Arriving at Raglan Road early for our noon brunch reservation, I joined my friends, Paula & Hunter, at Raglan Road’s bar…
Here are some photos of the Bar menu…
Here I started with a Bloody Mary…
This was a decent Bloody Mary with some “good” spice to it. I opted out of the Guinness floater and more expensive vodka that is normally part of Raglan Road’s version of the Bloody Mary (called The Cure). Therefore my Bloody Mary was only $8.00, while The Cure is I think $14.50.
We were seated a few minutes prior to our noon reservation time at a table in the main dining room, not far from the stage…
It is on this stage that The Irish Show, which includes an Irish band and Celtic dancers, performs every evening. However on the weekends, they also perform during brunch starting at noon…
So while we looked over the Brunch menu we enjoyed the music played by their 3-piece band.
After placing our orders we were brought some Irish Soda Bread with Guinness Dipping Sauce…
I love this, mostly because of the sweet dipping sauce.
Then from the “Starty Stuff” section of the menu we began our meal with the…
Dalkey Duo – Battered cocktail sausages with a Dalkey mustard dipping sauce
This appetizer is cleverly presented with 6 sausages perched on top of forks…
And some bonus sausages (I think 3) in a small bowl…
These are always very good here. If you are a fan of sausages, then I recommend that you try the Dalkey Duo at Raglan Road.
Our other “Starty Stuff” appetizer was the…
An Irish Egg – Guinness and onion sausage crusted egg, pickled cabbage, saffron aioli
And cutting it open to see what’s inside…
While I love the Scotch egg that is served at Epcot’s Rose & Crown, this Irish version I didn’t care for. It seemed dry and overcooked on the outside but on the inside the egg yolk was runny. Also I prefer the Rose & Crown’s mustard sauce to the saffron aioli served with the egg here.
It was about this time that we noticed that all the guests at the surrounding tables were being served a complimentary sample of their seasonal smoothie…
So when we were finally able to flag down our server (we didn’t see much of her throughout our meal) we asked if we might also be able to taste the smoothie that was being given to everyone else around us. Our request was granted and the smoothie sample (I think it was a mixed berry) was tasty but not something I would want to drink a large glass of.
It was about this time in our meal that the dancers started performing on the stage with the band. First a girl…
Then a guy…
Then the two danced together…
They then invited children from the audience to come up to the stage to dance with them…
Next our entrees arrived. Let’s begin with Hunter’s choice…
Three Times a Boxty – Sliced Gammon topped with Dubliner cheddar sandwiched between two pan-seared boxty potato cakes with a fried egg on top served with chips (aka thick-cut French fries)
And a closer view of the sandwich…
This was just an average, nothing special or memorable type of entrée.
The same can be said of Paula’s choice…
Hipsters Lament – Smashed avocado, Irish bacon and poached eggs on sourdough with chive butter, served with roasties (roasted potatoes)
And a little closer look…
The only thing memorable about this entrée was actually a bad thing, as the roasted potatoes were not cooked enough.
Paula and Hunter also ordered this side dish…
Garlic and Parmesan Truffle Chips
These were better than Paula’s roasted potatoes and also better than Hunter’s plain chips.
As for me, having had breakfast at Sanaa early that morning, I ordered my entrée from the “Lunchy Stuff” section of their menu…
Burger ‘R’ Way – Char-grilled sirloin beef burger with bacon, tomato chutney and Dubliner cheddar cheese
And a look under the lid for a better view of the tomato chutney and cheese…
The burger itself was fine I guess but I didn’t care for either the cheese or tomato chutney, consequently I didn’t eat very much of this. However this could be because I had had a great breakfast at Sanaa that morning plus had had some of the appetizers and bread so wasn’t very hungry when this was served.
So overall the entrees at Raglan Road are pretty much hit and miss for me. I’ve always liked their Fish & Chips and I enjoyed the Full Irish breakfast that I had during my last visit to Raglan Road (which was also for brunch). The visit before that though I had the Eggs en Cocotte and didn’t care for it and now their burger fell flat with me.
As for their desserts though, I’ve always liked their Bread Pudding.
This time though I decided to branch out a bit and order their Dessert Flight to share with my friends…
This consisted of mini versions of four of their popular desserts. [From left to right: Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding, Dunbrody’s Kiss, Fluffy Lemon Clouds, and Dundon’s Delight]
I’m not really a fan of lemon desserts so didn’t really care for the Fluffy Lemon Clouds (lemon curd topped with meringue) but Paula liked it.
I did though like the Dunbrody’s Kiss (chocolate mousse) and of course, my previous favorite RR dessert, the Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding…
But to my surprise my favorite was the Dundon’s Delight…
I really loved this pavlova dessert topped with raspberry coulis. So I’m glad that I decided to give the dessert flight a try rather than just going with my usual bread pudding.
Now back to the entertainment, which continued to perform throughout our meal. The dance duo was joined by a third…
At one point the guy left the band stage and performed on the smaller stage in the middle of the main dining room…
We happened to be sitting right in front of that stage and in this photo Hunter looks like he’s about to be kicked in the head, lol…
Anyway, he eventually returned to the main stage and then “taa daa”…
…there were four!!
Does anyone else feel like they are seeing double? These 4 looked like two sets of twins, lol.
Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed the various bands and dancers that I’ve seen perform at Raglan Road and this time was no exception. The entertainment here creates such a great atmosphere and is something that always draws me back to Raglan Road.
That just leaves the ratings and rankings. Based on the food (which except for the Dalkey Duo and the Dessert Flight was just okay) and poor service I would only rate Raglan Road 3 stars for this visit. I would maybe bump that up to 3 1/2 when you factor in the great entertainment. However, the reviewers on Yelp gave Raglan Road 4 stars and TripAdvisor gave it 4 1/2, as well as ranking it #144 of the more than 3,000 Orlando area restaurants reviewed there. Narrowing it to just the Disney World area restaurants, Raglan Road comes in at #42 on TripAdvisor.
Taste of Disney 