Great food. And pretty diverse menu. I always seem to get the Cuban sandwich or the shepards pie (ask for a fried egg on top). Chill atmosphere. If this place could work on getting food out a little faster its 5 stars all day. But honestly don't plan on being in and out fast. Good things take time tho. And its pretty much the only bar in north Stamford.
Review Source:MacKenzies has been around for sometime and I've visited it on several occasions over years. The first few times it was on my parents tab and all I got was a burger. More recently I've had a few beers at the bar on low key work nights. All in all my experiences there have been fair. That is, of course, until I went there the other night with my girlfriend on a slow Sunday night to unwind with a drink or two and have some good old fashioned pub food.
First I ordered the potato pancake appetizer, a shot of Tito's vodka, and a drought beer. The shot was "chilled" (read: mostly water) despite the fact that I didn't order it that way. Speaking as a bartender, that's a big no no. The pancakes came out pretty quick, and were decent. We then proceed to wait an unusually long time for our entrees. My girlfriend wasn't very hungry so she had the side order of mac and cheese and I ordered the shepherds pie. The table next to us, who sat down twenty minutes after us, received their order of mac and cheese before we did (turns out the waitress never fired our entrees and my girlfriend took that opportunity to cancel her order). We're reassured my dish will be out shortly, so I decide to wait for it because I am absolutely starving at this point. I wait probably another twenty minutes for my dish to finally arrive. The shepherds pie was average, and at $15 is one of the cheapest dinner items on the menu. I wasn't thrilled with the quality of the meat, and the mashed potatoes were a little dry.
To their credit, they offer me a complimentary drink and my girlfriend a dessert. Although frankly anything less would have made me very surprised, even at this point in the meal. Â Also, my girlfriend has a food allergy to dairy, very manageable if she takes the right pills. So before she enjoys her dessert, she has to take them. Not surprisingly they had let her water run out. I mean, it happens. So I get up to cue the busser/expiditer to refill her water, who happens to be talking to a customer. As a result I'm not surprised that he doesn't immediately grab a pitcher, and I sit back down. I look over two minutes later wondering why my girl's water glass remains empty while she is waiting to try her dish and THE BUSSER IS STILL TALKING TO THE CUSTOMER. Up until this point, I had maintained a facade of understanding (I've been a server at restaurants before myself) but I pretty much drop it at this point. With hardly anyone else in the restaurant, there was really no excuse for the lack of service.
To sum up my experience at MacKenzies, don't go there if your looking for a gourmet restaurant with good service. But do expect to pay those prices, with everything on the menu besides the burger being more or less overpriced. While they attempt to be like their downtown counterparts in terms of price point and decor, the only reasons this place is still around is because they have a captive audience when it comes to people who live in N.Stamford that don't want to drive twenty minutes to downtown.
Great food awful service!
My girlfriend and I stopped in for a quick bite to eat that ended up turning in to a long drawn out experience. Â
We arrived and were quickly seated by the hostess, the waitress arrived and took our order and brought our drinks. Â When the food came that was the last we saw of her! Â Not only did she not bother to check on us but we had to walk up to the bar to refill our drinks twice on our own. Â I also had to walk back to the kitchen area to get sugar for my ice tea and ketchup because the food was getting cold and we were left unattended for so long. Â I asked the rest of the staff "where the hell was our waitress?!?" and was just responded to with shrugs and a mumbled "I don't know." Â We sat for a while with empty plates when I finally spotted her going out side for a cigarette break. Â I finally had enough and asked the bartender (Who was more then helpful and clearly picking up the slack for the rest of the bar) for our check. Â Needless to say I gave it to another server and left for THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE WITHOUT LEAVING A TIP! Â
I have worked and still work part time in the service industry so I know how hard their job is as well as what is to be expected and for me to leave no tip at all the experience really had to be atrocious. Â
That being said the bar tender was helpful, the food was great and the place was very nice. Â If you are looking for a place to have a good drink and watch TV then this is a good place but if you are coming in for dinner expect a long drawn out wait.
I live in north Stamford and I have to say this is the only place in mid-town that measures up in terms of a restaurant that you can go to frequently. We go all the time, with some friends or for meetings.
