The Shannon Rose

I came here for dinner on a Saturday night. It was not 5 star dining, but it was enough for me to day that it was good.
   
      We started out ordering the boneless buffalo wings, which were great. I guess that I have sensitive taste buds because almost every spicy thing I try, it is is burning hot!

  I just ordered a plain burger, definitely  nothing fancy. I recommend that If you get a burger, get it medium well because well done is very hard and dry. I love the type of bread they use for the burger, and the French fries are perfectly seasoned with salt.

The staff is very nice, but for some reason, they always seat you crammed next to everyone even when there is almost nobody at the restaurant.

In the end, the food was great, and the staff was excellent and kind. I look forward to coming back sometime.

Went here with a date and a couple of her coworkers.  Service was attentive, almost too attentive if that is a fault.  I ordered the open-faced rueben which was huge but delicious.  I ended up taking over half home.   The only reason why this place is not a 5 out of 5 was that we had to ask 4 times for water for the table.  If that is the biggest issue, than they are doing something right.

I dined here with my family a few days ago.  And the experience was thoroughly underwhelming.

I live in the area, and I'm always surprised by how packed the parking lot is at the Shannon Rose.  If they're that busy, they must be doing something right, huh?  And when I dropped by to pick up a gift card here I was very surprised to see just how much work and effort had been put into the decor.  I told my wife about it, and figured that we should get around to checking out the restaurant.

The restaurant is built around the bar.  And it definitely bears noting, because the bar is almost certainly what's driving business here, and not the food.  Be that as it may, the bar selection is very good.  However, given the number of seasonal brews that are being offered, the beer/drink menu should be up to date so that diners can find out just what those seasonal drink offerings include.

As for the food?  Frankly, it needs some work.  My wife and I shared a couple of appetizers:  the corned beef spring rolls, and the tater tots with bacon rashers and cheese.  The corned beef spring rolls were a pleasant surprise, with a mix of corned beef, potato & cabbage.  As for the tater tots?  They came to the table barely warm, and we sent them back to the kitchen.  When the replacement order came to the table it wasn't much warmer.  The cheese and bacon rashers were good, but the need to send the dish back to the kitchen was a serious disappointment.

For the entrees, I got a stuffed burger and my wife had the French dip sliders.  The sliders came across as inconsistent in preparation: some had cheese, others didn't.  And the stuffed burger with cheddar and onion got the Irish thing right, because it was surprisingly bland (aka UNDER SEASONED).

Service?  Our waitress was definitely attentive to our needs and handled the tater tot issue professionally.  But it also seemed that the restaurant was running on low staffing levels, because she was busy with a number of other tables.  When the manager came over to see how we were doing, it came across more like a due diligence call rather than to genuinely see how we were doing.

Now, remember how I mentioned the decor?  It's fantastic.  The woodwork of the bar is impeccable, and the furniture absolutely evokes the image of a pub from Ireland or Britain.  That's a great thing.  The not so good thing?  The way "SHANNON ROSE" is plastered all over the place in an overstated exercise in branding.  I can understand having pride in your business.  But the way it's been done here makes the diner think that the management is more interested in making the Shannon Rose into a national chain, ala the late Bennigans, than in providing a warm and inviting environment for dining.