Molly Maguire's

I took my husband there for his birthday.  Saturday night + Groupon = lots of people.   Good thing I made a reservation.  Once we arrived, it looked to be really busy already.  Thank goodness for our reservation, we were seated right away.  I had never been to Molly's before, but I've always wanted to.  Needless to say, the experience I had (since I cannot speak for my husband, but his face was evidence enough) we had a great night.  Regardless of it being busy, our server was fantastic.  She recommended our entire meal.  The Crab Cakes Portabello which started our evening was great!  My husband is a pretty good judge of his steak (he had the Steak Patrick) and they cooked it to his perfection.  I had the Seafood Danielle, which also was recommended by our server, and honestly I could not have had a more perfect meal.  Our server even recommended our drinks.  She was awesome! Tara was awesome!!
We had a section of the room on a wall next to the books; I could not have sat us in a more perfect place! My husband and I were able to hold down conversations without fearing other guests would listen on our conversations; not that were plotting, mind you, but I'm sure you understand.  It was a romantic evening shared with a special someone.  Our server clearly knew when she was needed and when she wasn't.   The noise from the bar area due to the band that was setting up didn't bother me one bit.  I'm no foodie, but I know a pub and it's noise.  It wouldn't be an Irish pub without it.   We would have loved to stay for the band, but we had other plans.  
Even though we paid with a groupon, the prices were just right.  
I will have to say I would recommend it to anyone I come across.  My husband will also be recommending it as the spot for his company's meetings.  We were told that the downstairs could be set up for presentations, conferences, meetings, and such.  
Count me in for another visit.

I've been here many time but always just to the bar. The bartenders have always been nice, friendly and attentive. Last night (a Saturday around 8:30 pm) we decided to stop by to try the food for the first time. We get there and a very nice hostess tells us it'll be a 20-30 minute wait, and if we want to get a drink at the bar she'll come find us when our table's ready. I think this is a super nice and good thing for a restaurant to do, because I've been to places in the past who don't give buzzers when you're waiting and if you go to the bar, you have to keep checking with the hostess to see where you are on the wait list. 30 minutes later she finds us, and our tables ready.

We get seated and there's a lot of people in the area we're at, but every table is not completely full. Luckily the hostess gave us menus because it took 20 minutes for any sort of wait staff to approach our table. Finally a guy comes and asks if anyone's helped us. We say no and put in our drink and food order, also asking for two waters. Then, a different girl comes in to bring us our drinks. We never got waters (which I'm not shocked about considering 90% of restaurants never give water when I ask for it), so I stop the guy (who I assumed was our waiter since he approached our table first) for the waters again and he brings them. Finally our food comes out (brought by a third person who I assume is a food runner). No one ever asks how our order was or if we needed anything. I got the corned beef sandwich which wasn't that great, and my fiancee got a burger which was actually very good. Finally, the girl who brought us our drinks comes by and I ask for the check. While she's gone, my fiancee and I are confused and wondering who our actual waiter was. No one ever introduced themselves to us. We just assumed the first guy to approach us was our waiter, but then this girl who never spoke her name or seemed very attentive did some work too. Finally when she gets back with the check I ask her who our actual waiter was. She said "oh it was me. Sorry was there any confusion about that?" I just tell her no it's fine we were just a little confused and laugh it off. I should've just gave our tip to the hostess.

All in all it wasn't a horrific experience, I just think the wait staff can use a little clarification and organization. And waiting 20 minutes for someone to even approach our table is just unacceptable. Next time we'll probably just get food from the bar.

Sometimes, you need to have stars to rate the food and experience separately to do an effective evaluation of one of your favorite local joints. My trip to Molly's last night is one of these instances where the food deserved a 4.5, but the hospitality deserves a 1.

DAMN I was looking forward to this. After an insanely busy week, followed by an equally industrious Saturday morning and afternoon, I was so looking forward to a double date night, some whiskey, and some Irish fare. SO off to Molly's we went, 4 hungry souls ready to get it in. Then, we walked through the doors and the night went to hell.

A 20 minute wait to be seated turned into 45, and a dinner that normally would take an hour turned into nearly 3. We sat down and ordered appetizers, wings (pretty damn good) and mozzarella  sticks (difficult to screw up...and they didn't). Apps came out quickly, and they were hot and delicious. Wings had the perfect combination of crispiness, sauciness, and kick; mozzarella sticks were solid as well, coming 8 to an order and arriving at that perfect temperature where a small fissure in the coating gave way to that quintessential stretchiness you get in a good stick.

Then we waited...and waited....and waited...and waited some more. The joint was clearly busy but damn, this was nuts. I ordered the Sheppard's Pie, and LOVED IT! (The fact that it should be called a peasants pie because it had ground beef, not lamb like a true Sheppard's pie should be is of no consequence.) The beautifully browned, meticulously piped mashed potato top gave way to a blend of beef, carrots, peas, and gravy that encouraged me to not leave a single scrap for a dishwasher to clean out.  3 steaks were ordered at our table, 2 mid-rare and 1 rare. The 2 mid-rare steaks arrived on what felt like Sunday afternoon, and  despite the long wait were cooked that perfect blend of pink and red that highlights the fleshy tenderness of a good tenderloin. Topped with bleu cheese and frizzled onions, they were not long for this world and devoured with gusto. As for the unfortunate soul who decided to venture into the "rare" category you ask? Well, they missed the mark on the temperature  JUUUUST a touch. The steak was WELL DONE!  A rare request turned into a well-done nightmare. Mind you it took about an hour to get it! We sent it back, and asked how long it would take for a properly cooked steak to arive, they said at least 15 minutes...for a rare steak....I know, it sounded stupid to us too.  

All of this was done while having a child at the table too. We asked if we could have some ice cream to satiate her while we ate, and they said THAT would take 15 minutes. A scoop of ice cream, are you friggin' kidding me?

Finally we asked to see a manager, and boy was she a piece of work. To describe her as snippy is being kind. Clearly she was overwhelmed by the number of issues that evening, and judging by her measured responses we were clearly not the first complaint she addressed that night. While she did apologize and offer to work with us on the bill, she just sucked! Completely in-genuine we couldn't wait to adjourn this dinner meeting.

Will I be back? Of course I will, I love this place, however I must temper my eagerness; This is the 2nd visit where the level of service just doesn;t measure up to the comforting and delicious food they serve. if the service we received on this night is indicative of what I can come to expect in future visits...well, lets just say I can find a new Irish pup to visit .