiter: Try to be the best at all that you do, make the customer feel welcome and hold your expectations high. Eating and drinking isn't the only reason people go out for dinner, they want to have an experience. And that is what I have received at Shenanigan's, except this one time.

I know the food industry well (because I was a server, bartender and short order cook) and my friends hubby was in the food business too as a sever and bartender. Etiquette, a welcoming personality and humility goes a long way. I have a niece in this industry and she lives to serve and make her customer happy. AND always Smile!

I have had great service and out of this world food & drinks at Shenanigan's many times over. And I plan to continue eating there, but I just hope that I don't get that waiter ever again. He wasn't Shenanigan's material. Shenanigan's is an excellent restaurant, with excellent customer service and at an excellent location. I know they can...

I really enjoyed my food and drink. My family was not as impressed. I had an Irish coffee with a club on a gluten-free bun. The sandwich had a huge amount of turkey, and the bacon was nice and crisp. It came with a lot of chips. I needed to ask for mayo as it only came with a small smear of Dijon. One kid had the same on a pretzel bun and enjoyed his as well, but also said his was dry and added mayo. 2 kids and my husband tried the mac and cheese. They all said it was mid. It was explained as sticky and dry. It was not creamy at all. The crab mac seemed to have cheese on the top and bottom but not the middle. One kid said they tasted the crab in the mac, and the other one said they couldn't taste it at all. She barely touched her meal, and we came in hungry!

The thing that brought the rating down the most was my husband's meal. The ceasar salad did not have enough dressing to even speak on the flavor. The rack of ribs maybe had 2.5 ounces of meat. That "rack" was about as big as my husbands palm. It was one of their higher priced dishes and was totally disappointing. The barbecue sauce was an afterthought. It was smeared on and not even put back into the oven to caramelize. My husband also had some wine that he said tasted like box wine.

One kid had fish and chips. I tasted the fish. I thought it was pretty good. The batter could have been lighter. The inside was a little mushy. Kid didn't really eat his meal. He had half of his dad's mac and my chips. But that worked out. My hubby was able to substitute his lacking meal.

One kid had nachos. He enjoyed them and almost finished. This is from a kid who complains about nothing. A true gem in this world!

All in all, for the price, we felt "mom could do better." In fact, my husband said he could do better. In all fairness, I love being in the kitchen and have about 20 years of making things from scratch, but it hurts when we spend $250 and are not satisfied.

The service was great. Atmosphere was bar like. Food was only there to soak up alcohol if you had 1 too many drinks and had to beg the kitchen to turn on the fryer 30 minutes...