Llywelyn's Pub — Restaurant in Saint Charles

It’s been a couple of years since I last visited a Llywelyn’s, but I used to be a regular over a decade ago during my college days. I even hosted birthdays in the bank vault and made a point to visit every location they had back then. So when my husband and I recently decided to stop by the Main Street St. Charles location, I was hoping for some good ol’ nostalgia—but sadly, it’s just not what it used to be.

Atmosphere: It was seat-yourself when we arrived. They were busy, but there were a few open tables. The noise level was really high, which made it hard to communicate with our server and probably led to a mix-up with my drink order. The service overall was average—nothing terrible, just not particularly attentive or memorable.

What We Ordered: • Me: Famous Steak & Cheese Sandwich (no tomato, steak cooked medium) with pub fries. Water + a Kentucky Mule (or so I tried). • Him: Reuben sandwich with sweet potato waffle fries. Iced tea.

The Food: My sandwich was warm, not hot, which was a little disappointing. The steak was cooked to my liking, though. Fries tasted like they’d been sitting out a while—not fresh. Meanwhile, my husband’s waffle-style sweet potato fries were hot, crispy, and clearly just made. He definitely won that round.

The Drinks: Here’s where things went sideways. I ordered a Kentucky Mule—basically a Moscow Mule but with whiskey instead of vodka. I even clarified it that way to the server, who looked confused, but nodded like he got it. A few minutes later, he brings me a mule and says he’ll be back with a Blueberry Mule. My husband and I were confused—neither of us ordered that. But sure enough, he comes back and hands me the Blueberry Mule, assuming I wanted two mules. We shrugged and kept it, since I figured I might get more drinks anyway. That said…both drinks were weak, watery, and definitely not worth the $10 each. To make matters worse, they didn’t even come in mule mugs—just regular glasses. (Okay, maybe I’m picky, but the mug is part of the experience!)

A Nostalgic Letdown: One thing I always loved about Llywelyn’s was the plastic cups they used to serve everything in—even cocktails. I have a whole cabinet full of colorful ones from back in the day. This time? No plastic cup. I’ve heard they only do them during special events now, which is a bummer for long-time fans like me.

Final Thoughts: Overall, the visit was just… disappointing. I know some locations have closed, and maybe the business is struggling, but it just didn’t feel like the Llywelyn’s I used to know. The food was okay, the service was average, and the drinks were underwhelming. I really wanted to enjoy coming back—but it left me feeling like something special...

My extended family and I planned a “cousins night out” in mid-August to celebrate my moving away from St. Louis. Someone in our party called around noon that Saturday to make a reservation for our party of about 30 and the person on the phone said they couldn’t take a reservation for that many same day but we could just walk in and wait for a table. We said ok no problem. We get to the bar and right as you walk in the front door straight ahead there were 4 open high top tables of 6 or 8 and one in the middle had a reserved sign on it. We decided to take the sign and move it to one of the tables at the end so all of our party could sit at the 3 tables next to each other however the manager came up and told us that one of the middle tables was reserved and we had to move to the end table. I’m not sure what the difference between the two tables were. So we moved, annoyed. The party of the table in the middle that was reserved walked in, sat down, and a waiter didn’t come to them for 20 minutes. They were obviously mad so they left. The reserved sign was removed from the table. So I went up to the host stand and asked the young blonde hostess if we could move to that table. She said she would go ask her manager. She came back and said “my managers won’t let you guys have that table. I’m not sure why. We don’t have anymore reservations going there. I’m really sorry.” I was dumbfounded. The two managers were men in their 30s-40s. Instead of accommodating a party of 30 who were all eating and had ordered at least 10 buckets of beer at this point, they wanted to puff their chests and not give us the table for obviously no reason. About 5 minutes later a party walks in and the hostess brings them to the table in the middle. The party immediately realizes that we are all together, awkwardly sitting at 2 tables together and 1 apart, them separating us, so they instantly ask us if we want to switch tables. The hostess was more than happy to help us make the switch, finally, after three hours. However by this time we were completely turned off by the management’s attitude and wanted to take our business elsewhere. Our tab was $400 before we left, and we stayed out on Main Street another 4 or 5 hours. Your bar could have doubled our original tab if you restaurant would have simply treated us with kindness and respect. We are just a normal family looking to spend some time together, no fancy requests,...

Had a group come to Llywelyn's on a Friday night for happy hour and dinner. Arrived at 5:00 (for happy hour) and 3 tables for our 6:00 dinner reservation were already marked off and saved. Very nice! They weren't all bussed yet, but it was early. By the time everyone arrived for happy hour, all the tables had been cleared. This was very much appreciated!!! (The original plan had been to meet in the bar area for happy hour and only move to the tables for dinner at 6. Since our tables were already reserved and no one else could sit there, we went straight to the tables for happy hour. )

I had originally made the reservation for 16. The evening before I called and asked if it was possible to increase the number to 21. Was told it could be done! So I invited more than 16 people for dinner. Unfortunately, although the sign on our tables had my name and said 21 (people), there were only 16 seats. 8 people at the pews behind the tables and 8 chairs across from the pews. Had to borrow chairs from other tables and cram people together. Not at all comfortable. This was extremely disappointing.

Our server did a great job during the 5:00 hour of coming to our tables on a very regular basis. Every time someone new arrived, she was there taking a drink and appetizer order. However she all but disappeared after 6:00. I had one refill of my drink when she was taking our food orders. Once we received our food, she disappeared completely. Never came back during dinner to offer refills of water, tea, or soft drinks or ask if anyone might want an additional alcoholic drink. Enjoyed the ice.

I ordered fish and chips with pub chips. I thoroughly enjoyed my fish and the pub chips were to die for! A friend sitting next to me also ordered fish and chips. She didn't receive any tartar sauce. Another friend also got the fish and chips. She said the fish was so heavily battered she could barely taste the fish. Didn't finish her fish.

Once we received our checks, the server completely ignored us. Several members attempted to get her attention as she walked past, but she ignored them.

Really, really...