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Needing to get out of my apartment to watch the Phillies, I found that most of my usual game watching friends had other plans. I called up my brother.and found that he was watching the game at St. Stephen's Green. I found him in the downstairs bar, with a stool at the ready.
The downstairs bar is a bit claustrophobic, with a low sailing and a long, narrow space. Other than that, its a good space, with a bar on one wall, a rail on the other, and some seating in the back. It looked like they had a big TV at the far end too. The tap looked to be mostly microbrews, but as I was watching baseball, I stuck with lager.
We split a tasty pizza from the entrees also, but it would have been a little light as a meal. The other food going by looked fantastic, I'll have to get back here to give it a try. The food service did seem to be bit slow, mostly because they just had a runner rather than a waitstaff. That might be different upstairs. Our bartender was incredibly attentive, and I actually had to tell her to slow down, because there was a full beer waiting for me before my empty bottle hit the bar.
I don't get up that way very often, but it seems like this is a good addition the the bar scene in the Art Museum/Fairmount area.
Arrived just as the kitchen was opening on Saturday morning at 11AM. Decent beer selection and a great menu. Sat outside on the beautiful morning, not a very pleasant waitress until she handed us the check and put in the last minute pleasantry in an effort for a better tip. Regardless, brunch was delish.
I ordered the St. Stephens Green Morning Walk, a full Irish breakfast that was indescribably delicious. The plate featured bangers (sausage), rashers (Irish bacon), fried tomato, eggs (your choice, I went with scrambled), an English muffin, portabella mushroom, black & white pudding (more meat) and baked beans. Only other time I'd had an Irish breakfast was in Dublin a few years back and this was every bit as tasty.
The rest of the menu looks yummy so I'll be back to check it out for another meal.
From my back yard I can throw a stone and hit St. Stephen's. And yet, even though the food is great and the beer selection is good, I don't end up going nearly as often as you might think.
The reason I tend to avoid this bar, especially on nights and weekends, is because the service is normally poor, the atmosphere is lacking, and the music is always too loud (and bad). It is also somewhat expensive to eat and drink at St. Stephen's, although the food is generally well above average in quality.
There is great outside seating, and the wood work inside the bar is outstanding. I also appreciate the beer of the day (normally only changes every week or so) special, which offers $4 pints of a variety of quality beers.
Multiple flat screens make it a good place to watch a game, including premiere league and international soccer.
All in all, this is a nice place, its just too bad that some of its negatives keep it from being a great neighborhood pub.
The food was terrific at St. Stephen's green today - it just took so. so. so. long to get it.
Part of it might have been what we ordered - I had a divine braised shortrib (fell right off the bone) over fettucine. "Does this come in a heavy sauce?", I asked. "Oh, no." replied our server. LIES!!! I asked for light on the oil - and true enough there was very little oil.
Just tons of BUTTER on the fettucine.
Oh well. My hips will thank me tomorrow.
The Isabella Salad is terrific and I will be getting that next time - if I can do a next time. I get an hour for lunch and we wallked in at 1:05 PM and out at 2:20. I bit too long for lunch, I'm afraid.
And a bit too pricey for lunch - if you order (as I did) a DINNER FOR LUNCH. Next time salad or the grilled turkey wrap.
Server was pleasant (a little slow) and one of the owners was there and he is a doll.
I am very close to giving them 4 stars.
But now I need a post osso-bucco nap .
It was (rich and) delicious.
In a past review, I called The Standard Tap 'the only true gastropub in Philly. let me just take the time to amend this position. . .Although The Tap is still number one in my book, I've really grown to appreciate St. Stephen's.
The lamb tacos are seriously good. The lamb is perfectly braised: tender, flavorful and not-at-all greasy or slimy. I'm a fan.
Burgers are fresh and juicy and the chopped Caesar is simple and tasty.
They have enough good beer on tap and they are always properly served.
What I like best is that the service is always friendly and patient. It's true that the kitchen can be slow, but its a sure thing that your server will keep your beers coming with a smile.
