Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    Holy Grail

    3.6 (421 reviews)
    ModerateIrish Pub
    Open 11:30 am - 8:00 pm

    Holy Grail Photos

    Business Info

    HOLY GRAIL ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Outdoor seating
    Happy hour specials

    You might also consider

    Recommended Reviews - Holy Grail

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration

    Reviews With Photos

    Shepherd's Pie
    Abby R.

    I stopped by the Holy Grail on a Sunday for lunch after I was in the area for an event over the weekend. Some friends of mine told me they went here every time they were in the area, so I decided to join them for their trip. I'm so glad I did! The building itself is in an old church, and is really really cool to look at and be in. We had a reservation for a large group and we were seated immediately by some very kind staff. We all ordered drinks--I got All Hail the Godfather, a coffee drink with Tennessee Honey and Disaronno. I prefer my coffee cocktails to be without cream liqueur, so I was blown away by their selection and this drink. We all split a few orders of Drunken Mushrooms, which were fried to perfection and delicious. Then, I ordered a Shepherd's Pie. It was delicious!! I added a bit of salt, and the parmesan crust was so delightful. I can see why my friends come here often, and I will certainly be back here if I find myself in the area again.

    08/01/2025 church time!
    Gina C.

    I've got mixed reviews on this restaurant & have multiple star ratings for different things. 5 stars for the atmosphere/building itself This place is SUPER cute! Was told it use to be a church so there is a lot of interesting things to look at inside. My friends & I ate outside because the night we came was so nice out. (08/01/2025 apx. @ 1730) We were seated right away. I wasn't a big fan of the uncomfortable patio furniture chairs we had to sit on. There was live entertainment on this night. They even sang a HBD song for me that a well known customer requested. The band members were super sweet, well mannered & very nice. Sorry, I forgot the name of the band. 2 stars for the service OMG it was torturing! Dana was our waitress & it took her awhile before she got to our table to great us. I asked for a separate check for my friend & I and my married friend's asked for their own check. Well @ the end when we had to wait for her to walk by & tag her down to ask for our checks she brought us just one check, she forgot to separate them so after reminding her/asking her then we had to wait even longer before she came back with the correct checks & even longer to run our credit cards. At this point we were so ready to leave. Drinks took forever to come out to us. Though she did get my married friend's water with no ice correct. My friend got a kamikaze drink & it wasn't made correctly x2. It came in a large glass & had too much lime juice in it so as much as my friend hates to she had asked for a new one to be made & told Dana what was wrong with it. So she gets her new one in a smaller glass (yippie) but now all she could taste was vodka!!! Her & Dana spoke & she suggested (nicely) to go up to the bartender & tell her how to make it & watch her so it is made correctly...yeah my friend wasn't going to do that & why should she? If you don't know how to make a drink correctly Google it, learn it or don't be a bartender. So my friend just added water flavoring to it and drank it. I ordered the pretzel bites which this night they weren't "bites" but Dana did share that with me & I happened to see one at another customer's table. The beer cheese was delicious but that pretzel sticks were thicker than I would have liked them. The other girls got Caesar salads that they enjoyed but then we waited for what seemed like forever to get out meals. My friend got the fish tacos but substituted the fish for chicken which the ends were burnt, I wouldn't have served them to a customer but she enjoyed them. I got a cheeseburger that was cooked to the temp. I asked for & it was tasty. I got a side of Mac & cheese which was delicious. The husband in our group got a basket of fries & onion rings and the onion rings tasted frozen & wasn't that great. He enjoyed his seafood trio & my other friend got chicken piccata, which was a good portion. When Dana brought our food out she had asked "do you need anything else?" I had asked for more napkins because all we had was the one that our silverware was wrapped in. Well I waited & waited and waited until I had to tag her down & was done eating to ask her again for some napkins & she says "oh, you would like more napkins?" Not "OMG, I'm sorry I forgot your napkins." We're human & we forget things but she was forgetful more than once without seemingly realizing it. Maybe she was having an off night, not sure? She never did come & ask us how our food was after bringing it out. Big no, no in my book. I did use to waitress in my early 20's. Prices were moderated but we spent way too long here for dinner and spent more time waiting for drinks & food than we did eating/drinking them when we finally got them. I think if I'd come back here I'd try sitting inside in hopefully more comfortable furniture with better & quicker service.

    Mushroom appetizer
    Emcacasa4 M.

