Kildare’s – Newark

If they didn’t go out of business in Newark DE and leave me with $ 92 in gift cards which I won’t go to any of their other restaurants, I probably would have given them four stars, as their beer is good but their food to be a lot better.

We waited ~30 min to get served today. Slow service is typical here, but today was the worst. Food is mediocre for the price.

This was my first and last time here. if I could give it a zero I would. The entrance smelled like puke, the inside smelled like puke, and it was 1000 degrees. I’m unclear on why we even had one drink, we should have ran the other way. I guess we were hoping the smell would go away? Wishful thinking… we couldnt get out of there fast enough.

Came here once when it first opened and had a fantastic burger. Came back just recently for a drink and the entire place smelled of puke. Now it was St P day weekend so we did expect to be the oldest in the bar but it was just disgusting. The only reason it gets a 2 is due to the burger i had a few years ago. Even the girl at the door told us people were coming in covered in puke. Gross.

This place is horrible. Service was beyond slow. Warm beer was just the start of a subpar evening. We placed our dinner orders and over ½ hour later 6 of 7 dinners arrived, although the server had no idea who ordered what. Hamburgers were undercooked and uninspired. The 7^th dinner arrived 15 minutes after the others. We had to hunt down our server just to get water refills. In short, you are wasting your time and money going to this dump.

This place is a dump. My friends and I were visiting for Alumni weekend and only stopped in because the line for Grotto’s was out the door. Upon entry, we were met with tacky décor and non-​existent service. We waited 10 minutes for a bartender and then promptly left. I would give 0 stars if that were an option.

I remember when this place first opened and it was a hit. Everything was new, they had clothing regulations (no white t’s, no male boots, etc), and it was a little more classy than the other local bars on Main Street in Newark, DE. Over the past few years, I feel that this place has gone down hill. For example, the bathrooms are disgusting now. Even the manager there was not that welcoming when I brought in a small party for them.
The food itself is actually pretty good though. I like their shepherd pie and Guiness stew.
The last time I ate here, it took 20 minutes to get one drink though. My friend ordered the same drink and they looked like different colors and were not filled up to the same level.
This place is better if you just want to go dancing; they have good DJ’s come in on Friday and Saturday nights.

Stopped in here Thursday night after work with a coworker. Pretty nice, spacious bar. Our bartender, Chris, was great. Very attentive, along with the rest of the bar staff. The food menu looked yummy. I had eaten before I got there other wise I would have tried a few things. Maybe next time! I don’t know if it was just me or if the place was actually hot inside. I would have liked for the AC to have been turned up just a little. Other then that I had a great time!

Do not go to Kildare’s Newark. The beer is room temperature, and there’s no air conditioning in the place. It’s sweaty, smelly, and awful.
Trying this bar again, I heard they’ve made many improvements, stay tuned for a new review.

A good college bar. The Friday happy hour is excellent — a wide variety of draft pints, including some craft beers, for $ 2. At other times, the drink prices are fine but unexceptional. During the school year, it can get packed late on weekend nights, but that’s expected on a college campus.
As a restaurant, it is decent. The food is fine — unexceptional, standard bar fare. They have good deals on food during the week, and, if you stick to the specials, dining here is inexpensive. Service at the bar is usually pretty quick, but if you sit down, even in off-​peak hours, expect to be here 1.5 hours or so.

Is this a bar or a club? It tries so hard. Virtually impossible to have fun here unless you’re day drinking but make sure to leave before the crowd shuffles in. This place attracts the most annoying people. Cool place if you’re a 19 year old sorority girl with a fake ID I guess.

Great food, and the dancing was great! It’s also great for groups. However, our service did have a little bit of an attitude towards our group, but other then that I would return!

I’m updating this because I went back a few other times and ordered different things. I got the Dubliner turkey burger which was great. My friend got something that came with chipotle mayo, and THAT WAS GOOD. T’was the best chipotle mayo I’ve ever tried. The wings are awesome as well. I still wait for what feels like forever but, I’m happy because it was always worth it :)

