Chieftain Irish Pub & Restaurant

I lost track of the number of times I've been here, and frankly it's my least favorite bar in Cap Hill. It's popular among GROUPS of people, but almost never just 1-2 patrons. I assume they're mostly students of SeattleU. If you're not one, you stick out like a sore thumb. If you are one, lord of judges vibes. What's great about it is that they offer specials every day at almost every hour of the day. They also have triva, karaoke, and open mic nights. Most of the prices are reasonable. The quality of food is average and there's nothing special about the menu. The drink menu is very limited, and there's only 2-3 special cocktails here. The place feels like its a fraction of what it used to be, dated and never restored, and lots of unused space. Lots of seating, but it's never full. So, If I had to guess why anyone would come here, if not by force like I am, it's because the food is affordable, there's a lot of space for people to hang out, and there's a free pool table.

Bar is awesome. Great place to hang out. The bouncer with a buzz cut is one of the worst people i've ever met though. He'll make you regret ever trying to go there. Extremely rude and standoffish. Wish them the best but just not the place for me!

I am a regular at chieftain, I absolutely love it here but I came in on a Sunday night before memorial day. The hours online say that it closes at 12 AM and I showed up at about 10:30. The lady at the bar was a little bit older, and a yellow sweater, and she just yelled at me "out, out, out". I have never had service like that and it was absolutely horrible. I assume she was trying to close early before memorial day, but I think there is a way better way to handle that and a better way to say that. James on the other hand, is a great human, and he always is super accommodating and very nice. I hope that lady can learn something from him. if you decide to attend chieftain, I suggest going on a night when James is there, and that older lady is not.

I really enjoyed going to this place. Simple inexpensive, and the food was half decent. Prettty disappointed that in the past three months they jacked up prices up around 25 %. Now I know this is needed for places to stay around, but it was just nice to have a place with regular non-Seattle prices

Gotta love this place: good prices, excellent staff, fun atmosphere, and great drinks. Tuesdays are a must-go here.

This bar is walking distance from where we live but have always kind of avoided it as it's the local college spot. Decided to swing in on a whim to quickly watch the Seahawks and grab a quick drink. Unbeknownst to us they open at 2pm... we learned this as we walked in at approximately 2:04pm. After a couple beers and a stressful performance from Russell Wilson we decided to stress eat a chicken quesadilla for the hell of it. We were INCREDIBLY shocked how much flavor it had. It was delectable, and the first time in a long time I excitedly wanted to order more food from a college bar. Servers were also super kind and personable. I would give it five stars but seeing as I know this wasn't an average visit (we were more or less the only people there at the time), going with four for now. Nonetheless, we will be back, and will update on the next visit as needed!

Was looking for a refuge in the heat over the weekend and stumbled on this place. We just had drinks but the food at the table next to us looked good. Staff were friendly and went out of the way to make our drink just right. Also... the bathroom was bright and clean, which was a welcome relief compared to most of the dingy piss-covered bathrooms in Capital Hill.

This place is hit or miss and over the years it's not been great. I've had a couple of bad incidents here of people taking advantage and being rude and I don't blame the staff for the customer's behavior. That's why I've tried going back at other times and there have been some good times. However, the final straw was someone stealing my brand new iPhone after I had asked for help finding it and to call my phone so I could find it. The staff didn't do shit about it besides just telling me to look for it after reassuring me they have working cameras... That just tells me a staff member took it or a customer that is a friend of one of the staff. Even other veteran regulars here have agreed it's just not a good hangout even if we live nearby and it's better for us to just drink at home or Uber/Lyft somewhere else. I've been doing exactly that, both the former and the latter options. The customers and staff both here can be problematic and the staff admittedly plays favorites. So it can also be somewhat cliquish especially when friends of the bartenders come in. Next door at Rhein Haus is no good either. Just avoid this area as it has negative Capitol Hill vibes. I definitely don't recommend going alone as a female because of the creeps...

