O’Toole’s Irish Pub

Sold to new owners and will be re-​named Trinity Bar. Another one bites the dust.

I stopped in only because it was the only place opened just before a huge snow storm when I walked in I liked it as I walked in kind of dark inside even in the day time but that’s my kind of place I placed an order of a Angus cheeseburger medium while I was waiting I had myself the best tasting Guinniess I ever had I managed two beers before my lunch arrived my burger was perfectly done the fries not grease I would come back just the Guinniess I would stop here with my mother for Mothers Day but will here more often.

We had a group of about 20 and everyone seemed to love it here! The food was delicious, especially the mini shepherds pie! It was a pleasure to work with Eddie who was our bartender/​server. Overall we had a great party and we look forward to coming back for dinner and drinks

Extremely slow service. Crappy atmosphere; they blast dance music through the speakers while a band is playing. Wtf? Overwhelmed bartenders that I wouldn’t hire to run a lemonade stand, let alone a bar. I think that covers all the bases.
The burger was OK but not worth the headache. In a town where you can close your eyes, throw a rock, and hit an Irish pub, I would skip this one.

I visited O’Tooles in September when Yale hosted an event for grad students. The place was unsurprisingly crowded, due to the volume of grad students that attended.
Verdict: All in all, it was a fine experience but nothing special. The venue didn’t leave much of an impression.

My boyfriend and I took my parents (out-​of-​towners) to visit O’Toole’s to catch some Sunday football and enjoy some pub food. Knowing it wasn’t going to be high-​end, we weren’t going in expecting five-​star food or any other unrealistic attributes. Even with our expectations lowered, we were still disappointed.
Immediately going in we realized how dead the place was. The bar area (where the majority of the TVs were) didn’t really cater to more than those lone patrons at the counter stools. It was darker and less qualified for groups or anyone wanting food and/​or visibility, so we settled for the dining area next to some windows in front of one TV. They didn’t have a real beer menu (though they give the impression of being a beer connoisseur’s kind of place) and they ended up being out of THREE different beers that we tried to order, including Yuengling, which they’ve been advertising for left and right. It was ridiculous.
The service was very lacking. Only one waitress was around and by «around» I mean very sparse in her attentiveness. She didn’t know much about beers or the food specials and she made several errors in our food orders.
And then there was the food. We shared their appetizer nachos, ordering the jalapeños on the side. She brought us a plate of chips with melted cheese and muddled tomatoes. No sign of the promised chicken/​onions and our side of jalapeños didn’t show up until after we asked, and by then we had finished the nachos. Be prepared for all of the veggies/​peppers you order to be pickled. Then our meals — we ordered some paninis, sliders, and buffalo chicken tenders, the latter two being (unbeknownst to our group) served without any sides whatsoever. The paninis were very average, though the fries served with them were alright.
Overall, the place served its purpose: we were able to watch (one game) football and eat/​drink (which was somewhat disappointing, even for a pub) and it was actually nice that the place wasn’t crowded with other customers. But O’Toole’s really needs some work. Their lack of business is a testament to their faults, which I believe are excessive. It’s a shame because it’s such prime real estate and the place is pretty cool inside.
But based on this first visit, we may not return.

The Wednesday night trivia at O’Tooles is great. It’s fairly relaxed compared to the frequently hyper-​competitive trivia elsewhere, they have specials on food and pitchers of beer, and it’s a fun atmosphere. The waitresses are awesome and always seem to make sure you have what you need without coming over so often that it would be a distraction.
Give it a shot! Just don’t expect that we’ll let you win easily…

O’Tooles has some of the best corned beef & cabbage I’ve ever had, and that is the sole reason I don’t come here frequently. If I came here as often as I wanted to, I’d be the size of a house because I just can’t turn down their food.
The corned beef is perfect; nothing fancy, nothing crazy, just perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth deliciousness. The drinks are cold, strong, and priced well. If you ask them to keep ‘em comin’, they do. Service here is attentive without being overbearing, which I appreciate at a bar. They did a great job designing the place, the inside is beautiful and I love the outdoor patio in the warmer months. New Haven is pretty severely lacking in the outdoor patio department, and O’Tooles definitely delivers on that front. A solid pub, definitely worth checking out for some cold drinks and good grub!

Have come here before with a large group and the service was OK and the food was good. Came again and the service was terrible. Took over a ½ hour to get a refill from the bar. The waiter was totally disinterested and would have rather been on Facebook than taking care of us.
Appetizers took a little over 45 minutes to get to the table and they were tasty.
After another hour and still no dinners, we complained to the waiter we had to leave the manager came over apologized and comped the entire bill. It sill took over a ½ hour to get everyone’s meals delivered to the table, some were not correct or cooked as asked, but at that point we did not care.
The comped bill sort of made up for the wait, but would definitely not come here with a large group again at least not without a reservation, that might help.