Great food, nice menu options and good beers on tap. Service is also good and friendly. Â Needs more veggie options.
Great neighborhood place.
I just moved to Stamford and I happened to be getting my tire fixed next door so I figured I'd stop in and see what they had. Â I was impressed not just with the tap Beer selection but also with the food menu. Â Lolipop lambchops? Yes Please! Â plus anywhere that has such a varity of food (Lobster sliders....yum!) is A.ok in my book.
It was clean, had great decor, and nice sized TV's everywhere to be able to watch any game i could want (3 direct tv signals, extra nice). Â Its proximity to my new place will make this a definite haunt. Â Staff was friendly as well, always a bonus.
Not bad....
My wife and I went on a Monday night after returning from a business trip to NYC and decided to stop for lunch/dinner (would this be linner or dunch?). Â Anyway, it took a few seconds to get someone's attention to be seated (and it felt kind of creepy to be standing there in the doorway with the barroom locals throwing those Connecticut Yankee glances).
Moving on, the service was pretty good for having only two waitresses and a ghost hostess (she only flitted in and out of the dining room). Â Straight forward, the review is three stars because the food was extremely marginal. Â I had a chicken cobb salad that had very little chicken on it (for, I believe $10.95) and my wife had the prime rib special ( it was seared and cut like a ham steak).
I would probably do MacKenzies again if I was in Stamford, but it wasn't high on my list of wanna-gos!! Â Good for a drink, good for a snack, but not impressive.
Oh yeah, I forgot....I was surprised by the Wi-Fi - good move MacKenzie's, makes it a 3 and a half!
We were looking for a place to meet friends in Stamford who were coming from New Jersey and decided to try MacKenzies. Â We got there a couple of minutes before 11:30am on a Saturday and were seated right away. Â The decor is fine, but nothing special. Â The tables and chairs were clean. Â They were able to accommodate a table of 8 of us without trouble.
The wait staff was proficient, but not attentive. Â We were not in a hurry, but it still took quite a while to get the check at the end and they only checked once to see if we wanted anything else to drink during/after the meal. Â All of our meals did come out correct on the first try.
The food was good, but not fantastic. Â We had burgers, pasta and chicken. Â The appetizers were tasty as well. Â For dessert I had the pumpkin cheesecake which was very good, and they say is made on premises. Â The food is moderately priced. Â Most people would pay between $12 and $25 for their meal including tax and tip.
There are many large LCD TVs with different sporting events on so there is plenty of entertainment for those seeking that aspect of the "sports bar". Â The lighting was a little darker than I would have liked in the dining room. Â The bathroom was clean.
It has taken me a few tries, but finally after moving to CT to be with my boyfriend, I find a place with an edible shepherd's pie. Â After eating horrible pies, i'd say this one is good. Â Extra good maybe.
I like the menu because there is such a confusing variety of items to choose from. Â However, it seems like mainly an irish food based restaurant so some things i'd be a bit wary of trying, like italian food. Â We also had clam strips and a philly cheesesteak sandwich, both which were good if not great. Â
I never got a water refill... and when we walked in the hostess was lurking somewhere and we about sat ourselves but other than that, pretty decent.
I'll come back here, especially for happy hour (3-7) - free hors d'oeuvres and $1 off drinks or ladies night (thursday) - $5 large martinis all night. Â yum!
I'll also have to come back and try the bisque.....
This place stinks. I gave it the benefit because the decor was pretty nice and I liked the look of the menu. Ultimately I came away disappointed purely because of the food. Well, it didn't help that from where I was seated it was clear the kitchen staff was pointing and talking about me from the kitchen... awkward, seeing as I wasn't doing anything extraordinary.
I ordered the french onion soup, which tasted good but the cheese was totally burned on top, and isn't the reason for getting French Onion soup the nicely toasted cheese? Burned cheese can ruin any dish...but you better believe I wasn't sending it back, who KNOWS what the staring cooks in the back would have done to it..
Second, a very straight forward taco salad... the chips were the gross cheap bland (and stale) ones... there was next to no lettuce and an abundance of cheese, and the chicken was burned..
Oh and there were bugs flying around inside.. in JANUARY.
Waitstaff was nice, but it doesn't matter. With that food experience I won't be going back.
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