Katie O'Donnell's

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  John G is crazy! My friends and I hang there ALL the time!  We have a ball on the patio! The food is delicious!  The pastrami is out of this world and the Katie O Sunshine Drink is heaven in a glass!  Get a life John and if you have a complaint about something, try to address it right there when someone has the chance to make it better!  Don't wait a week and try to get your money back!  You ate the food didn't you? If I had a fly in my drink, I would of sent it back!  YOU DRANK IT and then waited a week to decide you didn't like the fly???? BS!!!!! I think you are a cheap man looking for a free ride!  How sad!

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  Posted on 07.01.13 Mary B.

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  Tonight was the second time I have been here, but the first time I ordered food.
  
  Our server was very good. He was attentive and had a great attitude. We ordered the fried green beans, which were just OK. I wouldn't order them again, but they were edible. My wife ordered a turkey wrap and she was very pleased with it as the Turkey was roasted on-site and fresh. I ordered the Corned Beef sandwich since they indicated that they corn their own beef. The sandwich delivered! The corned beef was exceptional. So much better than the lunch meat style corned beef at most other bars.
  
  I'm a craft beer fan and wished they had a better selection, but they had Victory Hop Devil on tap, which did just fine. I would definitely recommend this place for casual, bar-food dining.

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  Posted on 05.20.13 Ed W.

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  The pastrami is amazing and is the best I have ever tasted. They smoke their own out back. Not much of an atmosphere but one of the few places in the area to dine outside.

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  Posted on 05.18.13 Shannon G.

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  I'm probably being kind by giving them even 2 stars, but I'm feeling nice today.  First off, we ordered Smithwicks, and it was flat.  And that set the tone for the entire visit.  My husband got soup and salad, and he ordered Caesar salad and chicken noodle soup.  Luckily he got the dressing on the side because that was the nastiest Caesar dressing either of us had ever tasted.  So he ate his lettuce dry.  The chicken noodle soup was all noodles with a few pieces of dark meat chicken thrown in it.  No veggies or anything.  Let's put it this way, he left there still hungry.  I had the Guinness stew potato skins which in concept were a great idea, but the execution could have been way better.  The plus side is that the potatoes were cooked very well, but the Guinness stew on top was pretty bland.  Service was just ok as well.  There's no way we'll be returning here.

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  Posted on 03.11.13 Colleen M.

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  I tried VERY hard not to write this review.
  
  My first visit to the restaurant was in early July week and I left so impressed that I returned on 2 more occasions that week alone.  Considering those 3 visits, I was shocked by my experience on 7/22.  
  
  We brought our closest friends for lunch today following a movie at the nearby theater.  Our children also joined us as I felt the restaurant, during the day, would make an excellent choice for everyone's different tastes.  The meal started with minor issues like several of the beers we were hoping to order being unavailable but that was really not of great concern.  Also, the fact our waiter was able to identify something wrong with one of our glasses of water before he gave it to us and immediately taking it back was actually a good thing.  However, from there, the food and drinks went downhill.  The glass of water we did receive had a bad taste to it as did one of the other drinks also with ice that we were served.  Once replaced, the issue resolved so we can only guess it may have been a bad batch of ice.  One of the water classes we were given however was cracked on the inside of the glass as well.
  
  Food was prepared and served in a timely manner but we had several issues.  We ordered 4 burgers of which 3 were incorrectly cooked.  1 was bad enough we had to send it back.  1 entree was a plate of mussels of which 1/3 were not edible as they did not open during cooking.  We also ordered a "pot-of gold" which while the seasoning was excellent, the shrimp were not devained or cleaned in any manner.  They could not be consumed noir could many of the unopened mussels and clams in bowl for the same reason as the other order.  My chicken francaise which was excellent in a previous visit was slightly burnt this time around and the accompanying zucchini was more raw than cooked.  There were a concerning number of flies in the restaurant as well but considering the outside dining availability (abet on the opposite side of the building) we let it go.  Frankly after the first round of send backs, we were not interested in complaining about the other concerns we had.  It was obvious that things were beyond repair for this visit.  Many of our party left hungry as we couldn't finish our meals. To the staffs credit, the things we did bring to their attention they managed well and were very professional about.  Perhaps our group of 8 was too large for the quiet shift kitchen staff.
  
