Bally-Hoo Pub & Restaurant is an authentic Irish pub that opened about five months ago. It's in the house off Custer Way in Tumwater that formerly was Jean-Pierre's Garden Room.
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A friend and I had dinner on a Friday evening. We started out with bangers in a bap - sausages wrapped in flaky pastry and served with a Dijon mustard dipping sauce. They were quite tasty. We washed them down with glasses of Stella Artois beer.

I ordered the shepherd's pie, described on the menu as a traditional heaping of roasted garlic mashers, tenderloin strips, peas and onions topped with a rich Guinness demi glaze. The thin, watery garlic mashers covered equally thin and flavorless gravy, very few tenderloin strips and thick, hard chunks of carrot. I didn't taste any garlic and I still wonder what happened to the rich Guinness demi-glace.

My friend thoroughly enjoyed her Bally-Hoo burger. It did look good - a beef patty topped with bacon, cheese, mushrooms, lettuce and tomato. I tried one of the crisp sweet potato fries. They were very tasty and are available on the appetizer menu as well.

For dessert, I ordered the apple pie with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and powdered sugar. My friend decided on the strawberry mousse at the urging of our server, who boasted he had made it himself.

The apple pie really was a custard pie, with a few thin slices of apple placed on top. The crust was sodden and the ice cream seemed out of place. The chocolate sauce was an interesting touch but didn't improve the pie.

The strawberry mousse was almost liquid, more like strawberry milk than mousse, but it had a strong strawberry flavor.

I went back to Bally-Hoo with another friend a few nights ago. We started with the homemade garlic chips. They were a bit greasy but still very good - crisp and redolent with chopped garlic. We finished them off, dipping each into the homemade blue cheese dip.

This time, I ordered a new menu item, the bleu crunch salad, a mix of field greens, blue cheese, apple, bacon pieces, red onion and slivered almonds. The apple cider vinaigrette dressing was a thick paste that didn't mix easily with the salad. The dish was OK but nothing to rave about.

My friend enjoyed her highlander sandwich made with breaded chicken, ham, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Bally-Hoo's zesty jam.

We tried the black & tan brownie with Guinness ice cream for dessert. The brownie had a sharp, almost bitter taste to it. I didn't taste the Guinness in the ice cream. There was no caramel sauce as promised. Instead, the dish was decorated with hard, thick, inedible spun sugar.

If you want to hang out with friends, watch sports on big TVs and knock back a few cold ones, you probably will enjoy Bally-Hoo. Nosh on appetizers, which, in my experience, were the best items on the menu.

You can have a fun, inexpensive evening.

Jean Ciallella is a freelance writer. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by The Olympian.

Bally-Hoo Pub & Restaurant

Rating: 2.5 forks

Location: 316 Schmidt Place S.W., Olympia; 360-534-9557

Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday

Food: The appetizers were the tastiest of our choices; the rest of the food was a disappointment. A lot of authentic Irish choices are available, including corned beef and cabbage, a corned beef sandwich, a Guinness steak or Irish lamb stew. You also can order bangers and mash - Irish pork sausage, spicy mashed potatoes and creamed peas. The all-day Irish breakfast includes two eggs, sweet bacon, Irish sausages, black pudding potato cakes and soda bread.

Beverages: An impressive assortment of bottled and draught beers includes Guinness, Bass, Widmer Hefeweizen, Killian's Irish Red and Kokanee. U.S. beers such as Budweiser and Michelob are available along with Spire Mountain Draft Cider. The wine list includes whites and reds, dessert wines and champagne by the bottle. The drink menu features several house specialty mixed drinks, including the dirty oatmeal, a mix of Jagermeister and Irish cream, and the Emerald Isle, made with Midori, platinum vodka and pineapple juice.

Value: Prices would be reasonable if the food was better. Starters average $6. A plate of Guinness wings is $8. One of the most expensive starters is the mixed sampler (grapes and apples, chicken wings, manchego, Dubliner cheese, corned beef and soda bread) for $15. The most expensive entree is the Guinness steak at $18, followed by the salmon and mashed potatoes at $16. Other entrees range from $9 for the corned beef sandwich to $15 for the all-day Irish breakfast.

Service: I made reservations for each visit, neither of which was honored, although we did eventually get a table. During both visits, I stood at the front for several minutes as staffers whizzed by me until someone stopped to ask if I needed help. Our servers were both very nice young people, but they were struggling to keep up with the crowd. Additional wait staff is needed. The food took a long time to come out. Things were very chaotic.

Atmosphere: The pub is in an old historic house that is divided into several rooms. The outside is badly in need of a good cleaning. I was put off by cigarette butts littering the walkway to the front door. Inside, the main room has a couch and chairs positioned in front of a fireplace and tables to seat about 30. The owner plans to put a large TV in the room for patrons to watch sporting events. The bar in the adjoining room already has two large TVs mounted on the walls. Past the bar and main room are additional small rooms where diners can sit. The farthest room can be curtained off and holds one large dining table that can seat about 12. The place is loud and raucous, as an Irish pub should be. Conversation during our first visit was almost impossible, but things were a bit quieter the second time. The back rooms were quieter than the front. A nice patio area will provide additional seating once weather permits.

Reservations: Yes, and recommended. Bally-Hoo was packed both times I visited and you will have a wait if you don't have reservations.

Methods of payment: Cash, debit and credit cards