McDaids Irish Pub & Restaurant

Downgrading for some bad service. Sat at the bar when the place was dead, asked to have the Alabama-​LSU game put on TV. Bartender put it on. But then a little while later, some people asked the same bartender to have another game put on, and she put their game on. WTF?! I was here 1^st and wanted to watch the Alabama-​LSU game!

This is my first review of a restaurant ever, and I was compelled to out of the disrespect I felt from a employee today. Firstly, I went to McDaids yesterday & I was told by an employee that the kitchen was not working because someone accidentally triggered the fire alarm. The alarm shut off the cooking appliances in the kitchen. This employee said to ask for a discount the next time I show, & say that I was at the restaurant during the shut down. I said what is your name so I can say I spoke to you about this? She said Chandler. She seemed kind enough then. However, today was the complete opposite with her. I spoke with a waitress about getting my check to reflect a discount because Chandler told me to do so because of the alarm. This waitress (whatever her name is) said let me ask about that. I saw her talk to Chandler, & about 7 minutes passed by without an update. So, the next time the waitress was near, I asked what was the update on the situation? She said she thought someone told me already and she was sorry. She said Chandler would take care of it. So I waited even longer. Finally, Chandler said she had the manager keys to give a discount, & that my waiter, Kyle was new (which she said while rolling her eyes). Chandler also added «I’ll deal with it babe» about my discount. Which is another thing I find wrong with my encounter of Chandler today. Passing blame onto another employee, and not accepting responsibility struck me as not only unprofessional, but also disrespectful to her new co-​worker. If she had the magic keys that enabled discounts, clearly she had responsibility that other employees did not.
I waited even longer after Chandler said she would deal with the discount. Finally, an employee asked me if my discount was applied. I said to my waiter, «no it hasn’t and I have been patient.» I also said that Chandler said she possessed the manager keys & she would deal with it, & I added that I didn’t see what the big problem is. Kyle apologized & said he would take care of it, & in less than a minute he did. What is amazing is how quickly that took to apply a discount. Yet my ordeal wasn’t over. Chandler appeared literally right after Kyle handed me the discounted check. Chandler took credit for applying my discount (disregard Kyle who seemed to do the work). Chandler said she applied the discount even though it was not 50% off, & it was not much of a discount. I said for college students, every little bit helps. I was biting my tongue since I could tell from her long & scanning stare at my face this whole time, that she was waiting to see how I’d react. I felt she was waiting to get a reaction from me. She had a slight smile also while staring at me. I gave cash to my waiter shortly after to finally leave the place, but Chandler actually felt like «dealing with it». She took the checkbook from Kyle to finish my payment herself. This is interesting since Chandler had to get another jab at me. She gave back change from my money, & it was $ 3 and 49 cents. She said, «I didn’t know if you wanted 50 cents and argue with me about that too, but I’d have to go in the back to get coins.» I only told her no. Importantly, I never even argued with her.
A few points about this situation. Point 1: She was the one who told me about a discount offered because of the inconvenience of the kitchen not working. If discounts are such an annoyance to apply, she shouldn’t mention discounts in the future to customers (regardless of the discounts being «not much»). Point 2: she is the one who said she would «deal with it» regarding my discount being applied, & yet after 20 minutes, she didn’t apply it. She passed my table on 2 occasions to help other customers & could not take 5 seconds to give me an update. Point 3: she was unprofessional & disrespectful towards a customer. She did not take responsibility for keeping her word of applying a discount, & instead she took credit from a co-​worker. She also downplayed the discount’s significance. As if a discount that is just a few dollars excuses her from doing her job, & also excuse what she said she would do (apply the discount). I can sincerely say that I’m not a person that enjoys arguing with other people, & I actually said next to nothing to Chandler herself to avoid confrontation. However, I’m also not the type of person that enjoys being a doormat for people to stomp on, & that is a big reason for me making this review. My mother & aunt both worked in restaurants, & I know from their stories that being a waiter/​waitress can be challenging. My mother had rude customers. So, I can sympathize with employees of restaurants. However, both persons involved should show respect. That’s part of the «Golden Rule». I also realize that this was a busy time of day. However, it seems such a simple task was unnecessarily and inexcusably delayed for so long, & with a bad attitude to boot. It being a Irish restaurant & being part Irish myself is also disappointing.