  I'm really perplexed as to what to make of our experience.  I really liked our experiences previously and looked forward to sharing the experience with our closest friends.  Based on what happened, I contacted the management to alert them to what we experienced.    Dave Greenhalgh, owner of the restaurant responded the next day.  He told me that there was a new kitchen staff on that day which could have explained our problems but did not excuse them and offered to "make it right" and send us a gift certificate to encourage us to visit again as his guests.  He even offered a tour of the kitchen.  Well, it's been 3 months now and not a gift certificate to be found nor any responses to my subsequent emails.  I guess it was all lip service.  As if the experience wasn't bad enough, being patronized and lied to by the owner has sealed my opinion.  It's a real shame.

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  Posted on 10.25.12 Robert K.

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  See, it's hard to write this help because the group I went and myself had many mixed emotions.
  I went here on my birthday with my family and the waiter was fantastic.  He wished me a happy birthday, was speedy with everything and pretty knowledgeable.  The building was really cool but nothing really screamed Irish, considering everything n the menu was Italian or seafood and country music was playing.
  We ordered nachos that we're absolutely horrible. But I don't like nachos anyway.  They were so dry and ran out of salsa!  My meal, the chicken franchaise was absolutely incredible.  It was very tasty and delicious.  My mom however, ordered a steak medium well and it came out bloody.  When she sent that one back, after throwing up in her napkin of course, she received one that was even worse!  So she had mashed potatoes for dinner!  Not cool.
  The desserts are made at home from one of the bartenders. And that's exactly how they tasted.  They had that perfect, out of the box taste. (sense the sarcasm!).
  It really wasn't bad though. I enjoyed my meal and the dessert I chose was okay.  I would go back here again.

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  Posted on 08.06.12 Gina M.

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  I was going into this place expecting very little and i walked away with a huge smile after my experience here.
  
  Really nice atmosphere with lots of televisions and pretty servers walking around. The food was really fantastic. Well seasoned, crisp toasted buttery breads, ice cold beer, and dynamite onion rings.
  
  When you hear Irish cuisine most people laugh but try this place our and you will be shocked.

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  Posted on 08.04.12 Timothy M.

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  Apparently I have the same mixed feelings as many other reviewers.  I wanted to love Katie O's, but it's hard.  The building is lovely & the service is nice, but the food just didn't live up to my expectations.
  For an app my group & I got fried pickles & nachos.  Fried pickles are hard to mess up, so they were pretty tasty.  But the nachos were way dry.  The serving was huge, but for that reason about 98% of the nachos had nothing on them.  Then they ran out of salsa.  Very tragic.
  For my entree I got blackened mahi mahi, which was pretty good.  I did like the chips that come with the meal.  But my poor momma ordered a well done steak that ended up bleeding out on her plate.  She sent it back, and got an even bloodier mess in return.  After two fails she just gave up and ate her potatoes.  
  For desserts, they have an offering of cheesecake tortes and cupcakes which apparently are made by one of the bartenders.  They were pretty good but nothing to write home about.
  I feel like Katie O's has an identity crisis.  If they stuck to sandwiches, apps & bar food I thnik they could improve greatly.  People don't go to a bar expecting a perfectly cooked filet until you put it on the menu!  Keep it simple my friends.

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  Posted on 08.02.12 Mallory D.

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  Burger was good. $4.95 for a 12oz blue moon is a bit much. Decided to get The bucket special for the flyers game. Turns out it's only for home games. What?!  That's dumb.

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  Posted on 03.07.12 Lenny D.

