We have been to eat at the Irish Rover multiple times and have never been disappointed. It is charming and friendly.
We have enjoyed fish and chips, beef stew, and the Shepard's pie. The soup in a bread bowl was delicious. My husband enjoys some Guiness and I like a tall glass of Woodchuck (a sweet cider type of beer). I am looking forward to our next visit.
While tasty year-round, this is one of my winter favorites in Louisville. It's got a cozy, comfortable ambience, fabulous location in the heart of Frankfort Avenue, and has a menu full of comfort food favorites.
On a recent trip I ordered the cottage pie, which is their take on popular Shepherd's Pie. A hearty beef stew is served in a bread bowl with mashed potatoes on top. It's hard to beat. But the Welsh Rabbit grilled cheese sandwich is delightful, as is the salmon hash. Hard to go wrong here.
Lots of delicious Irish beers on tap--Guiness is only the beginning. Add to that some delicious pub bites (bubbles & squeak/potato cakes are tasty) and you don't even need to be hungry for a full meal to have a fun time at Irish Rover.
This place has character! Sitting at the bar I forgot I was in Louisville, it seems like the most authentic Irish pub in town. After seeing the menu, it has the most authentic dishes so I would say if you want Irish pub come here. We had the Scotch Egg, you only need one it was huge. Very interesting concept, but it works, first time I have ever had a Scotch Egg. Also tried the Cordon Bleu Fritters, these were better than the egg, would recommend this if you had to choose. She had the cottage pie, which looks amazing when it comes out. We thought it lacked in flavor, but was very filling. I had the chicken cashel blue, which sounds awesome on the menu. Assuming I got the bread pudding, it was basically a slice of bread pudding deep fried. Not good and not at all what I expected. Chicken was ok, mornay sauce was a bit thin and not enough flavor. I was not impressed with the meal overall, it was different than most pubs, but still the same quality. No reason with a little tweaking the food can't go from just ok to great. I would go back for a drink and and app, but would find something else if I was just looking for dinner.
Review Source:I'm feeling generous, but it was just a good time. We turned the Irish Rover into an Irish Tapas bar. Our crowd ordered the salmon au gratin (delish), fish and chips (yum and huge portion), the salmon pate (especially good with the onions), the blue cheesecake (sagey!), the salmon puffs (mmm mmm) and sticky toffee pudding. Of course no Irish meal is complete without  several pints of cider, beer etc. the service was beyond excellent (Charles, nice welsh -American lad :). I'll definitely go again when on Louisville!
Review Source:Great, authentic Irish cuisine. My friend even said the malt vinegar was authentic vs. American - whatever that means. I had the lamb stuffed cabbage with "champ" - mashed potatoes, and they were amazing! The only thing keeping me from a 5-star rating was our server. She was very monotoned and unenthusiastic, and also came to collect our signed receipts immediately after we signed them... ???
Review Source:In town for the week and always looking for local, non-chain restaurants and I found this place. Â Highly reviewed 4 stars on yelp. Â
I gave it 3 stars because outside and inside appearance doesn't look like much and frankly didn't make me feel like the place was clean. Â
Service was attentive and quick. Â I had a bowl of their Guinness beef stew and it was amazing. Â Large chunks of meat and potatoes, good flavor and very filling. Â The menu seemed to have a lot of choices, but looked like they hadn't printed a new menu in 20 years. Â Table next to me got fish-n-chips and it looked wonderful as well. Â Food and service was very good. Â They need to look at updating their building inside and out and this place would be a 4 or 5 star place.
I don't know if we just picked a bad night but for me, Irish Rover was just meeeeh. Â We were seated pretty quickly for it being a Friday trolley hop night, so I was excited about that. Â Me + Starving + Quick Seating = Awesome right off the bat. Â I was expecting this to be a good meal.
After about 15 minutes with no attention, I was starting to get antsy. Â If I weren't so hungry, I probably wouldn't have minded as much. Â Although, I think 15 minutes is a rather long time to be seated at a restaurant without a server acknowledging our presence. Â I was especially surprised seeing as how we were seated so quickly. Â Finally, our orders were taken. Â After about another 30 minutes, our food came. Â By this point, I was about to eat my napkin. Â I honestly didn't care how the food tasted. Â I just wanted to eat it. Â It wasn't awesome but it wasn't bad either.
