The atmosphere is amazing, but the food is lacking. The bar really makes the place sing because it offers such variety and creates a nice "old school pub" feel inside. Our server was polite and attentive, and I love a place that offers booth seating.
The food isn't inedible, but I was disappointed when the caesar salad was served with mostly core pieces (the white structure at the center of a lettuce head). Sure, a caesar is traditionally crunchy, but it was also missing a whole lot of romaine greens.
We decided to send it back but I'm always suspect of this practice (complaining on the spot so that an order can be corrected) because I never know if the kitchen staff will be annoyed enough about the complaint to add their own flourish to the dish (if you get my meaning).
It seems like with a little prep cook training or a change in head chef might do this local business some good.
How can very mediocre places tend to be the ones that look so crowded?
We ended up here, by chance. It certainly wasn't my choice that evening.
We had the nicest waitress, but for me, even that couldn't make up for the old tired Mussel appetizer that I ordered. Â
It's good! our waitress exclaimed. Â Tasted like dirty old face rags I thought. Â
It came with one lousy piece of toast. Â I had to order additional (4) to get enough to sop up the (sour) broth.
You want tasty mussels with a creamy sauce so flavorful and fresh that you want to lick the bowl? Â You wont find it here. Â I wanted to clue her in to go to the 4th st. Chophouse in Loveland to get really good mussels. Â She was so enthusiastic about Mike O'Shays Mussels I didn't want to bust her bubble.
My buddy's dinner of Bangers and Mash was much better, I'm glad she shared.
But even "much better" compared to the mussels means maybe 3 stars worth of better.
The high point of the evening at Mike O'Shay's was the fact that they have Muscato on the menu. Pour me anutha In my glass bartender, cause I can hardly stand what's on my plate.
Mike O'Shay's is a popular favorite with locals, so it is often crowded and loud during dinner hours. That's not bad, just a good thing to know. Service from the bar can get quite slow. The food is fresh and tasty, with a selection of Irish dishes and pub food. The atmosphere is fun and lively, and kid-friendly. Having been here for dinner with my husband, I can say this seems like a better place for a group than a couple. I'm sure we'll be back sometime.
Review Source:Nothing out of the ordinary here, good or bad. My buddy and I were on business travel in the area and decided to meet up here on a Wednesday night. There were only 3 other people in this place, but then again the whole town seemed pretty deserted by 10pm. Had a local ale (forget the name) which was okay but not spectacular, and then a nice hoppy IPA. The bartender let me sample some of their hard cider on tap which was okay but too sweet for my taste buds. I would come back if I was in Longmont, since there isn't much else in the area anyway. Service was generally good, however they ended up closing at midnight since it was so quiet.
Review Source:I had lunch here a couple weeks ago with a client. The food was pretty standard pub fare. I had fish and chips (along with my boss) and the client had the chicken pot pie. His pot pie looked delicious, and my fish and chips tasted ok, but my fish portion was literally half of the fish my boss got. I was still starvin afterward and no, i did not order the kid's portion. 2 stars lost for inconsistent serving sizes and slow service.
Review Source:This place is a favorite of locals for many reasons. Namely Food, Service, Atmosphere and MIke.
Food - Hard to find a better menu. Everything that is on the menu, is always made the same way and the finished product can be relied upon. It is also fairly diverse, from a good ole pub burger, to burritos, to steak sandwiches to excellent cuts of steak and in my opinion some of the best seafood in town. Mike puts on daily specials and each day there seems to be at least 4 or 5 dishes unique for the day and usually include wonderful fresh fish on 1 or 2 of them.
Service - Once again, second to none. I read a few reviews stating the service was bad and took a while. News flash, you are eating in a packed restaurant...on a busy night. Ive noticed they do not have a high turn over rate on staff, so dont worry, they know you are sitting there...everyone is just busy doing the same thing you are doing ....eating at a great pub.
Atmosphere - Cannot describe this with words at the moment. You really are taken back to a old, bare brick walled pub in a very old building. Decor is anything from Irish artwork and pub photos, Â to game mounted over a few areas to new more modern light fixtures made from wine bottles and silverware. One really fun thing to do with kids is play "I spy".
