Irish Welcome!
- November 19, 2008
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Green Dragon from Gainvesville, Florida
We chose O’Carroll’s, an Irish-style pub, for lunch – it was about a block away from the hotel (Marriott Harbourside). It was a charming place with nice old ironwork on the radiators and tables. Jason and I had a wonderful steak-and-kidney pie, not so great calamari, and the in-laws both had salmon.
I finally got my long-awaited pint of cider, and loved it. We had dessert (divine!) and chatted with the staff about live music that night. They were very friendly and helpful, and we felt very welcome there. It was a relaxing afternoon that we really needed after two days of driving from Maine.
We ate there for dinner the next night, and it was a very different experience. We were going to have dinner at the hotel pub, but the fare looked very staid and uninviting, so it took not much persuasion to convince the group to head to O’Carroll’s again for some dining adventure. Lunch had been a bit pricy, but dinner was even more so. There was some live music, but nothing wonderful – the same set of popular songs I’ve heard over and over, done not much better than our local medieval group bardics. However, the dinners were delicious. I had the salmon with chili maple sauce; it was incredibly savory and delicious. The atmosphere was much more formal and stand-offish, and we didn't get nearly the same warm welcome feeling as we had at lunch, but it was more than made up for in the delicious repast.
From journal Crumbling Houses in Maine and Nova Scotia