I'm reviewing a few local restaurants serving Irish and contemporary cuisine of Great Britain. I'm grading on signature dishes, price, and quality of a typical pint of Guinness at these locations. --The first is: Mulligans: located in Fox Chapel near Waterworks, in shopping district just off of highland park bridge. Signature ethnic dishes tasted: Roast lamb shank, shepherd's pie, Dublin crabcakes. Very good. Lamb is very tender. Shepherd's pie has a rich and delicate flavour. Dublin crabcakes are excellent. Needs to increase the potatoes: my Irish companion is not impressed with the portions of praties. Salads are good with mixed field greens. Guinness Pint quality: EXCELLENT, not bitter, taps very clean, draught is extremely smooth. Best pint so far. Ambience: quiet, dinner-y. Could use some background ethnicity. Price: around $60 for two pints and two complete dinners, dessert included. Grade: Food B+(gourmet) a little bland but rich and good, Pint A+, Pricey. --The second is: Paddy's Pour House, Carnegie shopping district, 2 blocks from interstate 279. Signature ethnic dishes tasted: Fish and chips, Shin and Guinness, Shepherd's pie, Colcannon, Guinness fries. Guinness gravy over fries and in Shin and Guinness is excellent, very rich. Beef tips in Shin are tender. Shepherd's pie is very good. Fish and chips are middlin', but ready availability of malt vinegar is a definite plus. The Colcannon is thick and very delicious, with lots of butter. IRISH BREAKFAST: They have it, black pudding and all. Pricey and sort of second class compared to the real thing back home, and portions are sort of small for a real Irish brekkie, but at least they have it. Ambience: Very ethnic pub. Can get loud and happy. Ethnic music makes it really fun. Price: Affordable, excellent portions of potatoes. Around $35-40 for two good dinners and two pints. Pint: A bit more bitter and less smooth but still a decent pint. Grade: Food A (for pub food, not gourmet!), Pint B, Priced a bit more blue collar. --The third is: Pipers Pub, Carson St in South Side. Signature ethnic dishes tasted: Smoked salmon sampler, Yorkshire pudding, Scotch eggs, bangers and mash, field green salad, Guinness cake, pecan tart. EXCELLENT FOOD. Bar none, the portions are excellent. This is also the best salad in the city so far, full of field greens, cherry tomatoes, a hot pepper and good dressing. The Yorkshire pudding is too huge to finish and must be taken home. The smoked salmon sampler is fantastic with a choice of shaved smoked salmon, paté, capers and bread. Bangers and mash are bangers and mash; but truly excellent, just like home. The Scotch eggs are hot and fabulous. Guinness cake and pecan tart are respectively very rich and need time to savour. Malt vinegar is readily available for chips. The only thing missing from the Piper's offering is HP SAUCE! Which my bangers were crying for. Hopefully someone will needle them enough to carry it; you can find it easily enough at McGinness Sisters grocery. Guinness Pint: Okay. Nothing to write home about. A bit pricey. But the selection of other lagers is quite good such as Bass pale ale and other lagers and bitters from the Isles. Price: Pricey. But for the food, worth it every step. Ambience: Ethnic music in the background, but kind of crowded later in the evening, plus it's often hard to find a table at dinner. Not as much of a family feeling as Paddy's, more geared for the trés-geek Euro crowd. Pleases a Paddy's palate, but we're off to a friendlier pub after dinner. Best time to go is during the Sunday football match in the afternoon, especially if it's Liverpool vs. Manchester United. Hey you: cheer for Liverpool. Grade: Food A+, ambience B, Pint B. Food is pricey but worth the doling. ---------------------- BEST FISH AND CHIPS IN PITTSBURGH: Green Front Inn, located by Shootz Cafe, just off Birmingham Bridge to the left. On Carson by CoGo's. The fish and fries are incredible: the fries are cut thick wedges (just like home-nowhere else does them like this), the fish is batter dipped or breaded, and it too tastes JUST LIKE HOME. Better than any attempt by any restaurant so far. Only better fish and chips is some dive in Galway City that does better simply on principle. There is no malt, but white vinegar is available on table. No Guinness, unfortunately, but when you taste this, it won't bloody matter. And the price is unbelievably affordable. The only thing missing from this fish and chip fantasy is marrowfat peas, which I think are disgusting, and I have no problem forgoing them-no matter how much guilt my companion remembers getting for not eating them as a child. ----------------------- Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as edible ethnic British/Irish food! But only if meat and potatoes are your basic formula and a deep fryer is your best friend. ----------------------- Irish groceries in Pittsburgh: McGinness Sisters grocery, Route 51 has a pretty good selection of Irish groceries, if you look for them. They also have Kerrygold cheese from Ireland, a pretty good selection. They carry Crosse and Blackwell items like Branston pickle and hard sauce. They have HP in the squeezy bottle. God bless 'em. Celtic Crossing store in Mt Lebanon shops on West Liberty, (right next to the high school) stocks a selection of biscuits like hob nobs (chocolate wholegrain) and Jacob's cream crackers, all sorts of familiar candy like winegums and Cadbury's chocolate bars, sauces like HP, Barry's tea (the BEST tea there is. Beats Twinings all to blazes for mellowness and flavour) Bewley's coffee, Bisto gravy, etc. My question is: Where are the Jaffa cakes? There's orange in that flag, ye know! Oh, and they're tasty. I miss Jaffas and Mr Kipling tarts something awful. Whole Foods Market carries Irish style meats such as bangers in the meat section. They're fantastic. Just like home. The smoked salmon is excellent, but I can't find Oak smoked salmon anywhere to make Galway eggs! They don't have HP, that's a travesty. BUT: they do have Kerrygold cheese, both Dubliner and cheddar. Walnut Street Market: has Kerrygold butter! As well as Crosse and Blackwell plum puddings in season. All of these stores and Giant Eagle have McCann's Irish Oatmeal. It's a pretty box and all, but yawn. Not only do I hate oatmeal, but if I were looking for that much fibre to blow out my arse I might as well drink it in a few good pints of Guinness. The same goes for Weetabix: Weetabix (in that big ugly yellow box that hasn't changed since 1950) is what old ladies at the B&Bs set out for the tourists for that continental breakfast, just to get rid of the stuff. Yanks only eat it because they think they're being ethnic if they choke that crap down soggy and milky before tripping off to terrorize local drivers, charging down the wrong side of the road. Guinness will lower your cholesterol much more quickly and pleasurably. Weetabix, McCann's oatmeal, and Marrowfat peas all make me glad that I'm Protestant enough to forgo food penance. Especially considering how delicious everything else is. Enjoy your bit of the Auld Sod, courtesy a Colleen's palate! Alliekatt
Pittsburgh, PA