Mike - The owner is very involved, and for good reason. Mike will do anything from greet and seat you, ask about your family, grab you a beer and even help ensure your service is pleasant and timely. Always looking for great new menu items as well and ensuring quality control on their classic food items. He runs this place very efficiently and effectively and really helps give this the "small town, family joint" feel that makes it one of the most popular and longest running family owned places in town.
What do I recommend?
-Any of his great Irish Drafts
-Any Fish Special, Chophouse Steak Salad, Crab Cakes, FISH AND CHIPS and the Montreal Steak Sandwich. My family loves the Sugar and Spice Salmon as well so it must be good.
Friends of ours brought us here on a cold winter Friday night. First impression was a warm and cozy Irish Pub. Food & drink was equally as cozy! The food was spectacular, especially the Vermont Cheddar Potato Chowder ...mmmm warmed my soul. The prices are very reasonable! Appetizers are not ridiculously expensive.
Review Source:Our favorite restaurant in Longmont. Â Noisy and crowded at times but what isn't? Â We live in Greeley and meet relatives from Boulder there at times. Â I wish we had something comparable back in Greeley and I wish That O'Shay's was open on Sundays but you can't win them all. Â Nice new renovation out front and as good a faux Irish theme as anywhere. Â Parking can be tough but deal with it.
Review Source:I would like to begin by saying that the food was great. Â I had the Guiness beef tri tips and my hubby sampled one of their burgers. Â Now that the good part is out of the way, I can get to the disappointing areas.
My husband and I decided to try them out for dinner on a tuesday night, the place was packed which we took to be a good sign. Â We were seated promptly right in front of one of the order placing stations. Â Now granted the place was busy, so we weren't expecting phenomenal service. Â That being said, it still took our waitress who walked by our table at least 3 times because she had to go by us to place orders to come by and grab our drink orders, then it took her another 5 minutes to just get us water and iced tea, which quite honestly I could have gotten myself by walking the two steps to the station (which would have been more pleasant).
We were in the restaurant for a good 45 minutes due to slow service. Â In that 45 minutes our drinks were refilled once. Â Now we had driven 7 hours that day and didn't want to cook which is why we decided to go out for dinner, so after 7 hours of sitting in a car we were pretty hungry and thirsty, so our drinks disappeared pretty quickly, and you would think that as a waitress if you walk by a table that is right in front of your station and you see that the drinks are empty, you refill them. Â Nope, didn't happen. Â I don't think it's very difficult to stop by a table you walk by every few minutes to see how things are going.
We had lunch at Mike O'Shay's and it was delicious. We were promptly waited on by the friendly staff, the selection to choose from on the menu was large and the food was great. I would definitely go back and would certainly recommend it. The BBQ burger was delicious & the key lime ice cream was refreshing.
Review Source:Arrival time - Noon and on a Saturday
No Wait - seated right away. Requested away from the open front - too hot that day.
Unwanted guests -two flies (thank you open front of restaurant)
Meals:
Gyro - very good, chunky tatziki sauce because of the diced cucumber. Sandwich was quite hot - probably from sitting in the window waiting for husband's Irish breakfast. The portion is reasonable and not huge.They serve breakfast until 2pm on Saturday I believe. My gyro came with a greek salad but I opted for their crispy fries. Irish breakfast came with two ample sized (disturbingly so) sausage links, two eggs over two tomato slices and a thin gravy (almost marsala like), potato chunks (but not diced) and fried bread (nice and buttery). We also had an ample portion of tempura mushrooms. Very good, served with ranch. Capable of creating blisters in your mouth if not using common sense when eating fresh hot mushrooms.
Service:
On top of it without being super friendly and over the top. Just how I like my servers. Give me my food, refill my drinks, be polite and leave me alone. The guy did a great job.
Restrooms:
Two stalls for the ladies, handicapped stall has a changing station. Old restroom but neat and clean. Women and Men's restrooms are set in the very back of the restaurant away from the dining area down a long hall.
