Ireland’s Four Courts

Good food, good beer, good service. They also had a really nice Sunday brunch buffet.
Avoid during major soccer games though, unless you’re a fan of lots and lots of noise.

Bery good lunch with family of 4. Smithwicks was very fresh and cool. Very refreshing on hot day. Lunch Started with hummus platter. Very good,
Served with veg, pita and tortilla chips. For entrée, I had Old Bay wings. Done well. Nice and crispy. Decent size, 10 pc portion. Wife had grilled chix sandwich, enjoyed. 13 yo had NY strip (growing boy needs protein). Looked good and served atop mashed potatoes with side of mixed veg (which he didn’t touch but looked good to me). Other son tried the guineas onion soup (can’t be «French» in Irish pub). Delicious. Also had cheeseburger, which he advised was a bit dry.
Service was very attentive and friendly, but not intrusive.
Overall, good stop for us on our way out of town. Looks like it would be the place to be after work and after dark as well.

Probably the best place to watch European sports like EPL, Euro Cup and others. The place seems to be always filled with people. Nice atmosphere. They have live music and not sure which day. But, there is a permanent stage in the seating area. The food entrees are great, specially the shepherds pie, Bangers and Mash and the chicken wings. For drinks, best deal would be to buyt the mug. Service is prompt, with servers smartly dressed. In warm day, outside seating is available. This place has been in Clarendon for decades and was the original night life venues. It says a lot if this place is still hopping after all these years.

The website of Ireland’s Four Courts contains a tab for «Private Parties,» and also features a children’s menu. Because I was hosting a family reunion at a nearby hotel, I thought this would be the ideal spot for my group. I contacted the restaurant’s events manager several months prior to the reunion and was assured that the restaurant could accommodate my group. My wife and I dined at the restaurant a week before the event to see the room, which would have been perfect for our group. At that time an employee made note of how we would like the tables to be arranged, which I thought was very professional and accommodating.
BUT…several days before the event, the manager called to say that he was moving our group into another room, where we would be seated at smaller tables, more spread out, because a group of 30 adults, «all drinking» (his words), wanted the other room. In other words, they were kicking us to the curb at that late time to accommodate a group they assumed would be buying more drinks than our group.
When I mentioned that he had already told us we could have the room, the manager offered to let us have it «if the other group cancels.» This despite negotiating with them for the room months in advance. Never before have I encountered such mercenary business tactics from a restaurant. I cancelled the reservation and will not be returning.
Please note that this review is based on the restaurant’s poor ability to follow-​through on hosting a private party and not their food. About the latter, I will say that they have very good chicken wings and passable entrees that would have merited more than the one-​star rating.

Chicken tenders are outstanding. Old bay wings too. $ 6 apps 4 – 8. Really good steak fries. We both enjoyed the two different check engine dishes we had. Burgers were good too. Would come back. In a heart beat. Great pub atmosphere better than standard pub fare. Reasonable prices. A bit loud, but is is a pub.

Brought the family here for Mother’s Day brunch. At first, from the look on my wife’s face, I thought I had dropped the ball big time. After all, this is a bar, first and foremost, so it is rather noisy. Trying to communicate across the table was difficult at best. But the food on the brunch buffet was excellent, so she warmed up to the experience rather quickly. Plus, we were there toward the end of the brunch rush, so it thinned out and quieted down soon after our arrival. The selection of foods was surprisingly good, the fruit was fresh, and the biscuits and gravy was among the best I’ve ever had. The only drawback is there are no scrambled eggs on the line – you have to order those at the omelet station. Still, at least they HAVE an omelet station and a carving station to boot! The food was so good I had three plates.

Went for late lunch with my son because he likes Irish stews and such. The place has a nice feel to it, and the hostess was friendly. We were greeted quickly by our server, and we put in a wings order. Minutes ticked by and we had to flag down another server so we could get our food order in.
Wings order was cooked fast and arrived before we ordered our lunch. Different server came and took our order. Then we sat. And sat. The place was not very busy. Again we flagged down help. Our server showed up and told us they forgot to put the burger on the grill.
A few minutes later our food came. No apology from server for delay. My son’s Guinness beef stew was good, and so was my knife and fork burger.
Cost was about 15 per entrée, not bad. The portions we large and we were not able to eat it all. We really enjoyed the food, and I’m not a big Irish food person.
However, our sever was terrible, so we probably won’t waste time going back. There are so many other places to try, so we’ll opt for another place next time.

