We came here for a dinner date and really enjoyed ourselves :) there were lots of locals and it seems like a great local watering hole. The wings and pizza were fantastic! Would definitely come back for wings again. Great for a cheap drink/beer as well. Our server was the nicest and had some good reccs for us! read more

See all

they are no longer a smokers bar, and have not been for years. the food is good. best tenderloins in indy...try the baby tenderloin if you don t like it pounded thin. very nice people. inexpensive. read more

DB is the best bartender and the food here is absolutely amazing!! Southwest Chicken Wrap can't be near anywhere. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming, and he even put fanduel sports channel on for me!! This is a gem of a place if you come from out of town like I do. Might not be the cheapest in price but well worth it. read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Half of a Southwestern Chicken Wrap - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

We had a nice dinner here on a random week night. We are new to the area and hadn't tried this spot yet. Based on the outside we weren't expecting the inside to be so nice, but it was very nice and welcoming. Our server was a very friendly gentleman and our food came out quickly. The wings, fries, and chili were amazing. We will definitely be coming back and would recommend this spot! read more

Looking for a place to eat before a 2 hour drive coming out of the airport. Saw lots of cars when we got off the highway so stopped here. Amazing server, food, and exceptional cleanliness. If I loved around here we would be back often!!!! Started with the beef stew and side salad. Both were the perfect start. All other meals were fantastic as well!!! Wish I had remembered to take a photo. read more

Great food, fun times celebrating our good friends birthday. We had about 14 people and the servers did a great job keeping up!

Service was good, if a little slow. Had the fish and chips. Fish was very dry and overcooked.

What an awesome place. Great atmosphere! DB did an amazing job behind the bar. Appreciate the crew welcoming a southerner! Had a great time.

I ordered a bacon cheeseburger. The burger was so small it didn't come close to covering the bun, it tasted burnt and cost almost $14. I will not go back. read more

Another Vibe It was our first time there at night and had some good quick food , recommand for a visit. read more

I ordered the fish and chips and it was tasteless and extremely dry as was the coleslaw. The fries and hush puppies were both burnt. So I gave them 1 star. If I could I would've given them a zero. Won't ever go back again read more

This is a fun spot to meet friends and if you go on a Thursday night they play trivia! It has a typical bar feel but seems really clean and doesn't carry the smell of smoke or grease as you enter. There are seats and booths as well as high tops, and they even have a few spots in a side room for a quieter feel. Our waitress was pretty busy but had a great attitude and gave us some tips on items as well as samples of the ciders. We ended up getting mostly appetizers but their fried mushrooms were tender yet crispy and larger than normal so had a good mushroom taste. I'm told their nachos on the kettle chips are to die for (says my friend) who has gone almost weekly to get them since discovering them recently. The breadsticks were also good I was told but didn't try them. My cider was on tap and deliciously fruity and refreshing for a summer evening and I would for sure get that again. All in all a great spot for a hang out and bar food done well, and some beverages with friendly staff. read more

My friends and I were looking forward to a tasty St. Patrick's Day dinner at McGilvery's. Three of us ordered the corned beef & cabbage dinner and another friend ordered the fish n chips. Unfortunately, the food was not good. The cabbage was horrible! It was so tough that we had to ask for steak knives just to cut through it. The cabbage heads were cut into quarters with the core intact! It was so tough and chewy! Cabbage...at an Irish pub! Kind of a shock. We told our server that none of us could eat the cabbage and there was no apology, no offer of another option, nothing. The carrots also had a very bad taste. I've enjoyed many meals and fun times here, but last night was really bad and their bland reaction to bad food that couldn't be eaten was inexcusable. read more

So much fun here on Friday nights! They do bingo every Friday. I think it starts at 7pm and the guy who hosts it is perfect for the job. I heard this place recently renovated and stopped allowing smoking and my husband and I have talked about visiting for years so now was the time! We walked in and there is a bar with seating and lots of regular tables and booths. We started with a soft pretzel with cheese. It was pretty good. It tasted like a a ballpark pretzel and brought back all the softball tournament memories from my childhood. I ordered the philly cheese steak which was phenomenal. Grilled onions, peppers, and mushrooms are on top, au jus to dip the sandwich in (or dump on it) which was super flavorful and chips on the side. The chips were really good and thick like kettle chips. My husband got the BLT with an egg and said it was great, too. The bread was perfectly toasted and didn't hurt his mouth like others who toast it too long. Our waitress, Megan, is a pro! She had so many tables but she handled them all very well. Can't wait to be back! read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Philly cheese steak without mushrooms - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

Best place to bet on Little League baseball. Illinois beat Ohio and I made $1. My coke was delicious and Airport Larry threatened to beat me up. I will definitely come back. read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - A cup of coke. - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

