Favorite place ever! My friends and I come here often and we love the Sweeney's Sour! Everyone is always super nice and always accommodating. Patio seating is super awesome too!! read more

I can't wait until summer so I can hang out on Sweeney's patio! This is by far my favorite Patio in the Twin Cities. The selection of beer on tap combined with the hip crowd creates a very unique vibe... And the southwest egg rolls are ridiculously awesome... Wow read more

They have a great patio(it's seat yourself, so don't wait for a server) and fun atmosphere. Wide variety of customers, good people watching, and the fried mac n cheese bites were amazing! Pro tip: ask for ranch instead of the marinara sauce it comes with- you won't regret it. read more

Sweeney's has one of the best patios in the city! Plus, it's dog friendly. The service on the patio is a bit slower than inside, so keep that in mind if you're in a hurry. It's perfect if you just want to enjoy the weather and some good company, though. During winter, make sure to check out Sunday night trivia. read more

Food is ok. Drinks are ok. THE SERVICE IS TERRIBLE! If you want wait staff with tons of 'tude - go to Sweeney's. I live 1/2 block away and I never go there. If want to be treated like crap, I'll go to work. read more

What the? Ordered a cup of Chili off the menu. Was told the menu lies... Can only have Chili in a bowl. Is the chef drunk and can't pour it into a smaller vessel? Seriously asine. read more

I came away with a great impression after my first visit a few weeks ago when out with friends... fun variety of St. Paulers and a gorgeous outdoor patio in the back. The architecture is so detailed that I didn't even realize I was outside on that still evening until a few minutes later. Quiet place to hang with friends. read more

Not a good experience last night! Stopped in to grab a bite to eat, have a couple of drinks and watch the Gopher football game. Asked the bar tender to turn the game on. He said that he would in a minute. No problem for us, just hoping to get it on his radar. 10 minutes later, asked again, he blew us off. Table next to us asked our waitress. She snapped at him about it and was extremely rude in her response. She comes over to us and asks " if we are going to order some food or what?" We wanted to wait to see if they were going to turn the game on so we told her we were going to wait a couple of minutes. She rolled her eyes at us, then hurriedly goes outside for a smoke. They did turn the game on. Nachos and wings were good. The guy that brought our food out was nice. Waitress was rude. read more

Ah, Sweeney's. The arch-nemesis best neighborhood bar of The Muddy Pig. There can be only one... Sweeney's is definitely a hot spot for hipsters, and the place generally isn't all that quiet in the evenings. Drink selection is good. Many times the popular vote for best neighborhood St. Paul bar in city pages. read more

I went specifically to enjoy the patio, it was a beautiful evening. The smoking made the patio intolerable. I know it isn't against the law to allow smoking on the patio, but the smoke of even one smoker (there were several tonight) filled the entire area. It ruined a beautiful evening and I won't return without checking. read more

I haven't been here in awhile but from what I remember, the patio is nice and there are pretty good happy hour deals. The food is alright, on par with most bar food. It tends to get crowded and hard to find seating on some nights. Pretty nice neighborhood spot - I'd stop in if I was in the area but usually find myself at the nearby Muddy Pig. read more

This is why I love St. Paul - places like this! A completely fun, relaxed neighborhood bar where you are equally as likely to find a booth full of hipsters as you are to find a die hard Cards fan crying over his team's win in the final 4. My fabulous friend decided to have her birthday celebration at Sweeney's where we could wile away the hours drinking beer and watching basketball - pretty good Saturday afternoon overall, really. We were seated in one of the booths and ordered a round of drinks and the spicy mac and cheese bites. Okay, so I know that I am not at the state fair, but deep fried cheese is always fantastic with beer. These were phenomenal! Anyone who is not a fan of choking slightly on a cheese curd due to the stringy cheese phenomenon would love these. They were spicy and full of a creamy cheese, not the stringy kind, YUM! I also ordered their special burger (I believe it's the Dale St.?) and it was FANTASTIC! Not only was it cooked to medium-rare perfection, but it also had some more of those cheesy spicy cheese curds on it! It was a sloppy, messy burger - but ultimately exactly what I needed after a few drinks. Overall, I had a really great experience food wise and with the ambiance. The only downside I had was with the service. Our server literally vanished for one hour while we sat at our booth bone dry - not cool for the birthday girl. If he would have been a bit more attentive, this place would have got 5 stars from me. So if you're looking for a place to cry into your beer because Kansas lost or simply to enjoy the company of your friends - Sweeney's is the right place for you! read more

