Ha’Penny Pub

Located inside the Embassy Suites in Irvine, this is the lone restaurant in the hotel. While it’s styled as an Irish pub the place takes a «jack of all trades» approach to dining with a menu featuring Mexican, Italian, and American dishes to please the masses. I typically don’t like dining at places like this, but my late arrival and desire to not drive anywhere forced me here. The beef tacos were surprisingly good. The three street tacos were small in size but big in flavor. Add to that a crispy edged texture to the beef on top of delicate corn tortillas and it was a winner all around.
They’ve got a kids menu with lots of typical stuff. My kid opted for chicken tenders, which were the usual premade frozen variety found at any grocery store for a fraction of the cost.
Service was slow and spotty. We didn’t see our guy after he dropped off the food and we had to flag someone else down to get our check.
2.5 Stars

Yay, free drinks at happy hour. Ummmm, no, I think not. I like free drinks but I hate cheap drinks. I have no problems just paying for the good stuff. Cheap liquor is just so… cheap. it tastes & smells cheap. Besides making me gag, people, stop doing it to yourself just to get free drinks.
Anyway, my friend was staying here and i meet up with him every time he decides to come down and stay here so I hang out and we get out drink on.
Nice and chill situation until the happy hour rush comes in. Then again don’t knock it, it is free.

After staying at this hotel for 4 of the last 7 weeks my observations are that the food is good, service is great. What is lacking is consistency. The steak in the tacos sometimes is grilled to a medium well consistency, sometimes medium, sometimes well done. Portions are also inconsistent.
The other item of concern is cleanliness. Nearly every morning at breakfast I will have to go through a few plates at the buffet to find one that is clean. Once in a while this is true with silverware. On several occasions more than half of the tables will need to be cleared and cleaned leaving no place to sit.

Went here for lunch today and we were surprisingly the only guests. The pub is located in an atrium like setting at the Embassy Suites over on busy Main Street. I liked the atmosphere and the service was good (though a bit slow). The menu is limited (soups, salads, sandwiches, etc.) — my fries were delicious while my burger was average. I probably would go back just for the relaxing setting.

Great service! The bartender knew his beers! I had the quesadilla and it was extremely underwhelming. Wasn’t expecting much out of a hotel bar, but it got the job done.