We have been there before with no problems, but this time was a hot mess. Went there for dinner on a Sunday around 4:45, with our 2 small children. Place was dead, with maybe 4 occupied tables. Asked the hostess for a high chair. «I’ll see if i can find one». Really? She brought us to our table, and then said «Oh, I guess I should bring you some children’s menus.» Ya think?
Waitress took our order, and offered children water or lemonade. Ordered lemonade. Waitress came back. Out of lemonade. Really?
Ordered onion soup, a Buffalo shrimp salad and Corned Beef/​cabbage for adults, a slider and a hot dog for the children.
45 minutes went by with nothin’. Waitress comes back …“I am sorry, we don’t have hot dogs, well actually, we had some but they went bad, and we didn’t want to serve you bad hot dogs ssssoooooooo, you need to order something else.” Ya think?
Ordered a 2^nd slider for our now very cranky kiddos, though the thought of the food possibly rotting in their fridge definitely made me want to leave.
Other tables around us are getting peeved at their lack of food as well. One gentleman heads back to find a waitress himself.
Waitress brought onion soup. Tasted as though they poured an entire vat of salt into one crock.
20 more minutes went by. Waitress comes by, «Your food should be out in seriously a minute, I promise». Really? Finally, food comes. Luke warm, slapped together, sad. Corned beef also tasted as though they had poured an entire vat of salt onto it. «Salad» was a bunch of buffalo shrimp slopped onto a pile of iceburg lettuce. Literally cannot believe that pathetic dinner took over an hour to throw on our plates. We eat it, because at that point the kiddos NEEDED food. Waitress comes back «would y’all like some dessert?» Really?
NO.
Will never be going back. It is a shame, because all previous experiences were good. Not sure if restaurant changed hands or if there was new staff. Absolutely no excuse for that shoddy of an experience in an almost empty restaurant.

Real good Irish musician. Food was good. Service was good. The place just seemed dead though.

I don’t know what this place is like as a bar, I don’t know what kind of crowd comes here, I don’t know what kind of music they play, I don’t even really know what is on the menu. All I know is that they serve a full Irish breakfast here, which is okay in my book.
Breakfast included bacon rashers (a double portion in this instance because they were out of sausage), fried eggs, white pudding, black pudding, thick cut toast, and a fried tomato.
This was my first time trying black pudding (blood sausage), I expected it to taste metallic, but it only had a hint of iron taste to it. I will definitely order it again.
Server was in training, and friendly enough to make you forget how green she was.

It’s a bar in a college town. i don’t think anyone in their right mind should expect great service during their happy hour (Fridays from 6 – 8)…that is probably the only time i go to get two or three drafts (a decent selection for $ 2 each) and BFG wings/​loaded fries. Other than that, I don’t find this restaurant to be anything special.
Just a tip: expect the food to come around 20 – 30 minutes and go up to the bar to order drinks.

I don’t go there for the food or the crowd… I usually go for the 2 dollar any draft happy hour. It is good in that sense. When I’ve gotten food, its always been ok but nothing special… pub food. I’d recommend the BFG wings. They usually have good beers, beers that are great for two dollars, and sometimes you can find a real gem, BUT almost every time I ask for the gem on the list, they are either out or that beer just was never there. I don’t really understand. So basically, don’t believe that giant beer list they give you because that thing hasn’t been updated for at least a week and a half. When the obnoxious crowd starts filtering in, that’s the time to head out. Simply put, hit up the happy hour from 6 to 8 for decent beers for 2 bucks, but don’t be surprised if the beer you wanted is not there.
PS. I got a 5 dollar bbq chicken flatbread once… I’d do it again.

Happy Hour Review
9.99 Fish n Chips and Seasonal Dogfish = :)
The fish was surprisingly large… usually its the other way around (lotta fries, little fish). Almost got to the point I was a little bit tired of the fish and needed tartar sauce to finish it. I dunno, for some reason it turned into mush at the end and blended together with the paper which made it difficult to eat.
$ 2 Seasonal Beer is WHAT’S UP. Yum.
Mussels were mediocre at best… a lot, but not anything special.
I went in during UD’s winter term so it was horribly understaffed. wait times were typical. Management only refunded $ 1 in parking fees… if I just dropped more than 13 $ at your establishment… pay for my parking. Poor management = –1 star.

I’m dropping a star because I’ve been back here twice since I’ve written my previous review and found the service to be horribly slow during non-​busy hours. I did not realize this the first time since I went on a friday night when the place was pretty busy.
The second time I went here, it was around 4:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday for their burger special. There was just my party of 4 and 2 other tables in the restaurant. My party all ordered burgers. We were famished but the burger took 20 minutes to come out. Seriously? 20 minutes for first burger to come out? The others came out about 5 minutes after. I still really enjoyed their food so I came back for a visit the third time.
The third time was on a Sunday evening around 6PM. Again there were barely any other patrons in the restaurant. My friend and I got our food in time but the waitress was horribly inattentive (did not come around to ask how we were doing). When it came time to pay the bill, the waitress forgot to pick up our check. We sat there for 12 minutes watching her setting new tables and straightening out chairs wondering why she had neglected us. We got impatient so we went up to the hostess stand to have the hostess ring us up. The waitress apologized and said she thought she had already rung us up. Seriously though? What were we doing there sitting there for almost 15 minutes with no food? She only had to wait on 2 tables in the the other wise empty restaurant and she still messed up.
Seriously, this restaurant needs to work on better service during slow hours when inattentive server is definitely more apparent and inexcusable!