Tag Archives: Irish Pub

Jeanie Johnston: You Can’t Put Lipstick (Cow) on a Pig (Nachos)

10 Nov

If dives are your thing and you ever find yourself near the Forest Hills T stop, you might want to check out the Jeanie Johnston.  The lighting is low, there are TVs everywhere, the Guinness is certainly well-poured, and the trivia host was doling out Halloween candy.  Spying nachos on the menu, we were pleasantly surprised to see a few unconventional toppings, and went for steak and mushrooms in hopes of a novel experience.

  • Appearance: (4) Lettuce! Our sworn enemy!  Just when we thought that we had escaped your clutches, you taunt us yet again!! And you aren’t even green enough to make these appealing!
  • Quality of Ingredients: (4) Well, the steak bits were good…and that’s about all.  Mushrooms were thin, dry and sparse. Cheese was congealed.  Chips, salsa, jalapenos, etc. were utterly forgettable.
  • Distribution of Toppings: (4) Piled too high on a small plate, with a single layer of cheese on top.  Once we had picked off the good stuff the situation got dire, but we persevered out of hunger. Our thoroughness lead us to an extra added bonus item: a lone french fry nestled deep in the mountain of chips.  After the steak, splitting this fry was one of the highlights of these nachos.
  • Price: (7) Where many other restaurants would probably try to get away with charging an arm and a leg for steak, it was refreshing to see only a $2 .50markup, the same as chicken or chili.  Mushrooms were another $1.50 (and definitely not worth it).
  • Overall: 19/40. To cite Wikipedia: “Put lipstick on a pig: a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product.” These nachos immediately brought this phrase to mind, as they were nothing but sub-par nachos with a little fancy dressing.  To be fair, this place is a dive and the nachos weren’t pretending to be much more than they are, but the steak (and bonus french fry) was the only thing that made them worth the time and effort.  Just skip right to the good stuff and order some steak tips, maybe with a side of chips if you’re really jonesing for ‘chos.

RF O’Sullivan’s: The Little Pub That Could…And Couldn’t

26 Sep

One of the drawbacks of running a blog that reviews nachos across Boston and around the globe is that, well, you have to eat nachos.  All the time.  No matter how famously outstanding the house specialty may be, if we see nachos on the menu, we feel compelled, nay, mandated to order them.  And as we learned very early on in our journey, it is unwise and often impossible to eat a main course after nachos.  So we are a bit remorseful about our first trip to RF O’Sullivans & Sons, because from our kitchen-side perch at the bar we could see all sorts of delicious burgers being fried up on the grill…while another cook microwaved a bowl of chili and poured it over tortilla chips from a bag to prepare nachos for someone else.  As we pored over the extensive, inventive burger menu, the words of Albus Dumbledore rang through our heads: “Soon, we will all have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy.” And this time, we did what was right– we ordered the nachos and gave up any burger dreams, at least for that night.

  • Appearance: (5) Not exactly grim, but we knew that we weren’t in for the most varied nacho plate.  The only color variation came from the salsa and jalapenos in plastic cups on the side.
  • Quality of Ingredients: (6) The round chips were very salty.  The chili and cheese were decent; the salsa, from a jar. And…that’s about all.
  • Distribution of Toppings:  (5) We quickly condensed our thoughts about the distribution into this: too much of not enough going on.  That is, these were smothered in chili and cheese, but to a cloying point: chips were buried and sodden, and we would have loved to see a more open, lofty distribution, with more variety. The round chips were partly to blame for the packed nature of these nachos.
  • Price: (7) At approximately $9, these were…standard.  Though we didn’t get to try them, we will venture that your money is much better spent on a burger.
  • Overall: 23/40.  It feels, as of late, that we have moved from hunting down the best nachos in Boston to curating a list of restaurants to avoid/at least avoid the nachos.  At times, this can be wearying.  But then we come across a place like this; while the nachos may not be great, they are what brought us in the door, and introduced us to a lovely, friendly gem of a place and a lovely, friendly gem of a bartender whose in-depth knowledge of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography helped us to clinch 3rd place in Stump Trivia and a free order of cheese fries. We don’t regret the nachos, or begrudge them their mediocrity– all’s well that ends well!

The Corrib Pub in Brookline: Patrollin’ Oldies

22 Jul

Now that we’ve safely surpassed our 100th review, we feel we’re finally fit to tackle Corrib Pub. Located just down the street from us, we had long written the Corrib off as the type of place our grandpas would frequent.  Indeed, the beer and food were cheap, the taps shiny and copper, and the average clientele far past retirement age.   Needless to say, we love us some old-school dives and  were excited to learn first that they a) had nachos and b) that they’re $7. As a side note, they also have our favorite motto of any restaurant we’ve visited (“It’s like home, but with more taps”).

  • Appearance: (7.5) Colorful, but lacking the depth provided by yellow saturated chips and cheese. Something about it reminded us of a child’s crayon drawing: there’s a lot going on, but it seems unfinished and sophomoric (okay, a sophomore with a solid 3.8 GPA).
  • Quality of the toppings: (6) While we were impressed with the fresh ingredients (the tomatoes and onions in particular), the rest of the toppings left something to be desired. The overabundance of jarred salsa made it difficult to pick out other flavors, while the cheese was sticky and flavorless and the chips were a tad too salty. The chili tasted distinctly like taco seasoning (some of us liked it) and there was lettuce. To discuss our dislike of lettuce on nachos seems like beating a dead horse and we will instead refer to our friends at NachosNY for a full diatribe.
  • Distribution of the toppings: (6.5) Something is seriously wrong with the Corrib’s cheese. Melting into a near solid on the peripheral chips, the innards of these nachos were sadly naked. There wasn’t enough of either the chili or the cheese, and the seas of salsa drown out the remaining ingredients. Sour cream was on the side, which was just fine with us.
  • Price: (8.5) If the quality and distribution of the toppings brought the overall score down down, the price has to pull the whole plate back into the competition. $6.75 for a plate of nachos? Who cares how good they are–cheap prevails any day of the week.
  • Overall: 28.5/40.  Kinda of like the Narragansett of Boston nachos: cheap, local, old school, not that great, but will suffice in a pinch.
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