I have mixed feelings about St. Stephens. Their brunch is delicious and is by far my favorite time to visit. Their Crab Eggs Benedict is wonderful, especially with the tarragon sauce. They have a decent beer selection, but their prices are pretty steep.However, they usually have Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, which makes me really happy, since it's one of my favorite beers. Their food is good, especially the Curried Chicken Wrap, and relatively cheap for the area.
As for the clientele, I absolutely cannot stand most of the people who frequent this bar. I've heard so many conversations that made me want to throw up. Lots of frat boys and girls who wear ten pounds of makeup. Unfortunately, these people crowd up the place, especially on weekends, and make it almost impossible to stand. If not for them, I'd definitely come here more often.
To be more precise, St. Stephen's is in between Meh and OK, depending on how you look at it. Parking wasn't a problem.
You'd never know it, but right by the swinging kitchen doors and the restrooms, away from everything else in this restaurant, there's a nook. You'd expect that maybe they'd use this place for storage, or a cash register, but, no - that's where all 8 of us were seated last night. Snoozefest of a table. If we'd wanted to eat in that kind of environment, I'd have had people over to my house.
The cheese-steak empenadas were yummy, and the over-sauced wings had potential (I asked for the wings to be well-done...there's a cliche about deaf ears...).
"Had potential" is a phrase I could add to almost any of the dishes we ordered, except for the open-faced soggy "braised chicken cheesesteak" which was, oh wait, I already said soggy. If I'd wanted sadly underseasoned chicken soup over a piece of baguette, I'd have asked for it. Was there cheese? The missing cheese was the least of my problems.
Long story short, go for a beer, not for a meal.
This place has changed so much since Ben McNamara (from the New Wave Cafe) took over the kitchen.
Mushroom bruschetta appetizer was hugely heaped with shrooms and melted cheese- it could have been a meal in itself. Boyfriend's Guinness battered fish and chips were abundant and crispy, with heaps of chips. My flatbread pizza was guiltily drowned in cheese, but it was very tasty and I ate all of it (pig!).
Beer list is not huge but has great focus- quality Belgians, American craft beers, and standards like Harp on tap. Prices are very reasonable- $5 for a gigantic 20 ounce draft Allagash or Bell's Two Hearted is sick.
Service was decent. I think I seriously offended our waitress by asking *which* Fantome saison they had available. She came back and said "It's a farmhouse beer. " Yes, I know that. Fantome makes like five different saisons (farmhouse beers). She rolled her eyes and brought the bottle over so I could see for myself.
I felt kinda guilty for harassing her with my beer-nerdness and left an apology overtip. Sorry, lady.
Food is ok; not much for vegetarians. Service is slow at best and bordering on absurdly neglectful at worst. It's in my neighborhood, and I'd eat there regularly, but there's no guarantee we won't get the one server who seems incredibly apathetic about doing her job.
This may be the most un-Irish pub I've visited. Don't mean that as a slight at all, by the way. I just found the atmosphere and food to be very atypical and refreshing from your usual pub experience.
Their menus are very unique in design and they just changed for the fall. Very friendly and informative staff. So I order the lamb tacos with Manchego cheese and black bean paste, these were served with onions and peppers on the side. These 2 huge tacos were just enough for lunch and a welcome surprise from my expectation.
I took a look at their beer selection and it's impressive. They have several Belgian ales that may require my attention one night this week or on a subsequent visit.
I was really not impressed and I was really really really hungry that day when I went there for the first time. If you are really that hungry I thought their food would wow me but sadly no. It was good but not awesome. I think the only thing that impress me is their beer list and my husband said they make a good jack and coke.
Everything I have had here is fine. Nothing spectacular, just good.
When it first opened it had a lot of pub food. It didn't seem like it was trying to be a gastropub, just a nice neighborhood bar. But since then, the prices have gone up and the portions have shrunk. They serve some fancier items now and have removed most of the comfort food.
The fries aren't as good as they used to be, I think they used to double fry them. The sea salt is a very nice touch.
The service is friendly, but some servers are much more skilled than others.
Beers are fine, it is a nice place for a drink. The interior is lovely, but it gets very loud on busy nights.
