Finnegan's Grill & Irish Pub — Restaurant in Virginia

I went late evening / early night on a Friday. Half of their sign above the building was unlit, which felt weird. No staff was at the entrance so I seated myself. The crowd inside was small but lively and the overall vibe was cozy.

I sat in spot easily visible to the entire staff and after 25 minutes of not being approached, I called over someone who profusely apologized, gave me menus and water, and took my order. He then handed me off to a waitress who came by with a glass of water and was confused that I had already been given one. She did not introduce herself, she only confirmed my food order and then left.

The Shepherd's Pie was the only food I tried, and though I might say the poor service tainted my opinion, I was also hungry enough that anything should have seemed delicious. I will call my biases a draw, and in the end my view of the Shepherd's Pie is equally neutral. It was fine. The price was relatively low, but the portioning was not especially generous for an adult male. Overall, this strikes me as bar-food first and foremost. Good enough, but nothing special. Oh, and the first bite burnt my tongue - irritating.

But back to the service. When the waitress delivered my food she said nothing. She did not check on me any time while I was eating. She did not check on me after I had clearly finished the dish, despite walking past several times. I tried to go to the bar to pay but they said they would send the waitress over for me instead. She came to pick up my credit card and spoke too quietly to understand. When she returned with the receipt she finally spoke loud enough to hear her halfhearted 'thank you, have a great night!'. Not sure if she thought that that would earn her a tip, but it most certainly did not.

Oh, and what's up with Finnegan's not having a dessert menu? Only plain cheesecake or a $7 "bowl of ice...

Sing only if there is a song that’s available, and most of them have been downloaded by official Karaoke software that has almost no similarity to the real tune. Definitely not instrumental music turned into karaoke with lyrics but rather then a dj trying to adjust the volume all the time at every song. Some of them there were without baseline. After 45min in a almost empty bar with 5 people singing “competition “ we decided to leave since the normal karaoke will resume in 11:45pm. So the Dj is not trying to provide what the guests want to sing but rather what’s available, and the usual there is a book over there . Write the song request and she will tell you that she doesn’t have that song. Then if you ask for another song it has to be in writing again. Not a busy night but you could see the frustration in the Female DJ from answering questions so she will often pretend that there is something going on or acting like she is listening to you by nodding her head from a far where you could not even hear yourself.

So for a sports bar and a restaurant maybe it’s a good place to visit , and the games are on at evenings.

But do not attempt to go out for a karaoke night, cause more worst than a bad drunk voice singing is a rude , grumpy karaoke Dj who has no clue of why she is there.

P.s: there are plenty of Karaoke Bars with dj who can download any instrumental song from YouTube and if you pull your own lyrics or you know the lyrics yourself, you may sing your song, no matter the language or who made the song. With far better sound quality then the karaoke machine turned into...

My wife and I went to Finnegan's Grill in Ashburn for a “Date Night” this Friday. This was our first time there and we were looking for a new “Irish Pub” with some good food and cold beer.

The place is large and has lots of room at the bar and plenty of table and booths. There is countless large screen TV lining the walls with “tabletop speakers” to listen to your favorite game. The server/waiter was quick to come over and ask for our drink order.

The food: we tried our favorite combination to share, Buffalo Wings and a Fish and Chips dinner. The good news, the wings were good and freshly cooked, and the tap beer was ice cold. On the other hand, the fish and chips were terrible. The fish looked and tasted like something out of a large commercial freezer bag and the chip/fries were soft and over salted.

The music: While the guy playing the guitar and singing was doing his best it wasn’t very good. The bad part was the volume…so LOUD that we could not hear each other across the table and we were seated across the room from him. Now had this been 10:30 pm with the place packed with fun-loving folks that might have been acceptable. But it was 7:30 pm, the place had maybe 25 people in it with most folks like us trying to have some food/drink with friendly conversation. Well, that was impossible!

The aftermath: Both my wife and I suffered from upset stomach and repeat trips to the toilet…. deals withheld.

We...