$ 5 signature cocktails special today. They have «not your father’s root beer» too! On tap Stella, Harp, Smithwick’s, Guinness, Magners Irish Cider. Chandler at the bar is friendly & funny, we will return here just to see her!!! Found a delicious 15 yr old scotch so smooth Dalwhinnie mmmm. We had a delicious smoked Gouda grilled cheese on rye (you can choose other cheeses and bread, there were also toppings you can add for a small charge), delectable tomato soup that came with a dark soda bread, the Thai-​Reland Chicken nachos sans chicken sub short ribs for an additional $ 3, HIGHLY recommend!
MONDAYS
$ 3 Magners 16 oz
$ 3 Irish Whiskey
Team Trivia 8pm
TUESDAYS
$ 7 lg burger
$ 3 local draughts 12oz
$ 3.50 Catholic school girls (vodka, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, splash Sierra mist, splash cranberry)
Karaōke at 9pm (seasonal)
WEDNESDAYS
½ priced Thai-​reland chicken nachos
½ priced wine glasses & bottles
$ 3 Hoptimist IPA 12 oz draughts
DJ dance party 10 pm
THURSDAYS
$ 2 brown bag mystery beers
$ 3 baileys Irish cream cheese cake
FREE comedy show Every LAST Thursday of every month
FRIDAYS
$ 8 beer flights 30 oz
$ 7 Irish Whiskey flights 3 oz
SATURDAY
$ 5 signature cocktails special
$ 3.50 Not Your Father’s Root Beer
SUNDAYS
$ 2 PBR 12 oz
$ 3 build your own Mimosa bar (fresh fruit purées & chilled syrups available)

Although I haven’t been back yet, I just realized that after my last review the Business Manager replied and apologized for our bad experience. I really appreciate that and will be sure to give this place another chance.

I’m a grad student at NC State and my department’s building is literally across the street from McDaids. Whenever we have a guest to the department, whether a speaker or job candidate, we generally go to McDaids after the days events for a drink. And none of us like coming here. We basically only come here because we have a colleague who uses a wheelchair and Mitch’s isn’t wheelchair accessible.
The staff generally have no clue what is going on. This past visit, an employee close to tears demanded her manager tell her what she did wrong right in front of our table. It usually takes forever to get your check or even a glass of water. Maybe we only come here on days when the drink specials aren’t for my beverages of choice, but I find the drinks to be way overpriced.
Between the clueless and incompetent staff and overpriced drinks, I would never come here independently.
To be fair, I can’t review the food. The menu isn’t vegan-​friendly and we only ever come here for drinks.

Awesome food and cool people!!! Must come and hangout at the bar and have some «fish and chips». Also you can never forget the great Irish whiskeys they have.

Being in the area I have tried this place a couple to many times. With disappointment every time. I will say the first time my girlfriend and I went in we had a pleasant time. But now it’s to the point we’ll never return.
With bad attitude employees to watching them marrying liquor bottles, and a disappointment on the food. One of the last times I was in before this, the bartender treated his other coworkers with disrespect. Finding out that an employee was having a party there that night the bartender was acting like it was gonna be a big deal that 20 people were coming into the bar when there was literally 3 people there to begin with, (and this being a saturday night at 7pm). Every time I have been in there there’s only been one waiter or waitress on and if they were to get busy they can’t handle it. I will say the server we had last time was very attentive and it was busy for it being a snow day.
One of the biggest disappoints was ordering a whiskey on the rocks and finding out it was an additional 2 $ for it being on ice, and I can say they charged for the ice because there wasn’t hardy any whiskey in the glass. it was watered down by the time it was given to us. The menu in general is a headache trying to figure out what has an additional charge is and what isn’t. The menu looks like a 3 year old wrote it.
For anyone that lives close and is looking to go out to a bar please save your money and spend it on something better than McDaids, this place deserves to be shut down and not have any business. We will never return and make sure to tell people not to eat or drink there, especially for the bartenders attitude the curly hair guy who thinks he’s better than everyone else.
Hope this helps make your decision! Don’t eat or drink here!
And I forgot I watched a father and son walk out because he was gonna be charged a ridiculous amount of money to add another piece of fish to his fish and chip plate and no one was being helpful or caring about it.

