Review: Irish Coffee Pub

Went here last week with a buddy and his wife for dinner and drinks. At one point this place was the big lunch hang out for lawyers and judges in the Central Islip area. But since they shipped a lot of the Supreme Court judges out to Riverhead a few years ago, I don't know if that's still true.

I've been to this place a couple times over the years, so I've tried a few things on the menu. The fish and chips are good. So is the Shepherd's Pie.

The other night we just sat at the bar and had appetizers. The French Onion Soup was tasty. But they use mozarella cheese (I think), so you have to break it off in big, gooey chunks to eat it. My other dish was Escargots Bourguignonne--snails in a salty, garlicky broth. And tucked into mushroom caps in this case. They were OK. Kind of bland. I mostly tasted the broth and mushrooms.

The other two also had the soup. One had a Caesar salad, which she said didn't have vinegar in the dressing, which is good to know. My buddy had the Clams Casino Royale. He liked it. I did observe that the clams were tiny and were covered in bacon. I'd imagine the bacon overpowered the clams.

And by the way, on the subject of "Clams Casino Royale"--first, what kind of stupid name is that? Is that a James Bond reference? If so, then the bartender should have known what a Vesper martini is, which I ordered. But he didn't. Even after I explained what it was. So I just had a Bud on tap. And he was an old timer. He should have known better. Swing and a miss you mick bastards. (Since I'm part Irish I can say things like that.)

The place is nice inside, as you can see. Here's the bar:



A lot of the stuff on the dinner menu is $20 and up. But they did have a dinner menu special, with five or six things under 10 bucks or close to it. We were keeping it casual.

3 out of 5 stars (would have gotten 3 1/2 if I'd had my martini)

Irish Coffee Pub
131 Carleton Ave.
East Islip, NY 11730