Kilkenny Alehouse

This is a review of Kilkenny’s catered food to a local business, not of its beer. I’m sure it’s probably a lovely, historic ale house, but the food is not fit for man, beast, or insect. Dumping it down a sewer grate would be a cruel act of abuse against the sewer. Kilkenny has brought us the worst eggplant parmesan imaginable. They’ve brought us sad, ugly salad bars, containing mushrooms that looked like small slices of portobello but tasted like tiny grey wet socks. They’ve brought us beef stew made with something that seemed more like shoe leather than beef. Dessert? Dessert was a small amount of Entenmann’s (or something very similar). Pitiful.

Thanks for being so hospitable to a Carolina girl. The bartenders and patrons made me feel at home and at ease. Great drink prices… I will try the food next time. Thanks again y’all!

This bar is maybe one of the best in the area. It is a stereotypical Nork joint: polite but locally motivated. Its sister establishment McGovern’s is the place to go if you want loud college kids and bar chicanery. KK is the spot where meet the real people of NWK. Their draft beer selection is OK, and they have a good range of bottled brew. I cannot recommend the lamb burger enough. The steak and cheese is actually quite light; very tasty and won’t knock you out from carb overdose.

Love this place — great food, friendly people, good selection of beer, decent atmosphere.
It’s one of my top places to get wings. The wings are excellent.
Their only fault is their location and the difficulty in finding parking. It is my favorite place to go before catching a show at NJPAC, so I’ll often just park in the (cheap) pay lot a block away.

Good place to go, friendly staff. Good beers and burgers. We went there twice and there was no bad surprise. Go there without hesitating

I can definitely say the french onion soup was very good. It was my first time there and I brought my father to get something to eat (daddy n daughter dayout) .
To my suprise, he was very impressed with the food and thats a shocker for me because he love to critique food…
Great service personally I had no complaints. .please keep in mind this was sometime last year so… I have to goo back definitely. .they left a good impression

I’m here almost every Wednesday after work with my best friend. We get the loaded Irish fries, wings and beers. The wait staff is always pleasant and the food is delicious. Four stars because there have been times when I’ve seated myself and waited a very long time before being acknowledged. Parking is also horrendous.

Decent irish bar. Expect a lot of brown wood everywhere ahaha but other than that it’s okay. Typical pub food and beers on tap. It’s more of an after work bar where you go to get a couple beers before you head somewhere else with a better scene. Other than that there’s not much else to keep you there any longer

This place is great for drinks ! A really nice dive bar. The bartenders are always nice but the servers are just okay. The best place to get service is the bar. They have really great beers on tap and so any variety of craft beers which is nice to choose from. Their beers line are super clean which you can taste in the beer. The food is Mehhhh
. Don ever get the mussels or salmon. It tastes funky. But the chilli and Irish fries are pretty good especially to pair it with your beers. They are busy a lot of times so it’s a great atmosphere to have a few drinks or get hammered!!! Go by there on Wednesday nights, because Addie the bartender is Amazing and super friendly. Fyi not a lot of college kids drink at this bar so it’s nice to drink with the people here knowing they can handle their liquor !!!

I came here on a Saturday for lunch with some friends and I was not impressed by their service. There were about four other tables and it didn’t seem extremely busy, but they still managed to take about 30 minutes to get our drinks. It would’ve taken longer if we didn’t bring it to the waitress attention. After waiting this long for drinks we knew we were in for a long wait for our food, and of course we weren’t wrong, as it took about an hour to get our food. The food was good. I had the mushroom sandwich and it was pretty good, it had roasted peppers, spinach and fresh mozzarella. Due the lack of service I definitely won’t be coming back!

I went twice for lunch the last two years (not even on a Friday)
Each time, the food took forever to come out like 30 minutes.
Last time I went, the hamburger was good. However, when the burger finally arrived, I had 5 minutes to eat and had to run back to the office.
The food is good, but not if you’re on limited time.

Another place I will never return to again. I have been here a total of three times. The first two times my meal took over 45 minutes for me to get. Mind you I only have an hour for lunch, so taking over a half hour just to make my meal that is on the menu (not special orders) is unsatisfactory service for any restaurant. At least have some kind of disclosure on the menu stating it’ll take an hour to prepare.
The last time I didn’t even order food because as my boyfriend ordered his soup, the cook came out to the bartender, and proceeded to tell him about the movie «waiting» and the stuff they did to the food in the kitchen. Sorry, but if I’m going to be eating anything at your restaurant the last thing I need is the cook coming out and saying disgusting things that is done to the food. He said more but I didn’t want to hear if he did anything to the food. My boyfriend was so disgusted that we canceled our order and went up the street instead. The worst part was when we informed the manager, they were so apathetic of this incident. It was simply said well out cook doesn’t do that to the food. How the hell would you know, your not back there watching the whole time, and it doesn’t make it any more acceptable to talk like that in front of customers.