The interior is beautiful. I've heard it was crafted in Ireland, then shipped over here and put together on site. During the winter it was a nice place to sit at one of the fireplace tables and drink dark beer.
During the summer, it is the tables outside on the corner of Green St. that make it a nice place to sit and people watch the dog walkers and passerby.
The beer selection is good European fare and definitely more diverse than Kellians two blocks over. The bloody mary I had at a pretty sub-standard brunch was dark brown and tasted like bong water and A-1 sauce. The downstairs bar is really cool for those who reminisce of getting shitfaced during Monday Night Football at your friend's basement bar.
The food, although quite limited, is pretty good. Lamb Tacos or the Warm Spinach Salad stand out nicely, but they really should get a handle on what they want their menu to be. I have enjoyed a few items that have since been replaced by lesser choices.
It is in the neighborhood, the crowd gets amped for sports, and you can have a good draft beer on a sunny day. That makes it worth stopping through once a month or so.
Okay, I'm a sucker for Irish bars, and I've been to the real St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, which is a very beautiful park and one of the places where the Easter Rising occurred in 1916 (see, I'm a history nerd), so I like this place's name to start with. I'm also more and more pleased with Fairmount the more I walk over to hang out there.
The bar itself lived up to my expectations. It had the nice wood and brass pub thing going and is spacious. The bartender was from Ireland, and a group of men next to me at the bar all spoke with nice brogues, so I felt right at home. There was also a pretty good beer selection, so I indulged my weakness for Duchesse du Borgogne all night (god, I love sour beers). The menu also looked fantastic. Unfortunately, I wasn't that hungry, so my boyfriend and I just split their braised mushrooms. It was fan-freaking-tastic. The dish was basically a small hollowed-out crusty bread filled with braised mushrooms in a tasty brown sauce with a disc of crispy, browned parmesan cheese as a garnish (which was also yummy). I'm definitely up for going back there at some point and getting a real meal. And, of course, more beer.
4.5 stars
This place was delicious. Our party of two arrived around noon on a Friday. The chicken, chorizo and rice soup was amazing. The spare ribs in basically an asian bbq sauce were amazing as well. I liked my turkey burrito a lot too. The black bottom pecan pie was good, but I'm hard to please since my mom's is so good.
The servers were all really friendly and were overall excellent. The restaurant is pretty nice inside but I didn't get a chance to check out the bar side. Overall I was really happy with the experience and it was worth the long walk to get there.
St Stephens Green is a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
The interior is beautiful - there is the first floor with a large bar, a backyard with a few intimate tables, a basement with a big HDTV and a very cool wine-cellar type feel, and outside seating on Green and on 17th St.
Its a typical bar with 7 or so beers on tap. The food is very good for a new bar.
My picks? The scallops (sans bacon), the lamb skewers, and the wings.
Its a great spot for us Fairmount'ers to spend a weeknight and watch the game or a weekend night to relax and hang with your friends without having to take a cab.
Considering St. Stephen's is a block from my front door and consistently has a heady selection of beer, I can't complain too much. That said, the food is really hit or miss. Went in for a burger the other night and ordered it medium. It seemed fine but two bites in I realized it was completely raw and uncooked throughout. Awful. At that point I had basically destroyed the thing and didn't feel like complaining. The waiter offered me a free beer so I obviously took him up on that.
Since the place is less than a year old, they obviously haven't figured out a solid menu offering yet and are constantly updating and changing to work out the kinks. Eventually that might happen, but until then I would only suggest going here if you live in the neighborhood and are desperate for a bite. I also only make it a point to drink the beers because I have heard many complaints about the bartenders' cocktail mixing skills and tasted the worst Bloody Mary of my life there.
My 30th birthday festivities were spent at St. Stephen's Green. We had originally booked another place, and about a week before the party we were given some problems from said place, and we had to seriously scramble. A few friends of mine had already held events at St. Stephen's and recommended it highly. It was a great choice, through and through.
We were able to procure the entire downstairs, which is very reasonably sized. It was enough to accommodate the 50-60 people in our party, with lots of room to spare. We had a special selection of the menu for the party, which included a list of a ton of appetizers to choose from, and everyone was impressed by the quality of the food.
