Shamrock Tavern

I have been here a couple times. Always fast and friendly service!
Only accepts cash but they have an ATM available. Food seems decent like any other bar food.
Nice place to come for a relaxing drink.

All the grinders have been insane, chicken bacon had me drooling. We will be back for more aoon.

Great place to kick back and have a drink. Ordered a bloody mary, and the young man bartending made me one of the best ones I have ever had a few months ago. It was his first bloody mary for a customer. At first, I was thrown off by the carrots in it, but the flavor and texture of the carrot along with a sip of the bloody mary was very good. Perfectly balanced.
Kudos to this young man, I will definitely go back for another unique drink.
Also, I ordered the fried platter. The fried mac n cheese is great.

Ok… I was a bartender for 20 years. I never review places I go. I consider myself a Unilocal voyeur. But I gotta say. The food and service here is amazing. Where else can you go where the owner himself is cooking your food and in his downtime chatting it up with you. That goes a long way with me. After 10 minutes of being here we have been made to feel like regulars. Which we will be. To the reviewer who bitched about only being beer and wine? They have alcohol now but you need to look up the definition of tavern. Or perhaps you are freshly 21 and still expect every business to cater to only your needs leaving a bad review because of your stupidity should be taken down. I am fine with the fact it’s cash only. Credit card companies screw small businesses. Would you have a problem handing over 4% of your money? I bet you would. Bottom line. Wife and I split a ½ pound burger with tots. Best burger hands down. So tired of chips becoming the normal side for a burger here in Tacoma. Everything is on point at the shamrock. Can’t wait to try more food.

Hands down the single best cheeseburger I have ever had in my life. Dave’s classic onion cheeseburger is only available on Fridays. I first had it 15 years ago when I lived in Tacoma.
Huge meaty burger topped with cheddar cheese and grilled onions on a soft sesame seed bun with mayo and mustard. Unsullied by lettuce, tomatoes, or anything else. It’s cheeseburger in its most pure form. Highest quality fresh ingredients you can savor. I don’t know what magic they work on these simple ingredients but the end result is unmatched perfection.
Perhaps you think I exaggerate or am an inexperienced burger eater. Not so. I’ve been searching for a better (or even equal) burger for years. It does not exist. I’ve told friends about this and they’ve joined me in testing out the various acclaimed burgers around Seattle.
Yesterday I returned to the Shamrock to just find out whether or not they still make theses burgers. They do! And the very cool bartender even made some for us even though it wasn’t Friday!!! My hero!
I was afraid that my memory might have built up into some impossible standard. Not so. It was exactly as I remembered. Perfect.
If you want to try this burger be warned:
1) it’s huge. You might want to share it with a friend.
2) you will be haunted by the memory of this tasty burger
Ok burger aside: friendly pub, great service, great menu with fresh homemade ingredients, two pool tables, juke box.

Seriously the best food around. Dave’s grinders and French dip sandwiches are the best I have ever had (outside of a real philly steak and cheese from the east coast), and I don’t even typically like French dip! For those that are pissed that they only serve beer and wine, they do now serve other alcohol. It’s a little small, but nice inside, and sometimes service can be slow (have a small kitchen), but totally worth it!!!

This place doesn’t look like much from the street but the beer is ice cold, the service is friendly and the pizza is killer as in killer good! I would eat there several times per week if I could.

Such good food!!! Grinders and pizza oh my, and tacos are delicious! Cash only bar but not to worry, there is an ATM. Shoe string fries are my favorite!!!

I love this place. The food takes a long time, and it’s understaffed understandably. But the food it out of this world. The best French Dip on the planet (with Swiss, and Pepperoncinis) the Italian grinder, the fries are so addictive. I have to admit, I’ve never tried the pizza. The beer is ice cold and served in any size you could want. Bring cash they don’t take credit or debit. And chill out, your food will come, and the server is busy. Pool tables, clean bathrooms.

Like someone else had said, the inside looks better then the outside here! (Perhaps they should work on the outside making it nicer?) Good selection of beer here, and its not a dive bar as it appears to be from the outside.

My boyfriend and I were out cruising around one day bar hopping and ran into this place. The bartender was awesome!!! He chated it up with us talking about his trip from oregon but had such a great attitude for being so tired… because of his amazing attitude and service along with his pours (stiff drinks) we decided we were going to make that one of our local spots… The next time we went the owners were working and he was cooking… Which was our first time seeing the food! Huge portions… So as we were sitting there I started a conversation with the owners wife and was telling her why we were there… Tried explaning how she had a wonderful employee and he was what brought us back… Some how she took offense to this… We shrugged it off laughing cause we assumed she just miss understood. so the next time (3^rd time) we went there we decided we were going to try the food. I orderrd water and my boyfriend order a sky and soda he usually drinks stoli but they don’t carry it. Long story short the owner looks at my boyfriend and says «who goes to a bar and orders water. I would shoot myself in the head… Uugghh!!! Some nerve. So my boyfriend politely corrects him as to what kind of beverage he is consuming. The owner not only does not apologize but also rolls his eyes!!! Hey jack butt even if it was just water we sri orderrd food. Rather than insult your customers you should do what ever you can to keep them!!! We spend up words of a couple hundred dollars!!! When we go out. Your loss… We will not ever be back!!! Hey me cool bartender hit us up when you leave that dump

Fuck those assholes and their shitty service! Rudest people I’ve ever met in business. I won’t even piss on the embers when that shithole burns down.

