Stop #41: O'Shay's

Tony's Review: Happy St. Patrick's Day assholes! We traveled to the Grove to eat at the finest Irish bar on Manchester, O'Shay's. This place was "legit" and hit all the mandatory requirements: Guinness on  draft, only playing Irish music and of course have an Irish Slinger. I actually liked this place so I'll stop using an asshole tone.

This was a slinger like none other that we've had so far and I would say it was our first official dinner slinger. This thing was so far from traditional, here is the actual menu description: "Our taste of Ireland starts with a Boxty bed then a layer of cabbage, tender corned beef, hickory smoked horsey sauce, fried eggs, smoked rashers, topped with Harp beer cheese sauce and scallions". When we ordered the waitress asked us what kind of dressing we wanted on our side salad!? A salad with a slinger? YES! Once we got our plates I was instantly impressed, this thing was perfect for a dinner slinger and it wasn't a giant troff of food which I always like, plus there was some surprise bacon on top of it. Turns out a Boxty bed is just mashed potatoes which was a first and a delicious first at that. The whole plate worked really well together, there wasn't too much of anything to overwhelm my "expert" pallet. For me the stars of this slinger were the horsey sauce and the beer cheese sauce, this shit took a detour down the Flavor highway and merged onto Over the Top Bold Flavor Expressway. All of the ingredients on it were top notch and to me the only thing that kind of sucked was the fried egg, would of been nice to have an over easy egg with a pure yolk explosion but it still held up and worked.

I thought this slinger would suck bad but was pleasantly surprised and proven wrong. This will find it's way into my top ten somewhere but my partner Tim probably has a completely opposite review.

Tim's Review: I'll just set the tone by making something clear: I hate mashed potatoes. It's one of the very few foods that I will never eat. Yes, I've tried them before and yes, I've tried the different kinds. Everyone always says, “oohhh, but have you tried the potatoes with butter and garlic and......” whatever other shit they try to mix in to give it flavor? Yes, I've tried all that crap. I don't care what the hell you want to sprinkle in there, I don't like mashed potatoes. Since I've never heard of Boxty potatoes before, you can imagine my disappointment when I get a plate in front of me that has a big fat slop of mashed potatoes on it. According to my friend Wikipedia, Boxty potatoes are a “traditional Irish potato pancake”, and that really doesn't sound too bad. I'd probably give that a try. But this shit at O'Shay's was no potato pancake, it was straight up mashed. I politely push that mess aside, and nibble on what's left.

In all fairness to O'Shay's, every other part of this slinger was damn good. Corned beef and cabbage, normally not my thing, but this shit was great. I never thought I would see horsey sauce in a slinger, but I'm glad I did. What's the deal with the egg though? An over easy egg is not hard. I, like my mashed potato loving partner Tony, want to see a yolk bust all over that plate. Although the side salad was a nice little surprise, it wasn't anything special.

I completely realized that I'm not with the majority in my hatred of mashed potatoes. I've probably only met 2 other people in my life that feel the same way. No top ten for me, but for the rest of you clowns that think mashed potatoes is the best slop around, I strongly encourage you to give O'Shay's a try.