The traditional chicken boxty was rich and creamy (w/​out bacon). The bartender Krista recommendation was right on and so were the drinks. The lamb stew was lighter flare and tasty too. The other bartender was from Ireland on an internship. We learned a little history and enjoyed the night.

Happy hour rocks for beers and $ 6 apps. Chicken wings and sliders rock! Also noshed on the steak salad. Guiness at hh is 20 ounce for $ 5. Walking distance to hotels too. The whole vibe is spot on with Irish Pubs. I’m a wine drinker and that was sub par, so stuck w beer. Try them out!

I was not expecting much from this place. Apparently it is a popular soccer bar. I normally stay on the clarendon strip so I don’t venture out this far, but glad I came. It sorta reminded me of Hogsmeade from Harry Potter…
They have a pretty good brunch deal, 15 $ buffet and 2.50 mimosas and 5 $ bloodys. The mimosas are tall too, so you can get your money’s worth and They have a pretty good bloody Mary too
They had waffles, omelets, bagels, eggs, Shepard pie, hash browns, cookies, juice, salmon, and more for the buffet options. The food was good, pretty standard.
Our server was also very attentive and took good care of us, kept out drinks filled.
I really just liked that it was such an affordable option for day drinking so I will definitely be back.

We went for Sunday brunch. excellent buffet and menu choices… try to Irish brown bread.

I came here because I wanted to catch a basketball game and my coworker and I wanted to get a night cap before calling it quits. I just had dinner, but I was thinking… well it was my last night there and might as well go all out and order the Chicken Pot Pie.
And even though the pricing was the DC pricing that I’m not usually used to, it was worth it. It was tasty. I felt though that maybe here needed to be more chicken and less potatoes, but hey that’s just me. I had several beers, and was feeling quite full at the end of it.
The ambiance was great, just like what I would imagine an Irish Pub to be like. I mean my imagination could be completely off, but hey I would think that it has a pretty good set as to what an Irish Pub would be like. Anyways, they have these neat mugs that you can purchase and they engrave your name in there to keep at the restaurant so whenever you do decide to come you can drink out of your own mug. I thought that was really neat.
Anyways, it’s pub. They have pub food. Chicken Pot Pie was good! Check this place out if you’re looking for an Irish pub!

Ran across this Irish pub accidentally while the fam and I were looking for a place to have some breakfast on St. Patty’s Day weekend and saw a banner for a breakfast buffet! We could not pass up the opportunity especially during our Spring Break get away. The food was good and service was prompt… I had a fantastic omelet! I liked the place so much that I stopped by a few days later for lunch on my own. Sat at the bar and watched some soccer, put back a few beers and talked up a storm with the bartender, a recent college grad from Ireland. I would definitely say it would be worth visiting :)

I recently hosted a birthday party in one of the private rooms. From the beginning of planning, the staff and manager were extremely friendly and helpful. Upon arrival, the bartenders and manager went out of their way to make sure we had the best party possible– they even helped us set up the decorations we brought. Throughout the night, they checked in to make sure things were going as planned. I highly recommend 4 Courts if you need a place to hold an event. Many thanks to all of the staff from Saturday (1÷30÷16) night!

This seems like a neat place when you come in but the food and prices are not good at all. The prices are way too high for the poor quality of the food. At least other places in Arlington that are expensive are somewhat worth the price. Also, the general manager David is a complete jerk. He is very unfriendly, stern, and seems to not treat his employees well. It amazes me how such an impersonal person ends up running a restaurant!

Such a great experience! The Sunday brunch is fantastic! $ 14.95 gets you everything you could want! Fun sports bar room, and a more laid back area for a quitter experience. The hostess was friendly, and there was no wait. However, the best part was our server. Lauren G. was amazing! She’s witty, friendly, efficient, and beautiful. If I didn’t live 10 hours away, I would come back just to see her. An overall excellent experience!

Came here for brunch. Had the steak and eggs. The steak was very dry and hard. Staff was decently friendly.

