O'Tooles Restaurant Midlothian — Restaurant in Virginia

Let me start by saying the service was great. We sat on the patio last night and our sever was very attentive and personable. The reason for my low rating is 2 fold. One, I had hopeful expectations due to a recommendation from a friend and two, the poor ingredient choices and store bought food items.

The expectations I had for this restaurant were semi-high based on the recommendation and the history or the restaurant I read on their website. What I expected was a local restaurant that used family recipes and made their "family dishes" in house, from scratch. I specifically asked our server about this and to my dismay it was not the case.

As it turns out the beer cheese for their pretzel app and the gravy for the bangers and mash are store bought. We ended up getting the cheese sticks (pictured: also store bought) and sent them back (no cheese inside) for onion rings (made in house). The onion rings were rubbery, bland, and covered in cornmeal. Next, was the salad. Low quality romain and store bought croutons made this disappointing. I didn't ask but the caesar dressing may have been store bought as well. The bangers and mash are also pictured. (Gravy on the side) The mash was definitely made in house but lacked seasoning and refinement that should come with being in business for 54 years.

All in all, O'Toole's could severely benefit from proper seasoning, making basic items in house, portion control, and refinement. I DO believe the bones for a great restaurant are there but much...

I have never written a google review, but this experience had to be shared. This was our first time dining at O’Tooles. We were greeted by the friendly hostess and seated promptly. We were excited to see a wonderful variety of food options on the menu (thinking we would definitely come again with our children). Our waitress was adorable and very attentive. We placed an order for nachos and requested extra cheese. We even said if they could smother it in cheese, we would happily pay whatever the extra cost. When the nachos arrived…there was no visible cheese. At all. We dug around and couldn’t find a single shred. We asked our waitress if there was cheese on the dish. She surprisingly asked “Oh no, did they not add cheese?” Before we could even respond, the owner/manager?? Who was drinking beer with a table behind us chimed in and said “Our cheese tends to be hidden in the middle. We are still trying to perfect layering it.” I did not know that sprinkling cheese on a plate of nachos required any level of perfection. Just throw it on there. The owner/manager never apologized, never offered to make it right. Just made that comment and continued drinking. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we continued with our meal, while hearing him bash other locally owned restaurants like Four Seasons. Trashing their items and claiming you could get much better at O’Toole’s. We went in to the restaurant today thinking we would be returning customers but the owner or manager himself is what will ensure we...

New review: I said in my original post that the menu was overwhelming and that there's no way they used fresh ingredients. I'm going to double down on that. Overall, this experience was the worst one I've had.

Walking in, the hostess asked "how many." No time for smiles or kindness. You could tell she didn't want to be there. After waiting for longer than we should have, looking at a whole row of open tables and what appeared to be staffing issues, we were taken to our table. The hostess set our stuff down and walked away, not saying anything. This should've been the point that I left.

The waitress came up and was nice. You could tell that she cared about her job.

My food came out and was BLAND. The baked potato was overcooked or in the warmer too long. The chopped sirloin, aka hamburger, had zero seasoning in it. The gravy was cheap canned or jarred gravy. The mac and cheese was a little below the store brand powdered mac and cheese. Looked like a watery mess. The roll was the best thing on the plate. Essentially, the food here tastes like hospital food and the vibes aren't good. I wouldn't recommend you try it.

Original: The food is decent but the menu is definitely overwhelming. Makes you feel like there's no way the use fresh ingredients. I've eaten here a couple of times and was never blown away. With that being said, they are always packed when I'm there, so they must be doing...