Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub

At least the beer was cold. The lamb burger was overcooked and the fries seemed to have been hanging around a while before making it on our plates. The breading on the fish and chips was rubbery. Service was good, but can’t recommend the food.

Sub par food. Great atmosphere though! The best thing on the menu is the warm goat cheese salad and the beer is quite tasty but nothing to write home about. Would recommend it as a great place to meet friends and family for happy hour!

This pub is great! We only discovered it recently and have been there for dinner three times in the last month. Every meal has been brilliant! Beer is great and so is the service. Highly recommended, go there!

We have been coming fairly regularly since we discovered the Irish breakfast (note that the five stars are for the Irish breakfast as we have not tried anything else). The rashers are sliced, grilled pork with a healthy dose of fat and incredible flavor and are now one of my favorite things to eat. The blood pudding and white pudding tastes exactly like what we ate in Ireland. Also in the dish are bangers, a potato cake, eggs, and toast (with Kelly gold butter, obviously). One plate is enough food to satisfy your appetite for an entire day.
We come not only for the food but also the atmosphere. Between the food that tastes authentically Irish and the Irish servers, you may for a moment forget you are not in Ireland.

Great service and nice selection of beer and wine! Most of the dishes are great and surprisingly the ribeye is dead on… perfectly cooked with great flavor. I love the atmosphere here as well… If you are I the area and want some food and a cold one. stop in!

Slowly, but unexpectedly, this spot has become our go-​to spot to grab food in Shirlington.
We can not get enough of several of their dishes. The Chicken Curry is as good as any other curry joint. A very nice dish that’s not too spicy, accompanied with this toasted bread which made it excellent for scooping. The Lamb Stew is very flavorful and savory, as well as their Shepherd’s Pie. All the dishes are well done, including the children’s menu, which frankly I feel has some of the best chicken tenders around.
Used to be Carlyle as our convenient go-​to place to eat, but no longer. I find the menu more interesting at Sam Beckett’s, and the fact they have happy hour prices on some food and drinks is icing on the cake.

Hmmm, nice looking place, feels authentic. Maybe I ordered the wrong entrée but fish n chips need to be good at an Irish pub. This entrée had me hankering for the fish n chips (especially Liffey chips) at Two Fools Tavern in my home town.
My Diet Coke was good wait staff very nice, I’m sure there is more to this place than ambience and service. I saw what looked like good shepherds pie, but alas, I’m not crazy about lamb, so skipped that choice. Watched a handsome burger go by. I’ll have an opportunity to come again, I’ll write when I do.
Good beer, whiskey, wine and porter list.

Came in here looking for holiday drinks to celebrate the end of the semester :) Unfortunately they did not have a menu, but the bartender heard me wanting something that reminded me of the holidays, so he offered to make something special. Turns out, he made a «White Christmas» and it tasted AMAZING and very fitting for the beginning of my winter break! I forgot the ingredients, but I believed he said it had Baileys in it. He was also very friendly and made conversation with us about Star Wars!
We also ordered potato skins (it comes with bacon, so I had to pick it off) and it came with scallions, cheese, and sour cream. Definitely recommend this greasy side dish (4 potato skins total) if you want to binge out on something, but then again, I’m a carbaholic and love my potatoes :) It’s a good size for potato skins though, so definitely check it out.
Lastly, the atmosphere was very comfortable. The seats were cushioned at the bar, and upon walking in, I felt as if I was in a Harry Potter set due to the coziness and the holiday decorations. Great for those who would also like a cozy environment when watching sports as well.

Great place! Nice décor, and the staff is phenomenal. They pour a decent pint, but I cannot honestly speak to the food.

SBs is a good neighborhood staple for Shirlington denizens that will offer you strong grog, well poured Guinness, and filling plates during the week.
Weekends get pretty packed and there is live music during those nights. Upstairs isn’t always open but when it is, there’s a smaller bat that will keep your whistle wet.
Overall, I don’t go here for the food, more for the drinks. And if you’re lucky enough to catch the owner behind the bar, she’s good conversation unless you’re being a wuss. Then it’s just fun for others to watch!

People at Reagan international airport tonight were bitching and complaining about all flights being canceled because of the weather. Fxcking babies, they were canceled so I could find this fantastic establishment. Ribeye meatloaf with Jameson mashed potatoes and collard greens, a gravy you could put on a boot and it would be good and whiskey flights. Great music as well.

I’m most definitely not a pub person. I don’t drink beer, am not very knowledgeable about Irish food. I never would have considered even trying out Samuel Beckett’s if it were not for my son’s girlfriend, who swore the food here was delicious. I was skeptical and didn’t want to bring two teenagers to a pub, but they both insisted on going.
The food was really delicious. We started with the hummus. It was good and was presented well (in fact, all the food was presented well. Someone really pays attention to detail here!). Wish it had a bit more pita bread, though. I don’t eat a lot of fried food anymore, but I decided to get the fish and chips. So good. The fish was cooked perfectly and the portion was so huge, it could easily feed me for 2 days. We even got dessert and I was pleasantly surprised by the bread pudding. It had a bit of an odd taste, but not at all bad.
I will definitely go here again.

One of the last places in Shirlington we haven’t tried and honestly, it was quite disappointing — the food that is.
The service was great, out server was very nice and on top of things. We sat out on the patio at one of the last tables on the end. None of us were smokers and the table behind us had three people at it smoking cigarettes. The smoke was drifting into into our area and was so strong we had to move. They had signs up that said cigars could be smoked there but nothing about cigarettes. It was awful.
The real reason I can’t give this place more stars is the pathetic chicken they throw on a buffalo chicken salad. I felt like I was eating fried cardboard. The fried chicken ‘strips’ (more like fried paper) lacked flavor, were super dry, and chewy. KFC has better chicken than this. I mean, it was shocking how terrible the chicken was.
Secondly, for a 12 $ salad I was expecting a heaping pile of lettuce under the dehydrated protein but it wasn’t all that impressive. The few tomatoes on the plate were lovely but I can’t say I will order this again.
The ambiance was fun and it seemed like a happenin’ place on a Saturday night.
Great, now I’m having flashbacks at how terrible those chicken ‘strips’ were. Ugh so gross.