Took a second to get noticed enough at the bar to order anything. We were drawn in by this great deal about dollar hot dogs on saturdays at 10pm plus live music. neither of which was actually there. we paid $30 for drinks and mozzarella sticks even with the nightly special drinks. just being honest about this place, it's pretty mediocre

I and a friend visited this bar yesterday, two men of color, and we felt singled out by the bartender. The bartender said it was against the law to serve us three drinks a piece. On a prior visit, other bartenders would serve us whatever amount of drinks we wanted. I did my research, and found that there is no such law in Washington that sets a limit on how many drinks a bartender can serve a patron at a given time. The bartender therefore lied to us. Forced us to take one of our shots in front of him before he gave us our other drinks that he already prepared. We ordered food and he purposely took longer to bring it to us. Then he just slid it across the table instead of presenting it to us as he did other patrons that were not people of color. Later on, he came to our table and accosted us about not tipping when we in fact did tip for the drinks we bought. He asked if we were at Chieftan fives weeks ago and why we did not tip that time. We in fact we're not at Chieftan five weeks ago. It was months ago that we were there and we did tip. He was also not our bartender at that time. This started to feel very racial and prejudice because he started to harass us the whole night. In closing, the guy singled out and harassed us. We did nothing wrong. We come to the Chieftan often but not regularly. The service is usually great but last night it was horrible.

Had a couple beers for a WC game, seemed fine then went to pay, didn't honor their "happy day all day" on Monday policy (guess WC is an exception) then bartender said I owed them 17.46 for my two beers, I handed him a 20 he gave me two bucks back. Bro, what? Anyways, tipped my two bucks, and uh, 54 cents I guess and left.

So much fun having a gathering at The Chieftain. Great, friendly staff, food was terrific!

I absolutely love coming here! Especially on taco Tuesdays. Major shout out to April she is an amazing bartender. I highly recommend coming here if your looking for a great night out.

Pretty casual college bar. I wouldn't really recommend it for the 35+ crowd. Drinks are pretty cheap, music fluctuates from medium to blaringly loud, service is ok.

Bartender was rude to us and they decided to tip themselves extra. Nice! They serve credit card fraud in a cup.

Really cool, Irish pub with cozy, low-light atmosphere. Affordable drinks, super friendly and welcoming waitstaff! If you're going for a late-night drink, and are looking for food, their kitchen closes around 10 pm. However, around 11, a Seattle hot dog cart makes an appearance outside, to serve all your drunken, munchie needs. Haha It's a plus that I live within walking distance! Will be back for sure.

This place just isn't my thing so I may be a bit biased. It's a soccer bar and nothing against it, I like soccer, but it wasn't a game night so there was only like 3 small groups in the place so it oddly loud for how few ppl were there. A single pool table, shuffle board, and a single dart board in back. A few tvs. It doesn't feel like anything special, but more like a local pub that you might hang out at for a game. I would want to try this place again on a game night as it would probably be much more lively and entertaining but without anything going on it just lacked any oomph.

Have you ever been in a situation where your entire night had been completely ruined by a single staff member? Don't you want the respect that you've given in tips and mannerisms to be returned in kind? If you don't, go to The Chieftain. With top notch service, they'll ruin your night FOR FREE! Imagine sitting at a fire pit with no fire in the cold after asking staff multiple times with a large group and hearing just, "No" for an answer with no reasoning. Imagine your friends trying to find the cash to give for drinks and tips and the bartender telling them just to give the cash they had cause it was, "pointless to try and find it anyways." Sorry you had a bad day woman, but I'm more sorry you felt you had to try and ruin someone else's night.

The Chieftain is a decent spot for lunch near Seattle University and a decent place to get drinks as well. The Chieftain serves typical bar food that isn't bad, but it isn't great. You can do far worse than the Chieftain, but you can also do better. It's a decent place to grab lunch, because it has a pretty diverse menu, as well as a good place to grab a drink.

