Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Good Nachos and Slow Service at Tommy Doyle's

I’ve been to Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square several times before – mainly just for drinks. I love the Irish pub vibe, proximity to the other bars and restaurants in Kendall, and the economical prices. However, I never had dinner (or a full meal, for that matter) at Tommy Doyle’s until Friday night – and I have to say, I was pretty disappointed.

Let me start off by saying I didn’t expect a mind-blowing meal at this place – but I did expect decent pub grub and service.

We started off our meal on a high note with the Nachos Grande ($8.99), which were actually very good.


The cheese and toppings were generous and well layered throughout, and the side of homemade guacamole ($2.50) was fresh and tasty. I washed my nachos down with a pint of Sam Adams Octoberfest, which was good, but tasted like the keg line might have been a little dirty.


I wasn’t super hungry, so for my meal, I ordered the Paddy the Greek salad ($9.99), which was a bit overpriced for what it was.


The olives, feta and cherry tomatoes were abundant throughout, but the salad was dripping with dressing. Next time, I’ll be asking for it on the side.

Overall, our meal wasn’t terrible, and we ended up staying for a few more beers and met up with some more friends who were in the area. Again, I like the vibe at Tommy Doyle’s. The real bummer, though, was the service – although it was friendly, it was painfuily slow, and we had about five waiters total throughout the evening. The place also wasn’t crowded, so there was no real excuse as to why the service was so slow and disorganized. I had to go up to the bar twice just to get someone to come to our table (quick side note: we weren’t sitting in the dining room – we were at a high top table in the bar area).

Tommy Doyle’s is definitely a fun place to grab a drink or two and enjoy a quick snack (I’d definitely go back for the nachos), but just be warned that you might be waiting a while to get anybody to come to your table.

Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub on Urbanspoon


2 comments:

  1. We went for lunch once during the work week (I was off, hubs was taking a lunch break), and I was pretty amazed at how incredibly slow the service was, especially because a lot of the people eating lunch seemed like business people with limited time.
    Also, very bad about the potentially dirty keg line! I have gotten sick from that before.

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  2. Meghan, Sorry to hear you had a similar experience to mine! And yes, I've gotten sick from that before too - so gross!

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