This was a neat little place to spend a Friday afternoon. My dad’s boss was retiring and my dad also got promoted, so they had the whole crew/​office over here for a happy hour type shenanigan to celebrate both.
This ended up being a bunch of crazy ex military/​cop types in an Irish pub drinking Yuengling and Guinness like there was no tomorrow, but it seems like it tends to be a 20 – 30’s spot which my mid-​50s dad so aptly pointed out. Trust me there were plenty of people throwing back Jameson in our crew but way more on the front right side of the bar that were a few decades younger than the retirement age crew I was celebrating.
It was mid December when we were in so there was a good amount of Christmas décor around, cheery and brightened up the low lit bar a bit. There are a bunch of mugs on the wall for various families I guess? I never really asked what that was all about, but it reminded me of the Greene Turtle and the way they have mugs all over the place on the walls.
Barkeep was pretty good and pretty quick, I don’t think that it was happy hour either because it was Friday afternoon or too late-​but dear old dad was grabbing drinks for me so I didn’t pay attention. Either way northern VA has expensive drinks compared to some other venues so expect $ 7 beers when they’re not on special. Easy to get to from the subway, not too big and not too loud-​I like the vibe here. Good crowd here, will come back when back in town!

The food here is good, not great. And the prices are good, but not great. And the service is good, but not great. The drinks are typical Irish fare at average Clarendon prices.
When you come here don’t come expecting a restaurant. Come here expecting an Irish bar with food.
This place however is yet another spot in Clarendon where you can go as someone in their late 20s and not feel like you’re the grandma in the room. The crowd here is late 20s and early 30s in the evenings and is a young professional crowd.
A good spot for after work dinner and food. Service is good and the place is friendly.

Great atmosphere for any epl game. The food is top notch, especially the wings. All the servers are top Class, especially Stephanie and philem. They definitely make the place a 5 star review. Beyond the food and service being top notch in arlington, the owner came over and asked how we were doing. That just reiterates the attention to the customers and the overall care this place gives. Overall one of the best places in arlington. Period.

Four courts has a nice ambience and setup that allows for groups to have conversation and hang out, rather than the spread out line formation night clubs or such may have. I was really impressed that even as the night went on (on a friday), service was great. I didn’t have to wait more than 15 seconds to get another drink. It was great to get back to my friends quickly rather than spend time at the bar waiting.

Very good brunch. I got the breakfast buffet which had a lot of nice items including potatoes o’brien, bacon, sausage, eggs benedict, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, croissants. The only thing I wish they had was some type of egg on its own like scrambled eggs.

We hosted a party in the Joyce room this weekend and couldn’t have asked for a better experience! Booking the room was super easy. Once we arrived, we had no issues — everything was as expected, service was fantastic, and the staff went above and beyond to make our night special, including a run to CVS for birthday candles! (And an adept improvisation when they didn’t have any in stock). We will be back again and have told all of our friends. What a great experience!

This is a great place to watch Premier League matches. I went here to watch Manchester United play Everyone and we had a great time. Lots of screens to watch different matches simultaneously and lots of passionate fans. I ordered the French Toast without the bacon and it was good.

I like brunch, you like brunch, everyone likes brunch. So when we go to a brunch buffet (especially hungry), it enviably results in Unilocal grade inflation.
I recently hit up IFC for brunch for the first time and was initially struck by the selections (including juice) that you can get for only $ 15. But as I ate my way through it, it became clear to me that this brunch might have been worth $ 15, but really, not a penny more.
There are some features that initially look nice, but upon further inspection, are really the same tired frozen and/​or commercial brunch options that all the places around here use to save money. So we’ve got the same cheap sausage and bacon, frozen potatoes and egg mix instead of real eggs for the omelettes. Most annoyingly, they also use the same batter that results in doughy soggy Belgian waffles that everyone else uses. Can’t anyone here make waffle batter from scratch?
However, I did enjoy a few items. The bagels were fresh and not from the supermarket and the hash browns with fried eggs on them were a nice treat. The eggs Benedict would have been good if they hadn’t been sitting in the warmer for an hour or more. Which brings up another issue — come early if you want fresh food, because the food is not replaced in the last couple of hours. On balance, the brunch was OK, and just about worth the money that you are paying for it. Too bad the staff can’t add some little things like cheese cubes and cookies or something else other than fruit for dessert. I’d pay a couple more dollars for this, as I’m sure everyone else in this tony area would.
Brunch at IFC is in a nice, quiet setting and the staff is pleasant. The football game will be on TV as well, but the Redskins game will only be on over the bar for some silly reason. That’s not helpful.
So give it a shot if you are a local, but everyone else should keep looking for a reasonably-​priced, but tasty brunch buffet in NoVA.