I and a friend visited this bar, two men of color, and we feel we were singled out. The bartender said it was against the law to serve us three drinks a piece. On a prior visit, other bartenders would serve us whatever amount of drinks we wanted. I did my research, and found that there is no such law in Washington that sets a limit on how many drinks a bartender can serve a patron at a given time. The bartender therefore lied to us. Forced us to take one of our shots in front of him before he gave us our other drinks that he already prepared. We ordered food and he purposely took longer to bring it to us. Then he just slid it across the table instead of presenting it to us as he did other patrons that were not people of color. Later on, he came to our table and accosted us about not tipping when we in fact did tip for the drinks we bought. He asked if we were at Chieftan fives weeks ago and why we did not tip that time. We in fact we're not at Chieftan five weeks ago. It was months ago that we were there and we did tip. He was not our bartender at that time. In closing, the guy singled out and harassed us. We did nothing wrong. We come to the Chieftan often but not regularly. The service is usually great but last night it was horrible.

I don't know HOW this place could have a low rating. I get it, it's not the fanciest place and I definitely wouldn't eat here but y'all, context matters. It's across the street from a college, next to Rhein House, and has beer bong tables in the back. If you're going to knock this place because they didn't treat you like royalty then I'm just going to assume you're a good old fashioned fun sucker. That said, this is definitely an unapologetic college bar. I'm in my late 20's but I walk in here for the occasional AMF to relive my glory days . It's also a good alternative if the line at Rhein Haus is too long. Just last week I discovered the outdoor area. Beer pong tables, jumbo Jenga, picnic tables galore, and some nicer patio furniture. My friends and I were pleasantly surprised. I was able to enjoy my white claw and talk trash while playing jenga. Truly a mood. If you're looking for a place to start your darty on the weekend, come here. Get a strong drink, kill a couple ducks on their video game thing, beast mode jenga, and then wash your hands profusely and get a respectable meal somewhere else.

You will find law students here all the time because this is their go-to to drink and get wasted. I am not one of them, just for the record. Chieftain has good appetizers such as Tachos (tater tot version of nachos with all the guac and other crap on it), mozzarella cheese sticks, and wings. Their drinks are pretty standard, but I especially like their nitro stout that they sometimes have on their rotating tap. Summers are nice because they have an outside area in the back that you and your friends can sit. If you want to stay away from the loud BGM and TV, you can also sit in the front area near the front door. The back room has a pool table if you want to shoot pool; when private events are going on there, the servers will put the plates of food on the pool table. Some tips: Monday is happy hour all day, which means $5 appetizers and some discounted drinks. Tuesdays attract large crowds because Chieftain has Trivia Night at 8pm. If your team wins, I think you get $50 off your party's tab, $25 if you get second. My friends and I have never won anything from Trivia Night every time we went, so I don't bother to go anymore.

Stopped in early on a Friday afternoon, like around 4pm. No one really noticed my friends and I grab a table in the back for about 5 minutes, until a person came to check on the table nearby. Then we got menus, drinks, and food ordered quickly. I tried the Irish nachos (potato chip nachos) with chicken. I ordered it without a ton of stuff, and the server was careful to make sure he got it right upon delivery. The chicken was probably some of the tastiest shredded chicken on nachos that I've ever had. Highly recommend! We had to get going (friend had to get back to her sitter), so went and asked the server/bartender for our checks, which he quickly got us squared away. One other notable thing about this place was the loud wanna be thug rap music. As one of my friends put it, "If I were drunk, this music would be fun to dance to because it would be funny." We chose a table in the back so we could actually sort of talk. So, if you're looking for a spot to chat with someone you don't know well, this may not be the place for you.

Crappy Irish bar with $0.50 wings on Sundays, wings were a bit dessicated but they're only $5/10, so what does one expect? Good place to watch a game. Not a good place to go on a date. Ever.

