Disney Dining Review: Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant Downtown Disney, West Side
Calamari City ($13) – Salt ‘n’ pepper calamari & mixed tempura vegetables served with a spicy remoulade
Beefy Murray($19) – Beef curry pie with spinach, potatoes, mushrooms & apple chutney
Burger ‘R’ Way($16) – Char grilled sirloin beef burger with bacon, tomato chutney & Dubliner vintage cheddar
The Roamin Lamb($23)– Slow braised lamb ragout over rigatoni with tomatoes, fresh basil and reggiano
Lemonade ($3), Orange Soda ($3), Harp Draft ($7)
Sub Total: $84.00-20% Cast Discount $15.40 + Tax $4.01 + Gratuity $15.04=Total $87.65
This Irish Pub isn’t just a place that serves Irish food, it IS Irish. The whole place is from Ireland. All that you see inside the restaurant has been imported from Ireland. The stage for the band and dancers is 150 years old and was shipped here to be built into Raglan Road. The bars are 130 years old. The end result is a charming and comfortable establishment. If you go in the evening you will be treated to Irish music and Irish dancers who have won many awards for their performances.
The menu has what Raglan Road Irish owners call “Modern Irish” food. It is pretty extensive and it all sounds delicious. While our party was pouring over the menu, our waiter appeared and shared some stories behind the portraits on the walls and how the name of the restaurant came to be: named after a poem written by Patrick Kavanagh, which was later put to music by the famous Irish singer Luke Kelly of the Dubliner’s. There is a large painting in their honor portraying them together on one wall in the Dining room. The main Dining area has the stage for the band and a unique stage with a staircase in the middle of the room that an Irish dancer performs on. Guests are encouraged to dance as well. We ordered our drinks and opted to start with Calamari City as an appetizer.
Our waiter brought our drinks and some traditional Irish bread and a delicious Guinness reduction sauce to dip the bread in. It disappeared quickly! The two elements complement each other perfectly. There was not a drop of sauce or crumb of bread left untasted. It also gave us time to decide what to order next. We placed our order for Beefy Murray, Burger ‘R’ Way, and The Roamin Lamb.
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The Calamari City arrived at our table just as the bread disappeared. It is prepared with a light tempura batter accompanied by fresh broccoli and green beans. The Calamari was fresh and easy to eat. There were no chewy parts, just good flavorful bites. The vegetables were also very fresh and full of flavor. The spicy remoulade sauce was a nice, creamy addition with just the right amount of kick to it. There was plenty served for the three of us to share.
Our dinner plates arrived before we could finish the Calamari. It was very busy but the kitchen was pumping out the plates quickly. Everything is made to order. The waiter apologized for the entrees coming out before we had time to finish the appetizer. We simply asked for a box to take the rest of the Calamari with us and dug into the fantastic looking platters that were just set before us.
The Beefy Murray is a flaky pot pie filled with tender beef and the spinach, potatoes, mushrooms, curry sauce and apple chutney is served aside the pot pie. Everything was very fresh and full of flavor. The curry is quite spicy, but since it is served in a little pitcher on the side you can control how much you put on your plate. I would advise taking a taste of the curry prior to pouring it all over everything. Then you can gauge how much spice you want on this meal. The crust of the pot pie was very flaky and had a soft buttery flavor to it. The apple chutney with forkfuls of apple pieces and raisins, is a great compliment to the curried beef. Get a bit of everything that is on the plate, onto your fork and taste it all at once, it is amazingly good! I would order this again for sure.
The Burger ‘R’ Way was ordered by another member of my party. She has had this item here before and enjoyed it so much, and admitted to thinking about it (and the bread with the Guinness sauce) many times since she had it. She was not disappointed; it was another delicious burger, cooked perfectly for her. The Dubliner Cheddar is just the right pairing for the Irish burger and Onion bun. It came with a nice thick piece of melted cheese and smoky bacon. The French fries that accompanied the hamburger were hot, crispy, thick cut and sure to please. The tomato chutney is a nice offering for those who like chutney, but it did not add to the experience of my dinner guest.
The Roamin’ Lamb arrived in a large dinner bow. Large pieces of braised lamb surrounded by fresh tomatoes, carrots, onions garnished with fresh basil leaves and grated reggiano cheese, all atop a good serving of rigatoni. The fresh basil leaves were pretty wilted and were removed immediately by my guest. The big meaty chunks of Lamb were tender and juicy. The vegetables were cooked perfectly, with their full color and flavor still intact. The rigatoni was cooked to the right degree of tenderness and made this filling dish even more filling. In fact, all three of us took boxes of our meals with us because we were filled up quickly with these delicious entrees. And we loved the idea of having the balance of our meals again the next day. We reheated our food the next day and relived the meal from Raglan Road. It was just as good, although not surrounded by everything Irish.
Since we filled up on bread, appetizer, and much of our generous entrees, we had no room for dessert this time. No dessert menu appeared nor were there any listed on the main menu. Another note for this restaurant is that they have now added Gluten-Free menu items: Scallops, Fish & Chips, Calamari, Onion Rings & Pasta dishes.
F.A.S.T. Review
F-Food: The food was delicious, prepared to order, and it arrived quickly. Raglan Road is one of those places you will remember fondly and their food will come to mind often.
A-Atmosphere: How can you go wrong to build an Irish pub with everything coming from Ireland? There are two large bars, which are 130 years old, inside the restaurant. Yet it still has a family atmosphere. There is a variety of seating: big wooden booths, semi-private dining for large groups, tall tables and chairs, bar chairs, and regular tables and chairs. A live band plays 6 out of 7 evenings and Irish dancers every evening. The dancers even perform in the outside dining area. The outside area is a great location to people watch and there is a full bar available with seating at the bar or at an umbrella table. They even have a mini-bar with a few Irish beers on tap right on the sidewalk next to the restaurant for those who prefer to grab a brew to sip as they stroll through Downtown Disney.
S-Service: Our waiter was very friendly and attentive in the beginning. He shared some interesting facts regarding the restaurant and offered suggestions from the menu. After the entrees were delivered his attentiveness dropped off, not offering to bring drink refills until after we had finished eating. When we asked for our bill he was efficient at retrieving it, cast member discount included, and then brought our boxes to take the rest of our meals in.
T-Tip: Get the Irish bread and Guinness reduction sauce, it is amazing and it tastes nothing like beer (Just in case you have non-beer drinkers in your party). It is complimentary too. Don’t be afraid to ask the wait staff for recommendations as they have tasted most or all of the menu items. The very cold draft Irish beers pair well with all the items on the menu. The cook is willing to tailor menu items based on your dietary needs, as everything is prepared fresh and made to order.