Parking:
You are better off parking behind the building and entering from the back. People were greeted and seated from that entrance by servers.
Irish pub with delicious food and fast service. Traditional pub fare with a healthy choice of bar food. Have your Guiness with fish & chips,a burger and fries, some Asian lettuce wraps, fish tacos and shrimp salad or have it all and have a cardiac arrest.
Kidding aside, it's a nice pub.
They are selling what they call a Cowboy Ribeye, they need to Google the term Cowboy Ribeye to see what it really is. My plain ribeye was served as the blackend special, the only thing blackn'd on it was a result of letting the flame catch the fat on fire as it cooked. Their mixed veggies also were not fresh, looked and tasted like they had set in a steamer for hours. Where is Gordon Ramsey when you need him?
Review Source:We've lived in Longmont about ten years and have had periods where we frequent O'Shays. In the past couple of months, I'd say we've stopped by at least ten times for an early supper. Here's what I notice.
First, there are a few decent items on the menu: chicken fingers, club sandwich (inexplicably on whole wheat bread, but you can ask for a substitution), burgers, including their bison burgers. Overall, though, the menu suffers from too much scope and too little focus. They should try to do better at fewer things. Sometimes, like most restaurants of this ilk, they should change their frying oil more often.
Second, the help -- beginning with the night manager -- is a real shortcoming. At the time of day we go, typically between 3 PM and 5 PM, we are inevitably met with help who have perfected the tunnel vision, "you're not my table and I'm not going to acknowledge you" behavior. It's disappointing to see our food languish for ten minutes or more before someone picks it up. Yes, I could go get it and yes it would be incredibly poor restaurant etiquette to do so.
Third, this isn't a place for an intimate meal. The hard surfaces means that the place is acoustically one big pool table where sound bounces around like a beginner's breaking balls. I did not remove any stars for that; it doesn't really claim to be anything more than a pub. Keep that in mind and you can plan your visits accordingly.
A couple of specific comments about food items. The french fries are the super-crunchy style. Five Guys can do fresh fries; this places seemingly doesn't have the bandwidth. Avoid the mushroom soup, unless you're fond of chewy flour-y bits. The garnishes feature limp lettuce and, for the burgers, tomatoes that are green enough to use as flying discs to get someone's attention. Come to think of it...
We merited a manager's attention only when my husband failed to finish his burger. He'd ordered it well-done, but was not hungry enough to eat more than about half. The manager trotted over prepared, I think, to lecture him about ordering burgers well-done and slunk off with hardly a second word when we assured him that the food was fine. No "how was everything?": more like "what was the problem here?"
Here's the problem, as I see it. O'Shays seems to depend on a few regulars. The regulars come, are acknowledged, sidle up to the bar or are seated quickly. I am not certain what it takes to qualify as a regular, but I can tell you that tipping 20%, patience with slow and inattentive service, and dropping $40 or more for a two-top (before tip) during off hours ain't gunna do it. I recognize that two-tops aren't especially lucrative for the restaurant or, for that matter, for servers. But that's a reason we make it a point to go "off" hours, so that we're not occupying more valuable real estate later. This should result in a better experience, not a worse one. If they truly can't manage to seat and serve customers well during off hours, they need to shut down everything but the bar and give customers the honest choice of bellying up to the bar or sauntering on down the street to other choices.
For those who would go "early", but perhaps not quite as early as we do. The briefing session for staff is around 4.30 pm and can last ten minutes or more. Don't expect ANYTHING in the way of service, even though the restaurant is by now getting busier. Also, don't expect the specials mentioned at the front door to be ready one second before 5 pm -- although the reader board will not advise about this.
Given all this, I'm not really sure why I awarded a second star. Maybe it's because because one seems just mean, some of the menu is edible, and I don't think we've ever gotten food poisoning there. So two stars for that -- but no more.
And after thinking hard enough about our recent experiences to write this review, I think we'll put O'Shays on the hiatus list. Because they never seemed to care that we'd come in, they won't miss us.
