I love the atmosphere at Nine Fine Irishmen (and have given an extra star mostly because of it) but the food leaves a bit to be desired.
What I lived: I really enjoy the live music they have there (saw the Celtic Rockers most recently and thought they were pretty decent) and I like the cosy seating that some spots in the restaurant have to offer. There service that I've had has been pretty decent too.
What I didn't like:
The food portions were huge and on paper looked promising. In reality though, the dishes we had lacked flavor and weren't nearly as interesting as the descriptions might lead you to believe. We ordered "drunken onion rings" that boasted a bloody mary marinade that the rings didn't have the slightest hint of. We also ordered the pork tenderloin, which while probably the best dish we tasted, was mostly show. I ordered the Blue Cheese steak which was incredibly disappointing; it lacked any seasoning and relied instead on the blue cheese and the horrid au jus style sauce to give it any flavor, but it wasn't enough. It was a huge cut of meat and I would gladly have had half the food with a little better quality and preparation.
I ordered the "dubliner" after dinner and while it had Jameson listed as it's first ingredient, it was completely imperceptible to either of us (it tasted like a sickeningly sweet appletini). We'd ordered Jameson neat before dinner and I get the feeling that they cut cost corners by being stingy on the whisky; not a good practice for an "irish" bar. The waitress, to her credit, had it remade (it came back entirely different the second time) when she noticed that I wasn't drinking it and she took it off of our bill.
Perhaps my latest visit was an off night; I've had better from them in what now feels like the distant past. I'll probably go back again for the live music, dessert and (simple) drinks, but I won't drop another $100 for dinner there again without some proof of redemption.