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Our visit to Nine Fine Irishmen started out under less than
auspicious circumstances. We tried once for dinner but once the
house band of Sin É Rí-Ra took the stage, standing room was out of
the question let alone a table. No problem…we would catch lunch
later in our stay. We approached the hostess stand where we were
informed there was a wait and we could spend our wait at the bar. |
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We said we would be back and they told us…come on in…to the restaurant full of empty tables. It gave a dirty feel to the entire stop knowing they were lying (likely under management’s orders) to try to up the tab by some percent. You could at least try to be a little clever about it.
In response, I swore off anything from the bar…and then checked out
the menu to find a couple of options I had never seen before. OK.
Just one. I ordered a Black Velvet which is a Guinness and Magner’s
Irish Hard Cider. The cider added some sweet and acid to balance the
thick toasty bitterness of the stout. The shirts for the place read
“We didn’t just import Irish Whiskey. We imported the whole damn
country.” Either the servers are well practiced at the accent or
they were imported along with the whiskey. We started with a couple
of appetizers and similar to The Public
House, the apps set marks the entrees wouldn’t match.
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 Onion Rings Were Well Done |
 And Flavored With A Bloody Mary Bath |
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 Spicy Mustard Added Nice Kick To Rings And Cheesy Bread |
 Bubbly, Beery, Cheesiness |
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First came the Drunken Onion Rings which had been marinated in
Bloody Mary before being beer battered giving them a distinctive
rosy-brown hue. The beer batter was wonderfully seasoned and puffy,
clinging to the onion even after being dipped in the thick spicy
mustard. The beer and cheese dip was even better. Widely assorted
country breads show up with a hot pan filled with a stringy dip
based on Irish Cheddar and Smithwick’s Ale. The ruby beer and the
seriously sharp cheese create something very different and
interesting than what you would expect in a cheese dip. Both the
rings and cheese were beginning to redeem the Nine.
We ordered Shepherd’s Pie, a Corned Beef Sandwich, a Sloppy Pat and
a side of Mac n Cheese. The corned beef was fine, boring but fine.
Both sandwiches came with “Irish Chips” which were tasty fried
potato planks I grew up referring to as steak fries. The shepherd’s
pie was actually very nice. Beef instead of lamb cooked with port
wine and aromatic veggies get an upper crust of mashed potato and
are served in a bucket. Yep. A bucket. |
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 Yawn |
 More Interesting Sloppy Pat |
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 Are We Making Sand Castles At The Beach? |
 Oh, It Is Lunch |
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The mac n cheese was obviously loaded with cheese but with the
additional dairy it lost some of the cheesy punch and ended up
slinking into the shadow of the beer cheese dip. The sloppy pat was
interesting, an Irish take on the sloppy joe. I was hoping it would
rival the insanely unique and delicious catfish sloppy joe from
RM
Seafood. It’s nowhere as different or as good but it was good
enough. Beef (not lamb again?) diced potato and Guinness braised
cabbage are cooked in a tomato sauce and then loaded on to a bun.
Add a bit of tang and grain from crumbled goat cheese and it makes
for an acceptable lunch. The food at Nine Fine Irishmen must be
fairly solid considering how things started; we left in a much
cheerier mood than we started. |
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 Looks Cheesy |
 Is Cheesy. Just Tastes Less So Than Dip |
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| Ratings | |||||||
 Food |
 Service |
 Ambiance |
 What's Best |
 What's Worst |
 Overall |
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| B | B | B | B | F | C | ||
| With A Brogue | Apps Again | Thinly Veiled Horse Manure | |||||