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  Steve K is my new best friend, because his review is spot on; looks great, real potential, underwhelmed with the food." I'll take it one step further and say the food is BAD. Maybe not uneatable, but ABSOLUTELY, disastrously, unabashedly out of proportion with cost:quality. Ok, let me recap MY experience:
  
  We went a few nights ago for the football game and to use our groupons that entitled us to $25 worth of food. We sat down and were met by our waitress. We told her about the groupons, and she said she would get them later. She was amazingly disconnected and made about every mistake a waitress could make. She was terrible. (sorry, but true) We placed our orders and she was off to put them in. The table next to us was meeting their waitress and we overheard her telling them the nights specials, which our waitress didn't tell us. We caught our waitress going by and stopped her and asked her if there were specials. She said, "oh yeah," but didn't know what they were. We decided to stick with our original order: boneless chicken wings and fries for me, fried pickles for the misses, rack of ribs and french onion soup for my friend, and steak for his wife. We also got a margharita pizza for the table. 20 minutes later, our waitress comes back and tells us that they forgot to make the fried pickles and french onion soup, but all the other food was ready. After deciding that she just bring whats ready to the table, she told us that she'd bring the pickles and soup out when ready, but that they would be on the house. So, so far, its got its issues, but nothing that would prevent me from coming back.....but then the food came out. First of all, even if I were to come back here, I will NEVER, EVER, EVER order a pizza from here again. We ordered a margharita pizza; what we got was a digiorno cheese pizza with some chopped up jersey tomatoes and literally 4 ribbons of basil. It was EMBARRASSING. It looked terrible and tasted like they brought the box instead of the pizza. If I was rating on this pizza alone, O'Donnells would OWE stars in the review. It was seriously ATROCIOUS. My wings were OK, and thats the same review I got for the steak and ribs. "Meh" seemed to be the general consensus. After a few minutes, the fried pickles and french onion soup made it out. The pickles got eaten, (review...."meh." Go figure.) but the soup sat, uneaten on the table until my friend told the waitress that she could take it back since he didn't want it anymore. After eating, we were brought the check. Not only had she not applied the groupons, but she charged us for the fried pickles and UNEATEN soup that she said they were not charging us for. (Total price, $95.) We asked the waitress to please apply the groupons and she told us she would have to split the check to do so. We were fine with that, but assumed she would split is evenly down the middle. We got back 2 checks, one for $32 and one for $18. It appeared she just randomly applied things to the separate bills. Ugh....she was trying our patience. I dropped a 20 in cash for the $18 bill and we told the waitress to put the rest on a credit card. It came back with TWO charges; one for $28 and one for $4. WTF?
  
  The reason I'm not giving O'Donnells 1 star or suggesting that someone take a wrecking ball to the side of it was that it was very nice inside. There are PLENTY of tvs to watch the games and just a nice atmosphere to hang in. I would rather boil and eat my shoe than eat there again, but I wouldn't mind going for a few drinks to watch the Eagles.
  
  I cannot stress enough just how deplorable the pizza was, but if you just want to pound some beers or imbibe some spirits and watch something on the big screen, I guess you could do a lot worse. Just make sure you go there full.

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  Posted on 01.09.12 Matt C.

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  I'm so glad that a non-chain restaurant has taken residence in this location.  And a very good one, at that!
  
  In my few visits to Katie O's, my experience has been a consistent 4 stars.  Service is good; the servers are very friendly, helpful and fairly attentive.  The space is open and furnished with dark cherry wood-looking furniture with many hanging plants.  There are TVs sprinkled around, supplementing a bank of TVs by the bar - good for sports watching.  
  
  They have a decent beer selection.  Food has always been enjoyable.  French Onion soup is very good.  The pizza is tasty.  But my favorite is the nachos!  The portion is ginormous, the ingredients are extremely fresh.  I plan on taking a picture of it next time I go so next time I get subpar nachos from a restaurant, I can show them what real nachos should look like.
  
  Oh... and they have Quizzo on Tuesday nights.

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  Posted on 09.23.11 Christine A.

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  A pretty average place, taking the spot of one chain and turning it into another.  I realize this place isn't a chain but, in fact, an independent restaurant owned by local people.  While I hate to give it such a mediocre review, there just isn't anything stand out about the place.  Average food, beer selection, and bartenders but just enough TVs if it's a game you're interested in.

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  Posted on 08.23.11 Mike D.

