P.J. O'Brien's Irish Pub - Sydney

If you're looking for a dark, slightly dingy, uber faux Irish pub to drown your sorrows in a cool Guinness, then this is the place for you. Even if you end up hating yourself for it. Because, while the beer is actually very good (cold lager well poured Irish stouts), the service is beyond bad. It's not often you get to see an establishment entirely staffed with people who hate their jobs but this seems to be one of them. We went on a cold, wet busy midweek night. All the patrons seemed to be enjoying themselves but the staff clearly weren't. Going to the bar for a drink was met with with unenthusiastic indifference that prioritised thrusting an EFTPOS terminal in front of you without bothering to state the amount being charged. Getting a meal upstairs requires a degree of telepathy. Although you're required to wait to be seated, somehow you're supposed to know that ordering a meal involves rising from said table to order and pay in advance at the small bar in the corner. Some of our party enjoyed the food when it did eventually arrive although I've never seen a pub staple like bangers and mash as badly burned as mine were. Cutlery was unceremoniously dumped on a corner of our table and a request for the surprisingly good bottle of wine involved the wrong bottle being selected. Its seal was unscrewed and rung up for payment before being told it was the wrong one. No matter apparently the thing to do is apparently screw the cap back on and replace it on the shelf. Lucky next person who forks out $50 only to receive an oxidised wine. Look, PJ O'Brien's is not the worst place to go. It's just a shame the only warmth comes from the small wood fire burning in the corner.

Tonight, I ordered a Guinness beer the smallest). I gave $50 cash and the waitress the biggest one) asked me to sit down before giving me my change. She brought me the beer $6.8) with change exchanged for only $15.70! no receipt), out of 50 dollar cash. She left right away and came back a long time later probably to hide the $50). Not seeing her anymore, I asked one of the waitresses to give me the receipt for my order after I'd paid $50. She couldn't find it, no receipt on the machine ! The dishonest waitress came back and I told her straight out to explain why I'd only received $15.70. She gave me back directly $15 for a total of $30.70 not the whole thing). She saw that I was French and tried to rip me off. In my opinion this is a regular rip off, with drunken tourists and customers. It is unacceptable. I will inform the management of this problem.

Sunday night and we were off to see Tina Turner the musical at Theatre Royal and couldn't find any decent places to dine that end so walked down and found PJs, we weren't disappointed, only in ourselves that we didn't allow enough time! My wife had a chicken schnitzel with pepper gravy and she thoroughly enjoyed it I had a Guinness pie which was lovely and the mashed potato was sensational. Washed down with a brookvale union ginger beer

Called in on the 28th of February for lunch, there was a queue outside which is always a good sign, we enjoyed it so much we came back the next day for dinner. I hadn't had a spud for weeks so ordered an extra side they were great. As it was busy we were surfed by the manager which was great to see him getting stuck in, thank you Fergal, great food, great beer, great Crack. yes we'll be back.

Went here with a friend to experience a friendly atmosphere as an Irish person abroad and ordered a sav blanc and a gin and elderflower tonic and the strawberry blond young guy behind the bar asked me where did I think I was and walked off, didn’t serve me and left me standing at the bar and served other people. Such a rude staff member, never experienced this before!