    Let me start from the beginning... My wife and I stopped by on a Tuesday evening, around 7 o'clock. The restaurant was maybe half full and virtually nobody sitting at the bar. In other words, a quiet evening. Service throughout the evening was ok but slow with long waits between everything. Something akin to 10 minutes before anybody came to the table, another 10 minutes to get a couple glasses of wine, another 10 minutes for the waitress to come back and ask us if we wanted to order, thereafter probably at least 20-25 minutes to get our food and so on and so forth. As to the dining, once we finally got our glasses of wine we both noticed lipstick on our wine glasses. Whereas the waitress hadn't come back for a while I took my wife's glass to the bar and watched the bartender dump the wine into a clean glass. I might have thought she would've just dumped it out but whatever... I ordered the shepherds pie, which was actually pretty good. Only issue was it was served to me room temperature, but it was still OK. I ordered the scotch eggs, which were a complete joke. What I got was two eggs that were sliced into quarters, not at all what I was expecting. The sausage was tasteless, the hard boiled eggs were cold and rubbery and cooked to the max. Really disappointing.. in my opinion, a good scotch egg will be served whole, piping hot with a soft yolk. My wife ordered a salad which seemed to be OK. She ordered a baked potato, which was room temp, undercooked and probably prepared quite a while ago. She also ordered the mushrooms which she didn't realize were a deep-fried preparation. Those were overcooked but served room temperature. We could taste the stale oil in the product. This is one of those things where the food is so bad but the wait is so long that you just kind of go with it. Generally, we ate about a third of everything and just packaged everything else up, not wanting to be rude or make our waitress feel bad at the end of her day. But to be sure, those leftovers went straight into the garbage. The bill for all of this was just under 100 bucks and we left a $25 tip. I'm glad we gave it a try, it's a pretty cool place visually but there must be several better options for food in the area. Should've just stopped at Taco Bell...

    Jennifer R.

    I've always been fond of this place, such a great setting! We got there early to avoid the Friday night wait and were seated immediately. Our server was pleasant. My eating buddy got bangers and mash and literally teared up as he was whisked back to England. He'd never had scotch eggs which he enjoyed too. My chicken picatta was weird? The sauce was super thick and the chicken wasn't breaded? It was better the next day but still off. I'll always like this place regardless.

    Bar and loft
    Alun B.

    Fast friendly service, well prepared Irish food and regular American. Beer battered haddock served hot and tasty. Loads of natural fries.

    Gross corned beef and cabbage.

    Worst corned beef and cabbage ever. 75% gross fat. Not even close to photo on their menu. It is a disgrace that they can serve this cut of meat to a customer. I bet staff would not have eaten this. I threw it out.

    Bangers and Colcannon

    See all

    Photo of Robin C.
    13
    112
    24

    3 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 days ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 4
    Oh no 0

    11 days ago

    My wife and I love the Holy Grail. The food and service is top-notch. The outside patio is relaxing in the warm weather.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    7 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Al. J.
    0
    22
    1

    7 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 3

    1 year ago

    A pub is judged by its food and servers, this place had great food and a wonderful server by the name of Sheri. Ask for her by name.

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Gill S.
    112
    1423
    142

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    8 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    9 months ago

    It was loud, the food was awful and I won't be going back...sorry...my party of 5 said the same thing

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1
    Photo of Alun B.
    0
    14
    15

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Lori G.
    44
    11
    0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 1

    10 months ago

    Drinks were ok. Lots of people were there but it was just lind of a boring place. And my bows said their food wasn't all that good.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Jim D.
    10
    30
    1

    1 year ago

    Been here several times in the last few years. Left happy every time. We particularly like the Irish dishes

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Missy V.
    57
    32
    34

    2 years ago

    Great atmosphere and food. Service was upbeat and friendly. Will visit again when in the area.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    4 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Jane H.
    0
    70
    187

    1 year ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 2

    5 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Jake P.
    161
    13
    1

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Good happy hour and friendly service. Many drafts available as well as half priced apps

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Phil S.
    47
    217
    111

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    Page 1 of 11

    Ask the Community - Holy Grail

    Review Highlights - Holy Grail

    This was our first time here and it was awesome this place is an old church it's just so cool I love the decor!!

    Mentioned in 46 reviews

    Read more highlights

    Verify this business for free

    Get access to customer & competitor insights.

    Verify this business

    Dwyer's Pub - Mozzarella sticks

    Dwyer's Pub

    (50 reviews)

    If I lived in Portsmouth, Dwyer's would definitely be one of my go to places. Just off the main…read morestreet, this Irish Pub is welcoming, has a great draft selection, and great food. We visited on Friday night and sat at a table as the bar seating was pretty packed. Crowd was pretty chill - a mixture of people in their 20's having drinks & apps, and then older couples/families enjoying dinner. We were happy to see Smithwicks on the draft menu, and we also got a Downeast cider with a caramel/cinnamon rim. We ordered the house made mozzarella sticks, which were ginormous, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and all around delicious. We all opted with different types of burgers - sliders, fried chicken, and a pub burger. All were served with fries and were perfectly cooked. The coating on my fried chicken was crispy and flavorful. Service was awesome - our glasses were never left empty! Best of all, Dwyers has a free jukebox packed with favorites. Looking forward to coming back on our next visit to Portsmouth - we'll definitely be trying the deviled eggs, wings, and fried oreos!

    Super fun place with a Celtic session on the weekend, but my experience with the obese female…read morebartender was beyond inappropriate. After spending aprox $250 on drinks we were asked to leave our table before we were done because there were other people waiting for tables. I understand that it's a busy St. Paddy's weekend and they need to turn tables over and make $ but it was quite jarring and rude AND we were getting ready to order food. I enjoy this place but i won't be returning. If you want average food and drinks, which is forgivable because of the fun music, and would like to be treated like crap on a Saturday afternoon, Dwyers is the place for you.

    Holy Grail - irish_pubs - Updated May 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...