Flanagan's

I'll qualify this review first by saying I'm Irish with a Dutch husband well versed in all things Irish and particularly fond of a pub of the Irish inclination. Firstly, the staff are great. Friendly, helpful and around just the right amount of time. Full marks. Waiting staff, these stars are for you. The decor. It was a bit like being in the fancy house of someone of unknown origin. A couple of Guinness signs. Grand. A sheep head on the wall. Generally these would be grazing outside but we'll let it slide. We have sheep. Gordon's Gin London sign. Quite the faux pas. There's this little known thing between Ireland and England. Barely worth mentioning. It's never really in the news or anything. Moving on. Lots of old Dutch paintings. I like Dutch paintings but I can't say in the pub in Ireland I've ever really thought, this place could really be livened up with some old Dutch masters. Decor verdict: This pub may have suffered a head trauma and is now terribly confused about who it is. The food. Ah, where to begin? I guess Irish food would have been nice. A stew of some sort. An Irish stew, a Beef and Guinness stew or a Coddle. Alas, no. No soda bread on offer either. Potatoes were very typically Dutch. Chips, fried spuds and the shredded salad thing you get in most Dutch restaurants were the sides. Not a boxty, champ or colcannon in sight. Not even some plain old buttery mashed spuds or a roasted vegetable selection. On to the starters. I had that good old Irish classic, bruschetta...... The husband had the prawns. They made me a veggie bruschetta. I don't think it was supposed to be veggie so many thanks for that. I enjoyed it. My husbands prawns were unfortunately a bit overdone so he wasn't so impressed. The mains. I went for the veggie curry. While not Irish we do enjoy a good curry. Unfortunately this was the second cousin twice removed from a good curry. Someone at one point may have waved half a mild chilli vaguely in its direction from two rooms away. It was assorted vegetables in a lot of coconut milk with tomato. Ah, for some chickpeas or paneer...... a girl can dream. I think someone also forgot to add all the spices. Or maybe they ran out of all of them. I can lend them some if they need. I couldn't finish it. On the side was a mound of sweetened cucumber. This left me as confused as the pubs decor. Some spiced Indian potatoes would have been nice or really any indian side. There was naan bread. It was fine not great Now. The reason this place gets an extra star. Pure comedic effect that will make me smile for many years. My husband got the fish and chips. This is a dish beloved of Irish people. Unfortunately there may have been quite the mistranslation. In the container with his battered fish was..... crisps. In Ireland chips are the French fried potato things and crisps are the savory snacks you get in bags of the salt and vinegar, cheese and onion and (in NL) the paprika persuasion. There were chips on the side but they were the standard sides given with every dish. Set in front of my husband on his plate was all the glories of fish and crisps. Still it gave us a good laugh, so full marks for that. To be fair, the fish was good and he liked it but it's not something that pairs very well with the deep fried or baked crunchy potato items generally consumed in front of the tv watching bad films to take your mind off the hour and a half of your life you're wasting. In short, it's a confused place, lacking Irish food for the most part but it's called Flanagan's and serves Guinness and Kilkenny so I guess it's got to be Irish. Oh and the sheep. And the Bailey's bottle lamp. We're fierce mad for a good Bailey's bottle lamp. For a Dutch restaurant it's pretty middling. There would be a lot better Dutch restaurants in the locale. As an Irish restaurant it's a place that sticks pins in a world map and hopes one of them will land close. I'm also available to give lessons in how to pronounce Flanagan's. Van Flanagan's might work better for a name though.

Fantastic food, great service and wonderful atmosphere.

Good value for money.

Super

Eating out for the first time..of course at Flanagan's