I grew up eating corn beef and cabbage. And not just on St. Patrick’s Day. My family did it right.
O’Toole’s gets it right too! While out for the parade, my friend and I decided we needed some hearty food for a day full of drinks. Since I’m Celiac… finding food, on Parade Day, could prove to be difficult. Not at O’Tooles! We managed to snag a table and a really friendly waitress – even in the midst of the craziness. While they were still serving breakfast (til 11:30, it was 11,) she still allowed us to order lunch. The corn beef and cabbage was AMAZING! Dee ordered it as well… and she was sooo happy. the meat was tender, fall apart, delicious. The service was quick, with both food and drinks. I will definitely be back!

I was here with a group for a running charity event. They did a great job of handling us and they even provided food which was actually pretty good. The had the typical beer selection and they accept all major credit cards.

This place is just irredeemably awful. I’ve been there on a normal night and for trivia. The service is slow and the waiters seem to hate their lives. The trivia is fine. The food is bad. The drinks are bad and overpriced. They charge $ 2 EXTRA for the ice in a well drink ($ 6!!! to start) on the rocks, and the pour is stingy. There’s no ambience, history, decent music, decent drinks, decent food, or cheap prices to make this shithole worthwhile. There is no shortage of Irish bars in New Haven. Don’t waste your time on this one. 0 stars if I could.

Good spot to play trivia on Wednesday nights. Our waiter was super friendly and even helped us answer some of our trivia questions… just a little difficult to understand him with his heavy Irish accent. Atmosphere was laid back and casual, lots of beers to choose from and food specials for trivia night include items for $ 5 and $ 7. I enjoyed a very good bottle of Magners Pear Cider… a nice alternative to a standard cider.

On Saturday we were leaving a new space and decided to celebrate at a restaurant and decided on this quaint place. I walked in and went to talk to the bartender who was very nice and said he had to go ask the guy in charge of the area. He came over and I told the gentleman there would be about 15 of us. he looked scared that we didn’t have a reservation but set up a few tables for us– there ended up being 20. I guess they have a side room but it was being used from my understanding.
Between him and the woman, we all had our drinks pretty quickly filled and they gave us pitchers for our water and soda drinkers. He told us upfront that they couldn’t separate our check that everything would be combined– which is fine, but I cant tell if he meant to sound ‘aggressive’ or it was just his accent.
Our food took a while, but with 20 orders, I can only imagine what they were dealing with in the kitchen– especially since they had the party, us, and everyone else on the booth side ordering as well. The food was pretty good actually. A lot of people loved the fish and chips, and the Shepards pie. I got feta and spinach stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes. The chicken was realllly good, moist, and had a garlic sauce. The potatoes and roasted veggies were sorta bland.
I would eat here again, and try more things. Between two of us, 2 sodas, a beer, and the tax and gratuity included we paid into the group $ 50. I think thats a good price. OH! And there’s live music every Saturday, but we were leaving right as they were setting up around 9pm.
This might be our regular after meeting spot!

I really like this place! It’s nice inside, there’s always a soccer game on at least one of the TVs, and they have beer. How can you go wrong? They have a great happy hour, live music some nights, and a nice patio on top of that. All the times I have been there it’s been pretty busy. Always a good sign!
The food here is pretty good. I always have a hard time trying to decide what to eat. They have your standard bar stuff (chicken tenders, wings, burgers, nachos) as well as some real irish pub fare (bangers and mash, fish n chips). I finally tried the fish n chips, which friends have told me is the best they’ve had here in the States. I have also had the Tipperary Gold panini. Both were delicious and the prices, I feel, were pretty reasonable.
Our waitress this last time I was there was Carolyn and she was awesome. She was very busy, but she was always checking up on us, bringing us drinks as well as water and chips towards the end of our night! And it was a long night… she had to deal with us from 6 to 12:30 (being there that long, we also got some shots courtesy of the bartenders). Thank you!
I highly recommend giving this place a try. Drop by to experience their happy hour or to watch an afternoon match with a pint and some lunch.