This is a fun place to go! It is very clean, and inviting. It is now no smoking and a wonderful environment. It is 21+ so no kids but it's laid back. The food is wonderful. The wings were perfect! The Mac n cheese bites, delicious! The tenderloin is famous! I would definitely try this place out if you're looking for bar food! There is nice outdoor seating and nice indoor seating. Restrooms are beautiful read more

See all

This place is great, especially since they remodeled. It looks like a typical dive bar from outside but it's actually quite nice inside with plenty of seating, decent bar space, and a stage for live music. Their menu is fairly extensive for a bar and I've enjoyed every single dish I've had here, you really can't beat the prices either. The staff is always really friendly and is quite attentive too. This used to be a smoke friendly bar but since the renovation they've asked patrons to move that outside and you'd never know after everything they did. I can honestly say it's one of the cleanest bars I've ever been in and I think that's a huge plus with everything going on. If you're looking for a casual atmosphere with good food, great drinks, and a wonderful staff then look no further than McGilvery's! read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Classic BLT + Egg - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

See all

Ugh!! We live near here and stopped in to find another local favorite place. Oh my! Bartender had the personality of wonderbread. Bland! We will go back to the places we love. What a dissappintment read more

I've been coming here for 20 plus years for the breaded tenderloin and the awesome servers. I have not had a bad experience in all these years. Literally the best breaded tenderloin I've had and it's by far the best. Cheers. read more

I've been wanting to try this place for a while now, and business took us to the West side, so we decided to pop in. First of all, I was somewhat shocked after sitting down only to find out it's a smoking restaurant. The rest of Marion County is non smoking, and I assumed Speedway was, also...but apparently I was wrong. But, we were already setting and would have felt bad about leaving at that point. We were surprised, though. The food was decent enough. My wife had a salad (OK) and breaded mushrooms (REALLY good). I had a breaded tenderloin. It obviously was hand breaded, but was pounded out way too thin for my liking, and the seasoning....well, there wasn't any seasoning. The service was not exactly bad, but I'd say it was a little below average. All in all, a pretty underwhelming experience. I don't anticipate returning. read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Breaded Tenderloin. - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

This was our stop today on the International Marketplace Lunch Tour. There is a large area on the Westside of town called The International Marketplace. Many places are restaurants with International foods from around the world. Most are not your kind of sort of and mostly Americanized, but are very authentic opened and ran by the people from that country. McGilvery's Speedway Pub and Eatery is a part of The International Marketplace District. It's like an old Irish Pub with a limited menu right now due to the coronavirus. It's very nice inside as it has been remodeled. There were 4 in my group and we all decided on the Tenderloin with chips for $14.99. That included a drink and gratuity. The tenderloin was huge. It was pounded extremely thin. Too thin so that it seemed dry and overcooked. 3 of us prefer ours thicker so that the meat is juicy. The owner is very nice and cordial. I would go back, but I would definitely order something else. Give McGilvery's a try! read more

See all

This place is the best! Their tenderloin is out of this world. What makes this place different is that they have 'tenderloin bites' as an appetizer which is something I've never seen anywhere else! I got the baby tenderloin sandwich and you can't even see the bun. You should see the big tenderloin. Oh my. The bartender is amazing as well, never had to ask for anything - she was on it! read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Tenderloin (smaller one) - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

I have made this my local stop! I just moved back to Speedway. The staff is so lovely, the patrons are friendly, so far my experiences have been a delight! Live music, great selection on the touch tunes, trivia and pull tabs. I can't and won't place one experience above the other because the service from everyone I have met has been amazing. We watched election results here, unwound from work here, and wandered in bored one night. As one who has only been going to McGuilvery's a few weeks- I strongly recommend this gem! read more

came in yesterday thinking this was going to be a new favorite, was one of the biggest disappointments of the year. the music was good (damaged goods btw) but everything else was so mid, the bar tender outright refused to do his job and would leave for a smoke break every 30 seconds, the food was ok at best which sucked because we had to wait what seemed like hours. the waitress we had also went on smoke breaks every 30 seconds and barley came around to see if we needed more drinks. this place has potential to be something great, if they fire their entire staff and replaced it with people who don't chain smoke and actually want to make money! read more

Great pizza, but too much smoke! Chose to sit outside to social distance and to simply enjoy the outdoors. The tables may have been 6ft apart, but the chairs definitely were not! We were also surprised that people could smoke on the patio. If you love cigarette smoke & sitting on top of each other (when we should be social distancing)....this is the place for you...definitely not the place for us. We would only order take out from this place. read more

We tried dinner here for the first time. We ordered carryout. 35 minute wait for carryout. The food was hot when we got it, yay! But we were very disappointed when we ate the food. The fried tenderloin was very dry. The French fries could be bought at Walmart and headed up. The Ruben was so dry it was like eating jerky. The buffalo chips were good! We will not be returning. read more

