mcnamara's irish pub & restaurant

i cannot recommend mcnamara’s irish pub & restaurant highly enough. while i always have a ready to be innashvillewhen i eat there, on more than one occasion my wife and i have decided to drive in to spend an evening innashvilleafter waffling on the idea for a while once we remember we’ll get to eat at mcnamara’s. it’s good.

truly authentic experience!. my husband and i happened upon mcnamara's irish pub & restaurant about 2 years ago simply by chance. what a win for us! i cannot understand why anyone would have a bad experience at this restaurant. i have indeed been outsidenashvilleand my family is of irish decent. i have lived in several different metropolitan cities across the us. i have visited irish pubs in manhattan, boston (there are more than a few irishmen & women in good ole bean town), orlando to name a few. i must say mcnamara's is more authentic with superior food and entertainment than any other irish restaurant we have ever been to. i think we have been to mcnamara's now probably a dozen times.

we have enjoyed lunch in the regular dining room a few times, wonderful times watching a game while enjoying a beer and a meal in the sports bar upstairs and several truly entertaining evenings in the "music room" listening to nosy flynn perform while savoring our delicious dinners and taking back a guinness or two. we have never been disappointed in the food, the service or the atmosphere. on the contrary we are time and time again impressed with all of the above. every server we have ever had has been a delightful, helpful, professional and courteous.

if you are looking for a real treat please do not hesitate to enjoy my favorite restaurant innashville(correction: in the us - and that is only because i have not been to ireland, yet). but if you want to enjoy dinner in the music room, make reservations in advance (like at least a week or two) because so many of my fellow nashvillians feel the same way as we do and thus they book up quick.

my recommendation: try the kettle chips followed by the corned beef and cabbage and end off with a nutty irishman (adult coffee beverage). trust me, you'll be itching to return again and again.

my mouth is watering now, i'm dialing for a reservation as i type....

i highly recommend mcnamara's!. excellent atmosphere. superb music. great food. extensive drink selection. committed staff. you must, absolutely must, go see sean mcnamara and the boys perform traditional irish music and drinking songs on fri, sat, and sun nights! they are insanely talented and so entertaining! i lived innashvillefor 7 years and mcnamara's is the place i miss the most since moving away!

fabulous!. we have been going tonashvilleto visit our son and his wife for five years, and hadn't been here before. i found a new favorite place. the atmosphere was wonderful, the servers were friendly and attentive (at least one was actually irish, and loved the flow of his accent), and the food was excellent.

nashville's finest dining experience. mcnamara's quickly became mine and my boyfriend's favorite place in all ofnashvilletennessee to eat. from our first visit we were in thrall with the authentic irish cuisine as well as the music. we've always been tended to quickly and with the utmost of professional courtesy imagineable. the staff is knowledgeable about the menu and is always happy to take the time to help you decide on your meal. they are prompt with the food delivery and check back to see to any other needs you might have.

nosey flynn is the band that plays there, and the music alone is a delight for the ears as well as the soul. sean mcnamara, david cole and josh culley make up this awesome trio and are always happy to take requests and their musical talent gives new meaning to the phrase music to the ears.

i highly recommend to any and everyone to come to mcnamara's any night of the week. we've been going for a number of months now, and each visit surpasses the last. i look forward to seeing all my friends there!

excellent food and service. we come tonashvilleonce a year and always eat here.it's always great.

best irish pub in nashville. mcnamara's pub is by far the best pub that we have ever experienced. celebrated our 32 wedding anniversary there last week and sean mcnamara and his team were outstanding. the food is excellent and the music is awesome!! if you live in or are visiting thenashvillearea, you must try mcnamara's. will tell everyone about this amazing place!!! thank you sean for giving us a night to remember!!!

only in town two nights and had to go back. we were innashvillethis weekend doing volunteer work and picked this place based on reviews and proximity to our hotel. it did not disappoint. the owner is the lead in a 3-man irish band playing traditional irish music and they are very good & very entertaining. the food is great, best fish n chips i've ever had. we told some people we met the next day and they wanted to go, so we were more than happy to head back instead of risking disappointment somewhere else. the stuffed pork tenderloin the 2nd night was great as well. we didn't get a table in the music room the 2nd night though, so get there early on a sat if you want to watch the music (earlier than 730p). also, leave room for the cobbler.

wonderful people/eats/music. mcnamaras is the best place innashvillein my opinion. i've lived here 10 years now, eaten and listened to music in lots of places here, sean mcnamara and his staff are the best. the restaurant welcomes you in with the homey feeling i haven't found anywhere else. the staff takes over from there, and creates a setting of comfort. sean himself oozes hospitality, and the band, nosey flynn, keeps you in your seat while you eat the wonderful dishes the servers bring. when my partner and i go out to eat, and seek entertainment, mcnamara's will be our only choice. they are the best!!