I have been here a few times so far and I will continue to visit in the future. It’s a small bar but it gets the job done. This is not a girls night out place unless you are looking for a good Irish beer on tap which I highly suggest Guinness on tap yummy. And also order a reuben sandwich they make their own corn beef there and its absolutely delicious.

I love the Shamrock! They serve hands down, the best french dips in town, if your looking for a hiney kissing and hard A than goto the Farreli’s chain down the street! The Shamrock has kick ass food a killer juke box, and if your lucky enough to encounter Diane as your waitress, she’s a spicey no nonsense lady thats been slingen beers at the shamrock for nearly 20 years, this place has been in business for over 80 years and is owned and operated by the same family that opened it back then! even surviving a terrable fire a few years back, if you go in early on a week day, the owner herself will serve you an ice cold beer and offer you some of her sugar free cookies, she up there in her years and spicey, just like my favorite beloved waitress Diann.

I’ve loved this place ever since I lived in the PLU neighborhood as a soldier stationed at Fort Lewis. The owner (and his ever-​present dog!!) are incredibly nice and personable and, even following a year long deployment to the Middle East, remembered our groups when we walked in. Awesome.
On slow nights, you can play beer pong with friends and fellow patrons and enjoy some really delicious «pub fare». I personally found servers to be funny and easy to relate to. Unlike a lot of pubs/​bars in Tacoma, they obviously relish talking to patrons, sharing jokes and being silly.
Like a lot of reviewers said, this place has the look of a «dive bar» but it’s really not. It’s a classic looking place inside with an obvious sense of humor (check out the wall of vomit pictures lol). This is a perfect place for a relaxing drink with good friends, a safe place to let loose and have a good time without worrying about looking «cool» and being ridiculously pretentious…
come on, dude, you live in Tacoma.

Let me start by saying, I am only giving this place 2 stars because the bill was ridiculously cheap, otherwise it deserves a 1.
I was SOOOO disappointed!!! I moved to this area last spring and noticed this cute little tavern that was always PACKED full of people! It looked pretty decent on the outside and by the look of the crowds nothing too rowdy, a nice little place to have a drink or 2?
After having dinner for a friends birthday we wanted a night cap and were thinking of a place to go and a couple of us agreed on the Shamrock! I was super excited to finally check this place out!!!
Here’s were it goes down hill:(
We walked into the establishment and from the outside it looked like a decent crowd but nope the place was half empty. As we found some tables to sit at, we were a group of 6, this guy who is dressed in a dirty T, sweats and baseball caps asks up for ID and what we want to drink. We start to tell him what we would like as he then decides to tell us that they ONLY serve BEER and WINE:(WTH!!! boooooooo!!! we decide to have a drink since we are here and after he attempts to tell the ladies what kind of wine they have (he had no idea what Pinot was, SMH) we order 3 glasses of Riesling, 3 guiness…
As we get our drinks, he decides to let us know that they only take CASH! I never carry cash:(oh but we have an ATM, which I’m sure had a heavy surcharge fee! After chatting and deciding were to go next we wait for the server, who is also the cook and come to our surprise, the bill was $ 16! Maybe that’s why it’s we see so many people in here? Close to PLU and cheap beer and wine… oh and they have Beer Pong on Thursday nights too:(

This might sound crazy, but I liked the Sham better B4 it was remodeled. The joint had character now its just a mini-​Ram. The shuffleboard-​gone. The little rinky-​dink kitchen put out some great food. Now its pretty run-​of-​the-​mill and alot spendyer. The college-​age server actually said «Do you need anything else, so I don’t have to haul my ass over here again.» Wouldn’t want to make him walk that 5 whole steps from the bar to our table now, would I?

I tell ya what, the Shamrock Tavern is one of the nicest speculated dive bars I’ve ever stepped foot in, regardless of how from the outside the building looks like an old, dilapidated shanty on Pacific Avenue South. Nicely tiled floor, wooden wainscoting along the walls, un-​torn and perfectly matched barstools and booths — this place is simply gorgeous. Even the large, perfectly polished bar came equipped with two grand, brass beer taps hosting about five yummy micro handles, five cheap domestics, and a Guinness Stout.
Full menu, but well-​known for their delicious Grinders at $ 7.95.

A good neighborhood bar. It is mostly busy during the school year as it is a favorite of the students that go to PLU. Great beer, great atmosphere and the food is really good too.
It really has that neighborhood bar feel, where you can tell many of those at the bar are people that have been coming to this joint for years and years.

Great Food. It doesn’t even qualify as bar food, honestly. The beer prices have gone up since the last reviewer below me, but they are in line with the rest of the bars and taverns in the immediate area. 5 domestics, 5 micro’s on tap, several kinds of bottles in the fridge. The sweet old lady who owns the place still works there every day during the day shift when the old folks hang out and drink their ‘animal’ beer. Friday nights and Saturday nights are the busiest, but either come with the dinner crowd, or come after 10 if you want to be around other patrons besides me sitting at the end of the bar.