Hibernian Irish Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Raleigh

Ok. We get it. It’s a PUB. It’s mostly about the beer. NOT the food. And it’s primarily a young peoples’ hangout to get drunk. (Didn’t care for the mess in Women’s restroom on a Saturday afternoon. Who could be that sick from beer at lunchtime?!!)

Servers were understaffed, and they admitted it. Nice enough, but not exemplary service by any means. Very amateurish. AND—They ran out of coffee. On a Saturday. At brunch. How does that happen?

Food was rather slow, but then again—they were understaffed all around. Food was pretty lame. Corned beef and cabbage was pretty awful; fatty, tough sliced beef, not remarkably seasoned, with flavorless limp cabbage, and a horrible white sauce (milk and white flour gravy) with no “parsley” flavor as specified on menu description. Should’ve had an ale mustard or horseradish sauce or something other than French’s yellow American mustard for an Irish meal. Ridiculous. However…mashed potatoes were excellent.

I asked for Tabasco sauce just to add some flavor to the corned beef and cabbage and the waiter brought a bottle that was nearly empty. Like, yeah, a few drops left. Very tacky.

Corned Beef Hash was oddly smothered in melted mild cheddar cheese, another strange topping for a traditional potato/beef/fried egg hash.

The Reuben was better, yet mistakenly prepared on cheap marbled rye bread instead of a heartier caraway rye as it ought to be.

And—the 70’s pop music was far too loud on the outdoor balcony. (Even though it was my era of music, it was too overwhelming for a daytime brunch.) But, The Hibernia was the only place for blocks that wasn’t full of people, and we were hungry. We wish we would’ve just found a Panera or something we could count on. We regret...

Me and a couple friends got there about 9:45 pm. It was pretty busy, I'll give them that. We went upstairs. We tried to get a drink at the bar, we couldn't. Too busy. We did get a table outside and someone said somebody should be with us shortly. They didn't. Never did. That should be the end of the story. It's not. Lololol

We noticed a waitress that tried to deliver food to a wrong table directly next to us about 15 minutes in. Luckily, an astute waiter took over, took the food from her and delivered it to the correct table. Good job on him, whoever he was. After 25 minutes, we still hadn't had anybody take a drink order or even acknowledge our existence. Then about 10 more minutes, a waitress tried to give US food at OUR table (I'm not sure if she was the same one, but I know we hadn't even ordered yet!) I have to admit, I was tempted to take it, eat it, and just leave. But I used to be a waiter myself. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I did tell her that she was mistaken, and that nobody waited on us yet. She did take the food away.... Somewhere? But she didn't take our order. After about 10 MORE minutes, still nobody took our drink order. The future didn't look well. So we looked across the street and saw a bar that looked pretty empty. We left and went there. I'm not going to mention the name, but we all got a drink in about 60 seconds. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

The building looked pretty nice architecturally and the decor looked pretty good upstairs. Plus it was HOPPING! So I'm giving it 2 stars for atmosphere alone. I can't give it anything on food or drinks or service because we never got any of that after 45...

The atmosphere is nice on the inside and good outdoor seating.

Service was very slow despite the restaurant being relatively empty, only one other table was occupied downstairs and the second floor wasn't much busier. At one point the hostess came over to take our menus, which would have been appreciated, however our waiter had yet to return for our food order and we ultimately had to get the same hostess for our check after our waiter again disappeared.

The food itself was subpar to awful. The fried shrimp appetizer was pretty tasty, primarily because of the sauce, but overpriced given the quantity and size of the shrimp. Both the onion rings and fried fish sandwich were among the worst I have ever had. Both were very greasy and under-fried, and the fish sandwich was covered in tartar sauce - which was primarily mayo. While I was initially happy to see the fish sandwich was huge, i quickly realized there was a lot of empty space between the breading and fish and the undercooked/sogginess of the sandwich has a whole prevented me from finishing. Judging by the pictures, the fish sandwich is very popular (and the reason I came here), so I am assuming this was an anomaly. My partner said the fries were very good, though unfortunately opted to go with the onion rings on my own plate.

The beer selection is also lacking, missing any defined porters or stouts, overpriced...