McGillicuddy’s Irish Pub

In spite of calling ahead for our large party, we still waited 45 minutes for our food. When the first orders came out, two people in our group were informed that the restaurant was out of fish. No fish and chips. OK
How about a Reuben? Nope. Out of corned beef. This is an Irish pub, right? OK.
Made a third choice. 30 minutes later, the dishes arrive just in time for our party to leave. We are musicians playing a gig tonight and the brass players could not eat at that point, which is why we had reservations for two hours before we play. We will be back in Montpelier, but will not be visiting McGillicuddy’s again. While the food received was tasty, there was no excuse for this snafu.

Really great food and atmosphere. Scott back in the kitchen is a great cook. Everytime I come to Vermont I make it a point stop in. I highly recommend this place.

Great environment. Great bar food and the burgers are just what you want from a burger. Menu is simple but the food is great and the beer is better! Definitely a great choice for any time of the day or night.

Great pub atmosphere. I’ve been in better, but I’ve also been in worse. They have a nice feel to them. Awesome spot to grab a drink and watch a game. The food was pretty good, just nothing that really stood out to me. I had chili and one of the burgers. I would definitely come back and try out a different burger to see if maybe I just had a dud. Definitely should check this place out, it’s a fun spot!

This is a fun place to hang out, especially on Wednesday night, when they have a team trivia event. There is a good beer selection, the food is passable bar food, and the service is very good.

Labeled itself as an Irish pub. But there is only one Irish beer: Guinness. No Irish beer. Country music playing. Bad service. Oh, and hello bad service!

Stopped here while visiting family in town. Ordered the Cali burger which comes with bacon and avacado. I asked for medium rare and got a burger so burnt it fell apart when I picked it up. It tasted absolutely gross. Fries were also overcooked and bacon was soggy. Wont be going back here.

EXCELLENT find! We visited here twice and actually went out of our way the second time! Quick service friendly staff. Blackened Blue Burger is to die for! I will be craving this place for years to come!

The worst food I have had anywhere, anytime. Eight of us went for lunch on Sunday of Labor Day weekend. We all wanted burgers. We waited 80 minutes for our order. Every burger was overcooked, dry, and as tough as shoe leather, despite orders of rare and medium rare. Although what do I expect … rare burgers don’t take 80 minutes to cook (at least they shouldn’t).
The wings were horribly dry. Even my starving college-​student daughter who will eat virtually any free food was nauseated. Speaking of nauseated, we sat at the first booth and had the pleasure of seeing a customer run out of the restaurant and throw up on the sidewalk. He then zipped right back in, hopped up on his barstool and kept eating and drinking.
On the plus side, the sweet potato fries were pretty good, the Switchback brew was refreshing, and the bartender deeply discounted our bill. But he shouldn’t have to. There are 2+ pages of burgers on the menu … that’s one thing they ought to do right.
We really wanted to like this place. We went to Three Penny Tap Room first, but they were only serving brunch. We wanted burgers. The waitress there warned us that the food wouldn’t be good, but we thought she was being a snob. But she was right. And she was parked in front of us when we left and she was happy to hit us with an «I told you so.» So now I’m telling you so. Stay away.

Rating as a traveler. Off the main drag, we came here to kill time after dinner.
Nice selection of local and craft drafts. Good service.
Not really wowed though, but I guess that was expected.

