JK O'Donnell's has been a favorite of ours since 2008 when my wife and I first sort of got together…read moreafter years of friendship.
We decided to eat there tonight, after not dining there since June 28, 2025, when we had a GREAT dinner.
This evening's meal, however, was unacceptable by ANY standards.
My beer, a Scottish Oktoberfest, was pretty good, my wife's drink was an Aperol/gin combination that was very tasty and was obviously shaken but served in a rocks glass with no ice. The glass was about 1/4 full. It should have been served in a martini or Marie Antoinette glass, not a rocks glass.
We ordered the Hummus, which consisted of a cup of very bland Hummus (no salt, no lemon, little to no Tahini), a few batons of peppers, a few unevenly and thin sliced cucumber, and a piece of Pita (the Pita was warm and very good, but there wasn't enough of it to eat all of the Hummus).
Even though we ordered the Hummus to come out first, our Fish and Chips came out halfway through eating the appetizer, which is a sign that we were being pushed to eat faster before the rush at 630 - 7 pm. This is a big mistake when serving us, as we do not linger, but we typically drink 2-3 drinks each with dinner, and if you push us out the door, your sales plummet. Also, it's very poor service practice. Regardless, our Fish and Chips, which we decided to split because the last time we ordered a portion each, we couldn't eat it all, was on our table. This time, however, we were served what appeared to be a child's portion, as you can see by the first picture. It consisted of (maybe) 8 oz of cod (as is advertised), a bullet (stainless steel ramekin) of tasteless, wilted coleslaw, and a bullet each of tartar and curry sauce (the curry sauce was inedible, and one of the worst things I have tasted in a long time.) We asked the server if the portion sizes had changed, but she told us she was new and didn't really know which is fair.
What we received last year was what the second picture depicts: a generous portion of fries, and two pieces of fish that have been nicely plated. In fact, the woman at the table received just that - a proper portion.
My wife and I called the server over after seeing our neighbor's Fish and Chips, and our server took our bill to the manager. The manager came over and asked if we had an issue with the Fish and Chips. We explained to him that our plate looked completely different from the table beside us and asked why that would be. The manager proceeded to argue with us that the fish is portioned at 8 oz (as advertised), which we already knew. Our point was that one table gets what looks like a larger portion, nicely plated, and we got what looked like a school cafeteria mistake.
My wife, a Certified Executive Pastry Chef with 35 years' experience in fine dining and as a Hospitality Program Chair at the college level, and I, a Certified Executive Chef with 35 years' experience in 3 countries, plus 5 years' experience as a Hospitality Program Chair at the college level, offer a couple of pieces of advice.
1. Fries are cheap, so is lettuce. Build up the salad and plates with cheap sides and people will think they are getting a deal, even if you cheat them on the protein. It's all about the customer's perceived value, not what you believe is acceptable.
2. Be consistent. If one person gets two pieces of fish, then everyone gets two pieces. It's not difficult to portion an 8 oz piece of cod into 2 - 4 oz pieces. And, again, plate everything the same way. If I received the plate we got tonight, and my wife got the plate our neighboring table received, I would have called the server over immediately and demanded them to be replated.
3. DON'T ARGUE WITH THE CUSTOMER. Service recovery is very important, and if you do it, you'll be the anomaly nowadays because, for some reason, customer service doesn't exist anymore. Offering another side of chips, a free drink, a percentage off, AN APOLOGY, even if you think the customer is wrong, is the best way to keep people coming back. Bare minimum, be understanding, and try and make the customer happy instead of making them even MORE upset....those things cost nothing compared to losing business (which you just lost, by the way).
4. Train your kitchen staff to ensure consistency. Customers demand it, and so should you.
5. Make sure your staff stays busy and not standing behind the bar area chit chatting while customers wait for their drinks. If they want to talk, send them outside, or out of the patron's sight. It makes them look apathetic and lazy.
6. Demand professionalism. One of your barmen had his pants so low I could see the brand of his underwear. His hair was greasy, and his t shirt was so short that I could see his stomach. This is not a good look for an open bar, nor is it sanitary, especially when he kept hitching up his pants and messing with his hair without washing his hands.
You guys are better than this. Please prove it.
PS The server was awesome! She had hustle and