Stopped in here for a quick bite before catching a show at NJPAC. On a week night the place was packed at around 7 PM. The bartender was super nice and attentive and made some good shot recommendations. For food I had the Shrimp Po’boy which surprised me. Being in a pub, I expected the shrimp to be heavily fried, but instead they were grilled with a Cajun spice dry rub. All the other components of the sandwich were good and the bread was perfect; the only improvement I could think of would be to have a little bit more remoulade sauce on the sandwich. I would definitely recommend hitting up Kilkenny’s if you’re in the area, great friendly atmosphere*, solid food, good prices… what’s not to like?
*Interesting side note: aside from the bartender I was one of 3 women in the joint and the place was packed.

Been here about 3 times. Usually always for an event such as friends birthdays etc. The bartending staff is really warm and friendly. There’s plenty of room inside which is a plus. The prices on beers and cocktails are pretty decent. And they have a jukebox was a good selection of tunes.
Everything good you look for in a pub is right here :)
Recommendation: night out with friends.

I refuse to review any aspect of Kilkennys as they have the best wings I’ve had in my life and have never felt the need to try something else. As a bar, the draught beer selection is pretty good, including Guinness on a nitrogen tap. Service is very friendly and checks up often. The wings here are incredible. They must be from either a turkey or mutant chickens. The breading is very good and they are not at all greasy. The atomic are ridiculous, covered in ghost peppers and oh so burny. We even go here monthly after work just to revel in the wings.

Kilkenny proudly hosts one of the best pub menus in the area. It goes beyond greasy pub food and delivers some truly delightful dishes. For this reason, it’s my favorite pub in the city, and one of my favorite eateries in the area. In addition to typical Irish fare, Kilkenny’s has an assortment of pastas and sandwiches and some shockingly good salads! Bravo!
The drink options are mighty fine as well. Cocktails are served in large glasses — a great deal. They also have cider on tap. :)

Kilkenny’s is one of those places we always go when someone is leaving, being transferred, retiring, etc. SOMEHOW we always seem to end up in an Irish Bar in Newark… call me crazy, but I see a pattern.
Anyway, when I first went to Kilkenny’s back in 2008 I thought it was ok… I think that it has gotten much better over the past four years. I think they have a great beer selection (Smithwick’s on tap is always a bonus). The burgers I’ve had here have always been pretty good, but the appetizers are great… the nachos and wings-​never had a bad time with them and they’ll usually have specials that will make you want to order two… They also have been selling «Recession Specials» during the week. $ 5 specials each day… not a bad deal.
Ok, so this isn’t my FAVORITE place to eat or drink in Newark… but it’s probably been the place I’ve frequented the MOST in Newark over the past six years. Serioulsy, it’s a great little bar where the bartenders and wait staff are friendly and willing to please.

Crabcake sliders. That’s all you need to know. But if you insist on reading, let me tell you, they might change your life. You may move to Newark or run against Mayor Cory Booker just to get closer those little squares of heaven.
Besides the sliders though, their wings are perfectly crunchy, their Irish fries aren’t cheap on the bacon and more importantly their vodka tonics are nice and strong. I usually come for happy hour for better prices on drinks, but lunch is good here too (especially in the spring when they open their giant side doors). Street parking is usually available… oh and did I mention the Crabcake sliders? They’re amazing.
I’m taking away 1 star because sometimes they take way too long to get you your order and I hate when the waitstaff lets my glass go empty.

Came here on a Tuesday for the $ 5 mussels. 24 mussels for $ 5 is a good deal so I decided to give it a try.
I initially ordered a Guinness and the $ 5 mussels. I really enjoyed the pour of the Guinness– it had just the right amount of foam and was great. The mussells came with 4 small slices of what I think was their beer bread and had a spicy tomato, garlic broth. They were great but a little spicy for me. In order to help with the spicy factor (I can’t handle much heat), I also ordered some mashed potatoes. I am torn on the mashed potatoes. They tasted like they had either come from a box or had a lot of sour cream added. I am not sure which. They were decent, not tasteless or anything like some mashed potatoes but were also not the best I have had.
I also had a whisky sour and the drink was good– not too sweet, not too sour, and a decent amount of alcohol. In all, my 2 drinks, mashed potatoes, and mussells came to a little more than $ 20 I think which is a great deal. Their beer list is okay, not great by any means. They also don’t have any drink specials but will make you whatever you want from their full bar.
The atmosphere is pretty nice. I came a little after 4 and there were a decent number of people sitting at the bar but not a huge crowd. The parking situation isn’t terrible– you can find parking on the side streets but will need quarters for the meters (or you can use this parking app on your smart phone to pay which is what I did).
Will definitely be back for the mussels or their other $ 5 daily specials. Can’t beat $ 5 for a pretty good lunch.

Great happy hour specials and great food. I’m surprised that other people from the law school don’t walk the extra block to Kilkenny’s.
Not only is the food good, but they have great food specials. Every weekday, they have a different menu item for five dollars. On Tuesdays they have two dozen mussels on special. And the mussels are that good. The sauce had a little bit of heat and very garlicky, and the mussels are clean (I hate it when the mussels are sandy). The only thing that could make the dish better would be a little bit of chorizo (without casing) in the broth, but you can’t beat this for five bucks.
Five bucks on lunch and I get to walk back to the law school with the beginnings of a food coma. I call that five stars.