Irish Times Bar and Grill Naples (IT) is an Irish-themed bar and restaurant in The Pavillion, a shopping center in Naples, FL. I always love a good happy hour, and my dining companion (DC) and I decided to take a peek.
The happy hour runs daily from 12 to 7 PM. This happens at the bar, bar tables and a couple of outside tables.
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| Bar and high tops |
The interior of the restaurant is spacious and aesthetically appealing, beautifully appointed with rich wood and ceiling murals. Although the outdoor space for happy hour is limited, we found an empty table outside.
A server promptly came over to offer us drinks and give us each a Happy Hour Menu. Happy hour offers a number of discounts on beer, wine and cocktails, but we were really there to sample the food. We picked a few items that were Quintessentially Irish from the happy hour menu that looked interesting.
The first thing DC and I sampled were the curry chips (fries). This is a classic Irish dish, especially from a pub.
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| Curry chips |
The curry here refers to the dipping sauce. There are many versions of this sauce but it’s basically a thickened curry powder sauce that’s sweetened. If you are partial to fries you will like the fries. If you don’t like curry sauce there’s always ketchup!
We also ordered the Battered Sausages, another classic Irish pub and chipper (Irish fish and chip shop) item.
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| Battered sausages |
Here, pork sausages are battered with a light and crispy batter similar to that used to batter fish, then fried. The dipping sauce was an HP-based sauce, HP is a British brown sauce with a tomato and tamarind base. I like sausages so I liked this dish. The dipping sauce works if you like tomato/tamarind-based sauces.
We finally finished up our culinary sampling of the Emerald Isle with another classic, Shepherd’s Pie.
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| Shepherd’s Pie |
As most know, this pie is a mixture of meat and vegetables in its own gravy, topped with mashed potatoes or a mashed potato topped with a breadcrumb/cheese mixture. At IT, they use ground lamb in their shepherd’s pie. This is a smaller serving than their regular menu, perfect for “dipping your toe in the water” as it were, to try it. It was not bad. I guess I’m partial to the pie I make.
We also sampled a couple of more North American or even “world food” items.
The first of these was the chicken wings.
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| Chicken wings |
A traditional Irish prep with wings is to cook them in Guinness Beer and aromatic vegetables. The wings are removed and finished in the oven while basting with the reduced braising liquid. At IT, the wings are available “naked”, or with teriyaki, BBQ, or a few other preparations. We ordered them spicy with blue cheese dressing. They were just wings, nothing really remarkable.
We finished up with the mini buffalo flatbread.
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| Mini buffalo flatbread |
The flatbread was very good and my favorite part of the meal. It has Popcorn Chicken, tomato, red onion, cheddar and trying to be Irish, rocket (arugula). Highly recommended.
As happy hours go, the one at IT is not bad. It is not something I would go to strictly for the happy hour food. The menu items, however, could be the perfect foil for your beverage if you wanted a small plate to nosh on in a nicely appointed Irish-themed bar in Naples. Our check for all five items was $38 plus tax and gratuity.
There is a really big plus here though. Their Late Night Menu, served from 9 to 12-ish PM, has all the food items from happy hour at the same price, in addition to a number of other snacks.
For those wanting a late nibble, this may work for you. If for nothing else but the daily availability of relatively inexpensive late-night food, IT is a welcome addition to our local culinary scene.
Sin è sin (Gaelic for that’s that) for another post on Forks.
Irish Times
8939 Tamiami Tr. N.
Naples, FL 34108
(239)350-1900
Irish Times Bar and Grill Naples Facebook Page
Happy Hour daily from 12 to 7 PM, All major credit cards accepted
This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
