Slainte Irish Pub

I think someone new is running the kitchen and its so good! I stopped in on a little bar crawl with my friends and we ordered a pizza and legs. Holy crap, both were so good! We’ll be back for the food.

I hate to have to give my first one star rating to a bar because I am not very picky as it relates to bars. However in this case it is very much warranted.
My original plan was to hold a small birthday gathering at this place last night. I even called and requested a couple of tables to be set aside, to which I was told «that shouldn’t be a problem». Ok cool. When I arrive, not only is the place at about 15% capacity, if that, but not one table had anything on it indicating it was reserved. Considering how sparse the crowd was (granted it was relatively early, 9:30pm or so), I let it slide and started settling into a big booth area. Nonetheless that was still strike 1.
Then I go to the bar to get a menu. According to their website they had pizza, wings, etc… standard bar food. I was told by the lone bartender on duty that the kitchen was closed but I could order from a restaurant down the block and have it delivered there. Um, what? Strike 2.
I then asked if I could get a pitcher of beer (also listed on their website and supposedly on special that night), and the bartender tells me «we don’t serve pitchers anymore». Ok, seriously… what? Strike 3. I started texting people that we were changing bars because I was already done with this place and wasn’t going to waste the night or let my friends waste money there.
Icing on the cake is I decided to just get a couple beers to kill time until more people arrived so we could pick the next bar together. I told the bartender, who has no business in the service industry, what I wanted (two Bud Light, bottles) and then proceeded to wait almost 10 minutes while she darted back and forth behind the bar doing other stuff and apparently on a mission to find salt. I just walked out at that point, I had seen all I could see and just wanted to get out of there.
For this place to be in such bad shape on a Saturday night, in the summer, on a strip like that, I’ll be surprised if it’s still around by Spring time. This place is in desperate need for a visit from Bar Rescue… or the owner should sell it to someone who understands the value of that location.
Never going anywhere near that dump again.

Good beer selection, hit this place as part of a pub crawl so did not get to sample much. Really nice interior though.

Do you like racist owners? Small range of beers? Creepy middle-​school-​lunch-​room vibe? Well, come on down to Slainte’s!
On a strip filled with Irish bars, every bar must have a different vibe in order to attract choosy customers. Not satisfied with a good menu (like Fat Duck), a good beer selection (like Chalk), or awesome South Side dads who will buy you shots randomly (Doc Ryan’s), Slainte’s goes for those that want to feel like they’re at an urban KKK rally.
This all stems from when my group and I walked into the bar, and two of us ordered beer. Unfortunately, we could only choose from Guinness, Redd’s (mmm, diabetes!), Miller, and Bud. The hell? Are we at a frat house? I’m surprised they didn’t have Hurricane Ice on tap.
The owner (sitting in a corner with his weird friends, probably gossiping about which One Direction member they liked the best) stomped over to our table, called one of my friends a racial slur, and demanded that my friend leave, but the rest of us stay.
I’m sorry, I didn’t know a 1950’s Freedom Rider experience came alongside our tepid Guinness. Which, by the way, was poured incorrectly.
We immediately left. I’m so disgusted that a place like this exists in Forest Park.

love that there is more than one ladies room conveniently located on the first floor. very clean. my friends and i go to see sports on the many televisions, and the food and food specials are great! the service is always friendly and parking is not bad considering the location. really enjoy this place!

2 for the two item sampler. Services sucks. Although this isn’t the ideal place for a martini their batista skills suck.
Beer and fries only… however it might take you forever to get those items even on a slow night

It’s just a typical shot and beer bar. The only thing Irish about it is the name. Pretty cheap, though I only drink beer at places like these so I can’t testify to the price of mixed drinks relative to the alcohol in them. Never saw any brawls here, though I’m not in the place on nights when it’s busy anyway. Pool tables look nice.

We go here after dinner and it was dead, which was okay with me. love that they have full sized pool tables. unfortunately the tables were very dirty and there was no brush to wipe them off. the bartender was adorable and very friendly. However, the drinks were low alcohol for the price. we ultimately ordered doubles and they were much better, but initially to pay $ 5.00 for super weak drinks and then order 2 $ 5.00 MINI shots to make the drinks worth while… if i wanted to pay out the nose for a tiny shot, well i’d go to a club in Schaumburg and get one of those test tube thingies.

Sunday football

I got a Unilocal just to tell you… run. Run far from here. The dj did not know how to transition songs, the bartenders were horrible, the crowd was full of trash. I don’t mean dirty, though trust me it was. The drinks were beyond over priced and they have so many problems with the crowd they use plastic cups for every drink I ordered. I don’t wanna say wow… but wow. I am not saying I hope it closes, I am begging that it gets shut down. Please close. I play to every religious deity that has ever been or will be… close your doors.

The place itself is nice. Pool tables in the back, decent size bar, two woman’s bathrooms. The music playing by the dj was a give or take. Requested a song, he didn’t play it. Had to go up again and request it for him to play. No complaints about the crowd, a little bit of everyone was there.
Service was horribly slow. Many times we had to go up to the bar to get drinks. When we did get our drinks they were either lacking the alcohol, water downed or way too sweet. Cups are small.

I’ve visited this bar many times in the last several years. I’ve since quit drinking, but I enjoy playing pool here. Normally a game cost a dollar, but on Mondays and Wednesdays it’s free. I should mention that Sláinte has two full size pool tables.
There are six flatscreen TVs, so Sláinte is also a great place to catch a game.
I’ve had their wings, which are good. Above average anyway.
There’s a jukebox, so you can control the musical diet to an extent.
There are two dart boards. They look out of commission, but they might still work.
Plenty of comfortable seating, with a party room upstairs.
The crowd here is younger (21 – 35).
Sorry I can’t comment more on the booze, but I don’t drink. Ariel was a very friendly bartender, however.
Thanks Sláinte, I’ll be back!

