The Celtic Hearth

Dish: Old Bay Spiced Calamari
Overall: ⁵⁄₅
Recommend: Yes
Chances are if you hang around St. John’s long enough (more than a day) you’re going to end up at a bar or pub. That doesn’t have to mean you need to also end up with «meh» bar food.
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Value: ⁵⁄₅
When you go to a pub, you rarely plan on shelling out $ 14 for calamari. You should rethink that. The portion size matches the sticker price, and they load it with goodness complete with tomatoes and olives.
First timer: ⁵⁄₅
There’s a good chance that Calamari purists might turn their nose up at a dish like this. «It’s complex, it blends flavours, it’s too heavy, it’s certainly not Italian»; they’ll squawk all day if you let them. The deviation from «classic» actually makes this a perfect first timer dish. It’s a crowd pleaser, and if you’re trying to convert the «un-​calamaried» (which, is probably not the best way to describe that) this is likely to be a step in the right direction.
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There are some great meals to be had in St. John’s. As far as Calamari is concerned though. this is pretty up there…
read the full review at

Went here for supper this past Saturday, had a poutine called «the big dirty». Funny and delicious. Large portions here for a great price. The service was adequate, however not sure how it would have been had there been more people there. Nonetheless an excellent meal and enjoyable time.

I was passing through town and stopped by here because it was late and one of the few places that was open late (open 24 hours). The service was good at first but our waitress stopped coming after we got our food. The atmosphere was nice and it was pretty quiet on Monday night. I ordered the «Celtic Breakfast» with scrambled eggs, ham, potatoes, and wheat toast for C$ 18. It wasn’t bad. I give it three stars because it was good but not anything exceptional.

Went here with a few friends, it was my first time here and I was pleased with the décor and the staff we encountered were very nice. We ordered drinks and got them very quick but once we ordered food we waited 1hr 45mins before we got our orders.
Our waitress gave us free refills (which is the norm at most places) for our long wait. The food was good but some of our dishes that were quick to make were left in a/​on a «warm area» while the other dishes were being prepared, instead of waiting to make the easier dishes.
The music that was playing was very nice, we had a lot of fun with it. Some of the staff did get a bit loud while laughing with some customers which caused us to have to speak louder.
Had a lot of fun though, mainly because of my awesome friend selection, but I will return.

Love this place! Decent food with a great staff. (Just stay away from Diana). The prime rib is outstanding served fresh with Yorkshire pudding (not something you’ll find everyday).

Went late at night as I wanted to have a restaurant experience and not much else was open. After coming here many times getting lobster etc… I was very disappointed. We were sat by Tue wait staff and waited 30 main for drinks… they never came nor did menus… 1 hour very frustrated at this point… went up looked around was seen and went and sat down…2 hours… never got served in 2 hours. I can tell you I’m very patient… but this is too much I walked out and heard «sorry» on the way out. Never again

On a trip to St. John’s famous George Street we decided to give The Celtic Hearth which is the restaurant side of Bridie Malloy’s pub.
My experience here could be summed up as fine. Just fine.
The ambiance was what you would expect from an Irish Pub. Clean, kind of dark. There was a fun halloween display at the front – a good photo op.
The menu was also what you would expect — traditional Irish and Newfoundland pub fare. Shepherd’s Pie, stew, fish and chips etc.
We started off with nachos which were good although I would have liked a little more salsa. They used fresh jalepenos and multicoloured corn chips.
My recommendation would be to order a traditional dish.
I ordered the club sandwich against my better judgement. I wanted to be able to share with another member of my group. But I was bored with it. It’s really my own fault because a club sandwich is not really all that exciting. There was black forest ham on it but It didn’t really add anything in my opinion. I would rather have a little more bacon than the ham. I had it with fries. They were hand-​cut, which I liked. But they were a little soggier than I would have liked. My aunt had the spinach salad, that looked to be a little small for the price. A few more in the group had the fish and chips. They seemed to really enjoy it and it looked delicious! I think if I had my time back, I would have went for that instead. My sister had the chicken and ribs and really enjoyed it. I found the prices a little on the higher end for the type of food on offer.
The service was good. We stayed and went up to Bridie Malloy’s at the end. They had live music from about 730 ish and everyone enjoyed it.

No complaints. Food was good. Dan had 2 piece fish and chips and I had jiggs dinner with croquettes. Mine could have been hotter temperature wise and the croquettes needed a dash of hot sauce. Cider and beer were awesome and the live entertainment was great. Waitress was busy but did a good job regardless. I liked it here, I didn’t love it but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back either !

Ordered the apple and blue cheese salad with a French onion soup. Food was subpar, however the service was good and beer was outstanding. They were out of apples for the salad so strawberries were substituted, which may or may not have been a mistake. The soup had too much bread for my liking. Broth and cheese tasted good, but the texture put me off. Best time to come here is after the bars/​pubs and order something greasy, it’s the Hearth’s wheelhouse and as long as you can get a table, they seem to knock it out of the park every time I’ve come here with a jag on.

No matter what time of day, evening, night or morning you can always expect great service and a hot meal.
The late night menu has a great selection, however I’m always a little sad to see my favorite side option not available. With that being said, always a great excuse to go back earlier in the evening.

