Murphy's Irish Pub, Alexandria, VA

Last Thursday evening, we went to Murphy's Irish Pub in Old Town Alexandria on King Street, just a few blocks up from the river. It was a very dark place (darker than any I'd been in in Ireland) with lots of wood paneling in that faux-British Isles look so popular with Irish pubs in this country. The downstairs area was essentially just a big, noisy bar; we were taken upstairs to a dining room, which also came equipped with a very large bar and, alas, a duo playing and singing Irish music that was far, far louder than it needed to be.

Our table was in the middle of the room near a large two-way brick fireplace (not lit, as it was 90+ degrees Thursday!). The wall sconces had a leprechaun painted on each one.

The menu was pretty standard Irish-American pub fare, but where they looked like they had real potential was on their chalkboard specials. Prices were moderate, even for the lobster and steak, which were both $15.95.

Ryan started with the spinach-artichoke dip, which was served in a hollowed out loaf of bread and came with tortilla chips. I tried a little bite of it, and it was really lame....needed artichoke, cheese, and mayonnaise to give it at least some semblance of substance and richness. For his "main course" he had their potato skins.



Stephen had one of the specials, a grilled strip steak with a baked potato and steamed broccoli.



Both of them reported their food to be edible but rather mediocre and nothing special.

I had the fish and chips. In addition to the traditional bottle of malt vinegar for the fish, little cups of tartar sauce and cocktail sauce were on the plate. The fish wasn't bad and was well cooked. The chips, on the other hand, needed work. They were thick rounds of potato deep fried in oil which had seen fish and they were not completely cooked through. Ketchup didn't seem to help.



While the food was uninspired and "not terrible," the service was. Our waitress, while friendly, was very inattentive and slow. After serving our main courses, she never came back by to inquire if everything was okay or if Stephen's steak was properly cooked. We all had iced tea, and, even after both requesting our own pitcher or carafe and explaining that we'd like several refills, we only got one or two refills and those came only after one of our rare opportunities to talk to her and specifically request more tea. When she came by to deliver jars of condiments she managed "not to see" three empty tea glasses on the table and didn't come back by with tea until asked! We'd contemplated having dessert, but she never came back by to take our orders, so we passed. We had to ask for our check. What's more, the restaurant was neither crowded nor busy nor understaffed; on several occasions, we saw our waitress standing at the bar reading a People magazine.

Stephen left a ten percent tip, which I thought was way too much.

We were kind of amused to see their go-boxes. Don't you think these are surprising for an Irish restaurant?



When Ryan saw them, he said he felt like he was back in Pryor, Oklahoma!

The verdict on Murphy's? I wouldn't be inclined to go back.