Ironclad Sports Bar — Restaurant in Richmond

A horrifying restaurant experience, Standoffish owner Doughy, Undercooked pizza False Advertising Cramped space, 1 row of tables, small bar

Number one concern was the Owner’s attitude, despite my food being severely undercooked.

Iron Clad’s dining room is half the square footage of a downstairs city townhouse, transformed bar.

For a Saturday with 3 AP top 25 match-ups the bar was very slow. My two friends and I were one of two tables. We ordered a $16.99 x-large meat pizza. About 30 minutes after ordering, the pizza came out and was soggy, doughy, and undercooked.

I politely asked the waiter if the pizza was meant to be doughy. He walked away, and then a long bearded guy came out of the kitchen to confront me.

He claimed he was the owner, but did not give me his name.

I politely asked him “What is good on the menu?”, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Then I repeated “What is Iron Clad known for?”

“This is a place where my buddies can come and drink beer and watch football”, he said.

I replied, “What is good on the menu?”

“We don’t really care about the food, it’s just classic bar food and beer”, he said.

I was in awe.

Then he only reheated half of the pizza for us, and left the other doughy half on our plates in front of us for the rest of the meal.

The rest of the pizza came back and the crust was still doughy throughout. However the cheese and meat was burned. I could not even stomach a single slice.

I can respect his “If you don’t like it then hit the road attitude”, but that is clearly no way to speak to a customer: Especially to a table getting ready to spend $30 for a pizza. Keep in mind the X-Large the size of a frozen Red Baron.

So this is not somewhere I will never go to eat, I’ll be making my way across the bridge to Bottoms Up in Shockoe Slip from now on.

What is Iron clad going to do the other 330 days of the year football is not on?

What ever happened to the customers...

The bartender, a middle aged Caucasian male served me a drink with a big in it after we made small talk when I ordered my tequila sunrise & patron shot. Once I noticed the insect inside my drink I waited approximately 20 minutes to return the drink, after no response I went behind the bar (where’d I been standing for atleast 30 mins) & gave him the mixed drink. He said you have to get out & i responded I was bringing my drink since it has a bug in it & he just kept saying the same thing so I said ok & proceeded to head out the door he pushed past me to tell the security guard I went behind the bar & needed to leave as I was already going to the door, halfway to the door I realized he said nothing about the refund for the two drinks which I had not tasted either & told him I needed my money back & he said ok. I proceed to go outside & wait maybe 5 mins for my refund then ask the guard to ask for it. He then brings a receipt for a refund for the patron only some show the receipt with two drinks & the guard goes to get him. He says something my gf doesn’t like & they went back & forth so we ended up leaving. I will go back today & speak to the owner hopefully about my refund & his lack of customer service & immature behavior…. I’ve called several times today & no answer. Yet the owner has responded to this review & suggesting I have the wrong business. NOT TRUE. This shows me that the bartender did not report this issue. To me a few reasons customers may not be permitted behind the bar are sanitary & safety precautions, it should have been reported. The bartender may have not be Caucasian, perhaps Italian however that’s not the gist...

5 stars for the bartender, 1 star for the food. From what my husband says, this place has come a long way. He used to grab drinks with teammates here after sport games. This is definitely a chill spot where the neighborhood gets their alcoholic drinks. Sports themed, a little loud, a little rough around the edges. Food needs some help. Wanted to order loaded tots for appetizer and they were out so we got the fries. It was okay. Loaded here is actually just chili and cheese. Why not just call it “Chili Cheese Fries”? It’s extra $ for other toppings that one would make the dish to be LOADED. On to the pizza. We got the white pizza and added chicken. The crust was solid, cooked well, crispy and chewy. The rest of the pizza was weird. Spinach from frozen, chicken from frozen, the feta was very odd. Husband actually enjoyed his veggie burger. It was funny to see a small slice of tomato cut in half and spread out to give the appeal of a larger slice. Made me giggle. I guess it’s just bar food but I was excited to get something tasty and it just didn’t happen. Guess I will just order drinks if I ever come back to this...