This is a nice place, a dive(ish) bar that feels small and intimate but is actually quite large. From what I gather, their busy times are kind of random and they mostly bring in the college kids and some regulars. I've read some of the reviews, and I can see how they would determine service to be slow; I was there with a friend for one of the Euro Cup games and there seemed to be just one person on the floor, but she was doing a fine job, and nobody seemed miffed that the service was "slow" We ordered food as well.. I could tell from looking at the menu that the "Philly Cheese Steak" was probably a joke.. and it was (not that a Seattlite would be able to tell) but he said that it was "okay" and I got the Chieftain burger and was very satisfied with the "quick pub burger" I got. Actually had some flavor and was juicy.. I'd definitely come back and promote that burger to people I was with. Having said that, the menu actually looks quite expansive and the breakfast dish I peeked at my neighbor looked also quite satisfying. I guess I've not experienced this place during drunk faced twenty-one year old hour, but during off hours I quite liked it.

I just went here for the first time and it was a great experience! They turned on the mariners game after I asked and played it on the tv outside in their patio! Lots of tables and plenty of space. Everyone wears masks and they sanitize the tables in between customers. The fish and chips were way better than what I expected. My friends enjoyed their food as well. I'd highly recommend this place!

This place is awesome l. I love it. Good vibes o my. You should really come here. Good drink even better atmosphere.

I've walked by this place so many times: we only recently discovered them when we were looking for safe outdoor patios. They have a beautiful back patio with great social distancing and safety protocols during COVID. The staff are really great and the beer selection and pub food are solid.

This find is the bomb! The Chieftain Irish Pub serves up Guiness at just the right temperature & Hot Wings to die for. Found it by accident after dropping off some seniors from HI to tour Seattle University. Great people working here. Service is great, beer is great & wings are great! What more could anyone ask for? On Monday's, Happy Hour is all day long. Think my next Monday night football game will be here. Specials on Hot Wings too for the games.

The worst possible for folks in their '50s. The establishment is only focused on the up to 35-year-olds ordering beer and other alcohol. We had to wait half-an-hour for an order of three tacos each on taco Tuesday. Meanwhile the waitress served 5 tables repeatedly with drinks. Then she forgot the second half of the tacos (she brought 2 initially). I will not recommend it

Can't believe I gave the chieftain 4 stars. This place rocks! Going to 5 stars. Perfect mix of locals and college kids

Solid college pub. Really large space, great to watch games at. They have really solid drink specials and happy hours, and a pretty decent liquor selection. Staff were really nice and attentive. The food looked amazing, and according to the guy sitting next to us who ordered a huge burger, he says it was pretty amazing. I'd definitely go back and try it out.

Went there today with a friend of mine. I waved at my server and another girl server came over mock waving back at me while making a face. I also mispronounced Jager and she correcting me with an attitude. I'm a server myself and have to deal with a lot as well but I've never treated a customer that way. I tipped a small amount and so did my friend, wanted to not tip at all but the other guy servers helping us out were fine.

Great and cozy Irish bar next to Seattle University with great service! The staff here is very nice and accommodating and there's not much more to write about as it's a bar with great service so that saids it all.

This is our favored bar for after tests! They have a full bar, and plenty of seating. My favorite time to go is when the weather is nice and you can sit outside. ALWAYS bring your ID. I know, who leaves the house without one? Me, that's who. They card every time without exception. I've never been for happy hour, but I've heard they have some pretty good specials. I think I've seen a sign for $2 shots. Tuesday nights at 7p they have trivia. It's not like any trivia I've ever gone to, but we had a good time. There was a picture round, and there were quite a few questions that were about the Europe - so study up, or bring a friend who has that knowledge!!

Really cool and welcoming spot. Ryan the bouncer and Zoe the bartender made our night worth it. Especially after our terrible experience at Canon down the block.

Remember what it was like to go to college? Well this is the bar version of it. And if you didn't go to college and get the drunk Thursday night out experience for roughly 100K in student loans, you're in luck because this place exists and for $30 you can have a heck of an evening that may include; 1)Karaoke 2)Bar Fight 3)Loud girls 4)Obnoxious guys 5)Low grade well drinks 6)Classic bar food 7)Dirty/sticky floors 8)Having your ID checked every time you go out to smoke and come back in I read my list and determined its achieving everything its supposed to so I upped the star count and am trying to find people to meet me there on Thursday now.

