1st up: Lansdowne Pub

Last night I met up with a friend after work for a late night meal at the newest local watering hole in the Fenway neighborhood, Lansdowne Pub, right off of Lansdowne Street. In a city where Irish Pubs outnumber McDonalds, it takes a lot to stand out.

I've been here a couple times before and I have to say: it's probably the best Irish Pub in Boston. As soon as you walk in out of the shadow of Fenway Park, you notice something right off the bat: the furniture! So I was told by our waitress that all the furniture was shipped directly from Ireland and I believe it. Rich dark wood with plush red velvet chairs and a very good sized bar area.

The beer selection is pretty good and they have the usual suspects on draft, Guinness, Smithwicks, etc. They also carry Anchor Steam, which is one of my favorite beers and haven't seen it too much on tap around here, so for that reason alone, Lansdowne is worth it.

The Shepard's Pie is definitely quality but I wouldn't say the best I've ever had. Every time I go there, the server swears by the crisps (potato chips) that are hand made and come with a Gruyere cheese dipping sauce. For some reason, it just doesn't do it for me. The cheese sauce is really runny and ends up falling off the crisp so you barely get any cheese. Is a good cheese to crisp ratio important? Maybe I'm being too picky.

In any case, my go-to is the Pork Chops in an apple cider glaze. It comes with a blue cheese disk, which is like an oval mozzarella stick- but with much more flavor. The chips (fries) are also amazing and you can get anything from cheese to curry to mushy peas as a topping. The only thing I would change about the chips is that they put all the "toppings" in side ramekins and don't quite get the mountain of cheese fries effect. I dunno maybe it's nostalgia or the carnie in me, but I prefer my cheese fries piled high underneath gobs of good stuff.

So last night I decided to try something I had never gotten before (mostly because I was always so full after the fries and pork chops). The Guinness Float is a pint of Guinness with two scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream..... yeah it's good. It's hard to beat a great Irish Pub and Lansdowne sets the benchmark for me, especially because it's only a couple blocks from my apartment.

The only negatives are that they are really focused on live "music" and they don't serve Irish Breakfasts for dinner. On most week nights they have local bands or live band karaoke. I find that having to yell at your server so they can hear you can be a little annoying, and it's hard to have a real conversation with anybody so I don't think I'll be taking any first dates there. And yeah I admit it, I'm a breakfast guy. If I could have breakfast for every meal of the day, I wouldn't complain so it's a little disappointing that they don't serve Brinner (breakfast for dinner).

In this case, location and convenience will trump the northeastern university electronic funk sensation and lack of Brinner so I give Lansdowne a pretty solid lobster mac 'n' cheese rating.