This place is okay. The food is pretty good, but nothing overly impressive. I can’t really say much other than that. The waitress we had was nice, but she didn’t really seem to care to be there.

I had a reservation for the private room and without notice when we got there they had decided to cancel our reservation for a party of 20. They were rude about it and the servers were impolite. I wonder why people who are not friendly end up in a people business? The food was bad and the place seems like commissary at Litchfield. This place is only good for college students drinking and eating greasy French fries.

We came in for dinner on a Sunday night. The place was pretty empty except for the bar area where people were watching football. There was no hostess, we looked around and almost walked out when the hostess came from the bar area with her phone in hand, texting. She walked up to the hostess stand, finished her texting, then asked us how many. Did that really happen? Yes, yes it did.
Our server overheard me ask my husband if that really just happened? He was very helpful but we waited almost fifteen minutes for a beer and glass of wine. The server was very apologetic and throughout the course of the night very helpful.
We ordered the Cottage Pie and Braised Pot Roast. The food was on point, very good, good portions, decent prices.
I want to see a good place on Hillsborough succeed, but they have got to have some management present. I only saw the one server and bartender the rest of the night.

A good place to hang out for NC State students, just steps from D H hill library. I had lunch here with a friend. We order the cottage pie and slice corned beef. Both very delicious. The beef is very well cooked and very soft. The pie is made by potato and has beef inside, yummy!

I took the family for lunch hoping for great Irish food. We were disappointed. No classic Irish stews, the Ruben was marginal and the lunch special salad was the size of a small side salad.
The service was good. And the atmosphere was nice though there were a lot of flies.
If on Hillsborough St there are better, less expensive places for lunch.

Actually really good! Waitress was a bit off and the dessert was expensive but overall the food was fantastic!
I had Thai risotto and my friends tried the Reuben and the burger. All were great. Would recommend to a friend.

Nothing makes Husband happier than a restaurant with «pub» or «tavern» in the name. So when a Groupon came out for this pub, I knew I had to purchase it. Sure enough, Husband was asking to go right away, so off we went to Hillsborough Street on this hot Saturday afternoon.
Am pleased to report that parking for free on the street was no problem. Am assuming most of the students have scattered. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to this part of Hillsborough Street, and it’s looking a bit run-​down, but then there is this McDaid pub oasis that is worth trudging through the college desert to find.
We pretty much had the place to ourselves for awhile, which is a shame, because it was really good! Dana was our server, and she treated us right. Camel Husband is hard to keep hydrated, and she managed to do so. We both had unsweetened iced tea, but Saturday is $ 5 drink day. You can pick from their specialty drinks for $ 5. Husband tried a cherry whiskey one that had Dr. Pepper in it. (uh, to each his own, but he liked it okay). I had to try a Bloody Arse. Hah, who could resist a vodka drink with that name? It involved an orange vodka with ginger beer and grenadine. I would have liked it a lot better, I think, without all the ice that watered it down. Both of us were glad we didn’t pay the regular $ 8 price for them, but still they were decent.
Now the FOOD… uh, Husband insisted (okay, perhaps I was the one that noticed them) on the pimiento cheese fries. These were even better than described: «Hand Cut French Fries topped with house pimiento cheese topped with chopped bacon and scallions.» The bacon was excellent quality and there was cheese sauce and cheese, pimiento cheese… cheese on cheese and it was beyond rich and way too good! (see drool-​worthy pic) Fortunately Husband ate most of this. I was trying to pretend that the hour long Pump class I had gone to earlier was going to ward off the evil fat calories, but finally had to say what-​the-​heck and enjoyed every amazing bite.
Meanwhile, I had to try a small order of the 2 Gingers Whiskey Wings. These are «Irish Smoked Wings tossed in 2 Gingers Whiskey Sauce» (think honey and whiskey)…smoky, sticky and finger-​lickin’ good. Husband doesn’t do bones, so I was on my own, which meant taking some home. Made for a perfectly respectable dinner later. Highly recommend these to wing lovers!
Now, we had to do our $ 30 Groupon best (couldn’t include alcohol), so for our mains, I chose the Boston Bibb Salad. And Husband chose the Guinness Braised Short Rib Sandwich. Both of these were excellent! Husband was finally feeling the rich fries pinch, so he only ate half of his sandwich. For a dollar extra he loved the side salad. Both of us loved how they grill the red onion that goes in salads.
There is so much more to explore at this Pub… from family platters, to brunch, lunch specials, trivia, and comedy that we will so be going back!