If you’re looking for good food… this place is NOT it.
I went here with a few of my co-​workers for a late lunch. I ordered the Reuben Panini and it was the poorest excuse for a Reuben that I’ve ever seen. It was served on ciabatta bread… yes, ciabatta bread instead of the traditional rye. The corned beef was thin, rubbery, and way too pink to be fresh. There also wasn’t enough meat. By the time I got to the last inch of each half of the sandwich, only thousand island and sauerkraut were left.
My co-​workers ordered the Fish and Chips, Shepherd’s Pie, and Perfect Poultry Panini. The fish was okay and seemed to be fried well, but I was told the chips were a little soggy. The Shepherd’s Pie was okay, but nothing to rave about. The Perfect Poultry Panini was so poorly described on the menu that my co-​worker thought she received the wrong meal. It had crumbled bacon and red onion that wasn’t mentioned on the menu at all. When we finally flagged someone over to the table, we found out that it was the right thing. They offered to make her another sandwich, but we didn’t have time. She tried to scrape the bacon off, but with it came all of the sundried tomato pesto.
There may be other redeeming qualities about this place, but their food is not one of them and I will not be returning.

We had just landed at Reagan National Airport and we wanted a place to decompress and get some lunch. It was mid-​afternoon on a weekday. We stopped in Samuel Beckett’s which is located in Shirlington which is an upscale touristy/​trendy retail area in Arlington.
The place is very nice inside. It has sort of a typical cliché Irish Pub décor, but that’s what everyone expects to find so they might as well play the game. It’s a bit more classy than other nicer Irish pubs.
The place was rather empty, but it was mid-​afternoon on a weekday, so that was to be expected. Besides, after being packed into an airplane like sardines and wandering around busy airports it was nice to find a mostly empty pub in which to relax.
Service was friendly but not very attentive. I had to wave him down for just about everything (refills, ready to order, need a condiment, ready for the bill, etc.). That would not have been so bad except for the fact the place was almost completely empty, so there’s no real excuse for it. Inattention aside, our waiter was very nice and genuine every time we interacted with him.
I ordered the Sam’s Lamb Burger which the waiter recommended. It was very tasty. It was one of the richest burgers I’ve eaten. I almost couldn’t finish it. Not because I was full but because it was just so rich. Very very tasty and I recommend you try it. I enjoyed it with the homemade potato chips which I am addicted to and must order every time I see them on a menu.
As for what this place is like to go grab a beer with some friends late at night or with coworkers at happy hour, I really couldn’t tell you. We were mid-​afternoon weekday lunch customers.

This is one of the classiest Irish pubs I’ve ever been to. The décor inside is grand and beautiful, with the addition of a bookshelf, mahogony fixtures, and an upstairs deck. One couple was even here shooting their engagement pictures it’s such a classy joint.
The afternoon we were here to drink and our bartender was friendly and accomodating and even mentioned how she prefers pineapple juice + champs to mimosas (or other fun juices like grapefruit or mango), something I have been saying for years! I would like to try their menu out but I still think it’s probably one of the chillest yet nicest places to drink in all of Shirlington.

This place is really good for dinner or just casual drinks! We came on Monday for burger night. I had the black bean which was pretty good. The last time I came was for St. Patricks Day. It was packed and didn’t really have much room to sit. We didn’t mind considering the bartender was very attentive to keep refilling our beers. They also had live music and traditional irish dancers. Next year, make sure you go before 8pm so you can avoid the door fee.
This place also has patio seating so I’m excited to go again when the weather gets warmer.

My wife and I have been a here a few times together now. Last night (Sunday, March 15^th), we may have found our favorite dishes there. I had the salmon en croute ($ 18), which is salmon wrapped in a pastry puff/​croissant that also came with vegetables and wild rice. My wife got the chicken donegal ($ 16), which is breaded baked chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes.
Our server (Stephen G. according to our receipt and who served us on a prior visit) was great, as he took good care of us AND was running around making sure his other tables were taken care of too.
We will keep coming back!

I had a pretty good experience at Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub! It’s located conveniently in Shirlington Village (free parking and plenty of other restaurants /​stores in the area). My bf and I visited on a Friday night in mid-​October and were seated almost right away. Service was a bit slow (in fact, we had to ask another waitress to serve us), but our waitress apologized about that at the end (which is better than nothing, I suppose).
The food was really tasty! I ordered the Grilled Rib Eye, which came with a 12-​oz certified angus dry aged for 21 days and marinated overnight, served with Jameson mashed potato, seasonal vegetables, and brandy peppercorn sauce. It was seriously delicious! My medium-​done steak just melted right in my mouth and paired perfectly with the peppercorn sauce. My bf ordered the Joyce Burger (fresh ground certified angus beef with melted Dubliner cheddar served with french fries, lettuce, and tomato on a bun), which he also very much enjoyed.
I also really liked the décor in there — they were very much into the Halloween spirit.
We would certainly be interested in visiting again!

I like this place… I usually go late night and have drinks to close out the night. I have been there for drinks mostly. Had the burgers and some food… pretty good. Will continue to go there… Look for Joy, she is a bartender usually in the evening. Well worth the visit…