Don't bother.
I headed downtown to catch a concert with the boyfriend, going early enough (we thought) to hit the Vortex beforehand. I was running late, the Vortex had an hour and a half wait time, we didn't have enough time to wait. We found Ri Ra a few blocks down and being Irish, I was excited to head in and try it.
My first clue should have been that they had no wait. We go inside and the hostess is nowhere to be seen, but the waitress who was punching in an order at the hostess's computer said she'd be right with us. Who the hell doesn't have multiple hostesses on a Saturday night? Then the hostess comes up and drops some bomb about guests being upstairs and out of the way on the waitress, who handles it well but it showed me management was poor. I saw further proof of this in the total lack of busboys, the relatively poor service despite waitresses wandering around looking confused, and the food delivery being tricky. (The guy bringing out food had no idea where to go half the time.) Unfortunately, they sat us at a table that was somehow FREEZING. It wasn't a single thing as the table behind us had the same problem and were moved. I imagined we'd get our food quickly enough that I'd suffer through blue lips and said nothing. Waitress took a fair amount of time to do everything. I ordered the Wicklow Dip with chips and it was terrible. The au jus was funky and the sandwich arrived somewhat flattened with the meat piled on and some cheese melted on top. Chips were tasty, but I can go to Five Guys for tasty fries. The sandwich was utterly depressing and I ended up eating the meat out of it with a fork. The meat was fatty and medium rare, which at our freezing table meant it got cold very quickly. Fatty, raw meat is nasty cold.
Now, during the whole meal, my boyfriend and I resorted to yelling at each other to be heard. It was LOUD, and part of that was the obnoxiously loud music playing. Which wasn't Irish at all, they played absolute and total garbage. Loudly. (They played Fall Out Boy. At an ""Irish Pub."") The real clencher for me was the impossibly rude guests standing at the bar who would not move for wait staff nor fellow guests so that you could not get buy. Again, poor management, as the restaurant is laid out terribly, in a tunnel-like configuration.
So to be clear, TL:DR, the place is full of pretentious yuppie douchebags screaming at each other over the horrific music, the service is mediocre at best, and the food is sad. Save your money and go to Taco Mac if you want to drink, or head down a block and go to Front Page News if you want good drink and good food with a fair atmosphere. I will not come back to Ri Ra, their interior may have been salvaged but it feels mass-marketed and cheap, and I'm embarrassed to say it's Irish.
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