Could they at least make a certain section for smokers? The food was just alright and the service was ok. I just couldn't get over the fact that you can smoke inside. And the tables are pretty close so you can't avoid it. There were used ash trays on each table and even ones in the restrooms. I think that an Irish pub needs an actual Irish feel to it and this place doesn't cut it. Besides their name, there is nothing Irish about it. Didn't live up to my expectations. read more

I finally got and took the chance to check out McGilvery's late this afternoon for an early dinner for take out. Cassie did a wonderful job of taking care of me and the portions, price and quality of dinner was absolutely wonderful. Highly recommended and thanks so much! read more

I really like this place for a lot of reasons. This is your father's bar. Don't expect any trendy bullshit. Expect good bartop company and a decent pour. Very nice regulars locally owned and operated Lovely bar food Older property but clean Very nice outdoor seating area read more

This place is awesome. Live music on Saturdays, great food, (pizza is one of the city's best), and a very "home like feeling." April, Meagan, Chip, DB. Shannon and Brenda always make everyone feel at home. read more

Came here last night with my grandparents for the first time. Please note that this bar does allow smoking so if that's a problem for you, you may want to avoid it. My grandmother and I each ordered something and split our dinners among each other. I got their Western Burger which was very juicy, cooked exactly the way I wanted and the fried onion petals tasted great. She ordered the fish and chips. I normally like fish and chips at other locations but unfortunately the fish here tasted really fishy in a way that wasn't good. My grandfather ordered the tenderloin and I did try a piece of that. Very juicy and delicious. Downside is that the fish wasn't good, every meal comes with chips unless you specifically order fries (which can be kind of a bummer), and lots of smoking. However, if you get it to go I'm sure it'd be just fine. read more

It's 2017 and this place still allows smoking. If you're part of the 23% that will likely die of lung cancer in the next 40 years, you're happy with the stench in this west side bar. Can we please get a good sports bar on the west side? After they realize it's 2017 and they fumigate I'll consider. On the plus side the race weekend tent party that was outside of the stench was quite fun. Great music. read more

I feel like some of the reviews for McGilvery's are quite unfair. I am ECSTATIC that there is still a bar where I can smoke. To me, if you don't like smoke, you don't belong in a bar. True, some smoking establishments have better ventilation systems than others, but all the PC business about smoking is really getting on my nerves. And non-smoking laws DO hurt establishments. I love coming here because I am allowed to be comfortable & be myself. It lets me feel like I am back in the last decade, minus the modern technology of the digital jukebox (which is cool, too, now that I know how to work it). I haven't taken many pics recently with my crappy little phone for yelp reviews, but I DID make a point to take one of the ashtray mounted in the ladies' room. Maybe I am one of the only people alive that gets excited over the sight of cool old ashtrays, but if you're reading this and they appeal to you, too, we could probably be best friends, seriously! Some piss-poor planning on my part for NYE 2007/New Year's 2008, led me and my best friend to walk all the way to McGilvery's in heels in some cold ass weather back then. We rang in the new year in a mostly empty bar & took a cab home. That was my only visit until recently. I've been back a few times in the past week or more including Monday afternoon with my dad when our power got knocked out. A fellow yelper's review got me curious when I saw you could smoke in there & I had not been to a bar in a very long time. Not being able to smoke is one thing that kept me from going out. This is one of those places where you could easily become a regular and I do miss having a neighborhood haunt where they know my name and remember what I like to drink. I am one of those people that prefers to sit at the bar, but ended up sitting in a booth on all of my recent visits. The booths are nice, too, but keeps you from interacting with people as much. They also have tables, if that floats your boat. One huge t.v. screen and several smaller ones playing sports, news and trivia. God, I had not played trivia in a LONG time & enjoyed it quite a bit. I have not seen this placed packed, but there is often a good crowd and is made up of pretty decent people. On my first visit back there were some undesirables that showed up and were being a little obscene, but the bartender kindly told them they could take that behavior outside & they did not stay long. I do not believe that sort of thing was the norm for this bar. McGilvery's doesn't seem to be in stock on all their bottled beers that appear on the menu & signs, but they have some good drafts to choose from that are fine with me. I tried a Blue Moon for the first time & also had a Goose Island IPA, but I usually stick with pints of Coors Light. They make a pretty good margarita, too! They also keep me loaded with ice water upon request. The only food I have tried are the pretzel bites. They appeared to be deep-fried and were HOT outta the fryer. The spicy mustard I chose to go with them was damn good, too. They have a pretty big dining menu and lots of daily food and drink specials. One of the waitresses I had wasn't as good as another that has waited on me a couple of times now, but service is up there. The bartenders are really top-notch, especially the man that is usually working. I give him an A+ for sure! So, in closing, this is not a fancy place, but it's a nice clean and friendly place. It's mostly an older crowd, but that is just fine with me. If cigarette smoke bothers you, yeah, it's probably not the place for you, but it's a BAR, what a bar used to be. What a bar is supposed to be! I really love it here and plan to go back often for as long as I am welcome. read more

