One of the many Raglan Road(tm) exterior entry points (door).
The Irish Soda Bread is offered to the table as a complimentary starter at the dinner period. It's served with a house made Guinness reduction dipping sauce.
The house made Guinness reduction dipping sauce that's served with the Irish Soda Bread has quite a bit of sugar in it — but that's not bad. It's a perfect pairing with the bread and a pint of Guinness.
Here's a standard orange juice and Prosecco Mimosa at Raglan Road. It's occasionally on the Brunch Menu and is usually also available for special occasion dining days, like Mother's Day.
While this orange juice and Prosecco Mimosa isn't always available, there's usually some version of a Mimosa on the menu. During strawberry season (for example) we've seen a Strawberry Fields Mimosa on the menu.
You might think this broccoli and corn fritter is a new take on a classic fritter, but actually — a "fritter" doesn't have to be in cake or patty form at all. Frittered food is simply food that's made with batter-coated ingredients. As seen in this "Sure I'm Frittered" appetizer at Raglan Road the broccoli and corn meal "haystack straws" have been battered and deep fried.
The red stuff in Raglan's "Sure I'm Frittered" dish is a fire roasted pepper relish. The item is listed as a appetizer or starter — which on the Raglan Menu is called the "It's All to Savor" section.
Unless you totally know you don't like Shepherd's Pie — Raglan Road's "Shepherd's Pie to Try" is THE dish to get. It's been on the menu for a loooong time — and for good reason. It's an amazing dish that's bursting with savory, cravable, pub flavor.
The "Shepherd's Pie to Try" features braised and pulled beef & lamb with root vegetables in a rich red wine jus with Irish peat smoked mashed potatoes. While most Shepherd's Pie dishes are served in a medium sized baking dish of some type, the Raglan version is served "open sided" so you can get whatever mix of mashed potatoes, meat, and red wine jus that you want in each bite.
Oh I know what you're thinking... that red wine au jus is a sloppy mess — but see how it's clinging to the sides of the dish? Those bits are actually starting to caramelize on the side of the bowl because it's so hot when it's delivered to your table — and those caramelized bits are the best. Scrape those off the side with your fork — there's something special about braised beef, lamb, and red wine au jus when it starts to caramelize into a solid.
The Dublin Delhi Chicken Curry entrée was a seasonal LTO that's not on the "all the time" menu. It featured white chicken cooked in a savory curry sauce and served with yellow rice.
Now, technically speaking... Irish Curry Sauce is darker and has a more complex and bolder flavor than English Curry. However, Irish Chicken Curry is usually made with apples (in addition to all the normal curry sauce ingredients) — therefore, Irish Chicken Curry sauce is a little sweeter than English Curry.
The colorful Dublin Delhi Chicken Curry entrée does include some cut red peppers. While the menu indicated that they might be on the hot side... I didn't really find that to be the case in context. They were "theme park hot" - probably some type of banana pepper... they weren't in jalapeño territory.
This is the "Crumble at the Knees" item from the dessert menu at Raglan Road. It's an apple and blackberry crumble (in a pie crust cup) with caramel sauce, vanilla custard (in the small dish) and ice cream.
The desserts at Raglan are intended to be personal sized items, but we shared this one — it was just the right amount, especially if you don't typically order desserts.
This (more or less) is a mini apple-blackberry pie... with some additional mix and match items. The ice cream makes it a little "al a mode", the extra blackberries add a nice break in-between the sweeter apple pie filling bites, and that vanilla custard is a little sweet but it's true purpose (I think anyway) is to add some dessert-style moisture if you find the pie crust ratio too high.
Here's a closer look at the crumble on top of the "Crumble at the Knees" dessert at Raglan Road.
The main "center" dining area at Raglan Road offers the best view of the stage (at the far end of this photo). There's a "dancing table" in the very middle of the room (which is not for guests to sit, or dance on.)
The stage at Raglan isn't very big, but Irish bands don't need much room. It all adds to tbe quaintness of the "pub" atmosphere.
Sometimes you'll just get a band on the stage, while other times, you'll get a band and some Irish step dancers!
As you can imagine, Irish step dancing is not a quiet activity — and the dining guests are encouraged to clap along with the music.
There's also a "dance only" part of the show that features more difficult Irish dance numbers. These are performed with background music rather than a live band.
Astute photo-viewers may notice that the background behind the dancers and band keeps changing. That's because it's actually a video projection wall ... and it's done very subtly and very well. You'll notice many different looking "sets" over the course of your meal.
There's not really a bad seat in the center dining area for watching the dancers.
The center table in the room has a staircase leading up to it — that's because the dancers will occasionally roam out to the middle of the dining area and perform on the table!
Dancers will perform several times on the center table over the course of a typical three-course meal.
Right before the dancers take a break, and in true Riverdance form — there's usually a big group number where all the dancers perform the same steps at the same time! It's loud, high energy, and fun to watch!
There's several traditional "bars" at Raglan. I don't know if these areas are used for walk-ups or are available by request. In all the years we've gone, we always get a table in one of the rooms. If you're wondering where the restrooms are though — the "restroom" sign is visible in this photo — just to the right and behind the bar counter.
The main bar is beautiful. I mean, the chairs, the tiles, the liquor cabinets — it's all very authentic looking.
I don't know if this guy's Irish or not — but he sure looks the part.
This view of the main bar counter (near the back of the photo) was taken from the center dining area and looking toward the front entrance hallway (bright sunlight streaming in from the open doors on the left). Rather than being a typically sized Irish Pub — Raglan is more like four typically sized Irish Pubs all glued together.
This photo of the interior dining area at Raglan Road was taken from one of the half-booth style tables in the main dining area. All of the tables in this area get a good view of the center dancing table (on the left, with stairs leading up to it) along with the primary performance stage (at the back of the photo and slightly left).
Just beyond the glass barrier is a second bar counter that (in addition to seating guests) leads to a smaller dining area at the south east corner of the restaurant. As you can see... Raglan is just like a typical pub in the sense that quiet, private seating is somewhat scares.
I don't really add many black and white photos to the Mealtrip site — but it seems like an appropriate film choice for an Irish pub.