We also were able to offer an open bar special, which allowed our guests to pay $25, receive a bracelet, and have unlimited wine, some beers, and some mixed drinks. Not *everything* was offered but I can assure you, that was not an issue for anyone utilizing the open bar option.
Large plasma televisions showing local sports were on for the duration of the evening, but were not very loud so television watching (or having to scream to be heard) was never an issue.
St. Stephen's staff also went out of their way to make sure everyone in my party was cared for and tended to. For instance, a guest took the open bar very seriously and got as much for $25 as possible in the four hours of scheduled party time. The staff was attentive to him when he was sick and provided him with cold compresses for his head instead of just booting him out, like a lot of places would do. He was eventually told to leave, but it wasn't in a mean or violent way, like some places tend to do when someone's drank the entire bar dry and wants to share his findings with the table and floor and wall :)
The reason I have deducted a star is relative to the above. We had our own personal bartender for the evening and while I found him to be very attentive and sweet and all that you want in your party bartender, I couldn't understand how he kept serving the aforementioned person when clearly he had, at a point, had too much. I think that as a bartender, you need to be made aware of what your patrons are up to, and even if someone has already pre-paid for their drinks (as is the case with an open bar), it doesn't mean you should serve a clearly wasted person. After awhile, you have to know when to cut them off. And if you have the good sense to notice that they may be the type of drunk who may put up some sort of fight if you refuse them service, you can always just give him a coke or tonic water or whatever it is they want to drink minus the actual alcohol. If they're that wasted, they'll likely not even know. And in the meantime, you're helping to sober them up or at the very least not let them continue down the path where they're eventually spending the party on the pavement outside.
OK, if you think you want to sit in the front area of the restaurant, guess again. You'd have to be anorexic to fit your can in the club chairs they have in the front. That's why the front seating area is never sat. No one can fit in the chairs. They've gotta do something because that part of the restaurant always looks empty. The food is good. My fave is the Isabella salad. The servers are nice and I like the pizza of the day - usually. The menu had undergone a few rewrites and they've changed chefs at least twice since they opened. But it's a convenient neighborhood hang out and they are open late.
I'm new to Philly, so I don't have much to compare my meal and time at St. Stephens Green to...but I very much enjoyed my time there. My friend and I sat outside and still got prompt service. We both had the Apricot Weizens, a sweeter beer than many might like but not overly cloying. I had a special (beef short rib with truffle risotto) which satisfied me very much...though the risotto texture may have been a wee bit funny. My friend had the turkey burrito and loved it, and the fries that came with...I was less impressed by the fries...I prefer a crispy fry to any thing other than that. This is definitely a place where you can eat and drink within your budget (if your budget is about $25) and it's also a place where you can eat and drink beyond said budget. I will definitely go back and try their lamb tacos.
Had a great time while I was here. A group of us came here after our company christmas luncheon (which doesn't end until 5pm). Many of us were already in high spirits when we arrived. We continued our holiday celebration here and had such a nice time. The place is beautiful and the bathrooms were clean. The staff was great and very accomodating. I'll definitely come back for another visit. I only gave it 4 stars because I haven't tried the food here yet. Perhaps on my next visit I'll sample their cuisine.
This place sticks out like a sore thumb in such a low key neighboorhood. A little too frat bar-ish at certain times for my taste. It definitely gets loud.
This place has a great, upscale pub atmosphere backed up by a nice beer selection. A nice long wooden bar upstairs gives the place a historic feel. There is a basement bar as well, which is worth a shot if it's crowded upstairs.
As for the food, it's good, not great. The only issue I see is that the menu is rather limited (again, I've only been for lunch).
The food here was very good. The menu is full of great comfort foods paired with lighter salads. My only complaint is that our server was a bit 'cold' and markedly absent for longer periods of time. Otherwise it was great and I'd definitely visit again.
Outstanding ahi tuna, nice atmosphere (comfortable yet not a hole in the wall) but terrible lemon drop martinis. Probably a great place for those with a stomach for beer, unfortunately I haven't mastered that art yet so for now, I'll simply enjoy their food, which seems to be on a higher breed of pub food.
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