fantastic. this place is hands down my favorite restaurant in thenashvillearea. the staff is friendly and professional, the music is top notch, and the food is unbelievable. i don't get to go often even though i live down the street but when i do i am still recognized by the staff. great place to take a date or just stop for dinner on the way home.

outstanding in every way!. visitingnashvillefrom out of town last weekend, we were amazed at the service, food, entertainment, and all-around atmosphere. we were at a table of 12 on a saturday night with kids and every one of us had the same great time. place was packed and service was quick and efficient, excellent food was served quickly, all at the same time, and piping hot. perfectly poured pints of guiness were delicious. can't beat the irish ambiance and great value. this place is the real thing-we'll be back for sure!!!

best irish pub outside ireland. as a real irishman who moved tonashville4 years ago and has travelled globally and experienced many a pseudo irish pub (we call them plastic paddy pubs) mcnamara's is without doubt the most authentic irish pub you will find and definitely the best pub and restaurant in nashville.
the food is great, the beer is great, the music is awesome and the craic is mighty!!

my second home. after spending two years in chicago and having the fortune of visiting the fifth province bi-monthly, i found a large hole in my comfort zone once i moved home to tennessee. i tried irish "pubs" in thenashvillearea but none quite had the same feel i was looking to find again. then i found mcnamara's.

i can walk in at any point, no matter how busy they are, both paula and sean stop to say hello and see how things are going for me. the wait staff and bartenders are more than sociable and keep up with my needs. often times they anticipate those needs before i say a thing.

donelson needed a place that could cater to a pleasent sit-down restuarant experience. mcnamara's has given us that and more.

mcnamara's finds it's groove. recently went back to the pub for a friends birthday party and then just because a friend was going on a saturday night. what a turn around, i am happy this place will be around for the long term.

the staff is attentive and gets your drinks quickly. the food comes out fast and hot and the portions will fill up any appetite. i have completely enjoyed my last two visits and i am sure i will go back.

with world class entertainment, good food and cold beer it is hard to make a customer much happier. congratulations are in order for this team they have come a long way in a short time.

chuck rainey
nashville freelance writer
www.crainey.com


-----28 mar, 2010-----

must find its niche. i write this review after having visited this establishment 5 times. i truly hoped this venue would provide a new vision of irish pub atmosphere in thenashvillearea, but i must say it falls far from its mark. mcnamara's irish pub needs to find its niche. you can't be all things to all people, so either be a pub or be a restaurant!

the establishment is nice inside and out. much detail was taken to provide the backdrop for enjoyable dining and live music performances. your first impression after waiting in the long lines to get in is usually a good one and until the music starts that is all this place has going. the wait staff is slow and green, with little focus on actual service. granted most nights the wait staff must dodge small children running around unchecked and your usual busy bar environment, but that is what they do for a living.

an average drink order time to the table of 22 minutes on any given night is too long! not to mention the average 45 minute wait on appetizers or dinner, often served back to back. on every visit the kitchen was slow and the food was either cool or the order was wrong. the menu is a joke as usually a third of it is sold out, especially desserts. these problems suggest that as a pub or restraint the place is failing.

now the big issue. the drink menu is always void of major beers or liquor. on 3 of 5 visits, the bar did not have a beer in stock i will drink and there are 4 beers on the menu i like. i am not a guinness drinker so perhaps that is the problem. the last time i took my family in we ended up drinking not so sweet 'sweet tea' that was warm and ate cold food over an hour after we ordered on a sunday night with only half the dining area full.

i love the place, but it offers nothing after the appeal to the eyes and ears. suggestions? sure find a niche.

1. be a pub and get the drinks to the table fast and right and seldom run out of alcohol stock. be bawdy and arrange the tables to face the music so camaraderie and conversation flow. set a time of night when children are only welcome in the dining areas away from the stage. most importantly do not manage, bounce, direct or scold from the mic, your customers don't want to be involved in drama they are here to have a good time. get the attention of your manager and have him handle problems.

or

2. be a restaurant and focus on better quality hot food to the table in 30 minutes or less. make your servers pay closer attention to the tables and give them the room to maneuver so they can serve. forget your people wanting a pub style good time because you are not providing it. those patrons can go upstairs to be rowdy or hover around the bar. channel your clientele toward what they are looking for and focus on what you do best.

over all there is a lot of opportunity for mcnamara's irish pub. in a few months if they are still there, we will see if they have found their groove but for now it ranks 2 on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the highest. good luck mcnamara's

chuck r,nashvillefreelance writer

my wife (who is irish) and i ate dinner here while we were innashvillefor our anniversary. we were really suprised by this place. the staff was fantastic. the food was great. the only thing better than the guinness drafts was the owner sean and company playing irish music. we stayed until they quit playing. earlier in the night the family atmosphere was perfect, so we plan on bringing the kids back here some weekend. from a yank and his better irish half...the craic is great at mcnamara's!