Raglan Road Irish Pub Restaurant Review

Raglan Road is located in the heart of the Downtown Disney area, right on the edge of the new defunct Pleasure Island entertainment complex.  ‘The Pub’ is owned and operated by internationally famous chef Kevin Dundon.  Imagine someone grabbing a traditional Dublin pub by picking it up and then just dropping it straight into the Downtown area; there is nothing quite like it on Disney property and this makes for an almost familiar yet very different experience.

Entrance

We arrived a bit early for our ADR at 6pm, so we milled around the shop for a bit and investigated the so-called takeaway and how astounded was we.  Cod n chips, battered sausage n chips, mushy peas, curry sauce and even deep-fried Mars bars!  This place was definitely like nothing we had seen before at Disney.

The bar…

Being called over, we followed our server to our table located inside the lovely air-conditioned building.  It did look like a big clean and tidy Irish/British pub, just without the drunks and the now common plasma TV’s.  Our server, who wasn’t Irish, handed us the menus and then took our drinks orders; as she went off to get these we surveyed the menu closely.  For starters the Wife opted for today’s special, which was a ‘Tomato and Gin’ soup and I went with the ‘Chicken Lickin’.

Not just a cup-a-soup…

The chicken was Whiskey marinated chicken skewers with a Dalkey honey mustard dipping sauce served with a small side salad.  The Wife’s tomato and gin soup looked and tasted far more interesting than mine, I wish I had ordered it!  It isn’t a gross as you are imagining the sourness of gin with the fruity sweetness of the local tomatoes made for an exciting combination.  Roll on main course now!

I wanted to give this place a real test so I opted for the pinnacle of Irish/British cuisine and ordered the Fish & Chips, of they can do this right, then this place is ok in my eyes.  I wasn’t let down.  The fish was as fresh as the day it was caught.  Big, flaky and above all tasty and the batter wasn’t half bad either!  The chips were ‘real’ potatoes and not frozen ones.  All served with a pot of rustic looking Tartar sauce and a muslin wrapped lemon.  I can safely report it was as good, if not better, than any fish n’ chips I have had in the UK and Ireland.

As my camera battery died when I was taking the picture of my fish and chips, this is the fish my relative had on the same holiday a few days later.  D’oh!

The Wife opted for Traditional Guinness and Onion Banger – Pork sausage on Mash and topped with Caramelized Onions and a small beef stewy.  Which is equally loved.  She commented that the sausages were very high quality and not the usual processed ones, like with the mash which was obvious to look at that this was no ‘Smash’!

Either of us could not manage another thing to eat and left here very satisfied.  The only thing we would change when we come here again (oh yes we’ve already ADR-ed it!) and this is, we would come here later and experience the evening entertainment.  Various activates are advertised for the public to view, these include singing, comedy acts and even some good old fashion Irish Jigging.

People walking-by on Pleasure Island.

Bad points: Can get very loud at times and the wait times for people with no ADRs can be very long.

Good points: The vast array of “local” (to us) beers on tap, free entertainment, the handy takeaway nextdoor, the comedy CD that plays in the loo (honestly it’s the only place I have heard Jimmy Cricket playing since the 70s!) and the lovely outdoors eating area.

To book you can go to waltdisneyworld.com or call (407) WDW-DINE or (407) 939-3463.

 

So how have you guys found dining at this Irish hotspot?