John M.
Yelp
My father has been going to O'Connell's since 1965 when it was in Gaslight Square. He's been going there at least once a month, if not more since then. When we asked him where he wanted to go to celebrate his 80th birthday, O'Connell's was his only choice. Since there were going to be 10 of us we got there at 4:30 to make sure we got one of the two big tables. At the time we arrived the pub was about half full.
All 10 of us were there by 4:45 and we ordered drinks and some appetizers. Around 5:15 we ordered dinner. O'Connell's has arguably the best burger in St. Louis and all of us ordered one, except my aunt who got a veggie burger.
My daughters arrived unexpectedly around 5:45, and rather than just grabbing chairs from an empty table we asked for two more chairs. It was a tight fit, but I've waited on banquets that were squeezed together more. The owner acted very pissy and downright rude about it. We ordered another round of beers, and a beer for one of my daughters but the server left before my other daughter could order a drink.
Around 6pm the server brought out our food. There should have been 9 burgers and a veggie burger, but what came out was a veggie burgers, 8 burgers, and two roast beef sandwiches.
The server didn't know what went to which customer, and was calling out orders. When she asked who had the roast beef, we told her that no one ordered it, but we were short a burger. She insisted that "someone must have ordered it because she wrote it down".
She left and went back into the kitchen to try to find the missing burger, and came back to tell us that the burger was on the grill and would be right out. Then she asked again who ordered the roast beef sandwich. Since all of us came for the expressed purpose of getting hamburgers we told her that no one ordered it. She then started screaming that since she put in sides of au jus we MUST have ordered it.
She left again and returned with the beers, two of which were wrong. At this point I could tell she was losing it and rather than trying to get her to take food orders for my daughters I asked her if she still had those two roast beef sandwiches to sell. She said she did, and looked visibly relieved when I told her to bring them out and we'd eat them. I gave my burger to one of my kids, and the other one who likes her beef rare said she'd eat the other one, even though a burger is her favorite thing to eat.
This was a mistake.
The roast beef was sliced almost a quarter inch thick. Rare filet mignon this thick is delicious, but rare roast beef this thick is inedible. (photo attached)
We finally finished and got our checks (one check, divided by 4) at 7pm. Even at this point I was willing to chalk up the experience to a bad night, but on the way out I stopped by and thanked the owner for accommodating us. He just rolled his eyes and said "get out".
My aunt and father tried to thank him as well and got similar responses.
I haven't been a customer as long as my dad, but I've been coming in often for around 30 years and never had an experience like this.
It pains me to say I'll never go back.
