Dublin’s Pass American Eatery and Irish Pub — Restaurant in Springfield

I took my dad and fiancée here yesterday for a St. Patrick's day lunch-- this day also happens to be my dad's birthday, so it's extra special and important. For years we've gone to PJ's Courthouse in Sycamore, Illinois, as our standby for corned beef & cabbage. Especially since my dad moved down to the area recently, I was eager to take him out for his favorite birthday meal.

The corned beef on the plate was thin and looked as though it had been finished inexpertly on a flat-top; about 1/5 of one piece was similar to the quality PJ's has across their corned beef slices. While one of my pieces was a little overdone, I didn't realize until later that a piece on my dad's plate had a lot of truly burnt pieces, which weren't worth breaking a tooth on.

With corned beef that tough, you have to expect that guests are going to need leverage to cut it, yet the rolled napkins each only had a fork, meaning we had to wait to ask our server for knives-- of course this is normal, but especially on a busy holiday the wait easily compounds.

The accompanying cabbage was tantamount to baby food for its level of doneness, with little bits of similarly done carrots mixed indiscriminately throughout. As well, the taste was sickly sweet like perfume, perhaps from an overuse of cloves? In any case, being used to thick-cut carrot slices and savory spice, this was a miss.

Instead of Irish soda bread (or even any kind of soda bread, any attempt to celebrate Irish culture or Ireland), our meals came with two pieces of lukewarm pumpernickel & rye toast. I have nothing against P&R toast, but lukewarm with apparently no butter or topping, with no juices to soak up, is a terrible showing.

My father's drink was thin and overpriced, service was scanty and did little-to-nothing to make up for the long food wait (thank goodness we arrived when there was no table wait!). While a man in a green necklace eventually came around to ask how our food was, his only offered remedy was to replace the sub-standard food of our choice with different sub-standard food, when the classy move would of course have been to offer at least the option of a refund for a $22 disappointment (or two).

There was a live musician who was fairly skilled, but had apparently not been hired to play any music appropriate to the event. I love classic rock and blues tunes, but why turn off your thematic music for non-Irish songs?

On all counts, I'll be recommending against Dublin's Pass...

I waited for almost 30 minutes for a table (which was fine) however, there were 5 open tables the whole time. Other patrons in the waiting area were counting the open tables and talking out loud about why people weren't being seated at those tables. None of that was my issue though. After I was seated, I ordered my meal and sat and listened to the live entertainment as I was eating. I then ordered more food to take home for my dinner. As I was sitting enjoying what was a peaceful afternoon, the "manager" Tyler came over to my table and told me he was going to have to ask me to leave as they have an "hour and a half limit per table" and they had people on a wait so he needed my table. I was completely flabbergasted to say the least. Weird though, there's not a single sign posted reflecting this absurd "policy" anywhere. In my almost 48 years (43 in which I've lived in Springfield) I have NEVER been asked to leave a restaurant - EVER! I was drinking water and I still spent almost $40 including the tip - for ONE person. I even had another couple, who were standing nearby, sit down at my table since I wasn't using the 2 chairs. They tried to order food from my waitress and WERE DENIED bc the server said she was stuck between a rock and a hard place and said she couldn't add anyone else to the table since there was a wait. 🤦‍♀️ I will never return to a restaurant that treats their patrons like this. I'll also make sure to share my experience every opportunity I get as Springfield is a little big town and word travels fast. By the way, I worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years of my life and couldn't fathom walking up to a table and having the audacity to tell a patron they need to leave after they just spent their hard-earned money dining at...

UPDATE: Dublin's Pass made this right. So my negative review below is resolved and I will visit them again. I'd encourage you to give them a try as well.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I’ve eaten a number of times at Dublin Pass, and had OK experiences. But my experience there today causes me to resolve that I will never go back. That’s a shame, since it is owned by a good operator. Unfortunately, the people he has running Dublin’s Pass don’t know anything about customer service.

Today I went there for lunch. I walked in at 12:30 and the place is about half full. The person at the checkstand tried this year me toward the bar. No thank you I don’t want to sit at the bar. Then he tried to get me to sit at a high top table in the bar. No, thank you. I don’t want to sit at a high top. “I’ll just take a booth, please.” He replied “ We save the booths for larger parties, so I can’t see you there.” Really? There are multiple booths open and I’m the only one waiting for a seat, and you can’t allow me to sit where I am most comfortable?

The young fellow just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

That’s terrible customer service, not what I’m used to when I go to Metropolitan Grill, Pat’s other restaurant. In this day and age, I would think they would be thrilled to have a customer. But, apparently not. If you get the chance, go somewhere else and give Dublin’s Pass a...