I won't be much help here except to say that my boss's son loves Ryan's Daughter and has lunch there at least once a week.

My family’s St. Patrick’s Day tradition is to meet up for lunch at Claddagh’s Pub in Canton. We then do a little drinking and by the evening we end up at Looney’s for some Old Bay wings and dinner. I liked both places for food. Though it does help they have my favorite drink on tap.

Ryan's Daughter is my favorite. They have a diverse menu with a number of traditional favorites and modern reinterprettions. Have to love a place that has Guiness pints listed as an appetizer! I love the cheese plate with a variety of Irish Cheeses. My favorites - Dubliner cheese and the Guiness Stout cheese. The Boxty, a large potato crepe that is filled with a variety of choices, is awesome. The atmosphere is low key and friendly. The Stil is more popular but Ryan's Daughter is far better.

I appreciate Maggie Moore's as well as Mick O'Shea's in Baltimore. Both have good food, pleasant atmosphere, and my husband appreciates the Guinness! (Of course, my husband's favorite is J. Patrick's in Locust Point, Baltimore, MD, partly for the Guinness, and partly for the music. Can't say their food is authentic Irish fare, however.)

Slainte in Fells Pt.

The Still in Timonium

Ryan's Daughter

If we are including restaurants outside of Baltimore, my vote goes to Galway Bay in Annapolis, right by the State House. Great food and always a good time!

Yes, I definitely want to include Annapolis, and Columbia and Ellicott City if there are any there I don't know about.

Best around...by far...is James Joyce.

If people could recommend particular dishes, that would be helpful.

The GUINNESS STEW is awesome and the potato soup warms the soul. For an Irish pub...the wings are the best around.

OH...and don't forget yer pint O'Guinness.

Great, thanks. I love descriptions of good food. :-)

- James Joyce
- Maggie Moore's
- Mick O'Shea's
- Slainte

The Irish Nachos at Maggie Moore's are to drool for. The chips are actually fried, quarter inch thin (or so)potato slices, and there's bacon in there I believe - so good. The Irish Reuben at The James Joyce was only a 2 on the 5 point scale though, unfortunately.

Castelbay in Annapolis. The owner is very hands on about his guest. Very friendly. Except since it's a one room establishment it gets more bar oriented after 9pm.

Killarney House in Edgewater. Very nice atmosphere, very good food. And their "sister" spot ...

Brian Boru on Ritchie Highway in the Severna Park area. Very nice!

While waiting to celebrate a friend's divorce over a glass of plonk at Grand Cru, we popped into Ryan's Daughter for a quick bite -- and enjoyed the best beer-battered fish and chips we've had in Baltimore. Okay, maybe not as good as when we lived in London and they came wrapped in yesterday's edition of the Evening Standard. But we've been back twice, tempted to try the bangers or the corned beef and cabbage -- and each time happily succumbed to the fish and chips.

In Westminster, check out O'Lordan's, an Irish style pub featuring the usual suspects.
Fish and chips, shepherd's pie: both solid. Blarney burger, which features Blarney cheese, can be superlative. I've been disappointed by it only once. Is it Irish? Yeah, right. I wonder how much chicken sate (an O'Lordan's appetizer) they pound in Ulster.
Still, not a bad place to grab a pint.
(rant alert) That being said: what's an Irish pub? A place that serves Guiness on tap and has an O' slapped onto it's name?
I think I've been to one Irish pub that seemed like it might be an Irish pub. It was in Milwaukee, WI. Run by an Irish guy named Derry, who called it Derry's pub and inside it treason flowed as thick as the black goo in our pints. Couldn't trust a soul in the place till you'd had at least three Jameson's and then, saints preserve us, they all turned out to be brothers in disguise.
So, I like James Joyce a lot. But what makes it Irish?

Irish Pub that has great food? The only place is Patrick's of Pratt. Try the pate and the crabcake. And you can't go wrong with a steak. They have one of the best in town I think. Now, none of these dishes have Guinness in them (that I know of) but I'm sure you won't find a more authentic Irish Pub.

That being said, I also love J. Patrick's in Locust Point. But for the beer and music- not the food.

The wife, as part of her dislike of the current administration, will veto any suggestion I make about going to an Irish pub. She is quite adament about this. In fact, she wears orange on St. Patrick's Day.

This is a great one.

I have to respectfully disagree with some of the Ryan's Daughter comments, though. The fish and chips is fantastic...but everything else I've had there has been, well, pretty bad. It's a fun bar, though.

Also, I was at Grand Cru one night when the GC bartenders were doing shot races to RD - running over, doing a shot, then running back. Fun night. Great bartenders at both.

I love the venison at the Stil. And a lot of the menu at Mick O'Shea's.

I really do enjoy Galway Bay in Annapolis, and I think it's beautiful inside. I think Killarney House is owned by the same people. I haven't been there as frequently, but my grandmother (who is pretty discerning) loves it.

I've only been to Castlebay for drinks, but it's a great place to go on a Saturday night if you want to sit down and hang out with friends and listen to acoustic music and actually talk.