I love Sweeney's though it can be a bit of scene and I may be "done with that." If you are 20something (or early 30s) this is a fun evening place. Lots of revelers, fun back patio. There is also an upstairs room/area that is available for private events. Some parking but mostly on the street. Lock your doors AND drive carefully! read more

I went to this place yesterday with two of my girlfriends for a little catch-up sesh. The patio is awesome. Seriously, I was in awe and disappointed that I hadn't known about it until yesterday. We were able to catch happy hour. My two Summits were only $2.50 each, which is a deal I rarely see. So, why the 3 stars? The service was weird and really slow. We had several different servers and seemed to be forgotten several times. We had to flag down our server to get our tab and had to get up and find him after noticing my credit card slip was missing. I knew I'd have to sign, and I needed to write in my tip since I didn't have any cash. After a few minutes of running around, he figured out the system had been down right after he ran my card. He fixed everything and we were good to go. So that wasn't a big deal, but I probably would have ordered another beer had they gotten back to our table in time. Oh well. I also ordered a basket of fries, and they were pretty good. My friends enjoyed their quesadillas as well. So overall, weird service, good specials, decent food, awesome patio. I would give them another chance. read more

Lived close to here and frequented it often. Great happy hour deals. $3 summits and $0.50 tacos from 3-6. Can't really beat that when it's within walking distance. Patio is great. They keep it open as long as possible into the fall and keep a fire going. read more

I love Sweeney's and go there for trivia every Sunday. What Nick M. below me forgot to mention was that he was being a drunk a**hole and was shouting out the answers for trivia. After being asked more than twice to stop, the staff kicked him out. Everyone cheered as he left. Plenty of people were watching the game, they were just doing it without bugging everyone else. Sweeney's has a great draft list, good wings, and servers who take care of their guests, even if it means kicking out a drunk who is ruining everyone else's trivia fun. read more

Horrible customer service, below-average food, unfriendly staff and way over-priced drinks. With so many good restaurants in the area, no reason to waste your money here. read more

four stars for this joint may be high, but i just cant think of anything inherently WRONG with the place. i will say that the wings are the way to go, or the fiddy cent taco. the patio is baller, and if you get there at the right time its not overrun with lame. ok in my book but not killer, and good drink prices=right on depending on the day and time.... read more

Food is exactly what you would expect from a neighborhood bar. No culinary genius creating the menu here, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, but they're good and that's all I'm asking at their price point. Cool patio and great neighborhood bar feel. read more

Went to Sweeny's this past weekend and I was not impressed!! The Massive chicken wings were great but the rest of the experience not so much! They were out of a certain beer but still left it up on the board. Not to mention the prices $8-10 for a beer and $10.00 for chicken wings. The bar in general had a funny smell like dirty gym socks and wasn't very warm!! Patio wasn't open but I stepped out on it anyway and it seemed pretty nice. All and all I'd save my money go somewhere else!! read more

Great place for a casual night on their patio with drinks and bar food. The atmosphere is relaxed and not at all stuffy - everyone is welcome! read more

I like the happy hour and I LOVE the burgers. I had the blackened blue burger about a month ago and the Greek burger last night. Both were absolutely delicious, plus their fries are amazing. read more

I had been a huge fan of Sweeney's when I lived in the area 15 years ago. I went back the other day and must say that the change in the menu is less to be desired and the food we received was mediocre portions. My go to was always the big bowl of chili, now it is a small cereal bowl size that left me hungry, the "adult" mac and cheese was not only small but super gross...I had better out of box. They charged us 2.95 for a soda for my 6 year old. I would have given them a 1, but the service was great. (I tend not to write reviews that are negative, but in this case, Sweeney's really let me down) read more

