O’Regans Irish Pub

Shannon asked me what I wanted for dinner tonight and I had a hankering’ for some good old fashioned fish and chips, so I consulted my best friend Internet for some eatery advice and came up with a few selections around town. An Irish pub named Hurley’s was supposed to bring in fresh fish every Friday, batter it on the premises and serve it with some home cut fries and fresh tartar sauce until they ran out of stock. A one night only special of freshly prepared fish and chips sounded exactly what I had in mind, so we headed to Crescent street.

Hurley’s looked like any other modest pub, and we looked around for some sort of hostess before taking a quick seat on the terrace. As we waited, gazing up the clouds, we soon decided it was going to rain and considered relocation. After moving inside, we shuffled between uncomfortable bar space, some tall back chairs by a fireplace that looked cozy, but felt like sitting in someone else’s swass, and finally decided on a table. After waiting for several minutes, I got up and asked the bartender if someone would come to serve us. He nodded and said yes. After waiting a few more minutes and not even seeing a glimpse of wait staff, we decided to look for a venue B.

The area around Crescent and Bishop is a nightlife hot spot for Concordia and McGill students and basically any late-teen or twenty-something with a desire to get liquored. It’s not surprising then that there are many Irish pubs in the area. As we walked from Crescent to Bishop there were many places to choose from, but we settled on a pub that served beer-battered haddock, O’Regan’s.

O’Regan’s certainly had one thing over Hurley’s: waitresses. Someone immediately came over to us and offered us drinks. I ordered an Alexander Keith’s and Shannon had a Caesar, which she would later describe as tasting “like watered down hot sauce”. People were beginning to pour in to watch a rugby game as the storm hit, drowning out patio chairs as the rain beat against the windows and knocking out the satellite reception. Fortunately this yielded little more than a communal “aww” rather than free for all fisticuffs, and I enjoyed my $5 pint without major injuries.

We both ordered what we came for - fish and chips - at a little over $13 a plate. It arrived in due time, a large slab of fish atop a plate of fries and a slop of tartar sauce with some boiled peas and a wedge of seedy lemon. The first couple bites were gobbled eagerly to sedate my hunger, but as I continued and began to reflect on my meal, I began to grow displeased. The batter was a shade undercooked and exceptionally greasy. The tartar sauce was acceptable, but not particularly plentiful. The fries tasted like potatoes, which was a bit of a mixed blessing. They were definitely house prepared, but lacked any salted crispness that is the definitive french fry. Certainly the fries were the highlight of the meal though.

As we finished picking at our plates and threw down over $40 for our meal, we left dissatisfied and onward to Ben n’ Jerry’s to find solace in ice cream. O’Regan’s sits adjacent to another Irish pub which proudly displays a sign for a fish and chip special, likely comparatively cheaper and certainly of no lesser quality than the meal we shelled out for. If you find yourself in the area with a similar hunger, I suggest you try there instead.