Overall, the food was okay. Â My rating more reflects the experience. Â I just don't think it's acceptable to be ignored for so long at a sit-down restaurant. Â I'm sure one day we will give The Irish Rover another chance but until then, my first choice for Irish is still Molly's!
It's tough to rate an establishment that you've been frequenting for over half your life-span. Though never a Louisville resident, I started coming to the Rover as a kid, out on family get-togethers. Big room, little room, bar, piano bench, outdoors, upstairs; I believe the kitchen is the only part of the Rover I haven't seen. At this point, it's basically part of the family, a structural manifestation of goodwill.
Fish-and-chips are the go-to; the fish is a hunk that's perfectly cooked, with a breading that manages to be light & crunchy at the same time, never too thick, bready, or overdone. The bangers are European-style (re: fine grind), the Guinness stew enough for two. Of course there's Guinness, but last I visited there were some local brews on tap, as well as Dogfish's 60-Minute IPA, and Thirsty Dog's Siberian Night. Yes, please!
The baskets of bread delivered each time are no slouch either; punchy sourdough and malty soda bread, with copious bars of real butter. I used to have bread-eating contests with my brother in the days where my metabolism was still at the level of a hummingbird.
It is fairly packed-in, though that's all part of the charm of being in such an old building/house. From the childhood picture above the mantle, to the forest green bar booths, and the lonely piano & cigarette machine corner 'neath a sloped ceiling (that's how it looks in my brain at least); charm isn't something the Rover lacks, and the amount isn't something that you can just acquire. Here's to hoping it never goes away, because without a visit here, a trip to Louisville just feels a bit empty.
Can't get over the Rover!  The best in Irish Pub Food.  Don't hesitate to go to Frankfort Ave and find your own favorite table.  The best in fish and chips and mashed veggies.  A friendly atmosphere that calls you back during any visit to Louisville or La Grange.  The La Grange Pub is as delightful as well and at times you can find a wee bit of the live  Irish music being played to heighten your experience.
Review Source:Irish food. Yum. Potato and leek soup, fish and chips. Garlic mayo. All good things. I've been here a few times, with mixed reviews. Once it was decent, one time it was great and this last time I wasn't terribly impressed.
So for starters, it is in a great location. Has a nice patio (at least April-Oct) and it's own lot which is big on Frankfort Ave. There is also almost always a wait and it feels like the tables are just a bit too much on top of each other. If this was just an Irish pub that would be fine, but it is more of a fine dining than a pub.
I get the Leek and Potato every time, and it is always pretty good. This last time the chunks of potato were massive but it still had decent flavor. The Prawn and Cashew Salad was a bit disappointing. The dressing was nice, but there were just 4 or 5 shrimp and a gazillion cashews. And I love cashews, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were as many nuts as leaves of lettuce in this $10 salad. Meh.
The salmon burger with dill mayo I had the time before was really nice, and the first time clearly didn't make enough of an impact for me to remember either way. I did try my friend's fish and chips and they were pretty good.
Definitely worth checking out, I just might not suggest it personally.
But avoid on a Trolley Hop night. (I always mix up if it is the Last Friday or First Friday as the other is downtown.)
Also, it is a lot of fun for St Patty's how they put up the big tent and it's a bit more of a late 20s/30s crowd than Irish Row in the Highlands.
Slainte!
The Irish Rover is one of my favorite restaurants in town, so I'm surprised I never got around to writing a review before now.
Great, traditional Irish pub fare. Â The fish and chips are excellent, the Guiness stew is phenomenal. Â The Scotch eggs are pretty much like asking for a heart attack, but that is what Scotch eggs are supposed to be like.
Good beer, friendly staff, decent odds of finding a parking place in their lot or the adjacent municipal lot (that counts for something on Frankfort Ave).
The Rover is really family friendly with little games that the kiddos can play at the tables and what have you. Â Occasionally, they run the risk of being a bit too family friendly - but that's why we have Molly Malone's.
If you're looking for good Irish food, you can find it here. I went with a group of 8, everyone was happy. I had the stew which I liked immensely. Â The one thing I measure an Irish place by is the bangers and will have to do that next time.
Only thing that would make it better would be trad music.
Traditional Irish/ scottish fare (however it is not a typical US Irish pub). Â The menu isn't full of typical pub food, but to good, traditional "comfort" food you would find in a real Irish restaurant.
Most of the servers and bartenders here were actually Irish the last time I was here as well.