Service was questionable but the food was amazing. Fish and chips was outstanding and the poutine was yummy. I’d go back. Oddly they’re stingy with their ice. Huge pet peeve of mine.

Came a long way to try some Newfoundland pub fare…
First meal, I ordered cod tongues as an appetizer to share ($ 11.00). They came lightly battered, with a small pot of sliced green pickles. Ummm, sort of fishy tasting, some more gelatinous than others. Pickle helped. Nah, they can keep this on the Rock.
For the main I ordered the Jiggs dinner pie: local cabbage, turnip, carrots, potatoes, peas pudding, salt beef and savoury dressing in a gravy, baked under a puff pastry with two golf-​ball sized potato croquettes ($ 14.75). A local in the group said it was not how Jiggs dinner would traditionally be served. Oh well, I actually liked it; reminded me of leftover pot roast, gravy and veggies stirred together, and reheated. Comfort food on a Monday night. The croquettes were nicely crisp fried, but the potato centre could use more seasoning, and butter or something so they are less dry.
A couple days later, I ordered the lobster Mac and Cheese ($ 19.75) for dinner. It came with a slice of garlic toast. The rich cheese-​cream sauce and pasta was well done, but quite a small portion. What was most deficient was the lobster. Not much lobster for the price — had to keep searching for tiny pieces. As a comparison, Nautical Nelly’s in Victoria, BC serves twice as much pasta baked in the dish last winter with noticeable chunks of lobster for about the same price, although the lobster was briny. Still looking for the perfect lobster Mac and Cheese outside my kitchen. .. .
Others in the group over two nights enjoyed a variety of entrees, and most were a hit. The couple misses were the lobster (too small for the price and considering we are on the Atlantic coast) and the A Taste of Asia Salad (taste and freshness at issue).
Cider expensive here — $ 7.04 for a Strongbow.
Good and friendly service.

Deliiiicious food and awesome place. It’s a little bit expensive though.

Here’s the scene: it’s the morning after a rockin’ Newfoundlander wedding, which capped off a solid three nights of drinking, and I’ve got some time to kill before a mid-​afternoon flight. The few and the proud who are still around and conscious gather together and meet up for breakfast at The Celtic Hearth, looking to soothe our pains with grease and a full belly.
Located in the bottom portion of Bridie Molloy’s and fronting on Water Street, The Celtic Hearth is a cozy Irish pub with your typical dark stained wood, somewhat low lighting and booths in various nooks and crannies. There isn’t a large crowd, and we’re seen to promptly by quite possibly the friendliest server I’ve ever had. Over the course of the meal, we would be endearingly referred to as ‘my babies’ and it felt like I was being served by a pepped up version of my grandmother. Awesome. I had a hankering for some Hollandaise, but we were informed that the breakfast menu was done for the day, but there were breakfast foods available at their Sunday brunch buffet. I’m fairly leery of buffets due to their often mediocre food and off textures from sitting in warming trays, so we sent one of the guys to scout it out. However, after getting a positive report back on it, we all ended up ordering that.
Upon an up close and personal inspection, there was a very impressive spread here — a cold salad bar with potato, pasta, and garden salads, as well as coleslaw, fruit and dressings. The breakfast portion of the buffet consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and what I was informed were toutons. Now that I knew what they looked like and what they were (delicious lumps of fried dough) and they were at my easy disposal, I was all over them. The lunch portion of the buffet consisted of pretty hearty, traditional Newfoundlander fare — turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and turnips, Jiggs dinner, a meat pie, some sort of tomato and rice casserole, and a big ol’ pot of gravy. For plate number one, I loaded up with the breakfast foods and gave my hashbrowns a slathering of gravy, as I believe that gravy should be available at every meal of the day. After taking my hefty plate of food back to our booth and start stuffing maw, my suspicions are confirmed that the textures are a bit off, but it’s not too bad. The eggs are quite good, as they have mushrooms, onions and peppers mixed in with them, and the bacon and breakfast sausage do their greasy, delicious thing. The hashbrowns are a fantastic gravy delivery vehicle and while a little on the tough side from being in a warmer, the toutons are sweet and pleasant, and taste like a soft donut, minus the filling.
Round two consisted of me piling up my plate with turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and some of the meat pie, and naturally everything got a healthy dose of gravy. Obviously, I’m using the term ‘healthy’ in a figurative sense here. While pretty basic foods, they’re done well, and much better than many a turkey dinner that I’ve suffered through at various weddings in my day.
While nothing fancy, the Sunday buffet at The Celtic Hearth was pretty enjoyable and it made for good hangover food, and allowed me to have breakfast and lunch at the same time! Needless to say, I left with a full belly and was nearly comatose on the flight home to Halifax.

Gord and I had a late lunch here yesterday.
We didn’t have a lot of time so I ordered sweet chili wings. They were okay.
Since it was our last day in Newfoundland, Gord ordered something traditional … Cod-​au-​Gratin with crochette potatoes. The potatoes were so-​so, he said. But it turns out he likes Cod-​au-​Gratin … in fact, he loves it! No doubt he’ll be making it for himself now that we’re home.