I met my husband at Claddagh's, so it will always have a place in my heart. We then had our rehearsal dinner at Sean Donlon's on West St in Annapolis...which I wish was still open, only so I could tell the story of what a total nightmare the dinner was, all thanks to the management.

Whenever I travel, I love finding the Irish pub in whatever city I'm in. Best bartenders and friendliest clienteles ever.

The potato soup with some warm brown bread at the James Joyce is really good. They also do simple fish dishes (salmon) and steak well, with tasty potatoes and some of the freshest vegetables in charm city, cooked right so that they are not mushy. The service at the bar has never been anything less than perfect. And it's a very cozy space.

Has anyone been to Dougherty's recently? I used to hang out there maybe 19 years back. Was darn good then but it's been a while.

I'd also recommend Mick O'Shea's. A good friend of mine used to work there and made the best shephard's pie in the world. It's easy to make that dish horrible but when it tastes like heaven... that's a treat!

It's not Irish food, but Mick O'Shea's consistently does a way-above-average bacon cheeseburger.

At one point in the past few years, they ditched potato skins and had potato "wontons." I was skeptical, but they were actually pretty good. It should have been an addition instead of a substitute, but it was hard to complain too much.

Life of Reilly's shepard's pie is awesome but I do not reccomend the fish'n'chips.

With respect to Christine -
"...pate and the crabcake..." ..."I'm sure you won't find a more authentic Irish Pub."

I'm sorry but I wasn't aware that pate & crabcakes constituted authentic Irish food.

Care to elaborate?

I was all ready to tell how talk of great Irish food makes me want to punch people in the face because it just reminds me of a big steaming bowl of poverty and mmmm Shepherd's pie is so blechhh it's damned leftovers because we can't afford to throw away yesterday's mashed potatoes and vegetables let's make a fookin' pie yum wait till Da' gets home froom the mine he'll cough up a lung it's so good if he has the strength to beat us all first and THEN and THEN, BUT then I saw Bacon Girl's name and the future stretched out ahead of me, bright and rosy and the pain subsided. Bacon Girl ... Work hard, study hard and get a scholarship to University, Bacon Girl, learn how to talk good from Tom Brokaw on the telly, work hard, Bacon Girl, leave your hands off the filthy girls in this dirty old town, Bacon Girl, take your rage and squeeze it into a cancerous black diamond that lives in the pit of your belly motivating you away from the past but never toward a future, Bacon Girl, sacrifice love for rootless ambition, Bacon Girl, eat your cabbage, eat your taters, turn down that jungle music, live for tomorrow like the present is a stain, Bacon Girl, but there is no, Bacon Girl, there never is, never never, no never no more, and your pain becomes becomes fake nostalgia for the Pepsi generation, bacon girl, and no one not even you cares about the real past anymore, bacon g..., it's Irish nachos, baco.... ...., work hard make money, ba... ...., drink Jameson's, eat Guinness stew pie nachos, b.... ...., and through the malty haze all past is buried with your dreams and your rage is just an ironic commodity. ..... ....

[and ... scene!]

Mike McGovern's

I agree with many of the commenters' restaurant suggestions, so I'll just mention the dishes I like at certain places:

The Ploughman's Platter at Mick O'Shea's
Curry fries at Ryan's Daughter
Corned beef and cabbage at The Still

Oh, and I've liked everything I've ordered at Slainte, so maybe I'll just say they're my top choice.

jl - I'm from Milwaukee and loved Derry's! Another fun Irish place there is the Harp. No food but great clientele and very generous barkeeps.

Very good Mr. Porc. Now lock in the last chevron and walk through the Stargate.

Curry fries, crabcakes, pâté? Fookin eejits.

Reverend Ed, am I going to have to make you write Rule No. 2 on the blackboard 50 times?

If J. patrick's in Sputh Baltimore doesn;t make the list, then the list is a sham at best. Just my 2 cennts. it's certainly not fancy like James Joyce or The Still, but it;s classic and charming in it's own way.

On another note, I recently spent some time down in Howard County, and one thing I noticed is their obvious lack of good Irish pubs. Sure there's both Shannon's and Kelsey's on Route 40. And they are both okay. But there's no place like The Still, or James Joyce, or Ryan's daughter in all of Howard County.

Can you just imagine how a place like that would do in Columbia, or in a development like Maple Lawn.
There's definitely a void there.

Does J. Patrick's have food? I got the impression it was more for drinking, which will be Sam's list.

I have to amend my previous post. In addition to J. Patricks, RILEY'S SHEBEEN in the basement of Angelina's on harford Road should be on the list as well. Any list of the top 10 Irish pubs in the Baltimore area that's missing those 2 places is a joke of a list if there ever was one.

J. PATRICKS
RILEY'S SHEBEEN

I'm good at joke of a lists, as half the people who read this blog will tell you :-)

Anyway, how's the food at these two places?

VD Pork: I'm not convinced that you fully captured the emotion and conviction of that scene. Let's try it from the top, this time with feeling - and ... ACTION!