We had an after-work crowd of 6 and grabbed one of the big tables in the main dining room, getting there early at 5pm. I was immediately struck by the wall of windows at the end of the room; as others have said, great venue for almost any crowd.
The food was delicious. I had been craving the Guinness Beef Stew since checking the menu out online earlier in the day - it did not disappoint! There was plenty of Smoked Salmon Pate to go around, even enough to use the second plate of bread that we needed. Everyone enjoyed what they ordered.
The service was very fast (likely because there were only 2 or 3 other occupied tables when we first got there - although it was almost packed by 6:30). Our waitress was very friendly, too. She informed us of a Guinness swag giveaway on St. Patrick's - sounds like a plan!
Irish Rover, I miss you. You know that, don't you? There's no place like you in Chicago, which is just WRONG, given Chicago's Irish American heritage. While Chicago based joints long ago bowed to the mainstream, adding jalapeno poppers and "Irish nachos" to the menu, forsaking traditional items, you haven't.
You have just the right balance of old school and new, vegetarian and meatatarian, brew pub and family friendly restaurant. Your food is cheap, and oh-so-good (don't get me started on the cheese and chive fritters, or the bubble and squeak, or the simple deliciousness of the ploughman's platter). Your servers are just nice. Good, nice, helpful people. Your soup (woe is the day I had to give it up after becoming vegetarian) is a gift from the Gods.
The Irish Rover is the perfect place for a date, a dinner with family, a beer with old friends, or pretty much anything else. The atmosphere is low key enough that you can really make it your own; it suits whatever mood you're in. And don't forget, Louisville, there's nothing else like it this side of the Atlantic.
Ate here again and was not disappointed. Â The service was perfect and the beer was cold. Â Red Rover is so smooth going down I could drink it all day. Â Today I got the fish and chips and the aubergine (appetizer). Â Wow, the aubergine was incredible (but needed more bread to eat it on). Â The fish and chips were steaming hot and tasted great being washed down with my Red Rover beer, mmmm. Â Goodness.
Review Source:This wouldn't be my first choice of restaurant, or 2nd...or 3rd... in fact I probably wouldn't go here had it not been someone else's choice. But business dinner is a business dinner and I was pleasantly surprised!
Scotch eggs are SO GOOD! (Deep-fried savouries of hard-boiled egg and sausage which are a staple in English pubs...with mustard).
Mushrooms app was good as well.
Got the Guinness Beef Stew...if you read my other Louisville reviews you know why, but it wasn't very exciting. Couldn't taste any trace of Guinness. But the rest of the menu does look good to my surprise... the rest of the party loved their fish n chips and Irish BLT.
I had a beer that was named after a character from Braveheart and it was great! As was the environment!
Based on the great reviews, I really wanted to wash away the bad memories of my failed Chicago St Patrick's Day with an evening at the Irish Rover. Â But the sign on their door read "Closed Thursday, March 18 for a mental health day. Â We will reopen on Friday, March 19."
Major bummer for me. Â FYI to anyone trying to visit on 3/18/11.
Went there as part of my birthday weekend extravaganza... Â I've been going there every year I'm in Louisville, so the number of visits is adding up. Â I've always had excellent food there with friendly service. It can be very, very loud, so don't go if you want a quiet, romantic dinner. Â
The beer selection - both draught and in bottles - is excellent, and the food is superb. Â I had the whiskey steak the last time I was there, which had a mushroom cream sauce. Â My only complaint: Â more sauce! Â
I highly recommend the flourless chocolate cake for dessert..... yum!
Thank heaven for the Yelp iPhone app. After a brutally long multi-state drive, it picked the perfect spot for a reviving dinner and beer, the Irish Rover. Highly-rated and open late, that's all I gave it to go on. I read the reviews and menu items to my roadtrip partner as he drove - hearty Guinness stew, scrumptious cottage pie and smoked salmon, authentic soda bread and house-brewed beer, liquor-laced desserts... and we spent the last two hours of our drive drooling and squirming in frenzied anticipation. It'd been far too long since our last good Irish meal, and that had been in Ireland. The bar was high, and we were famished.
I had pictured one of those kit Irish pubs that seem to have popped up in every mid-size city lately, the bar of new dark wood, the high-backed booths and scattered bistro tables, the dimmed lights, the Guinness neon and Smithwick's coasters or maybe the other way around. Â And while I like those just fine, it was not at all what I found at the Irish Rover. Â The bustling, lively, well-lit 150 year old former saloon was a welcome surprise. Where we had expected solitary drunks and night owls, we found happy, laughing families and couples on dates.
