Fionn MacCool's Irish Pub - Red Deer

This is a long story!On July 26, 2017, my husband & I stopped into Fionn's in Red Deer for a late lunch and were very disappointed -- not only with the quality and value of the meal; but even more so with the service and the attitude of the bar manager.  My husband ordered the steak -- a $25 menu item, so rather pricy for a pub restaurant.  I ordered the lentil bowl with grilled salmon -- a $20 item.  Both items were depicted with photos in the menu and both looked to be great choices.  Well, what a surprise when the food came!  The steak was not much bigger than a smokie and was sitting on top of a few french fries.  The only other thing on the plate was a half a miniature tomato and a few very thinly sliced mushrooms.  My husband's immediate reaction was to ask to speak to the manager.  When she arrived, she assured him that although the appearance of the plate might have been disappointing, he would find the steak to be a superb cut of meat.  Wrong!  The knife barely penetrated the stringy consistency of the meat.  It was as tough as an old boot!   It was a huge disappointment for $25 and we told the manager exactly that.  She conceded that "dinner should be on her" and offered to bring him something else - which we waited over half an hour for.  From this point on, we never saw our server again!  When the manager eventually brought the replacement meal, we reminded her that my husband had no cutlery and asked her to bring some.  She never returned! And, after 10 minutes, we went and got our own.  During all of this, I was slowly eating my lentil bowl, holding out hope that we might actually be able to eat part of our meal together.  Unfortunately, the lentil bowl wasn't much better.  Granted (and, as I did state to the manager) the flavour just wasn't to my liking.  But, I set that aside and remain disappointed in terms of value for the $20.  It was actually a kale salad that included some canned corn, a few small and mushy pieces of zucchini and beets.  Apparently, there were roasted sweet potatoes in it, but I couldn't spot any.  The overwhelming flavour came from the thinly sliced pickled carrots that were not very appealing to the eye or to the palate.  There was about a tablespoon of lentils sprinkled on top -- the entire thing (with the exception of the carrots) would have fit easily into a 2-cup measure -- with room to spare.  My 4-oz. piece of salmon was pretty much the meal, which I resigned myself to dig into as my husband finally had his meal......until I found the hair sitting in the bottom of my bowl!  Needless to say, that ended that!We had told the manager that in the past, we had visited Fionn's quite often, but that, in the last few visits, we had been disappointed and were concerned that the quality of the place, and the value for the price was declining.  An example I gave her were the fish tacos which I had ordered because of the menu photo and description, but was disappointed with as I had to search fairly hard to find the fish!  With this visit, the manager apologized for the problems, asked us to give them another try and dropped off a $30 gift card at the table.And then came the bill -- for this, we asked two different people, after having waited 15 minutes or more.  When it was finally brought to us by the bar manager, it was a surprise to me that my husband was charged for his meal -- the comment from the other manager had led me to believe that she had intended to take it off the bill because of the problems.  Not so -- they did discount the bill, but in explaining the accounting to me, the bar manager said this to me -- that because we had told them we had been there before and had experienced problems, yet came back, he was "on to us".  He knew that the food was excellent, he explained that the steak was perfectly fine as it is a tough but flavorful cut of meat and went on to let us know that he was quite aware that we created the complaints so as to get a free meal -- down to my own placement of the hair in my salad.  I can't describe how insulting this was!  I would like to add that both of us are recently retired professionals -- my husband having worked over 35 years in engineering and me having worked over 30 years as a professional with the Federal Government.  We are educated, upper middle class mature adults in no way deserving of the insinuations levelled at us.Incidentally, after this experience, we googled the term "bavette" steak and found that it's actually a flank steak --- one of the cheapest, toughest cuts of all and a cut that is only recommended if marinated first --- definitely not what we were expecting for $25! Needless to say, we have returned the gift card to the Fionn's organization, by way of letter of complaint to their head office, as we have no intention of returning to Fionn's. We have given the chances as asked; but after three strikes, along with the insults.....they are out!  We will not be back!

We were greeted quickly and seated on the outdoor patio.Drink orders were taken and delivered in short order.The menu offers good variety, the food arrived quickly and was very good.The server was attentive, but not in the way.The final bill was made available quickly, when requested and the payment process was smooth.Overall a very enjoyable experience.

The friendly staff are wearing kelts and make you feel like part of the clan. The food was tasty and priced in the mid range. There is something on the menu for everybody. If you're lucky, you make experience live music on their stage.

Went here for a late lunch while in Red Deer.Service was fantastic, as I can't say enough of our server.I ordered the fish and chips and it was not very crispy at all, and it was like it was sitting in some water prior to getting it to the table. I'm not one of those people that complain, so when the waitress came around she noticed I never ate any of the middle of my meal. She went over and above to insure I never left with a bad taste of the restaurant before I left. She helped out with the bill on my meal and I must say that is a waitress that goes over and above to insure the customer is happy.Because of her actions, we will be back. As well it is so nice that a restaurant chain allows the servers to make those type of decisions right there and then.On a positive side, my wife had the cauliflower taco's and raved about them, as well as the spinach avocado dip to start.So because of the server going way over and above the rating really moved up, we will be back.

When this place first opened up i thought it was great. The beer menu is still pretty impressive but the serving staff has gone down hill. I'm not sure why this place can't attract better wait staff, but the last few times i have been here has been disappointing. The food is ok and they offer some things that you can't find anywhere else so that's good and the main reason i keep coming back. If only they could get better servers