I can’t believe I forgot to write a review for this. I LOVE this place. Has become my go to place for food or just a beer. At this point i’ve had practically everything on the menu food wise and beer wise and i’ve definitely had all of their whiskey.
Please give this place a shot even if you’ve been here before! They’ve improved even since I started going there

A chill Irish Pub… conveniently located downtown Raleigh. Good food — but nothing mind blowing that I saw on the menu. I went with the curried chicken salad sandwich and it was surprisingly delicious — great flavor and texture. The waitress was very sweet. Good hamburgers too. Definitely give the blue cheese Mac and cheese side a go if you’re not calorie counting of course :)

After more visits, I am updating my review for three reasons:
1) The staff are very friendly and accommodating, particularly Rachel at the bar — she’s great!
2) After trying more of the menu items, the good is quite good.
3) They are trying to bring more of a happening scene to Hillsborough St., which I appreciate. Especially trivia on Thursdays!

Meh– it’s just okay. I much preferred the gastro-​pub/​bar food done properly that Porters offered. This seems to be just another bar aimed at the college students across the way. Food isn’t anything to write home about and neither is the beer selection.

I would really give this place 3 and a half stars, but that’s not an option. McDaid’s looks almost identical to Porters. It appears they kept most of the same furniture, except the bar stools are mix and match. Walked in today and we were greeted by a super friendly hostess and seated immediately. I was happy she put us near the bar, as there were a few families down in the restaurant section. The bartender was our server and did a good job.
When we looked at the menus, the first thing we noticed were the high prices. The sandwich prices were par for the course nowadays I guess, but everything else just seemed high for what it was. $ 12 for fish and chips? I’ll pass. Ordered the corned beef and cabbage, as the picture they had online for it looked absolutely delicious. I figured at $ 14 it would be just about the same as the picture. I was wrong. The corned beef was delicious, but there was no cabbage. They had substituted brussel sprouts for the cabbage. Yuk! The carrots were undercooked. On the plus side, the sauce was great and they didn’t put too much on the food.
They had $ 2 beer specials which is great. Didn’t have one today, but definitely will in the future. I’ll be back to McDaid’s, but hopefully in the meantime they tighten up a bit. I’m sure any negatives were due to the fact they opened just about a month after Porter’s closed.

This pub is the most recent addition to Hillsborough St, and everyone at State is celebrating — the Irish style.
I came for lunch with a friend and had the McDaid’s burger, it was pretty good and quite big — I almost didn’t finish my plate. They also have different options of food if you feel like eating healthy. The view is quite pleasant, you can choose to sit outside and enjoy the view of campus just across the street, adequate for a Fall afternoon.
Their beer selection, of course includes Guinness, and a couple other European beers and ciders (mostly Irish, English and German). So if you want to enjoy the EuroCup or perhaps watch the Irish Rugby Finals while drinking a proper Irish beer, this should be the place to be.