Theater People! Ugh, what Piano Rob, not enough exclamation points?!?!? I was simultaneously crying, raging and craving bacon all at once, like Oprah at a burning Oscar Mayer ophanage without TV cameras. The horror. The savory smoke-cured undocumented horror.

I thought Rule No. 2 didn't count if it was done in a mock comical ethnic voice? In a magically delicious voice?

Well, OK. This one time.

I think Father Ted would give a special dispensation, considering he put up with Father Jack.

As a "Locust Pointer", I would definitely vote for J. Patrick's. They do serve pub food...fish and chips, wings, chicken tenders, shepard's pie, mussels and of course Guinness. The music is great and the owner is the nicest person you'd meet! I won't spend St. Patrick's Day any where else.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Shepherd's pie people, like the dudes from Brokeback Mountain - watchers of sheep. Shepard's pie is altogether a different story.

Thanks, VDPork and EL, you finally made me spray coke in the keyboard. You two should WARN somebody when you take off like that (grin!). Excuse me, I have to go clean my keyboard.

Riley's Shebeen serves the full Angelina's menu including the crab cake, and all other crab dishes. And contrary to what one might think, Angelina's is actually an Irish joint that happens to serve some Italian dishes.

It was originally Italian back in the 1950's but it was bought by the Riley's in the 1960's, who then opened up a pub in the basement--Rileys's Shebeen--which has its own seperate entrance. It was the Riley's who perfected the infamous crab cake recipe. (the Riley's sold it in the late 80's and it's changed ownership once more since then).

But one VERY important note to consider is that Riley's Shebeen was the FIRST Irish pub in Baltimore to serve Guiness on tap. That alone should put it on the list. It is indeed as true of an Irish Pub as you can get, sans the faux fanciness of places like The Still.

As for J. Patricks, I'll concede that most folks don't quite go there for the food. They have a decent fried crabcake and their fish & chips aren't the worst, but the menu is definitely limited in their offerrings.

But if you keep it off the list, you should make it "The Top 10 Irish Pubs (where you'd go for the food")." That way, people would understand why J. Patricks isn't on there.

Having it simply the "Top 10 Irish Pubs", with J. Parick's missing on the list makes it look dubious at best.

Why did they change the name of Maggie Moore?

It hasn't happened yet, but soon. The Moores sold out to another partner and left.

I know I posted a comment about these dishes last fall, but can't recall what topic it was under...anyway, Ryan's Daughter has fantastic Cottage Pie (chicken, veggies, mashed potatoes in puff pastry) and Slainte offers the best Shepherd's I've had...besides my mother's.

The curry fries are much more England-inspired than Ireland; a popular late night food option for the post-pub hungry are your curry shops, especially in the middle of the country. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely makes for a good way to end your night.

As to food (although I would argue that Guinness should count as food), the fish & chips at Ryan's Daughter are good; I'd have to give them the proverbial thumbs-up. Still trying to find an Irish pub that makes a lamb stew worth eating though...

Wait- Columbia used to have a "Bennigan's"! That doesn't count?

Even though I love McGoverns (and it is a great Irish pub), they don't serve food, so that would eliminate it from the list.

My vote would have gone to Maggie Moores, but that will never be the same without John and Maggie.

Rosebud- I said they had good food, not Irish food! They are the oldest authentic Irish Pub in the US. They have Irish music, Irish owners and a distinctly Irish feel. The food that they do very well happens to be pate and crabcakes. I honestly don't know if they serve Irish food.

You can get "small boneless chickens" at J. Patricks, which looks like someone's 1960's club basement. It took me years to go there, because I am British and I heard tell that they were an IRA bar. But since it was the closest bar in LoPo with live music, I eventually got up the nerve to go. The blacked out Beefeater and Queen Vic on the bottles didn't sit too well, but the drinks were cheap (locals pricing, doncha know?) and the food wasn't awful, so it became our local.

BTW, the small boneless chickens? Deviled eggs!

Don't boneless chickens come from the Boneless Chicken Ranch?

I really think James Joyce's ginormous shepherd's pie is much yummier than Slainte's, but I am addicted to Slainte's sandwiches with their creamy (rosemary?) dressing. Slainte also has a decent Irish breakfast dish, but I had an even better one of those in Annapolis at Galway Bay (where it is called the 'mixed grill' dish).

I will have to disagree with whoever nominated the curry chips at Ryan's Daughter. I spent some time in Ireland and after being back in Baltimore for a few weeks, I was totally craving them. Ryan's Daughter was the only place I found them on the menu. Well, I was extremely disappointed with them and haven't been back since. I guess if you've never had them on the other side of the pond, they're fine, but they get two-thumbs down from me.

Lori, what did you find to be disappointing about them? What's the major difference(s) between the ones you had in Ireland and the ones at Ryan's Daughter?

Jason, that's my point exactly. You can bring food in with you or wait for Karyn to order pizza and mooch off her. Talk about a banquet.