JK O'Donnell's Irish Ale House

Great variety of beer and a good bar to start your night. It gets pretty loud with all of the hard wood. I love the patio seating in the warmer months. The food here has never been my favorite. Their sweet potato fries are really good and I usually play it safe with a grilled chicken sandwich. Last time I tried the bangars and mash and wasn't too thrilled, the gravy didn't suit me and the sausage was not to my taste either. Seriously good beer tchoices there but I usually just get a Smithwhicks which is on tap. The servers and bartenders are quite surly here, like they don't want to help you. I think the have sticks lodged up their you-know-what's.

Ordered the vegetarian garden burger and potato leek soup, with Green King Olde Suffolk English Ale. The burger consistency is good. The soup is good. The sauces served with french fries are creative, but I wasn't delighted with any of the three on offer, though I appreciate the effort to have unique variety. Sometimes the wedge fries are prepared well, sometimes it feels they are slightly undercooked. Large wedge fries seem difficult to get right consistently. The beer selection is excellent, and it's certainly a cozy pub style environment.

I would give 4-stars, except the crowds can get loud, making it difficult to have reasonable conversations, and some of the servers can get distracted too easily by noise and chaos, leaving some of us unattended. I have been 4 times to test consistency.

The food is reliably good and they pick great beers for their expansive list. Of course it is do popular that it can be crazy busy and hard to know if you'll be able to find a seat at dinnertime. It's great to have a nice established pub anchoring downtown. The Irish dishes are tasty and I love the Cobb salad and the veggie burger, too.