Union Jack’s

Miserable French fries. They are exactly like McDonald’s French fries. They go cold quickly and are just terrible. I would expect significantly better fries at a place that considers itself a British Pub. Please dear God improve your fries! PLEEEASSE!
Other than that this place is deserving of 5 stars! Great service, fast service, my burger was good, my drinks were made very well, good music (alternative rock), good location, plenty of tables. I’d be surprised if guests ever had to wait for their tables.
I would totally come back if I knew that they would change the way they make french fries. I know I sound silly, but their fries are silly. Fix it!

Went here before a show at Merriweather. Great pizza. Great service at the bar. Great beer selection.

I’m basing the one star on this visit only since we have been there in the past for dinner and it was ok. My review is for this past Sunday, Mother’s Day 2016. It was an absolute disaster. We made a reservation to have brunch, which was advertised especially for Mother’s Day. When we called to make a reservation we asked what items would be on the menu and it all sounded good. We showed up at 10 am and were the second table seated. The hostess came (because there was no other waiting staff yet) and took our drink order, 3 coffees and when she finally brought them she apologized for taking a little longer because they had to make a new pot. Fine. No problem. The menu consisted of only 5 to 6 items which should’ve meant that there would be no problems delivering our orders. We gave the waitress our food order and no kidding, after 55 minutes still no food. As a matter of fact, the waitress and another waiter stopped by our table and other tables what seemed like every 5 minutes to let us know that they were sorry that it was taking so long. The waiter actually told us that on Easter Sunday they had the same problem and they weren’t prepared then either. They were truly embarrassed. At one point we were promised our food was coming «very soon». Five minutes later the waitress came to our table and apologized for them not being able to make the Eggs Benedict because they didn’t have the Hollandaise Sauce and she mentioned something else they didn’t have but I don’t remember because by this time I was livid. My husband and I had my mom from Europe with us and this was not a nice experience. I said to my husband that I was ready to go and that the manager could pay for our coffees. Speaking of the manager: WHAT A COWARD. Not once did he come out himself to apologize.
Union Jacks needs to get out of the Brunch/​Breakfast business. They cannot handle it. We ended up going home and I made French Toast myself for my mother!

Your restaurant is more like Union «Joke’s.» Not only was your «English fare» pretty comical but your entryway reeked of smelly feet odor as if 19,324 kids were running amok (and barefoot) in a funhouse. In fact, the stench was so pungent that it actually made me hallucinate and drift off to a nostalgic memory from my childhood of when my sister and I used to beg my poor mother to take us to Chuck E. Cheese. I was awoken from my 2-​millisecond daydream when my friend called my name, which bummed me out because I was about to jump in the bacteria-​laden ball pit…
Now, I know the Brits don’t specialize in chips and salsa (or really anything edible for that matter…) but my friends and I would’ve been better off appetizing ourselves with wallpaper paste and cardboard because it was one of the most tasteless (and boring) ways to start a meal…
I always like to go as authentic as I can when attending «ethnic» joints (and, no, ordering the chips and salsa was not my choice). Since your restaurant is English-​inspired, I ordered the Churchill Curry with shrimp (per the waitress’ suggestion) for my entrée. The dish did have a decent flavor and the spicy «kick» I had a hankering for, but I wasn’t a fan of the huge florets of cauliflower that were somewhat undercooked. And your waitress must love frozen food because the shrimp were, without a doubt, frozen. Not literally on my plate but pre-​frozen, of course… You even tried to cover up the fact that they weren’t fresh by leaving the tails on, which I know is a «thing» in hoity-​toity establishments (I am sorry but your pub doesn’t fit that bill). Being a former buyer of the frozen crawdads myself, I wasn’t fooled…
I made the mistake of looking at your dessert menu and saw you offer my absolute favorite — bread pudding. Considering I wasn’t too pleased with my appetizer or entrée, I thought I’d give you one last try to win me over. Well, your bread pudding was about as dry as kindling and could have started a fire right in front of my very own eyes if someone had struck a match within 15 feet of our table. Remember, as Smoky said, «Only you can prevent ‘restaurant’ fires…»
As we were leaving, my friend, Sarah, uttered, «Ew, it smells like cats.» Her comment just validated my nose adventure through funky town when I walked in. So, my dear lads, the hint of any type of critter (unless it’s dead, marinated, and grilled, of course) should NEVER be anywhere on the smell spectrum of a restaurant — at least one that serves food… Ick!!!
Maybe you should have stuck around after the Revolutionary war, so us Colonials could have shown you red «cats» a thing or two in the kitchen…

