On a hot summer night this week, a group of colleagues made a plan to meet for happy hour + dinner…read moreat the Geo Pub. I had never been before even though it is a stone's throw from home. Much to my delight, the fish and chips were pretty good and even the beer was tasty.
The down sides:
1) Music was too loud for covid. Stay with me here...we are in the midst of a pandemic and they take your temperature and make you use hand sanitizer before being seated. They don't allow food sharing (see #2 below). Yet, with the blaring loud music, they encourage the very unsafe and unsanitary practice of forcing unmasked patrons and wait staff to get unusually close to each other in order to hear and be heard. I could feel my neighbor's breath and even spit hit me because of this and it was kind of awful.
2) By not allowing plate sharing, they (and the Ministry of Health) actually encourage much more unsafe practices. Like other restaurants, the Geo Pub enforces the "no plate-sharing" rule. But this is an Irish pub. When one drinks beer, they snack. They nosh. They nibble. And all those sharing items are still on the menu but the waitstaff does not bring extra plates. Other nearby restaurants such as Cabrera recognize this dilemma and so they portion out the food and serve it individually to patrons. Geo Pub could easily do the same but they haven't thought that far outside of the box, apparently. So instead, we all shared ceviche, fries, calamari, pizza, fish and chips, and peanut-battered chicken fingers.
3) Glasses were dirty and wine was mixed up. Who goes to an Irish pub and orders wine?! I know, I know. Yet, it's on the menu and we're in Chile, not Ireland, so wine is actually the drink of choice for many patrons. I started with beer but when one of my colleagues opted for wine, I switched. He ordered a chardonnay and I a sauvignon blanc. When the server brought the wine, they were mixed up. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but see #1 above regarding the current worldwide pandemic. He took a sip of mine and knew it was not right. When we swapped, I realized the glass itself was pretty dirty. It was caked with a hazy layer of something all over the stem, base, and much of the cup itself.
4) Finally, whatever you do, don't order the guacamole. Look, I know what you're thinking: Why is an Irish place selling all these non-Irish things like pizza and guacamole? And, Why would anyone order this? I can't answer the first, but we had a vegan friend in the group and he saw "guacamole" on the menu and, like any normal human, assumed it would be a cup or bowl of normal, human-sized guacamole. WRONG! It was two ketchup-dipping saucers that equated to about 2 tablespoons of guacamole on the side of a plate piled high with corn chips. This menu item is clearly mislabeled. It should read "Corn chips. Condiment-size side of guacamole."
Given the above and the servers' overall lack of awareness (e.g., taking away an empty pint glass without asking if the guest would like a refill, or not noticing when only half the table has drinks), I would give this place a solid 3. It's covid and they're trying, but some things are just standard or need to be considered in a pandemic. Will I be back? Yes...after all, where else in this city can I get fish an chips?