When it comes to college bars with cheap bear and great food this is it! Love this hangout! To know that these low-key, casual, come as YOU are places still exist in Cap Hill is a rarity. To know you can come to a place to chill-out and just drink a beer on your time, and not rushed by a server or folks with reservations or pretentiousness of those around you is awesome. It's like drinking in the comfort of your own home surrounded by friends you've never met.

Best dive bar in seattle. Great for escaping the pretentiousness of nearby so called cocktail bars. Ask for ryan at the door and zoe at the bar!

My friend attended school across the street 3 years ago and when we visited this spot it was busy and well staffed. I came here on a Saturday night and the bar next door was a line of 60 out the door and Chieftan had less than 20 people in it. Our excitement of thinking we would get fast service quickly turned to shock at the fact they had only 2 bartenders and no servers to work the floor. In the middle of the 20 person wait at the bar one of the bartenders grabbed 2 drinks for themself and left, leaving just 1 bartender left to manage the midnight rush. This place has gone way down hill from the days of it being busy and well staffed. If I was running this place I would do some street marketing to pull some of the 60 plus line next door over to this bar.

Over 50 and the place is Spot On! Been here many times, as they are close to our work, so we do happy hour here often. While they do have a lot of college kids coming and going, the staff remember our drinks and usually have them ready for us in about 10 minutes from arriving. The food choices are really great, something for everyone and again, the staff are Spot On! It is a pub for Seattle U, however, they treat us old folks just as well.

Its aiiight. I had breakfast here with a friend not too long ago. Their offerings are pretty standard (eggs, biscuits and gravy, etc) and I ordered their California omelette that included cheese, bacon, tomatoes and avocado. The omelette was served with potatoes and fruit. I wasn't a fan of the omelette which was way overcooked but managed to finish it. The potatoes were the best part of the dish. I'm not exactly sure what they seasoned it with but it was tasty. It seems like its better to come here for happy hour or drinks so I'll have to give those a try.

I love this place! The service is amazing and I come here every Tuesday just for the best shrimp tacos I've ever had!

Great pizza, good beer. Generally nice quite atmosphere compared to most bars on cap Hill. Service can be pretty slow sometimes though. Also, real Mexican tacos don't come with sour cream and tomatoes. They come with cilantro, onions and salsa.

The bartender here named Shawn is the man! Always friendly and makes strong drinks. The Chieftain is the spot to meet up for Seattle University students, not so much the older crowd. Good for watching sporting events and cheap pitchers on Thursday nights.

Good beer. Low key environment. Some type of deals every day. $6 pitchers on Thursday which is about as cheap as you'll find in the city

Our bartender was nice but the food was bad and the owner/manager was rude. In a city with so many bars you'd be much better off going anywhere else.

Love the atmosphere in this place. We always stop by here when we bar hop and wanna watch a playoff game. I love there salmon risotto! And I've also tried their fish and chips. The fish and chips are a big too greasy for me. Great place for drinks and good company. Its also very convenient since its across the street from Seattle U!

We are in town for an event at Seattle U. We were walking to a different restaurant but looked at menu posted and decided to give it a try. I had cheese bacon mac...YUM...my husband had a breakfast dish with corned beef, hash browns and egg and he loved his meal too!

Mehhhhhhh. A large group of us came here on a Monday night thanks to the allure of an all-day HH. Unfortunately, the best thing that can be said about the place is that it was remarkably easy to find seating for 10 people, and that was very convenient. After unsuccessfully waiting 30 minutes for a server to come by, we gave up and went to the bar to order beers. Another 45 minutes went by, and a server still never appeared. Up to the bar we went again to order our sandwiches. I had the pesto chicken sandwich. It was decent--nothing to rave about, nothing I couldn't stomach, but filling enough and fine for $10. The Chieftain is most certainly a bro bar, with a healthy dose of local college students frequenting it. Their tap selection is also nothing noteworthy. HH beers are $4 apiece, but you can get much better beer for a similar price elsewhere. Stay away unless you have absolutely no choice in the matter.