I haven’t ever been here myself. I ordered the Spicy-​Lunch Churchill’s Curry for lunch at work. Oh my god this is real spicy. Not for the faint-​hearted! Ask them to make it mild if you are not a spice fan. This is a pretty unique item on the menu and I loved it! Its perfect for hard core Indian food fans. They have chana masala, curry of tomato and cauliflower and two scoops of white rice. Perfect proportion! I’d post a a picture but I ate it all: P

Ok place for lunch since its not really crowded. Food is decent

Happy Hour specials??? I wanted to enjoy a couple of beers and a light bite to eat. Ordered two draughts at Happy Hour because the bartender said they were reduced by $ 2.00 and also ordered an appetizer of mussels at $ 12.00. So my draughts, at $ 2.00 off, ended up costing $ 6.00 each — they call this Happy Hour pricing? Therefore, for two quick beers and a snack it cost me $ 30.00 (including tip). Mussel portion was small and tasteless, except for the bits of prosciutto. Bartender was very good — very professional. The place could use a good cleaning and some fresh varnish on the woodwork.

Union Jack’s was okay, it wasn’t the worst place I’ve ever been to. Food was okay, but the service was kind of lousy.
They need more diverse music. I like hardcore rap, but some casual dance music would help too.
The crowd is good for 21 – 35 year old’s — at least on a Friday night anyway. I would go back again maybe for a quick lunch or something because I did not see their full menu when I went there.
I would recommend if you have a small group of friends and just want to have a few drinks and dance to some music. It is by no means a club, but it does have the basic necessities to be one.

Really like this place!
I have been here on several occasions and have really enjoyed myself. This is always a great go to place for beer and a burger. I had the fish and chips a cpl of times although good the portions are too huge for all to be consumed at one sitting. My hubby loves the steak sandwich! The menu offers a lot of great options for all, even those non meat eaters, LOL. And a large beer selection!
We sat outside the last trip here and the only downfall was the smokers. Who wants to try to enjoy an outdoor meal with a ton of smoke polluting the fresh air. Thank goodness for the waitress shooing them back into the «smoking section»
We enjoyed our meal in record time and got the heck out of there. The next visit we will dine indoors to avoid the smoke.
There are a ton of televisions and football session is here!
Enjoy Yall…

Inside of my circle of friends, some of them love union jacks, some of them are on the fence, and others just don’t like it. So when I read the reviews prior to mine. Judging by what I’ve seen, and from my own personal experiences. I understand why the reviews of this place are so «Love it, Hate it»
Personally I have never been blown away with Union Jacks. The food to me isn’t all that good, and the drinks are a bit weak. When I go out with friends I don’t want to drink 8 drinks and get buzzed, and I’d prefer not to resort to a night of straight shots. I want to be able to socialize, and pace myself with a nice strong drink. But whenever I’m here I feel like I have to drink like a college kid. I’m not looking to get wasted, but I would like to feel that I’m not being shorted.
The service here is off and on. I have had some really good waitresses, and some that weren’t so good. The same goes with service at the bar. This place will probably never be my first option, but with it being not so far from my house, i’m sure it will remain and option. Overall I don’t hate this place, but I can’t say that I love it either.

I’m from the area but now live outside the DMV; UJ’s used to be one of my Howard County go-to’s when I was home for holidays, but I don’t think that’ll be the case anymore. This location has really suffered in terms of food and service. A few highlights below:
— Food /​drinks: Expect sub-​par bar food. We ordered burgers and wings — both tasted like they had been frozen for several months and recently (and unsuccessfully) reheated. Drinks were watered down unless they were bottled. Happy hour specials are fine, but your money is better spent buying fast food at the mall.
— Service: This was the low point of my experience. My specific waiter was great, but he noted that there were several new and old-​time waiters that were on «thin ice» and may be fired any day. There was a piece of gum in my original set of utensils which did not help. My friend mentioned that a week earlier, his waiter was MIA for 30 minutes after collecting the bill /​credit card, and it took 30 min for him to return with the receipt for him to sign.
— Ambiance: Fine — this bar caters to ~25−35 year olds in the Columbia area. Nothing special to note.
It’s unfortunate that I frequented this bar several times over the last few years, only to see that it has deteriorated in quality so drastically recently. Won’t be going back — there are too many good spots in the nearby area to warrant coming here again

