Union Jack’s

How I heard of this place: We moved in next door to Ballston Common Mall and there was Union Jacks, not hard to miss.
Type of cuisine: Pub and Bar fare. Sliders to Reuben’s, soups, salads, pizzas, burgers, and entrees like fish & chips, skillet cottage pie, bangers & mash, ribs, chicken curry and pasta.
Ambiance: (Never having been inside Union Jacks at the Ballston Common Mall), I’m unable to speak to the restaurant ambiance at this time. Although, the website may give a pretty good idea of the loud red and yellow entrance to the brick-​walled space full of dark wooden chairs set against burgundy-​colored tables with tablecloths.)
What I ordered: Union Jacks was offering our apartment complex a happy hour of our own. In the lobby, they served us colorful tortilla chips (the red ones are not spicy) with spinach & artichoke dip, ¼ of a banger (sausage) in a bun and a bite-​sized square of bread pudding with a caramel-​rum sauce.
What I loved: The gooey-​ness and what I know to be cheesy-​ness of the spinach & artichoke dip.
Why I loved it: Conveniently located… in our apartment lobby!
Cost: Average ($ 4-​$ 10 for Pub Snacks)

& they are closed after several health code violations… Need we say more?

Union Jack’s is pretty much exactly what you’d expect. The food is mostly fried, good, and will eventually kill you. At night, it smells like fermenting urine. The smell is to be expected with dollar beer specials; cheap beer makes you buy more, and then pee more. You have to pee somewhere, and why wait in line for a toilet when there’s 2000 square feet of perfectly pissable, semi-​porous wood (?) flooring just sitting there boringly keeping me from falling through to the center of the Earth? Pee on the floor and compost that sh*t.
Speaking of falling, when I was there two weekends ago, a guy danced so hard that he fell down and couldn’t get back up. The paramedics showed up with a stretcher and carted him outta there. I’d give my left nut to have been on that EMT crew. Being myself someone who has been carried off in public on a stretcher for something that was completely my own damn fault, I felt within my rights to respond by pointing and laughing hysterically. Some chick didn’t feel the same way, slapped me (in the face), and tried to give me her phone number ten minutes later (also in the face). This is a nice place to start talking about women.
What the hell is wrong with women in this city? This chick shouts her phone number at me (see? in the face.) despite me a.) clearly being a dick, b.) telling her repeatedly that I’m married, and c.) being so drunk that my eyes were bloodshot like I’d been wiping my ass with them. This city is full of unmarried sausage. Leave me the f*ck alone. Let’s move on to unmarried sausage.
Several years ago, I organized a company happy hour at Union Jacks, and this is probably what the place is best for. Organized HH service here is strangely impeccable and, in my case, delivered by an unmarried 40 year old man with a ponytail calling himself «Nitro». My point-​and-​laugh problem existed both then and now, but the service was still amazingly good despite my guffawing in his David Lee Roth-​looking face. Maybe he shat in the food or served me a glass of strained Union Jack’s floor compost instead of the Coors I asked for. Good for him.
The End.

This place stinks. Both literally and figuratively.
No thanks. Pass, go.

Two and a half stars. An extra telly in the loo for those waiting in line, and plenty more lining the bar. Soggy boring reuben, slightly starchy fries. Generic hot wings. Burger was a little underseasoned and overcooked but the pretzel roll had okay texture. Service was great but the food is pretty much what you’d expect. Pretty basic tap lineup, with one or two decent ones for the snobs. Doubt I’d be back outside of trivia.

My experience wasn’t that bad really seeing some of the horror stories on here…
I came here with a friend to get some mid evening pub fare. We had passed the place a few times, but never had gotten to eating here. When we arrived, trivia had just started which we didn’t take part of and sat in the little dining room by the hostess station.
When we ordered, they had half off burger specials which was basically the same price if you were to order a meal from Wendy’s. You definitely get a lot for your buck here when it comes to your burger on half price night which is on Mondays. After speaking with our server, she said they run a special almost every evening.
I ordered a cheese turkey burger. Surprisingly they do not charge for substitution of turkey or veggie burgers which possibly the first time ever since this. Kudos for this!!! Jason got a burger that had a fried egg on it. They prepared it very rare when he requested medium. Our server was diligent about returning and getting it back out as soon as possible. Only problem is this time around it was too well done to the point of where it was nearly burnt. You could tell they hurried on it. I mean, they were nice to return it and fix it without problem… it just sucks he actually liked the first one better since it was more flavorful. The first one was nearly raw and not cooked well enough. It would have been a health hazard if he would have ate it.
I can totally understand what Kimberly V. was saying when I saw the demographic that serves this place. A lot of North Arlington yuppies for sure. Despite this, it is still a quaint hang out which I do see myself returning to. I don’t see why I would pass up the opportunity for .50 cent wings. That’s never a bad deal!

My boyfriend and I go to Union Jack’s from time to time. Mostly, we wind up there when we don’t want to deal with the crowds at Rock Bottom (which is next door). The beer selection is decent, we can get a seat easily, and there are enough TVs that we can watch a game if we want to during dinner.
The service has been hit or miss. Sometimes we have a great waitress who is very attentive and checks on us. Other times, we’ve had it take more than 10 minutes for a waitress to show up at the table at all. Sames goes for food services — sometimes it’s out in the usual amount of time — other times, it takes forever.
The food is okay, but I never stray away from the usual burger or UK breakfast. I go with the one-​eye Jack, which has a fried egg. It’s good — usually cooked the way I ask. The amount of fries that comes with the burger varies all the time — sometimes it’s a huge pile, other times, it’s a fairly small pile.
The last few times I’ve ordered the UK breakfast, it hasn’t been served quite like it’s described. The eggs are supposed to be bird in the basket style — but they’re not — and sometimes I get an English muffin instead of toast. Not a huge deal, but disappointing when I find the birds in a basket style to be amusing.
Overall, Union Jack’s is okay and we’ll go back from time to time.

I haven’t been here on the weekends but it’s a great happy hour on Wednesdays. Dollar beers including Corona and 8 to 9 is two dollar drinks.
The food is par.

I’ve been here twice in the past week to watch soccer games that they weren’t showing at Bailey’s (go figure… Bailey’s is supposed to be a sports bar).
Both time, Union Jacks was very accommodating, put the game on whatever TVs we wanted, and put the sound on for us.
The service both times was excellent. The food is okay, but I’m not expecting a lot from them.
I’ll definitely be coming back for more games.