I’ve been coming to Four Courts for years. The staff is friendly, efficient, and helpful. I’ve been here for Pacer’s post-​race events, St. Patty’s Day celebrations, trivia, met friends for happy hour, dinner, you name it. Excellent for groups. Very cozy, warm, pub feel. I will return.

This place is a gem! Great brunch at a great price. So good you have to try it. Everything you can think of including the Benedict! Oj included in the brunch!

I’ve come here a couple times with groups of varying sizes. Most recently it was just me and a friend grabbing a quick bite before a movie, but I’ve also been to a friend’s surprise party and also just hanging out in a Saturday night. They have daily happy hour specials that are well worth checking out & their food is solid. On the most recent trip here, we ordered chili cheese tots and buffalo wings. I’ve never met a tater tot I didn’t like, so it was gonna take serious effort for me not to love their tater tots. I really liked their buffalo wings. Not too saucy, yet very flavorful.
As I said before, I came here for a friend’s party and they were really great with accommodating. We planned it out, so they were able to give us a private room that we were able to decorate a little bit. Perfect for our group and our friend was very surprised.
It’s really a great place for a party, weekend out, or just a quick drink!

Four Courts has a cozy feel and a nice décor that make it look like an authentic Irish pub. My favorite thing about this place is that it’s less crazy on a Friday/​Saturday night than places in Clarendon i.e. you do not have to lose your voice by 11PM screaming at a person sitting right next to you.
Good wing specials and good wings! Like most Irish pubs the place has a rather basic menu but that’s to be expected.
Price and service prevent it from being a five star place. I know you have to pay the bills in Arlington but some of the simple items carry a rather large price tag.

My classmates and I came here as a last stop in our evening of barhopping. We chose it because it was open late (open til 2am every day) and had a pretty good selection of beer and late night food options since we were developing the drunk munchies. There were 6 of us and we picked a cozy corner table near the bar area which was far enough away from the noise of the bar that we didn’t need to be yelling at each other across the table. The ambiance is super sporty, irish, and divey and the lighting was dim. Definitely gave you that classic pub feel complete with sloshing drunk burly men arm wrestling in the corner. There might have been a dance floor or more tables in the other room, but we didn’t explore that area.
I had a few Blue Moons served perfectly with a fresh cut orange slice and finished the night off with a smooth Guinness. The beers were decently priced, and the bartender was super attentive and helpful. We also ordered a ton of food, which came out fast and hot! We shared a plate of wings (half double fried and half pineapple chili), loaded fries heavily covered with cheese and bacon, and chicken strips. The wings came with blue cheese dipping sauce, which was so good if you’re into blue cheese, and the pineapple chili was not spicy but still flavorful if you’re worried about spice.
I would definitely come here again to hang out with friends late at night. The drinks, atmosphere, and food were perfect and not overpriced at all.

Love a good Irish bar! Me and coworker came for a few drinks and bellied up to the bar. Shortly after, a live act came on the stage and began to play. Was a great acoustic act, played mostly 90’s, which was perfect! In addition to the great live music, the bar staff was friendly, efficient and knew how to pour a great cocktail. I cannot vouch for the place outside of cocktails on a Friday night, but I definitely will return when I am back in the area!

I really want to like this place because its so convenient location wise and they do have a great menu… and it just has a nice English pubby feel (as if it really was in the UK).
The problem is that:
A: the service is slow
B: too often I get the wrong food item
C: too often the food seems to be sub par…
This I think is once again an example of how a place is a victim of its own success and the place is under staffed.
ALSO… don’t ever go to trivia here. They have the most unfun trivia I have ever been to. It is rapid fire (AKA: lots of questions at a time, instead of one by one, so you don’t ever have time to chat in between).

I tend to stay away from Irish-​styled pubs and restaurants and once again I was reminded why. The service was off-​hand and the food was not very good quality although the prices were definitely not low. The potato soup was bland and I could taste the corn starch thickener, ordered a reisling and got a chardonnary and the nacho cheese dish with chili was just not very spicy or original. We ate and had a meal but doubt we’ll be back as it’s just average, nothing hopelessly bad or to-​die-​for good. We only went here because it was near the movie theater and we found parking nearby.