McMahons Irish Pub & Restaurant

Our family had reservations for 5:00 pm on 3/17 St. Patricks Day.  We were looking forward to good food, and happy Irish atmosphere.  When we arrived on time, we had  to wait 30 minutes for our table -- that was dirty and not set.  

The good part of the evening was that there was live Irish music and a joyful crowd. Loud, yes -- but that's expected on this day.

The bad far out weighed the good.  We were surprised to find that dinner was $30 a person -- but that was okay because we believed we'd be getting good food.  Wrong.  The food was awful.  Corned beef was undercooked and tough, the mashed potatoes were dry and stiff, green beans flavorless, shepherds pie only mediocre, and the chicken puff pastry dish -- the pastry must have been baked days in advance.
We got mass produced cafeteria type food for $30.00 per person not including coffee.  Oh yes -- we had a sliver of cheese cake (included) was dry and crumbling.

All I can say is BUYER BEWARE!

I'm not really a fan of this place. My mom and I went here for dinner a couple weeks ago when we were in the area. The outside of the building is really cute, but the inside isn't so much. The dining area next to the bar has a lot of open, unused space, which is a little awkward. But that would have all been ok if the rest of it hadn't been so awkward, as well. I think they're used to getting mostly locals in there, who know the menu already, because we hadn't been seated more than 30 seconds before the waitress came and asked what we wanted. I hadn't even opened my menu yet. We had a Specialicious coupon for $20 worth of "Irish Fare." So I got the steak and cheese sandwich and my mom got the burger (cooked medium). They brought us some Irish brown bread to snack on before the food came, which was good. The food came fairly quickly, but when my mom bit into her burger, it was nearly raw inside. She cut it in half to see if it was like that all the way through, and it was. She felt bad saying anything to the waitress about it, and it would have been ok if it had been medium-rare, but this thing was definitely very rare. So she sent it back. It took forever for the new burger to come back, and then it wasn't even a new burger. The cooks somehow put it back together after it had been cut in half, but we knew it was the same burger because it still had the bite taken out of one side! Then, I'd barely finished eating before the waitress swooped in and took my plate away. My mom was still eating and had to guard her plate from being taken, too. The food was fine, but nothing special.

Then came time to pay the bill. We gave the waitress the coupon and she didn't know what to do with it, so she went and asked the manager. We had paid $10 for what was essentially a $20 gift certificate to the restaurant - the same way all Groupons, Living Social deals, etc. work. The manager instructed the waitress to take $10 off our approx. $20 check. No. That's not how it works. We had to sit there and argue with the manager to make him understand how the deal worked! He kept asking us how he was supposed to make any money if that's how it worked. Um, sorry, but isn't that your problem, not ours? Finally, he adjusted the check to reflect the deal, but acted like he was doing us a favor. I almost felt bad for him - he really was a nice guy, but just didn't understand what he'd signed up for with Specialicious.

So, I'm not in the Warrenton area often, but even if I'm there again, I won't be back to this place.

I met a group of friends there last year to watch the Preakness. I started with a bowl of potato leek soup that had no flavor at all. It may as well have been a bowl of porridge. For an entree I ordered corned beef and cabbage. It's an Irish pub, so their CB&C should be great, right? It had no taste either, just like the mashed potatoes that came  with it. So I asked the waitress to take it back to the kitchen and ask them to use the corned beef to make me a Reuben. I was still hungry and hate to waste food so I tried to recycle it because I knew if I sent it back outright that it would end up in the trash.

She did and brought it back and even it was tasteless. I will give the place high marks for atmosphere but I'd rather have good food. The waitress got pissy when I asked her to adjust the check so I asked to speak to the manager. The manager was very gracious, however, and adjusted the check when I told him how disappointed I was with the meal.