Mike O'Shay's didn't impress me, but it didn't disappoint me, either.
We went around 5 on Friday night, were quickly seated, and promptly had our drinks. Be warned: The mojito was one of the lime-iest I've ever had. Not undrinkable, but definitely pucker worthy.
We got the buffalo burger with cheddar and the Irish Ale House burger and split them, and we both opted for the sweet potato fries with honey chipotle sauce.
The buffalo seemed a little too well done, but not so much that that nice, buttery buffalo flavor was lost. The IAH burger was definitely a winner... I just wished there would have been more sauerkraut on it (but I'm kind of a sauerkraut fiend, so that might just be me and my German roots talking). The sweet potato fries were crispy and non-greasy, and the honey chipotle, while a little thin, added a nice kick.
Service was quick and friendly. True, we did have to flag our waiter down for the bill and a box, but by then dinner hour was in full swing and he was also contending with a large group that had just come in.
Overall, everything was good, but not outstanding. I'm sure we'll be back due to the location and a few more things on the menu we want to try, but I don't think we'll be in a huge hurry to get there.
I don't live in the area anymore and hadn't been to Mike O'Shay's in about a year. But I was back in town last weekend and decided to hit up this popular spot on Main Street.
Here's what different: The restaurant has been remodeled a bit to include a sidewalk patio. It's awesome.
Here's what's the same: A great food and drink selection on the menu and really tasty, quality pub grub. I went with my family of four, and we all have very different tastes and all found something we really liked. The service was good, which is typical in my experience.
Mike O'Shays has a fun atmosphere - lively without being so loud you can't converse. If you're in Longmont looking for a place for dinner, I highly recommend this over one of the chains that proliferate in the southern part of the city.
P.S. There's an awesome used bookstore we happened upon just a few doors down to the south.
My family has been going to Mike O'Shay's for years and years. Â It's a good pubby place. It's very comfortable, and we always seem to run into someone we know there (which, for me, is quite a feat since I haven't lived in Longtucky for almost 10 years). Â Not the youngest, hippest crowd in the world, but that's part of what I like about it.
We've tried a lot of the things on the menu. Â Best choices- fish and chips, Corned beef egg rolls (I know, I know...but try them!), fish tacos were good, and the Reuben.
My wife and I stumbled on this place a week or so ago and decided to head over Friday night to check it out since they were closed on Sunday.
We arrived just at 5 and was greeted cheerfully. She said it would be about 15 minutes. We sat at the bar and ordered a couple of drinks while we waited.
This is a cozy place with a bar on the right that looks to seat 20 to 25 people. There are a couple of flat screen TVs, which were both on the Golf channel :) There are 8 or so larger tables that seat 4 to 6 and about as many smaller tables that seat 2.
We were seated pretty quickly, probably 5 minutes after arriving. The waitress arrived just about when we were ready to order. I've been trying beer lately so was checking out the menu. There were 3 or 4 of the common bottled variety and on the right side, another 3 or for identified as draft. There was one obviously local brew and a couple non-standard. I ordered the Mamas Little Yella Pils (a local) and the fish and chips. Since I ordered from the draft menu, I was a little confused when she brought out a can and poured it into a glass for me but reading the definition on the 'net, a can is technically a draft.
The place was filling up fast with people waiting in line so we got there at just the right time.
The food and beer arrived quickly. My wife had ordered Chipotle Pork Tenderloin which came with Chowder. She doesn't eat wheat due to allergies and forgot to check on the contents of the chowder so she gave it to me. It was very very good. Hearty with large pieces of clam. The main course was brought pretty quickly as well. The fish was nicely cooked and a good proportion. It wasn't too greasy and there was just enough tartar sauce. Fries were crispy and tasty. My wife thought the pork was a little dry so the chipotle sauce was appropriate.
I noticed a guy standing looking around at the tables then he came over and picked up our plates. I'm guessing he was a manager or perhaps even Mike himself :) Â The place was getting packed (Friday night) and our bill came along moments later. We paid and headed on out.