Upon entering our party of four headed to the patio, having heard rave reviews about how great it was. We sat at the only open table. When the waitress approached we explained that we hadn't seen a host and we hoped it was okay we just sat down. She quickly said she "didn't give a shit" and asked us to hand her the dirty dishes in front of us and then took our drink order. Three of us asked for the same beer and my friend asked if we could split the cost, she replied "I don't know, can you divide 18 by 3?". After she went to get the drinks my friend leaned over and said "wow she really made me feel stupid". She came back with our drinks and said "I didn't mean to be a bitch before" my friend looked at her sort of confused and speechless and then the waitress said "because I heard you call me a bitch when I walked away". Needless to say we left immediately and won't be returning. This is the exact play-by-play of our experience, try to avoid the server with the facial piercing. read more

I love the patio, unfortunately that is the only thing Sweeny's has going for it. The beer list is better than most places, but nothing to brag about. There are four places within three blocks with far more extensive beer and wine selections. The happy hour specials tonight were 60 cent wings and $3 baskets of fries. The wings are full size, but awful. We had cajun wings (fried wings with lowry's salt) and the "funny named thai" flavored wings (some sort of pineapple glaze.) Both were horrible. The fries are basically McDonalds fries, but cold, and with all the salt in a big pile on top. Famous mayo-mustard sauce? You have to be kidding me, it's just mayo and mustard. Both sauces are indeed famous, but you have nothing to do with their fame, sweeny's. Everything else on the menu was far too expensive. Seven dollars for a bowl of chili? Ten bucks for spinach dip? No wonder your clientele is all frat boys and bachelorette parties. Service was slow from both the waitress and the bartender, and the waitress decided to put our tab together with the table next to us to save herself a trip. Nice patio, but you can keep it. read more

I have frequently gone to Sweeny's and had a positive experience until yesterday. I ordered nacho's (as I almost always do) and got super sick. I ended up sitting on their toilet for about 20 minutes (keep in mind, I was on a date which made it really fun). I felt like I was going to throw up and basically everything came out of me. The next morning, I woke up to being sick again and basically feeling as if I was going to throw up all morning. I decided to contact Sweeney's to let them know that it was very likely that something was messed up in their food prep. I asked to speak to a manager and the employee said that "there is no manager on duty and I will have to do". I said, "I had nachos yesterday and I think that I got food poisoning". He asked no other questions and just said, he was sorry and if I wanted to talk to a manager I could call back later. What? He doesn't take my name and have the manager call me? He asks no questions? If I was running a restaurant and someone got sick I would want to know exactly what happened so that I could make changes, if necessary, but at least to convey that the restaurant is very sorry about what happened. The upside...I will never ever be able to eat another nacho. read more

Without a doubt the worst service in St. Paul. I live within minutes of this bar and have given it too many chances because I want it to be successful. I know it will continue be get customers, but it doesn't deserve it. As a quaint local bar I wish St. Paul would demand higher standards. Please don't tell me about the amazing patio...La Grolla, Moscow on the Hill, and The Happy Gnome all have better patios within blocks, but forget about the patio when the food and service are head and shoulders above Sweeney's. As a local in the neighborhood for 9 years I beg you to go to one of these establishments before sweeney's. The three bars mentioned above are my favorites, but anyone truly interested in other options in the area I would recommend The Grand Tavern, Emmett's (connected to Dixies- also way better), The Red Cow, WA Frost (always a favorite, but pricier than others mentioned), and The Muddy Pig. All of these have better food and service than what we have come to know and settle for at sweeneys. Please expect a higher standard in this neighborhood. This is a wonderful down to earth neighborhood that is not expecting a lot and deserves better than the lazy service and attitude at sweeneys. Disappointed to finally make this post as I have held off publicly noting my opinions of this perfectly located bar with low levels of service and quality. read more