Let me start off by saying that this place has been getting a bad rap. I went over some of the reviews and it’s really not a bad place. This is probably my third or fourth time at this establishment. Once for Dinner. Once for a Halloween party. And twice for Happy hour with my coworkers. The first time l came here for Happy hour l went on line to reserve a table for a large group and they have where you can fill out a form to win a free Happy hour and guess what I won! It was great! It included a free party platter that they put together from their appetizer menu and specials on their house drinks.. My coworkers loved it and the restaurant that for quite some time they have been asking me to set something up again. So l finally did. Even though some of the coworkers had to cancel we just ended up with five in our group but we still had a great time. The server was on it. She helped me with my wine selection which was sooo delicious and had me in a nice mellow mood. My coworkers tried it and all of us ordered it at least twice lol. They have weekly Happy hour specials. So for Tuesday our drinks was $ 2.00 off beer and wine. The appetizers was great!
I had the Angus Sliders which come with 3 sliders.
Which l was impressed because it was steak and not hamburger and the steak was very tender. Way to go!
We never waited long for our food and they stayed on point with our service. We all had a great time and no regrets at all. I just wish it was closer to my home location. Other than that I think you should give them a try especially for Happy hour which is from 4 till 7pm weekly. Each day is a daily happy hour specials just go on line to check them out.

My complaint: Horrible customer service.
My Story: I had a friend in town, who was just given a huge promotion in the armed forces. I hadn’t seen them in a while, and with about 9 of our closest friends we decided that we would take them out to celebrate.
On the night in question we arrived to union jacks at about 9:00 p.m., with a group of 7 people, which would increase to 10 as the night went on.
Our first issue arose when we ordered our first (of many) rounds of shots for our group. We ordered 10 shots of Patron, and requested that they be chilled. This has been done many times for us in the groups that I have came here with in the past and has never seemed to be an issue, but tonight our bartender refused.
At this point we weren’t about to let this one thing ruin our celebration, so we ordered food and few more rounds and continued drinking. At 11:00 p.m. Power Hour starts and we continued then to buy more rounds. It’s important for me to note that everyone at the table was providing a round of drinks, or contributing to the tab in some way.
When it got to my turn to buy a round for the group I was standing at the bar waiting on the bartender (who at the time was serving other customers), and during my wait there was an announcement for last call. Not even a minute after the announcement she got to me, and I placed a order for 7 or 8 drinks. She very rudely says to me that she can’t give me the drinks that I am requesting.
She then proceeds to ask if all the drinks are for me. Technically yes they are, seeing as how I am buying them, but will I be distributing amongst my party, yes I will. Then she tells me that someone will have to come get the drinks with me, which I thought was obvious, seeing as I didn’t have enough hands to carry 8 drinks.
At this time she turns away (still with an attitude) and starts making my round of drinks. After she is finished she places them on the bar. My friend takes half of them, and I stay to pay.
It is at this time that the bartender looks at me and says I have to pay full price because power hour is over. Then tells me how she can’t change it, and once the time is past a certain point she can’t change the pricing.
I was at the bar before last call was called, and then once I tried to place my order, instead of putting it in right away, she wasted the next few minutes being rude and stalling so that I had to pay full price.
I feel like she made a big scene for no reason, and then I ended up having to go back to my table, and bring the drinks back to the bar, because she didn’t want to honor the power hour price. Just to watch her throw my drinks away. Not only was it embarrassing, but in the end it felt like a slap in the face.
Last call means the bar will be closing shortly. I have never been to a place where it meant that the bar is now closed. I was not the only person in my party to complain about her during the course of our visit. We were not overly loud, or rude, and even with her crappy attitude we tipped her well, and if it wasn’t for us trying to make the night a good one for our friend. We would’ve left, and went elsewhere.
With this kind of service. I definitely cannot see myself returning here in the future. Thanks «Crystal» the bartender for showing us what Union Jacks is all about. #SMH

Union Jack’s and I have a love hate relationship. Sometimes I love it here and other times I really don’t enjoy myself. I used to work at the mall and live pretty close by so it was a convenient hang out spot for happy hour and lunch. The food here is good, typical American bar fare with a pretty large menu so you’ve got some options. Nothing I’ve eaten here has ever ruined my appetite but nothing has really grabbed my attention either.
There is plenty of space inside as well as a patio area and a couple of pool tables. The service I’ve received has been hit or miss, I actually received some of the worst service I’ve ever had here but I’m pretty sure that guy isn’t still working there (I hope). The bartenders have always been good from my experience however most recently I noticed that they chill their pint glasses which is a beer snob no– no. Didn’t ruin my experience but a beer aficionado might not like that.
At night they try to capitalize on the lack of late night options in Columbia but unfortunately they fall victim to the same fate as most suburb bars around Ho Co. Most people just prefer to hang out in Baltimore or DC. Thursday usually has the livest crowd and there usually is at least a 5 dollar cover. I wouldn’t recommend it for any other night other than Thursday. They do run happy hour drink specials and power hours so it’s a great pre-​game location, just grab a DD or a Über after because it’s easy to get carried away.
It’s also not a bad place to watch Sunday football with the large number of TV’s, it is a Raven’s bar but I’ve never seen it packed and you should be able to watch your game happily (assuming your team is winning).