Some friends and I decided to stop by and try O’Tooles, mainly because there was a Living Social deal ($ 15 for $ 30 to spend on food + drink). We ended up not being able to use it, unfortunately. Bottom line: don’t bother with the Living Social deal unless you know at least a day in advance that you want to come here since it takes at least 24 hours to get your coupon code.
So how about the food?
The food here is actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Grace L. ordered the Dingle Fish Pie, which was quite delicious. Thomas V. described it as being somewhat like minestrone soup in flavor, though with meat instead of veggies, and I can sort of see where he got that idea from. The portion was not exceptionally large, but it was a decent size, provided you’re not totally famished.
I ordered the Brie Panini, which was quite scrumptious. I lovelovelove brie in general, and especially brie paninis, so this was right up my alley. It was a good size for a panini, and pretty much had all of my favorite things: brie, apple, pear, arugula. Noms. If you want meat however, this is probably not the best way to go.
They also serve a very delicious bottled pear cider, which Grace and I were both fans of.
Living Social mixup aside, the service was not the best. Maybe it was because we had the booth nearest to the door, but our waitress was somewhat MIA later on in our meal. We had been finished for some time before she finally came around to bring us the check, and even then, it took her an even longer time to come collect the check. We even tried to find her in the restaurant to give it to her, to no avail. We could have walked out the door without paying and no one would have noticed for a while… probably.
tl;dr: Food-​wise, not a bad choice in dt New Haven. Have yet to really experience the pub-​side though, so jury’s still out on that.

SPLENDID! This place kicks butt. It is very big inside and has a great service and entertainment as well. Had a TON to drink here… very cold Jaeger and fabulous whiskey sours. Also had Jameson shots but things got fuzzy after a while… our waitress was soo good. the drinks kept coming and her sense of humor was spectacular. Had some pub food while we were there, wings and fried polenta sticks with three dipping suaces which was AMAZING. Bouncer was cool, I gave him knuckles when I walked past him. Note to self, do not mix rum, whiskey, jameson and jaeger. you may end up licking a random horse head book end accidentally… which is NOT cool.
If you love irish pubs, new haven and great service with stellar drinks, i urge you to go to O’Tooles!!!

This is a great spot. Selena (I believe she may be one of the owners) took care of me and she had it all down. From describing the beers and ciders to describing the food to describing the area and the crappy New Haven parking attendants, she was very knowledgeable and entirely helpful. Awesome! I had the chicken sliders with pickled onions (who ever heard of pickled onions other than in a Gibson?) and the fish and chips. Both were excellent but I probably give the nod to the Fish and chips which were among the best I’ve ever had (and I’ve eaten them all over the place!) All terrific! I had been cycling that day so it seemed only right to toss back a beer (who am I kidding, it’s always right to toss back a beer) but it was such a hot day I took Selena’s advice on a chilled cider which was perfect! I’m going to go here with a crowd. Not for Karaōke (which always reminds me of the end of a drunken wedding) but maybe for the Irish bands or after some event in New Haven. They have outside seating (probably great in the evening during the summer) and the inside is nice and cool.
Oh yeah, they have a Jameson’s promotion. If you order anything above the regular Jameson’s you’re entered into a drawing. If you order the regular Jameson’s and you end up finishing the bottle (not start to finish, it just ends on your pour) you also get entered into the drawing. Great idea!
There are several Irish pubs in the area but this one is both authentic and well managed! Give it a try!

Oh, O’Tooles. Exactly what New Haven needed, another Irish Pub! There aren’t any in the general vacinity. *smirk*
Srsly, it wouldn’t be New England if you weren’t forced to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks out surrounded by football scarves, pints of Guinness, old men yelling in Irish accents, and a ton of bros in Red Sox hats asking for buckets of Budweiser whilst playing pub trivia. Know that I grew up with this and am in no way making fun (well, maybe a little), but rather that this experience evokes a warm-​hearted sense of nostalgia for my college years in Portland, Maine, drunkenly meandering back and forth between Bull Feeney’s, Gritty McDuff’s, and Ri Ra.
That being said, O’Tooles is a new spot and is in the process of being broken in. It’s almost too nice for an Irish pub, but I have no doubt that the townie and Yalie rufians will be on that sooner rather than later. Our waitress was nice, and considering that it was a Friday night and totally packed with every type of bro imaginable, she did a great job of getting us our food and drinks in a timely manner.
I still think Anna Liffey’s is the best Irish bar in the Have.

I haven’t had any of their entrees here but their appetizers have been pretty tasty. O’Tooles has a nice atmosphere and pleasant staff (most of whom I think I recognize from other New Haven Irish bars…)
This is a great place to see bands — there’s an actual stage area and enough room in front to have a dance crowd. Not positive if they have DJs too.
The tables/​booths on the right side of the bar are almost too large — they probably could’ve made smaller booths and fit more on that side, since they only have about 6. The bar is fully open on one side and has two «windows» on the back side of it with barstools. While the back side of the bar allows for more people to sit, the bartenders often don’t look behind them and take longer to serve those than the people at the «open» side of the bar.
The location is convenient since it’s not right near Temple or Crown and there’s usually parking on Orange or Chapel.