Tuesday, March 16, 2010

PJ O'Brien's - The Irish Pub

When looking for a new lunch joint, I found the PJ O'Brien website. Being an Irish pub, I obviously asked my Irish friend what he thought of their food. His initial reaction was to scrunch up his face and say "Don't go there!". When I asked why, he replied that he doesn't have any good memories of the place. But that's due to the fact that goes there after pub crawling for 4-5 hours. I didn't say it to his face, but I bet he was so off his face he wouldn't know the difference between eating food and a coaster at that point! hahaha

So ignoring his warnings, I dragged a friend there for lunch. Walking in, it has a lovely rustic feel. Wooden tables and chairs, scuffed from too many people having rowdy drinks. There are a few booths available, and we chose a seat in the corner by the fireplace.


I ordered Shepherds pie, hoping for a nice satisfying meal. What came out not only will it satisfy me, it can satisfy 2 people!

Shepherds pie

The shepherds pie comes in a big bowl, freshly out of the oven. What I've learnt from my now many visits to PJs is to always, ALWAYS dig a big hole in the shepherds pie to let the steam out. On many occasions I would be too impatient and end up with a burnt mouth. The filling is simple, mainly mince and peas topped with a layer of creamy mashed potatoes. The pie is much lighter in taste then what I am used to, and certainly lighter compared to what I cook. With that said, this is NOT a light meal. Not if you eat the entire pie, salad and more potato chips all washed down with a beer (Or in my case, Bulmers). You then go into what I call the potato coma. Basically, you enter a vegetative state in front of your computer, struggling to stay awake for the rest of day and not get fired by your boss.

Happy Guinness

I was so impressed by the shepherds pie, I had to drag my Irish friends here, kicking and screaming to try it out. Now? Its the other way around. They'll be the one dragging me kicking and screaming into PJs. Not because I don't like their food, but because I eat everything they serve me, meaning I won't be able to do work for the rest of the day! I have to resist PJs if I have long boring meetings in the arvo.

Blarney Castle Tower Burger

Wagyu beef burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese burger with a side of chips and salad.


The meat is denser and smoother than some other places. But It was juicy and really tasty. I would certainly classify this as good pub grub. Oh, and yes, I am SUCKY at cutting a burger in half! hehe

Chicken Schnitzel

My friend had the Chicken Schnitzel and rated it as good, just needs more gravy. Because you can't never have too much gravy!

I've lost count of how many times I've been to PJ's. I'm slowly making my way through the menu. Other stuff I can highly recommend is the Beef and Guinness pie, Irish Pork Sausages and Mash (Really nice chunky porky sausages), pizzas and my workmate always, ALWAYS order the lamb shanks. I should probably take more photos, but every time I go, I would've consumed a few "drinks" before the food come out and basically forget. hehe

PJ O'Brien's
57 King Street, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9290 1811
http://www.pjobriens.com.au/


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2 comments:

Eóin White said...

Hi there,

I'm writing to let you know about a new Sydney based website that may interest you. I've been reading your blog over the past few days and, other than making me hungry, it gave me the impression that scoopoftheday.com.au might appeal to you.

Basically Scoop of the Day offers amazing, unbeatable deals each day thanks to the power of collective buying and a lot of these deals are going to be for eateries in and around Sydney. It's our goal to get people out of their comfort zones and encourage them to try new things. Not every deal is going to be food-based but we want everyone to love Scoop of the Day so we're only going to put deals up for things that we'd want to do, things that excite us and things we hope others will like too!

You're obviously very passionate about food and it's that kind of enthusiasm that excites us. I'd love if you could get involved, become a member of our site and maybe spread the word among your blog readers (each person that signs up gets $5 credit). It launches on March 30th and for each deal (or Scoop!) we'll send you a short email notification. It's a great way to get together with some friends, have a great time, eat some fantastic food and save some serious cash!

If you've any questions just send me an email, I'll be living online until the 30th!

Thanks for your time!

Regards,
Eóin White

www.scoopoftheday.com.au

SoRMuiJAi said...

Thanks for that Eóin, will check the site out!