Peabody's Irish Pub: Even the Nachos are Irish

After years of begging my brothers and male cousins for an ID, my young cousin is now officially of legal drinking age. What better way to mark the special occasion than with a cold beer at a pub? I couldn't agree more and invited him and his brothers out for dinner at .

It seemed more appropriate to buy him a pint at a pub rather than at a sports bar or restaurant. A pub is a more proper place to celebrate being allowed to drink. Lucky for us, this pub also had a pretty extensive menu.

Peabody's offers up the traditional pub fare in the way of burgers, sandwiches and fried goodness but there are also salads and cheesesteaks. My brood grew with the addition of yet another cousin (my dad has six brothers and all but one are married and have kids, plus a sister who has four sons and they are all married and have a minimum of two sons each) so we got to sample quite a bit of the menu. The prices are highly affordable so we stayed under budget—wahoo!

We started off with the Irish nachos which cleverly use steak fries instead of tortilla chips. They were topped with mozzarella and provolone cheeses, olives, peppers, salsa and crumbled bacon. The cheese was melted all over the potatoes and there was a nice spicy accent from the hot peppers. I wasn't sure how the salsa would go with the potatoes and bacon but it tasted like an over-the-top skillet creation from a breakfast eatery where the home fries mix with the salsa from the Mexican omelet and the bacon strips. This appetizer was a savory bomb and disappeared in minutes.

For our entrees we had the Texas chicken cheesesteak, the pizza steak, a cheeseburger, chicken parmesan sandwich and the fish and chips. The Texas chicken cheesesteak had generous amounts of chicken and was slathered with sweet BBQ sauce. I thought it was tasty but it proved to be too sweet for my cousins.

The pizza steak was also quite large and but not smothered in tomato sauce and cheese. It was a decent rendition of the popular steak sandwich. The meat was tender, well seasoned and not dried out. The sauce was tomato-y and had a slight funk to it. It was most likely not made fresh. 

The cheeseburger was fair, it arrived a bit overcooked which dried the meat out a bit. It wasn't the best burger I've had in a while and I think it pales in comparison to the steak and chicken steak sandwiches. You have to request pickles which I found a bit odd. Pickles and burgers are a perfect pair! The burger comes with chips so if you want fries you need to order them a la carte.

The chicken parmesan sandwich was pretty good. I preferred it to the pizza steak which is saying something since they are pretty similar in terms of ingredients. My young cousin loves chicken parm and he was quite satisfied. There were meaty pieces of chicken, breaded and fried then layered with sauce and cheese.

His only complaint was that the top of the roll got a bit more toasted (burnt) than he would have liked. Otherwise, it was a well put together sandwich.

The fish and chips was among the most crisp I have come across, in fact, one bite and the outer shell of batter nearly shattered. The fish pieces were uniform which leads me to believe they are not made in house, but rather came out of a box.

The tartar sauce was tart and creamy and made a nice accompaniment to the greasy fried fish. The fries were pretty good and gobbled up by my cousins who wished their sandwiches and burgers came with fries on the side.

What kind of killed this dish for me though was the pool of fryer oil in the bottom of my basket. As someone who has come out of kitchens, I know how important it is to give the fryer basket a big shake to get rid of excess oil and then drain the contents on paper towels or a cooling rack. 

Otherwise, the service was outstanding. Our server was kind, funny and patient with our large group. He laughed when I said that I was with "my kids" and gave my cousin the whole rigmarole when he ordered a beer. It was exactly what I had wanted for the evening.

The decor is typical of an Irish pub. Lots of dark wood, high tables, long wooden bar and high wooden chairs fill the space and there is a fancy looking modern jukebox with hundreds of CDs.

Peabody's Irish pub is closed on Mondays but has Quizzo, live music, Texas hold 'em and happy hour specials weekly. It's a great little neighborhood pub where you can stop in for a cold one, some pub food or just a snack. It's Irish at heart but even the Irish nachos prove to be quite tasty.