1.24.2009

01. Eamonn's


Eamonn's: 728 King Street, Old Town, Alexandria, VA 22314

NEW RESTAURANT ALERT! This is a new restaurant for all of us!

Pre-Meal
Parking: Not a very far walk, you can easily park anywhere around King st. Be prepared to have change on weekdays.
Nearby Sights: You can see the greatest penthouse in all of Old Town by simply looking up when walking up to the front door.
Ordering: Slightly confusing based on the seating arrangements and lack of greeting from staff, which appeared to be one dude.
Music: Provided from one iPod sitting in one iPod speaker. Nothing too memorable came on the iPod.
Atmosphere: Oh My Cod! We were disappointed in the lack of fish puns we only saw two. Of course we didn't explore the other seating arrangements perhaps there are hidden gems to be found.

Proper Ordering Procedure: Walk up to counter, do not immediately sit down. Menu is above counter.
Food Variety: Specialty. This is a proper "Dublin Chipper" thus Fish and Chips are what you are able to order. COD, RAY, PRAWNS, COD WICH, F.O.D, GROUPER are your choices for fish. They also had Batta Burgers and Batta Sausage but none of us thought twice about ordering anything other than the Fish and Chips.
Price: $, very reasonable for the area. The most expensive item we ordered was the Ray which was $8.50.

Our Order:
Ahmed: Ray w/ a Club Soda: Rock Shandy flavor.
Richard: Cod w/ Small Chips and a Guinness Draft
John Bradley: Grouper w/ a Large Chips and a Lilt


The Meal:
Drinks: Lilt is a grapefruit soda that was referred to as a "Pineapple Time Bomb" possibly a club to the face of pineapple flavor at the last possible second.
Club is a fruit concoction with "REAL FRUIT BITS," Richard warned Ahmed that that means a lot of fruit shavings are going to end up in his mouth once he gets to the bottom. Ahmed didn't believe Richard and paid dearly for it at the end of his meal.
Guinness: Just the right amount of Guinness. Served in a plastic cup and instead of a shamrock being drawn in the foam a fish bubbling for air was drawn (pictured above, color corrected to bring out shape).

Food: A tray comes to our table holding three brown paper sacks. We had no idea what was to come from within... "I dub this, that's what I'm talkin' bout" "Damn!" These were a few phrases heard after the first bite. The fish is simply put amazing. They are crispy, moist and most important delicious. Ahmed felt extra special eating his ray as he was getting revenge for the death of Steve Irwin by chowing down on the very thing that ended that remarkable man's life. A welcome surprise were the "chips" which are some of the thickest 'chips' any of us had ever seen. We were all hesitant as normally thick fries are normally too soft in the middle and somewhat soggy, not the case here. Richard: These are the best fries I've ever eaten. I don't know how they did it but god bless those cooks these were simply amazing and well worth stopping in for a late night snack of simply 'chips.'

As we ate we realized we were missing an important part of our meal; Sauces! We alerted 'some dude' and he brought out a tray of 7 sauces dubbed "Secret 7." These add so much to the flavor of your fish that they really are necessary to complete your meal, be sure to order the Secret 7. If you've never had fish and chips we recommend starting with the Cod as it is the easiest to cut and the most flavorful. We agreed 2 to 3 that John had picked the best meal with his Grouper. The Ray is hard to cut and lacked some flavor that made the Cod and Grouper amazing.
At this point we cleaned our bags of any remaining chips and or fish. John still had a large amount of chips in his sack that we all devoured upon noticing this. ORDER THE SMALL CHIPS! ORDER THE SMALL CHIPS! They are plenty of chips to go around with the SMALL CHIPS! We kicked back and finished our drinks, the two fruit drinks were disappointments but the Guinness went perfectly with the meal and was just the right amount to finish the last sip right after finishing the meal, extra points.
Dessert: The counter was covered with various candies from around Ireland and the UK it seemed and all looked magically delicious. We looked at the menu though and noticed 'SWEETS' and listed below that "Snickers, Milky Way, Some other candy we can't remember." John ordered a Snickers without even thinking twice about what might come out of the kitchen. Time passed as we debated the possibilities would it be ice cream? Some kind of disgusting meat pie? Ice Meat Pie? None of us had a clue of the glory that awaited us. A good 5 to 6 minutes passed and another brown paper sack came out of the kitchen. It was surprisingly warm almost too warm to hold in your hand. We looked in the bag and a knife and fork were waiting on top of a Cinnamon coated Fried Snickers Bar! This was the greatest dessert John had ever eaten. It is a gooey mess of scrumptuousness we highly recommend it.
John's Final Comment: "Sometimes you find the right restaurant at the right time in your life."

SCORES
Ahmed: 8
Richard 8.75
John: 9

Total Score: 25.75

We can't speak highly enough of Eamonn's it is a relatively cheap, delicious nook with the best 'chips' in all of Old Town. Eat at this place! Soon!

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