Mick O’Shea’s – Baltimore, Maryland
Mick O’Shea’s Irish Pub
328 N Charles St
Baltimore, MD 21201
I arrived at Baltimore Washing International airport (BWI) at around 7:00 p.m. but did not get to the hotel until 8:20 p.m. It wasn’t because it was far but rather the confusing directions in the airport. It took me a while to find the baggage area and after that find the appropriate way around to get transportation to the hotel. In the end, I managed to find an information kiosk and, as per their suggestion, I ended up taking a shuttle. It was $14, which is not bad considering I paid over $40 in cab fares on my way back from the hotel to the airport on my last day…
Anyway, after checking in, I was wasted. I hadn’t had anything to eat since a scone I had almost 11 hours earlier. I was willing to walk a bit to find a good place to eat however, given the time and the weather (it was quite windy and raining lightly), I had to settle for anything close by. And that place close by was Mick O’Shea’s, a pub a block away from the hotel.
Now, I must admit I walked to other places in the same block to ensure that I least ended up in a decent place. Compared to other places, this was a bit more packed than the others. The fact they had the World Series running might have been a factor. Anyway, it took a while to catch their attention and get a table, but once I was seated, everything went smoothly.
I did not take a picture of the bar area itself as it was packed full and didn’t want to take my chances of getting myself kicked out of there. Anyway, their Monday’s special was burger, fries and a draft for $7. Although there were quite interesting items in their menu, I was too tired to think and ordered that. As for the draft, I had…
Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I am sure that in an Irish place, this is a no brainer: Yes, it was a Guinness. As for the food…
I also asked for a spinach salad ($4.50 for a small). Again, sorry for the fuzzy picture. It was quite good, as it had a quite interesting mix of flavours: slightly sweet from the cranberries, crunchy from the carrot and onion, buttery from the walnuts and bitter/pungent from blue cheese. And then, the burger.
At this point, I decided to use the flash as, given the light conditions, I knew it was darn impossible to take a decent picture without it. Fortunately, nobody was bothered by that and took my time to take and re-take it. Still the fact I was tired, messed things up a little bit and the picture did not come up as focused as I wished.
The fries were decent, not exceptional. The fact it was a spear pickle was interesting but I was not crazy about it. As for the burger itself, it was decent but not superb. As seen in the picture above, it was still pink; however, it was a bit dry, i.e., no running juices.
Overall, it was not bad but is not good either. Had the burger being juicier (i.e., running juices), I would have had enjoyed it a lot more. However, I must keep in mind it was only $7. I would go there again if it happens to be under the same conditions (i.e., windy and rainy), otherwise, I think I would rather go to Harbourplace. But, for a cheap meal, this place is nice.
