Sarah's Irish Pub

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  I had a great burger here.  Not merely good.  Great.  Wandering around in a strange new town on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I stumbled into Sarah's.  The welcome was warm and sincere and my waitress ought to have her own cable show.  She was terriff.  
  
  I could not have had a more pleasant hour.  Or a better burger.
  
  Thank you, Sarah's!

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  Posted on 04.30.12 George W. T.

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  The food's not bad, I've had better, but it is fairly traditional Irish menu. The beer and liquor selection is average. I'll have to ditto a previous comment about the fact that the decor hasn't changed since I first walked in the place a few years ago. So why 2 stars instead of 3? It's a "Irish Pub" that closes at sundown. Seriously? Having lived in other areas, I've always known Irish pubs to open early enough to wet my whistle after a midnight shift, and close after the owls have gone to bed. On the plus side, I've always had decent service. Maybe the 2's a little harsh, but the hours really put a damper on my rating.

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  Posted on 02.02.12 Flash D.

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  This place has REALLY good breakfast! I've come here since I was little.

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  Posted on 01.17.11 Chris H.

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  This place is decent one day out of the year -- St. Paddy's Day.
  
  The decorations have been the same since I first walked in there, sometime in 1996. The food is typical pub fair, but an extra southern helping of grease. I have literally left several times feeling like a I needed a tetanus shot.
  
  The booze is booze. Not much of a beer selection and I've never attempted to order anything else from there. Doesn't seem safe.

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  Posted on 12.20.10 Rory J.

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  You needn't have shipped up to Boston to know what to expect if you pay a visit to Sarah's Irish Pub in Phoebus.  The walls are decked out in more green than The Incredible Hulk taking a bath in lime sherbert....mmm, sherbert.
  
  I went to Sarah's with my family in late May to hear a neighbor of mine play traditional Irish music with his band.  The bar is in Phoebus, a unique patch of Hampton near the harbor.  Phoebus is an actual place, and has been for decades, as it sprung up as its own commercial and cultural node apart from the other population centers of Hampton Roads.  The bar sits on a walkable, mixed-use strip that has seen better days but still retains some dignity and care.  East Mellen Street reflects Phoebus's history and the rise and fall of neighborhoods, small businesses, and the geospatial arrangement of our lives more generally across the history of the United States.  That Phoebus itself is worth checking out is a fundamentally separate but not completely disconnected question from the merits of Sarah's Irish Pub.  In my mind, the neighborhood is actually a positive for the bar.
  
  On the plus side, Sarah's actually feels like a bar, albeit a townie/dive bar.  Virginia's liquor laws reflect the state's conservatism and English (booo England) heritage, and require every establishment that serves alcohol make a certain amount of its income from the sale of food.  As a result, there are no restaurants that just serve alcohol.  This raises the bar to entry for prospective tavern and saloonkeepers, meaning there are fewer and, IMO, worse drinking options when compared to places like Iowa, which were settled by comparatively inebriated continental Europeans, ja.  Sarah's is the first bar I've been to in Virginia that feels like it would be at home in Davenport, IA.  I think that's worth something.  However, be warned, because as you might expect it's smoky inside.  My table split an order of onion rings, and they were good.  On the downside, the draught Bud Light I had was watery even for Bud Light, and I recall one of my brother's drinks being made incorrectly (something about the lighter beer being poured on top of the heavier one).  Also, isn't it dangerous to have the dart board so close to the women's bathroom?  I had to stop myself from walking in the middle of a game.
  
  When I started this review, I anticipated giving Sarah's a three star rating.  On reflection, it's really right on the border of two stars, but I'm still giving it three because it's a moderately successful execution of the townie-dive bar genre, and relatively unique with respect to the drinking culture of the Hampton Roads.  Oh, and they let my neighbor's band play there, which is pretty cool.

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  Posted on 07.24.08 Jane M.

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