Brand new to the town as we were, we were greeted like family when we entered. Our waiter was friendly, helpful, and fast. And the food... Â oh, such heaven after a long drive!
The Irish Smoked Salmon with lemon and onion and brown soda bread were fresh and wonderful. The Irish really do have the best fish on earth. Â The Guinness Stew was more than a delicious meal, it was a big bowl of warm comfort that I felt like I could crawl right inside of and take a nap. A few more of those delicious house beers, and I might have tried. His cottage pie was the brother of the shepherd's pies we'd loved so much in Ireland, and the Bailey's Cheesecake had just the right subtle amount of liquor kick.
Irish Rover offers not only the authentic taste of Ireland, but its warmth, vibrancy, and friendliness, too. I'm already dreaming of my next visit there. Sláinte!
This place is very unique. The atmosphere is the best thing going for it. The lighting, decoration, crowd and service all help to provide a warm, relaxing and almost family-style environment. Of course the food was good and the dessert was outstanding. The locally brewed beer is fantastic.
Would recommend this place to anybody of any age and to groups of any size.
I would love to go back!
Oh man, oh man. I have family in Louisville and every time I visit this restaurant is my first stop! The food here is soooooo good! And the bread... oh that delicious, delicious wheat bread! I could just eat that! Everything I've ever tried on the menu is amazing!
But the best thing here is definitely the Potato Leek Soup. Wowza! I am NOT a soup fan by any stretch of the imagination. To put it quite simply, I hate soup. But I LOVE me some potato leek soup! It's just so... scrumptious. Yep, that's my word choice and I'm stickin' to it because it's just so good!
I would recommend this place to any and everyone I know going to Louisville!
Once I get cut off at a place do I ever go back. The Irish Rover is the exception. I moved back to Louisville in the mid-90's. I had been to New York and Dallas,places where you could find a decent Guinness. I spent most of my first summer back trying to find such a place in my old hometown.When one day I was driving down Frankfort and saw a new place called the Irish Rover.'They have to know how to pour a Guinness', I said to myself(outloud no less).
During the first pour, the bartender apologized for the amount of time it was taking.I explained that what little patience I have was learned from waiting for my Guinness.Because I found my oasis, I drank a few and then a few more when I was informed I was cut off by the owner who came by to explain why.
When I came back the next week ,the owner, Michae,l remembered me explained again why he cut me off and I thanked him and we have been tight ever since.I even had my rehearsal dinner there-aside from my son the best part of the former marriage. When my true love came back  to town from L.A. the 'Rover' was tops on her list of places she wanted me to take her.
Apart from the perfect Guinness, EVERYBODY has to try the heart attack waiting to happen known as the Scotch Egg.It is the most decadent appetizer and is worth every calory and clogged artery.The rest of the menu offers great salads for the summer and comforting stews and soups during the fall/winter.One of the best in Louisville!
I spend a couple of weeks in Louisville every summer, and this is the number one spot I always come to. Â So lets forget that the Guiness is always served JUST RIGHT for a second. Â The bread that they serve before the meal with the Irish Butter is to DIE for! Â I mean it, I always end up eating too much and getting full mid- meal
As for the meal, I always try to order something different but end up gravitating towards the Potato Leek soup.. yum, yum.
Love the sign in front that says "All unattended children shall be sold as slaves" Â I always point it out to mine.
Closest thing I've found to a pub in the US yet, and the best Guinness pour I've had outside of Boston or NYC. Â The crowd and staff are always good, too. Â They don't serve lots of Ketel Red Bulls, ergo low probability of douchebags.
The food is good, hearty pub fare. Â Always good - the only suggestion I'd have is to price it more like an English pub (say, $7 fish and chips instead of $12).
So, I had been given info that the Irish Rover was the real deal and it was worth checking out. Â We came for dinner to a half-full restaurant. Â
Oh I should mention that this building used to be a saloon and grocery store back in the day. Â The saloon is still there, but the grocery area is now a dining room where we sat. Â It is just delightful with the old windows and woodwork. Â A charming space.