This place has had a lot of change over the past couple of months, and it’s good change! This is where you go to dance on the weekends in FoPo, and where you can get something better than bar quality to eat during the week. I know they have a DJ a couple nights a week, but I’m not much of a weeknight bar dancer. They have free pool one night a week, pretty good specials, and some very knowledgeable bartenders (Arielle in particular). Come for a good beer, great food, and excellent conversation. Stay for the dance floor. Or at least to people watch. very worth it. This is also a pretty good place to go just to watch the game. Football, Hockey, Baseball, Soccer, it will be on.

definitely a solid 2 star place! hahah yup. This place tries, but falls very short of a good time.
their juke box sucks
there is like 1 cool bartender.
menu is generic and barely palatable.
the pool tables are ok.
they have $ 5 pitchers most nights
they have a $ 3 shelf of liquor that is only in service ½ the time.
they have the worst dj set up located on the first floor, and the dance floor is on the 2^nd floor. awkward. this lace has been pretty dead most nights for the last year and ½. It seem like young Guitos don’t even go there to bang skanks anymore. «fucking skanks». also they put up some lame signs by the front door about there being a dress code.
i’m 27 years old and the bartender carded me so fucking hard i had to tell her my address. this same bartender we used to socialize and watch Sunday football with. i have literally been coming to this bar since i moved to forest park 4 years ago. it took me this long to realize my time and money is better spend at any other place on Madison.
one visit to Slainte, there was literally a poop on the floor of the men’s room. This place is literally shitty.

We moved to Forest Park two months ago, and since we’re just a few steps away from Slainte, we were hoping that it would be our new «hangout» in the area. After three unsuccessful attempts at hanging out at this place, we won’t be returning.
I’m fairly certain that every single waitress/​bartender at this place has absolutely NO idea what they’re doing. Every time we’ve been there, we’ve had to do all of the following: 1) Walk up to the bar to ask for food menus, since we were being completely ignored, 2) Walked BACK up to the bar to place our food and beverage orders, since they continued ignoring us (both bartenders were just standing behind the bar chatting– there were only 4 tables with people and everyone was being ignored.) 3) Bussed our own tables after our empty plates (AND empty drinks) sat ignored for over 45 minutes. Again, there were only 4 other tables with people eating dinner.
There’s no excuse for completely ignoring customers. After the first time this happened, we thought it was just a fluke. After three failed attempts, we’re sad to say that we’ve had to find a new (and further away) neighborhood hang-​out. It’s a shame, because had the service been better, this would have been our go-​to hang-​out place.

My friends and I used to go here to dance on the weekends. It was always a hit or miss. Sometimes after 10 on saturday nights it was crazy and awesome. Other times there was no one there…
Also, the last few times we went, there were often creepers that would just stand on the dance floor and watch us dance.
I’d rather dance at home.

Gastropub? Seriously? That’s a joke! Serving purposely over-​salted frozen then fried tenders, wings and fries shouldn’t allow a place to be called a Gastropub. Very disappointed… We came here to watch the Bears game, ordered beers which were warm. OK, then decided to order a bucket that’s on special. Here comes the bucket, with no ice? Why offer buckets without ice? A compete joke!
Save your money.

This is listed now as a «gastropub»? That’s a big «LOL.»
It gets about as gastronomic as pretzels here.
If you come here to people watch, the place is worth 5-​stars alone. You’ll see people you went to high school with, students from the nearby colleges who can’t hold their liquor, hoodrats, nerds, pervs, hookers, bros, and maybe bums.
Now, imagine all of this on the «dance floor» upstairs, trying to get down to Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas.
Awkward? Very. I love variety, but not when fights erupt. Makes sense why cops are always in front of this place.

This isn’t an Irish pub. It’s a place for terrible dance music and Jersey Shore wannabes. I always dig an Irish pub — But, this place’s pubness stops when you walk in the door. They should rename it to something else!
The upstairs is just filthy. It didn’t help that when we first walked up, there were a group of girls brawling on the sidewalk, to which about a dozen cop cars arrived. Classy!

Slainte Irish Pub? Is that what they call this place? What the heck is Irish about it, it what I wondered the whole time I sat there.
Their menu is full of bar food like nachos, quesadillas and cream cheese poppers (maybe Ireland moved south of the border and I missed it?) The closest thing I could find to Irish fare were English fish and chips but that was next to the Greek Gyros so who knows?
They are «known» for the white chocolate martinis that they pour (again– Irish?) yet on the night I was there– Miller Lite was clearly the beer of choice. Also– Irish car bombs were actually on special and no real Irish bar would ever even put those on the menu!
Locals were flocking in, in their «bar wear” — all halters and heels and there were a couple of the guys were wearing neck chains large enough to be visible and trust me– I wasn’t very close to them. It was like an 80’s flashback (think the bar scene from that old movie Working Girl with Melanie Griffith!!)
If you are looking for some «Irish pool» to go with all the other «Irishness» in the place– there are pool tables in the back. And on some nights there is live music but the jukebox will keep you entertained on most other nights.
The service was great, though which is what got this a 3 star rating in my book. The bartender took good care of us and took the time to fill us in on what she said was a «Typical Friday night in Forest Park». She knew something about everyone in the place which was sort of scary and folksy at the same time!
If you drive– street parking is somewhat tight at night– but there is a public pay lot across the street.
If I am looking for an Irish bar– this won’t go on my list. But if I find myself again in Forest Park on a Friday night– I do know where I can go and watch the world pass by, like it’s 1988. Slainte!