There were folks in the lobby, in the entrance way and even a few outside. So it must be a popular place :)
In general we were seated, served, and on our way fairly quickly. The food was ok and apparently from the menu, only a small selection of beers were available (perhaps just from the dinner menu).
We may come back from time to time but we won't be regulars.
Visited Mike O Shay's for a little late night food and beer. Sat at the bar and ordered a reuben...good sandwich with a proportional serving for the price...and it was tasty (nice combo). Some good craft beers on draft, and friendly service were the positive points of the night. The few
minor challenges for the bartenders were a sticky bar (both where I was sitting and the three seats next to me) and a common mistake it seems for many bartenders...namely, sticking the tap head into the glass of beer. When bartenders pour a beer and stick the head in, obviously some of the beer stays on the taphead...let's say 20 minutes goes by before they serve another beer from that tap...what goes into my new fresh draft beer? The remenants of a now warm sticky beer into my fresh one. Overall, I liked the place..and will be back...but those minor flaws brought down the stars.
I spent the first 19 years of my life in Longmont and never ate at Mike O'Shay's. Â I was back in L-Town yesterday with my wife and sister and decided to give it a shot. Â I think I will agree with one of the other reviews that it was A-OK. Â Not bad, but not spectacular.
I had the chili rellenos with green chili, which was good...very different than I have ever had. Â I'm not even sure how to explain it, they tasted almost like they were battered in southwestern egg rolls. Â Like I said, different than I expected, but very tasty. Â My sister had the Rueben sandwich which she loved, and my wife had a burger and fries, which was pretty standard.
The service was kind of lackluster. If nothing else I would describe it as "efficient". Between the hostess and our server, there were hardly any smiles and not much personality shining through. Â We were seated and waited on quickly. We had our order and check taken care of promptly, and my water was hastily refilled.
I think my only real complaint was that the restaurant was friggen' loud. Â It was tough to carry on a conversation at our table and even harder not to hear everyone else's conversations.
Overall, the food was good, the service ok, and ambience ok...heck, for a restaurant in Longmont that's a great review, so I'll probably be back.
Nice to have a decent place to eat in this town, and I really like their staff shirts. Â Green polo's with a clover leaf embroidered on the back...I want one without that Mike O'Shay's logo on the front.
Mike O'Shay's eliminated smoking before the smoking ban, and immediately got busier! We went there the first night (of zero smoking) and waited outside in 20 degree weather for half and hour. We've been back many times and have always had great service and good food.
Note: This is NOT Frasca, so manage your expectations! They serve food that is better than bar food. Portions are on the large side, and there is a great beer menu to choose from. This is well-run place; and gets the support of locals for a reason!
I'm giving it 3 stars which in Yelp-land translates to "A-OK." I think that is a good way to describe Mike O'Shay's.
I went for the first time last night and I had really expected it to be a dive bar, but in fact it is a pretty pleasant neighborhood bar and restaurant. It had a warm feeling which was good. Definitely a place for the locals to have a beer and catch up. As things would have it, I'm a local as I live a couple blocks away, and I can definitely see myself returning with our neighbor pals. To me, it had a better vibe than the neighboring Pumphouse (although the Pumphouse has a superior patio.)
There are two TVs to fulfill the sportsbar requirement, and as far as it being a pub with an Irish guy's name, the waitstaff wore kelly green polos with a shamrock logo -- that is really as Irish as it gets here. Oh, except for the portraits of notable Irishmen (James Joyce was peering over my shoulder during our meal.)
We all had burgers and sandwiches which were as good as you might expect. They have an extensive menu with numerous items that seem to be stretching into culinary realms that a neighborhood pub should probably not attempt, but if I try them and find out they are fantastic I'll be sure to update and say so.
It is in walking distance and serves decent burgers and brews. I'll be back.
I understand the locals love this place, so I had high hopes. I can't give it 5 stars, but it wasn't bad. My filet was a little overcooked (med-well, I ordered med), so obviously I didn't enjoy the steak as much as I would have liked, but the rest of the meal was good. I sat at the bar, and the bartender was very friendly and attentive.
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