Critic's Review
With the Tilted Kilt opening in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, today we discovered that this location has closed just 10 months after opening.
Review 4/20/13
When I first heard that the Tilted Kilt was opening on Hallandale Beach Blvd, I assumed that there were taking over the space vacated by the Playwright Irish Pub in the Gulfstream Village. But they've actually taken over the Deco Lounge space (previously Bennigan's) right on the corner of US1.
The Tilted Kilt is sort of a Hooter's rip-off with an Irish Pub theme with lots of girls dressed in plaid bras and plaid skirts (not really Kilts). They have 3 girls at hostess station who greet you and a couple of girls whose only function seems to be to walk around and talk to people. They have a horseshoe bar with lots of good TVs; I opted for a table to get more of a feel for the service.
At 1:30pm I wasn't ready to drink yet, so I ordered an iced tea while I looked at the menu. The Yankee game wasn't on; my server claimed that they had "all of the packages", so I asked them to put it on for me, which they did right away.
The iced tea comes in a big glass with a little sliver of lemon; I ask for some extra. I don't know why every restaurant now gives unlimited iced tea but you have to beg for lemon.
The tea was particularly fresh; sometimes you can barely tell if tea is freshly brewed, but this definitely was. I decided to try the wings; there's no extra charge for grilling. I went with the "medium", which is the regular Buffalo style.
The crowd was sparse, mainly because nobody knows that they're open (they didn't bother to answer our emails requesting info). Something that surprised me was the number of couples in the place; it's clearly marketed as a 'breasteraunt' so I expected the crowd to be mostly dudes.
While waiting, I was watching the game and reading the NY Post on my phone, and girls kept coming over to make small talk. "Do you live nearby?", "Just stop in for some lunch?". Banal banter. Sort of like a strip club without the lap dances. My server brought out the wings after 3 interruptions.
The wings were pretty good, a nine count, unbreaded, and they were a good size. The blue cheese was smooth (no chunks), and the celery was crisp.
Note that the menu we have is from another restaurant; the prices are higher here. The wings were $10.99 and you could double them for $7.99, to give you an idea of the difference.
My impression of this concept is mixed. These are franchise operations, and they don't seem to get very good support from the franchisor. As I mentioned, our requests for info went unanswered. Their website, which seems to be provided by the franchisor, still says Coming Soon, and they don't even have their phone number up. Their drink menu at the restaurant doesn't have any prices on it; beer, wine, specialty drinks. No price.
But the big thing is that I think that the main part of the concept doesn't work. I don't think that the outfits are appealing. And the girls are no better looking than in any other sports bar; frankly I'd rather see them dressed in what looks good on them as individuals. I don't really want girls coming over and bothering me while I'm eating.
It's important to note that the girls that they have on their facebook page are not the girls that work at this restaurant. The Boulder Colorado yelp page has the same picture, and the picture was posted on Jan 29; likely before they staffed. All of the girls on their facebook page are cute and white. Blatant false advertising if you ask me. The restaurant is 2/3 minorities; it reminds me of a bad strip club. When the entire point of the place is the girls, you can't get by with just any girls willing to wear the outfit.
On the other hand, the place could stand alone as an Irish Pub. They play good music (Billy Joel, Pearl Jam, Styx), have good TVs and a large, decent menu. They don't really need the girls. One cute bartender without the gimmicks would do just fine here.