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  Enjoyable place -nice appetizers (string beans,  fried clams,  sliders, nachos, wings), -french onion soup that high caliber and not too salty- pleasant environment with a nice workstaff.  We have enjoyed this place.  Beers on tap, pleasant staff.

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  Posted on 06.27.11 Camille A.

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  Saw an ad in the NE Times and decided to check this place out.  It's in the building that used to be a Mexican Post (and Don Pablo's before that).  Went on a Friday night and it was packed.  Fortunately we did not have to wait for a table.  It was quite loud in there due to the high ceilings, but this is expected in a bar type restaurant.  There was a small deck outside that seemed to have a private party.  Our server (Mary Theresa) was awesome - attentive, upbeat and friendly.  
  
  We ordered the Guinness Beef Stew and a Chicken Sandwich.  The food didn't take too long to come out.  It was served hot and tasted great.  I would order either of these entrées again.  I thought the prices were reasonable.
  
  I agree with the previous poster that it does seem to be a bit older crowd at the bar.  We were there for dinner, so we didn't care.  We'll go back.

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  Posted on 06.04.11 Dawn W.

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  First time there a few days ago. It was awesome inside, the way everything is set up.. from the bar area to a more family, restaurant area. Nice job on the decor. Our waitress was the sweetest thing ever. I'm pretty sure her name was Mary Theresa, and she was amazing. The only complaint I have is our food took awhiiiiile and it wasn't busy at that time. I'm used to waiting, but it was long. Food was pretty tasty. Hopefully they stay unique.
  
  Quick FYI - If you're looking for a "poppin" bar time or to get all wild, it's not the place for it. The bar area on a Friday evening was mostly older people just calmly watching a game on TV.

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  Posted on 05.19.11 Whitney O.

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  I have been to Katie O's several times since it has been opened to hang at the bar.  I have ordered food 3 different times and it has always been a small appetizer.  Opening night I had ordered potato skins which took an hour to come out; okay it was the first night, I'll cut them a break.  However, waiting an hour and having cold food come out is not cool.  A week later I decided to order the nachos, my wait was cut to 45 minutes but still served cold food.  Nachos?  C'mon not that hard to serve warm- let alone pay $13 for them.  I've been several places, mostly in the city that serve nachos and they are no where close to $13 more in the $9 ballpark and are served hot.  Last night while out watching the Phillies game I ordered their Bourbon Wings- the sauce was good, but again waited 35 minutes in an empty restaurant on a Sunday night for cold wings.  After the server took them back to get them reheated, another 10 minutes- still returned to me cold.  I have yet to get past the appetizer menu because each experience  has been bad and I won't pay for a meal if they can't get simple apps right.
  
  All in all, they did a beautiful job with the place and it looks great.  They have a very friendly staff working there as well.  I do enjoy $2.50 Miller Light and Coors Light during games as well.  I think hanging out and drinking for the night is a good way to spend you time at O'Donnels because if you go for food you will be waiting quite awhile for room temp meal.

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  Posted on 05.09.11 Food J.

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  There is an even better reason to take the Woodhaven Exit from I-95 than the mall: The beautiful and richly-appointed Katie O'Donnell's Irish Pub. The owners, Ed and Dave, have missed no amenity or detail here. This grand space has 40 televisions---including a 140 inch HD model, which is flanked by eight 50 inch plasmas---on which all of the area's major sporting events might be enjoyed. Simultaneously. An awesome sight and happily reminiscent of Reverend Jim Ignatowski's wall of televisions in the old Taxi series.
  
  At the expansive granite bar, one can enjoy a Guinness or Smithwick's on tap (among other well-edited offerings). Meanwhile, those of us with handbags are grateful for the very thoughtful addition of under-bar bag hooks. But enough about the decor . . .
  
  Katie O'Donnell's fare was delicious. The fish and chips were very well done (all that was missing was the newsprint wrapping). The breading was both crisp and light (fried batter perfection, I'd say). From my dinner companions, I heard positive adjectives and yummy sounds made about the burger and the shepherd's pie. Looking forward to many, many return visits.

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  Posted on 04.23.11 Miss Y.

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