The Irish Club - BRISBANE CITY

We used to visit this restaurant frequently, for both regular meals and events we booked. The food was decent, similar to typical pub fare - nothing extraordinary, but satisfying and reasonably priced. Unfortunately, we no longer frequent this place.

The Irish Club is a vibrant and welcoming place to have a meal and drinks. The location is easily accessible and the service is excellent. It can get quite crowded at times, so keep that in mind when ordering or choosing a seating area. The balcony is also a nice option.

If you enjoy classic Irish pubs, this is the place for you. The atmosphere is lovely, the food is delicious, and they have a great happy hour. They also offer a selection of tasty beers.

After many years of operation I find is very questionable the real reasons this great place was essentially run into the ground and then closed. Some official external enquiry should be made.

Went there just before Christmas for lunch and while the Bunratty bistro was serving the usual pub meals there was the addition of Asian offerings what the???? Anyway, booked in for dinner on a Friday night in January to hear a visiting band. Took some relatives with me who are mad hibernophiles (lovers of everything Irish . I warned them it was more of a pub than a fancy restaurant or club but that I had dinner and lunches there and one son had his 21st birthday there and it had always been quite good. Boy did I end up regretting that! First, I phoned to book a table for the night then a couple of days later, phoned again to add another person to our small group. The woman I spoke to couldn 't find my original booking so made a new one. (Strike 1 . A few days prior to the night, I phoned to enquire about vegetarian options available for dinner and was told, there are always a couple of choices but the staff member was unable to tell me then what they might be. OK. About an hr before we went in on the night, I phoned to check if the club still had discount parking arrangements with any of the nearby parking stations but after phoning 4 times and being put on hold or transferred to the message bank, I gave up (Strike 2 . Arrived to a confusing arrangement where the front desk was messy and unmanned and I didn 't know where I should sign my guests in. Proceeded to the Bunratty Bistro and was told, no, you need to go upstairs to the Irish Club . Well then, where the h@ll were we? Up the stairs and again, no signage, no welcome desk or anything so we headed to the bar. Two poor women were trying to manage it and were clearly flustered as they were running out of some things (including the wine we were ordering . We asked where we could check to see which table was ours and was told we had to just wander around until we found our name. Not very professional but the poor woman at the bar was very nice and said she would help if she could but was too busy, which was fair enough but still, (Strike 3 . We found our names tacked on to the end of a long table with other people which we didn 't like at all and asked the waiter could we move to another table with no reserved sign and he basically said, no he couldn 't do that. After our first drink and nobody was sitting at the unreserved table we moved to it. (Strike 4 . We felt sorry for any couples who had booked as they were all placed along a huge trestle table like in a school canteen. The carpet was new but the tables are all shabby and chipped laminex, and the skirting boards were off the wall exposing cabling unsafe? possibly. Unsightly? yes definitely. We went to get another drink and asked at the bar where we ordered dinner. We were directed to a hole in the wall at the other end of the room so off we went. Horrible. looked like a disused kitchen in a scout den. The menu was equally uninspiring: 2 steak meals, one type of fish (battered or grilled , a roast and pork sausages. No Irish food we were expecting such as Guiness pie or Irish stew, not even a chicken dish but there was no vegetarian dish as were told there would be. (Strike 5 After complaining loudly and the kitchen staff member checking with the Manager, we were told they could do a plate of root vegetables but it would cost $15.(Strike 6 . Ok, we did order it: there was no other option. Our meals came 1 fish 2 roasts the vegies. The fish was declared OK, the other meals were nothing short of absolutely disgusting. Horrible rubbish and COLD yes COLD vegetables. Obviously out of the refrigerator and should have been microwaved prior to adding the two slices of tough old meat but someone forgot to do that. (Strike 6 By this time, the night had turned into a farce of Monty Python proportions. Fawlty Towers would rate higher. We asked for 3 of the 4 meals to be returned to be heated and that was done about 15 mins later,including the small amount of salad tomato and lettuce on the side of the vegetable plate!!! hot salad!!! (Strike 7 Apart from being cold, we soon found out the food was just awful. The band started playing and they were quite good but they were so loud and distorted that we couldn 't understand a word at the first break, we politely let them know and they made some adjustments, which greatly improved the acoustics. Isn 't anyone at the club helping with this? (Strike 8 Needless to say, my guests were horrified and I was embarrassed beyond belief. I tried desperately to tell them that it used to be a good Irish pub with beautiful architecture but I could see they were dubious. One of the worst experiences out I have ever had. The only bright spot in the night was the polite woman (Kiwi? behind the bar. What a disgrace. There must be thousands of Queenslanders who would visit the club if it was nicer. Even the manky Irish pubs in the city are better than this. What a dreadful shame. The lovely old building and its fixtures are falling apart and the food is inedible.Also as someone else said previously, who on earth ever thought it would be a good idea to include an Asian restaurant inside the club? It 's ridiculous!!!! Sadly, it looks like the Irish Club is doomed. Somebody will probably buy the lovely old building and turn it into another shopping precinct and part of Queenslands ' history will be gone, along with a lovely venue to enjoy company and a few drinks with the ambiance of a real Irish pub.