McGilvery's Speedway Pub & Eatery - Signage on outside of building. - Pubs Near Me - Indianapolis, Indiana

See all

What a pleasant surprise. Expecting just a "pub" meal, we got more than we bargained for. The food quality was awesome, my mushroom and Swiss burger was cooked exactly to my specifications. And you could tell the grease was clean for the fries. There was a fresh bottle of ketchup on the table, the mushrooms were freshly seasoned with ground pepper, and even my lettuce, tomatoes and pickles were fresh. We recommend this restaurant to anyone on the west side interested in a HUGE fresh ground beef pub burger and fries! We met the owner too, she was smart, ambitious and forward thinking. Again, a pleasant surprise all the way around. read more

There are fancier bars in better locations, but this pub has a bit of Indiana charm that I can't quite describe. It feels more like a family pub than a standard bar. It's one of the last bars in the area that allows smoking and the only one in the area where you can yell at the TV while the games on and feel safe at the same time. The waitresses are always kind and do a great job. Katie is our favorite! The food is your standard pub fair. I really like getting the BLT and fries. I do wish that they carried more local beer like Sunking's Osiris, but they have good seasonal beers. Definitely a good place to hang out! read more

YES IT'S A PUB THAT ALLOWS SMOKING. I do not smoke at all, but I think it's kinda cool that there's one place that still allows smoking at a pub in Indy. (My boyfriend disagrees.) I originally would have given it 3 stars, but due to our PHENOMENAL service and that fact that the food was pretty darn good - especially considering it's pub food - I bumped it up to 4. Our server (I didn't catch her name) was very kind, but not hovering at all. We decided to split the fish and chips platter (only $10- something) and she split the food in half and gave us two separate plates. When we decided to split a beer as well, she split that evenly in two separate glasses!! All without being asked. She was very helpful, patient, obviously considerate, and hard-working. The food, like I said, was good. The hush puppies that came with the fish and chips platter looked a little dry from the outside, but personally I think they are among some of the best I've had. Really good fish, pretty average thick-cut crinkle fries, and delicious coleslaw. I did leave smelling very smoky, but as long as you are not completely opposed/allergic to smoke, I would definitely recommend at least giving it a chance. read more

I have frequented this restaurant several times for lunch. I have found the portions to be ample and the food to be better than average pub fare and the prices are reasonable. The daily specials are a combination of homey comfort foods and a variety of main dishes. What really stands out is the friendliness of the staff. It's like a modern day "Cheers" there. The ladies remember that we are always in a hurry (no long lunches for our crew) and they bring us our drinks in to-go cups and our bills come with the food without us having to ask. Service like this trumps over-priced gourmet food any day to me. Side note, this is a smoking establishment. read more

There will definitely be a much different dining experience based on whether or not you're a smoker. I'm not, so when I entered the place and the first thing that hit me was the stench of smoke, that was a very unpleasant surprise (obviously I hadn't researched the place first). Sitting and waiting for my food, the smoke really started to get to me, and even before I got my food I was wondering if they have call-ahead take-out for next time in case the food was good. Luckily, they do, because the food was excellent (I got the Reuben and my GF got the tenderloin), and the service was great, too. Their menu isn't very distinctive for an "Irish" pub, but what they did have was good. The prices were very reasonable as well. I'll probably go back there -- but only for takeout, because the smoke really negatively impacted my dining enjoyment. Obviously, if you're a smoker, your mileage may vary. read more

Met some friends here after work. It was a good place to meet up with friends and drink some cheap domestic beer. If you're looking for good stuff, you're at the wrong place. In fact, you're probably on the wrong side of town. I joke with friends about how the east side (my side of town), while infested with drug-induced goblins creating a quasi wasteland, it also has something very special and unique. Each side of town is very defined. The south side and the west side are a bit difficult to define but still have some categorical factors- like westside bar restrooms having ashtrays in them. yep. I didn't go to the restroom here, but we sure talked about that. Ok, back to the bar/pub/food, etc. I ordered the Hunk o Hunk o Burnin' Love Burger. I had to say this ridiculous name. Take off the First 'Hunk o' to make it a little less ridiculous.. Nah. It'd still be kinda ridiculous. With a name like that, you figure you better be getting something really great- and firey. Nope. This wasn't spicy really at all! I think it had jalapenos on it, but they didn't do much for spice. And maybe pepper jack? It was supposed to come with spicy mayo, but it came with a pack of regular mayo. I figured if I was going to eat unhealthily, I was going to burn my gut, but I didn't. Boo. read more

Good food... great service.... great entertainment with the Music Bingo w/TJ Hollingsworth!!