Houlihan's — Restaurant in Springfield

We were spending time with family visiting from out of state and were looking for someplace we could go and enjoy some appetizers and drinks. We had never been to Houlihans and when we googled it, we saw they had happy hour all day on Sundays with $5 apps and drink specials so we decided to give it a try.

When we arrived the restaurant was pretty empty but it was early for dinner (4:30). We were greeted and asked the person at the front if there was happy hour and she confirmed. We were showed to our table promptly and our waitress appeared quickly. We asked about the happy hour menu and she said the restaurant had just changed the all day happy hour and it had ended at 4pm. We were disappointed because we wanted to really sample a larger selection of the menu by ordering and sharing apps but opted to stay anyway.

The decor and the setting inside was plain and nothing special.

We all ordered adult beverages and a couple appetizers from the main menu. The tuna and some egg rolls. Our drinks and apps came out fairly quickly. The food was ok but it certainly wasn’t anything to write home about. We all ordered our main courses. I had the Rangoon stuffed chicken with rice and my husband had the gojujang chicken on rice. The others in our party ordered the fish and chips and the lettuce wraps.

The food came pretty quickly. My dish and my husbands looked very similar aside from the toppings. The bed of rice did not seem fresh and the chicken was a bit bland. Nothing was hot. We tried each other entrees and I felt the fish and chips was the best out of the 4. At $17-$18/plate, I felt it was overpriced for the quality of the food. The price itself set the expectation for a delicious meal and it really was just ok and we would have been happier preparing and eating these same dishes at home.

There are sooooo many places to eat in Springfield that in order for a business to be successful, they must offer above average quality in their food every time to get repeat customers. We are definitely “one and done”...

Visited the store tonight at 11pm was told by the waitress we could not be served as they were to busy. The told us to go to applebees. Needless to say, we are staying at the doubletree with over 200 guest and was assured you guys would be open to serve our folks after a long day of football at Missouri State. So instead of trying to help.. your staff decided to close the location 1 hour before your normal closing time of 12AM. Now we have a ton of people upset, angry and hungry. So heads up... your about to have alot of complaints over this one. Thanks for the poor customer service, and your team turning away a ton of business and providing one poor customer experience because they simply didn't want to handle it. Instead, they pushed all of us to applebees. By the way we thanked applebees for accomodating on a last minute notice and gave the servers a 3k tip.. not to mention the sales revenue from all of our meals. When asked to speak to a manager they denied our request and the manager simply stayed out back. Left a phone number and never returned either my call or the hotels call either. I will be leaving negative feedback as well hundreds of others about this location and sending this experience out to all 50k of my facebook followers and 80k twitter followers. Absolutely, one of the worst and humiliating experience I have had with a restaurant in a long time.... Is this considered acceptable to turn away business an hour before closing? Are you that profitable and do your servers make that much that you don't need to worry about having any more customers? Do you think it's acceptable to turn away customers looking to eat and relax...Just curious...Do you think its acceptable when asked to speak to a manager they deny the request and stay hidden out back so they dont have to deal with customers and have the waitress tell us we should go to applebees or another location? What is acceptable to you guys....

They have been short staffed all through the pandemic. But if you’re patient and understand that, you will get great service from very nice employees and consistently good food and drinks. We have been in when there’s only a bartender slammed on a busy early afternoon, who handled it very well. We have had to go orders, the food was good.

Now here’s the reality- it is hard for the food industry. If you’re the rude lady in there tonight talking down to the new host, a young tall man with dark hair, go eat somewhere else, because people are trying through a weird time in the service industry, people are trying!!

My to go order was messed up, a sandwich was missing. The manager took care of the issue immediately and respectfully. This has been something that happens at almost every restaurant, I always check now, because errors happen when restaurants are not only having to deal with regular FOS service but also the heavy and demanding burden of to go orders their kitchens were never designed for. I think restaurants are adjusting the best they can to these changes, things take time, be kind.

Our take out dinner was ALL excellent. Boneless wings, pork dumplings, salads, fish and chips (though it was one very large filet, which though very good, isn’t my favorite style), grilled chicken salads with pecans were so good, sweet potato fries with the horseradish sauce.

One thing we like to order when we dine in are the nachos!! Though we like them with easy shredded cheese because they smother them!!

Again, the service staff is all so kind and efficient which shows the heart and work of the management staff! I appreciated the kind and respectful way everyone was treated. As I was standing up front, a lady came up and asked if I’d seen the manager, because she wanted to secretly compliment the bartender because he was working so hard! She briefly visited with me about how rare that seemed lately in the...