The Celtic Harp Restaurant and Pub

The chicken sandwich was kinda of dry and such a thin piece of chicken. The burger was a better choice. How did the burger get twice the amount of fries than the chicken sandwich???

Pesto haddock was an awesome choice for a Friday! Finished it off with an Irish coffee for dessert

We were going to a show at the Stanley and stopped for dinner on a Saturday night around 5:30PM. Quite busy at that time. Food was okay, service also okay. Very disappointed that as we were next door to brewery that they did not have Saranac lager on tap… mostly ales. Had to have a Sam Adams (which is a good lager) but from Boston when Saranac is right next door.
Also men’s bathroom was very dirty and no lock on the door which opens directly to the bar area for all to see… if one had to do the second function it would be quite bad.
And as an Irish bar… no Irish music. Over all experience, fair

This is a classic pub. The menu has standard pub food. The specials however, can light up a room. There’s several beers on tap and they do a good job of cycling the seasonal beers through. The Shepard’s Pie is a must.
It does get busy with a solid bar crowd after the dinner hour. If you are on Varick St it’s worth the look.

Cool bar atmosphere but everything we ordered to eat was awful.
The chowder had no flavor and too much potatoes while the chili had too much tomatoes. The regular and the sweet potato fries were over cooked and the fried meatballs were also over cooked and served over marinara with no flavor.
I will not go here again.

I visited the Celtic while on a weekend trip with my wife. Boy were we pleasantly surprised. First of all the inside is very clean and inviting with tvs all around playing every sporting event you’d like. Second, the service we received from Jared was great, very friendly and seemed to really understand the menu. Lastly, the food was amazing. I ordered the shepherds pie and my wife order a turkey blt. The shepherds pie was second to none, full of flavor and they used pot roast which cut down on the grease, the mashed potatos were some of the best I’ve ever had. The turkey blt was very clean, the bacon could have been better but the turkey itself was very fresh, and the bread they used was great. For those that are of the legal drinking age the beer selection was wide open.

I found this to be a very nice irish bar. Staff was friendly and attentive. The first night j went here I had the banshee burger… hands down the best burger I’ve ever had. A burger with pulled pork, bacon, cheese and coleslaw. It was incredible, the second day I had the fish sandwich, delicious but the burger was a hard act to follow. They also have a decent craft beer menu.

I stopped in here with my boyfriend on the way to the Saranac Brewery for a concert. This place was clean, comfortable, and had excellent wait staff. We were only in for a couple drinks but I wouldn’t have minded staying for dinner. There was a lot of space inside and outside and all of the food that passed us by looked outstanding!
Location is great too. A Varick St bar crawl would be a great addition to our next travels in Utica.

Good service– fantastic variety of cold brews. The food was acceptable/​good– then the local duo band started playing… too loud for a small bar… sorry we could not enjoy our conversation and left.

There are specials everyday. I had baked haddock with sweet potato fries for dinner and we all split everything wings for an appetizer. The food and the service was great. There are also live bands playing some nights which is always a good time. This bar is my favorite on varick because it’s pretty laid back and it’s the best bar to go to if you wanna watch a game. There’s always a good crowd.

When we come into town we make it a point to stop by and grab a few drinks. We stopped by Tuesday night 09÷09÷14 and it was trivia night. We rocked that shit! The waitress we had was racing up and down the stairs! She was amazing! The food was amazing! Lots of beer choices! A great pub! Check them out!

Went there midday to just get a beer. The bartender, whose name I wish I had gotten was fantastic: tall guy with tats. Very personable, made recommendations, friendly and attentive. If I lived there, I would hang at this place because of his service! The atmosphere is cool, very clean and comfortable! They serve the Saranac Beers– he suggested the Black Forrest which was amazingly good! Took my son there for his first «legal beer» on his birthday– the experience was memorable!

This place gets packed, and sometimes it hard to get a drink because it’s super busy. I do appreciate the live music though. Once, you get outside of the actual bar at least there is breathing room, and bands playing.

Has typical deep fried bad food appetizers and for calling themselves an «Irish pub» they have a pretty weak Reuben, however you can get an English sized pint of Guinness on tap for cheap and their Tuesday night trivia is always a great excuse to meet up with friends for a few pints.
A good tip though is to avoid it after a Saranac Thursday – although they typically have a good band on their outdoor stage, it gets too crowded and has a different crowd/​vibe.

I usually dont review anywhere before 3 visitis and we just went once here but there were 8 of us, some fussy, so I figured it would be ok to do this. We were running late, because we wanted to do the brewery tour next door. We onkly had 45 minutes from the time we walked in. (More on that in a minute.) The food was great. Great salads, appetizers and entrees. The soups couldn’t be better (the roasted red pepper and gouda soup was fantastic.) The food is a four.(The setting was nice too. Faux Pub but clean and nice enough.)
I just want to commend the service, which was a five. The real issue was time, and we told the server. She was fantastic. Got us everything as soon as she could and had the check ready with 5 minutes to spare. We would have understood if they couldnt have done an 8 person party under such a time constraint but they did great. I dont get to Utica much, but Ill be back here when I do.

Best wings in town! Should i say ‘hall of fame’ wings?

Pretty solid beer selection and some really good food. It’s seat yourself and can be difficult to get a server right away, I suggest asking the bartender for a menu before sitting down that way they get a server right over to you. I prefer sitting upstairs when dining. The Shepard’s Pie and Pot Roast Grinder are amazing, burgers are good, and the Dublin Dippers are an awesome app. Later at night it’s definitely a fun bar atmosphere which gets crowded. Took off a star because service can be spotty and slow but the atmosphere and food make it a worth while stop.

I have to agree with Timothy on his review of the Celtic Harp. Though I didn’t order anything with sauce and therefore can’t attest to their consistency, I did find that the food, ambience, and beer were all mediocre at best. It was a fine place to stop for lunch, but I don’t think that I would return. I also have never been a big fan of the theme restaurant that seems about as authentically Irish as Sean Patrick Flanery’s accent.

Food below average for the type of cuisine (all Irish fare), they rely heavy on thick sauces to bring flavor to overdone meats in at least half the meals I’ve eaten there. It’s not bad, but it’s more like an average pub grub than restaurant quality. Acoustics are terrible. Plenty of TVs in poor locations if you sit, but great for standing bar patrons. Outside bar area is great for summer nights but a generic paved area for any use besides nightlife.

If you fit the description of one of these three groups of people, you’ll probably enjoy being at the Celtic Harp. If you don’t fit in any of the categories, you should probably go somewhere else.
1. You are a slutty girl, whose gained quite some weight from college but that hasn’t stopped you from working hard to achieve a one night stand. You’ve dyed your hair blonde, you’ve got your leggings on and you’re ready to score!
2. You are a guido. You are ridiculously tan and sporting a white t-​shirt.
3. You are in your 40s, creeping on desperate girls (see #1).