We have been here previously, before another Merriweather concert; we remembered having delicious fish and chips, as well as great service, so we opted to come here instead of Seasons 52 before heading to the Wiillie Nelson concert. What a mistake. At the entrance to the patio (and the entire restaurant, incedently) it says to wait to be seated. We asked a rather surly looking hostess whether it would be quicker to eat inside or out. She responded that she «wouldn’t know» and that we would need to see another hostess inside, then spun on her heel and walked away. Rude.
We got inside and were seated immediately at a high-​top table in the bar; the restaurant was not crowded and there seemed to be an abundance of servers milling around. We asked our server for a beer and a $ 5 glass of wine (on special for happy hour), as well as an order of spinach dip to start. Since Merriweather can be expensive, we were planning on having several drinks each, as well as entrees. I suppose our server was irritated that I ordered a $ 5 glass of wine, and thought we were cheap because we never saw him again.
After about half an hour of waiting, a finished appetizer, and over 20 minutes with empty glasses, we flagged down another server who promised he would refresh our drinks, however all he did was quickly tell us he «found our guy» 10 minutes later. Finally, I got up and flagged down a manager. It turns out he was the hardest working guy we had seen all night, taking and filling orders behind the bar. I let him know about how bad of an experience we had had, how we would have most likely spent upwards of $ 75 plus tip, and that we’d never been back. He was polite and gave us a $ 15 giftcard (we had already spend $ 25), but it’s obvious he had no control over his restaurant.
As for the food, its nothing special. Some dishes aredone well, but generally this place serves kitschy, touristy «British» food in a typical American chain restaurant environment. It’s only saving grace is it’s extensive patio area and proximity to Merriweather.
Heads up about ordering drinks here too. We even watched a young asian female bartender pour about an ounce of grey goose into a martini shaker, then fill the rest with cheap vodka. I don’t know of ANY drinks that mixes two unflavored vodkas, so it seems like they’re cheating bar customers.

re: Surprise Party
Now that I live on the West Coast, haven’t been here in a very long time. Service was good and I like having to come here with the convenience that I can just park about anywhere. I was a little disappointed they ran out of pineapples for their pizza, but this isn’t exactly the place you come for pizza if you’ve got the Pineapple Pizza Munchies. The Pizza and Wings were good.

I dined here with my mother because we have both lived in the area for a while and had not tried this restaurant before, unlike many of our friends. They all seem to have experienced better service than we did.
Overall, we were sat quickly and then watched every table around us get waited on except us. We had to ask who was going to take our table and finally got someone. Guests should never have to do that. Slow on water refills. Food did not come out right, but was corrected quickly. I’m surprised the manager didn’t come to see us/​we didn’t ask for one since our service was so bad. The only appeal I see at this place is the décor and the ability to dine outside and enjoy anything going on at Merriweather.

Love this place, awesome employs!!! Phil and Abby!!! great food and the service is awesome!!!
And ladies Phil I single and ready!!!
And thank you Angelia you rock as well taking care of us after Phil left

Went here on a sunny Sunday afternoon for the chance to dine outdoors. We got that part.
However, we also got neighboring tables left with dirty dishes on them that were not cleared the entire time we were there (Over an hour). We got a long (and I mean long) wait between appetizer and entrée service. And we got a waitress that apparently had not only outdoor tables but also inside tables as well. All of which I contribute to management issues.
Probably wont be back here.

I waiver between giving Union Jack’s 3 and 4 stars. My wife and I went to meet some friends., looked at Unilocal before leaving. to see what was recommended food-​wise as well as what to expect. Our fellow Unilocalers didn’t let us down!
It’s got a nice atmosphere… Attempting to replicate a London pub. We sat at the bar and were immediately served. After about half a drink, our friends arrived. We sat at a high top just outside the bar area. As recommended, we ordered the pretzels and crab dip. It was delicious! Pretzels were perfect, s bit of crisp on the outside, warm, soft and moist on the inside. When coupled with the creamy deliciousness of the crab dip, it really really compliment each other.
I decided to go three stars because the drinks were mediocre at best… Weak and watered down and the service matched the drinks. Weak and watered down. We had to get up to track him down to get more pretzels… Though he came back multiple times before we ordered, once we did, however he kind of forgot about us.
Our friends did at that no matter what they ordered there, they always enjoyed it., though they ordered salad with dressing on the side… Kind of hard to screw that up. Overall solid three stars.