So the ‘other’ bar we visited in Montpelier on our trip around New England.
Had its positives of course!
(otherwise, why give it 5 stars)
The fun: The people watching. The girl who had her 32 ounce Monster energy drink, watching her cell phone every 3 minutes, obviously waiting for a blind date or a friend to show up. She stayed at a table alone for a good 90 minutes before finally moving to the bar and getting a drink. Ok, maybe funny, maybe tragic, maybe the 6 or 7 beers we had by this time, but we got enjoyment out of it (does this make us bad people??)
Speaking of 90 minutes… well, our group of five consisted of four from Boston (ok, Boston area-​ish — I AM in watertown, not ‘Boston), and one from Virginia.
We were going over the tap list. They had Dogfish Head 60 and 90 IPA. YUM! so one of our party (who happens to own a package store) orders the 90 IPA. Before writing it down the waitress says «well I have to warn you, because people have commented… (here we are all thinking she is going to say it has a high alcohol content for a beer)… it is $ 8.50 for one! A lot of people are surprised how expensive it is!»
Well, apparently she doesnt know a lot of places around here, $ 8.50 buys you a bud light. haha. I love small towns! (yes, The small town of Montpelier — do I have to call it a city??)
The good:
Food! (yes, it always revolves around food)
My brother got a french fry ‘sampler’ plate (yes, its a thing!)
All four of their fry types
The plate comes — it has to be 18″ x 18″ (I kid not)
sweet potato fries, steak fries, chips, cajun fries — WOW. awesome, and SO much! (we did not finish it, with five of us, although we did have other food)
Deep fried pickles — sliced, not whole pickles. very good, but like 2 POUNDS of them. HUGE! again, didnt finish
Nice atmosphere, tv’s, good space, friendly people, and great food (at least the apps). If you need a bite to eat before heading to Charlie O’s, stop here, have some apps and a beer, then bar hop!

Metal twist tie in my burger. Coffee was served medium cold. Tasted like it was brewed 6 hours ago and left on the burner too long. I suppose it’s a good place to have a Guinness stout and shoot the breeze with sports fans. I made the mistake of thinking there was some effort toward the restaurant side of the business.

Burger review:
Apparently «medium» means «burnt»…Why, oh why, can I not get a good burger in Montpelier any more? (Well, aside from Kismet and J. Morgan’s (ok, there are a few places). ‘Cuddy burgers are usually very good… not the other day though… the onion rings were good… Why are onion rings more expensive than fries to the extent that one has to add a buck 50 to the order? Are onions more expensive than potatoes? really?

We were browsing for lunch and saw their sandwich board and were very happy with our decision. We were in the mood to sit at the bar and eat; small place, good bartender. Good choice of brews including Allagash and Otter Creek.
We both chose sliders, pulled pork and buffalo chicken.
The pork was tasty but a little dry. Handcut french fries were awesome.
Buffalo sliders were a large cut of meat on very small rolls with quite a lot of bleu cheese chunks, no sloppy sauce. I loved them that way and the flavor was great. Sweet potatoe fries had a light batter on them which I could do without, but they were still very good. Although we were quite hungry, neither of us could finish our plates since the portions were quite generous. We took one slider each home as well as lots of fries.
The place isn’t fancy but it was just what we were looking for, and the rest of the menu looked good too. We’d definitely go back.

The atmosphere here is just bizarre. The bar set-​up makes it look like it’s supposed to be pretty hardcore, but then you go in the back room and there are cheap cutesy signs above the pool table that say «Caution! Leprechaun crossing!». It was almost like having my grandmother on the next bar stool.

I’m from out of town and came here in December to watch my school’s bowl game. I was very apprehensive going in as a young woman by myself when the crowd was all older men, but the staff seemed welcoming and I was not disappointed. When I asked, they changed the screen closest to me to my game and even turned off the over-​head music and put on the audio from my game. The food was just fine and the service was great. I really appreciated them going out of their way to make me feel welcome.

This place is fair at best. The beers are good and cold and there’s a good variety. The food is greasy and below average. The locals are not welcoming at all. I stop in once in a while, but it’s never my first choice.

None, and I mean none, of the burgers I have gotten here of late have been cooked correctly. Last time I got a broken half of a burger and half a piece of bacon… What is happening?

If you are looking for a place to ‘fill the hole’, this is it.
Literally. This is it. Their burgers are good, but not great. They have great promotional things like half price burgers on Sundays and free wings on Wednesdays or Thursdays (I forget). Their nachos are good, but they aren’t great. The food is good, I will give them that. but one time I went there our waitress just left and the bartender was in charge of our tab, and we were sitting at a table!
So, the food is okay, but the service is pretty terrible. Its a good place to go for sports games and drinking, maybe lunch but other than that I would rather go to The Skinny Pancake or Main Street Grill.

After coming back to this place a few more times and the food is ok. More like pub food and it has a plus because they serve alcohal but beside that it isn’t really that special.