And aside from this table of 6 completely loud & obnoxious middle aged people that drowned out any other noise in the room we enjoyed our meal there. Â The service and the atmosphere was quite good but these people and their yap, yap, yap! The worst part was that they all seemed to be from Chicago, so I was terribly embarrassed. You could hear almost a collective sigh of relief as they paid their check and left. Â
We ordered the Blue Cheesecake to start, which was a "cheesecake" of blue and cream cheeses in a walnut crust, served warm with brown soda bread and pear vinaigrette. Â I highly recommend this appetizer. Â So delish!
I then ordered the Irish Smoked salmon as my dinner, which was served with lemon, onion, brown soda bread and Coleman's mustard. Â If you dont know what Coleman's tastes like, be careful - it has got quite a kick to it!
There are so many things on this menu that looked good, it was so hard to decide. Â But its a good reason to come back!
Stopped in for lunch with Andy P. during our road trip from Dallas to Connecticut, as Andy said, because the Bourbon Bistro didn't open until dinner.
We had bourbon, and it was good. Â Andy, being Andy, immediately yelled for everyone in the restaurant to shut up and started telling me how much he respected me (naw, that didn't happen). Â I had the shephard's pie, which was solid yet unspectacular. Â The best part was the potatoes, which, strangely, complimented the mashed potatoes well.
Really good, but not -quite- as good as I expected.
Ambiance: 20/25 stars
Food: 18/25 stars
Service: 22/25 stars
Bathroom: 20/25 stars
Probability of going back: 10% (I don't live in Louisville!)
Recently, Randy S. and I were in Louisville and trying to get drunk before noon on Bourbon. Unfortunately for us, though, we miscalculated the hours on the nearby Bourbon Cafe and ended up needing a recommendation for lunch on Louisville's lovely Frankfort St. The recommendation we got was Irish Rover. I like Irish food, so I was all in for it and Randy was game as well.
We started off what was a pretty excellent lunch with some Pappy Van Winkle (the name makes me cringe a little, but it is at least nominally authentic, so fair enough) Bourbon to accomplish our goal of getting drunk. Randy has a more developed insulation from the effects of alcohol, but I--on the other hand--am a cheap date and so after downing this lovely Bourbon, I ate lunch drunk.
I generally love Irish food and so was psyched to see that this Irish place had lots of actual Irish food (see my review of Black Finn in Dallas for an opposing experience). I had bangers and mash. Its not the most exotic thing to have, but it was really good. The bangers themselves were truly outstanding, and they served Colman's mustard along side which was also wonderful.
Randy's food, I'll let him review, but definitely seemed good and the whole standard of the place was of the type where you wouldn't really be afraid to try anything, because it all looked good and certainly seemed that the people responsible for the Rover truly care about what goes on there.
The food was very solid, the atmosphere was lovely and the service was very good. I wouldn't hesitate to come again and I'm sure if I lived in Louisville, I'd end up there quite a bit. Really a lovely place.
Oh how I love the Rover.
True im Scottish and not Irish, but its the closest I can get to home.
I love their fried Cheese starter, although the Scotch Eggs come a close second.
Best Potato and Leek soup ive tasted here in the states, and almost anything from the entree menu is to die for.
All thats missing from the menu is some Black Pudding and/or Haggis.
Their range of Irish/British Ales and Lagers on tap is the best, and its great being a small girl finishing off a nice pint of Tennants before the men folks.
Baileys Cheese cake or Guinness Chocolate cake to finish off your meal and you will be in heaven.
Ahhh "the Rover," home to one of my favorite appetizers of ALL TIME. The Scottish Egg. This little delicacy is a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, dipped in batter, deep fried, and served with a spicy mustard. It's roughly the size of my fist. Anytime anyone in my family mentions The Irish Rover, I immediately think of this and begin to salivate...
The Irish Rover is an authentic Irish Pub located in Louisville, KY. Therefore the menu is isn't overly sexy and wow-ing but it is still tasty and hearty. Lots of meat and potatoes such as the glorious Bangers and Mash entree also good with spicy mustard....
If you're lucky enough to eat here on the weekend you will find a very loose ensemble playing some tight Irish music. They always sounds fantastic and add to the overall ambiance.
I am not a big fan of eating here during the summer months and most of what I like to order is relatively hearty and filling, but during the winter months... DAMN. There is nothing like peeling off your heavy coat as you escape from the cold and sitting down to a Guinness and a Shepard's Pie. A wee bit o' heaven....
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