Kelley O'Neils - Irish Nachos

Dancing our pants off one night at Kelley’s we noticed they had a new menu item, Irish Nachos.  Curious.  So we scheduled the Nacho Friends a night to try this unique take on our favorite dish.  It’s always weird to be in Kelley’s before the sun goes down.  It’s usually a place we stumble into when all the other bars are closed but here we were sober and in the daytime.  We managed to get the tables in the back by the bathroom for our group before a busload of customers overloaded the bar.  Our server, Leilani, had her hands full as the only waitress on the floor.  Not to mention only one bartender.  She took good care of us so we hardly noticed.  One thing I love about Kelley’s is they always have an Irish Whiskey on special for the month for cheap!  This month was Bushmill’s Red Bush.  We ordered a bunch of potato chip nachos and patiently awaited their arrival.  When they arrived, we could see they were topped in lots of thick bacon bits…yum!  The chips were cooked to perfection and could be eaten by themselves.  This worked in their favor since the real cheese cemented all the chips it touched together into one giant potato chip nacho block.  The gang all agreed that although delicious, perhaps a homemade queso would work better.  Not the fake 7-11 stuff or anything, but real cheese made into a melty sauce.  This would allow for the chips to be separated and also for the bacon and green onions to stick to the chips.  Overall they were well received and especially for the price of $5.  You can really tell the difference when fresh ingredients are used.  Man those chips are good!  Awesome pub snack!

Irish Nachos $5 – House made potato chips, crumbled apple smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, topped with green onions

 

Nacho Libra (3.5) – PRESENTATION: Lots of meat!  Smaller portion but only $5. RAD: So much bacon!  Crispy, delicious, potato chips.  The real cheese is delicious! LAME: Needs a salsa. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 3, loved the included toppings, but it could have used some more variety of toppings.  Needed more cheese for all the chips.  You can eat the chips alone, but they are better with the toppings.  Leilani was great!

 

 

Nacho Nerd (3) – PRESENTATION: Looks tasty, but unevenly distributed. RAD: Combination of flavors is amazing. LAME: Insufficient toppings, poor topping distribution. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2.  Potatoes are well done, price is right, a melted cheese sauce would significantly better the experience.

 

Heather (5) – PRESENTATION: Amazingly gorgeous.  RAD: BACON. LAME: Hard to break apart. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2, needs more cheese.  Love the whole homemade potato chip, so delish.

 

Grade-A (2) – PRESENTATION: Looks good but chips & cheese are cold.  All stuck together. RAD: Tastes like baked potatoes.  The chips themselves are awesome. LAME: Hard to pull apart (the cheese is so hard).  Too much heat lamp. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 3, a bit more chips than toppings.  Cold hard cheese is bad.  "Pump" style cheese would work way better than straight cheddar.

Sad face for all the naked chips...

Ummmm...how do we eat this giant potato chip nacho brick?

 

Brando (2 15/16) – PRESENTATION: Ireland nachos on potato chips.  I usually prefer soft potatoes under my soft nacho toppings, but I am really interested in this.  RAD: The chips, they're fresh…and free roaming. LAME: No beans, not enough toppings.  I'm Irish motherfucker.  I need toppings to soak up my bad decisions. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: Lots of beautiful homemade chips.  No toppings.  Put a good handful of toppings on these…I will gladly get fat here. I love this place.  I wish these were better, but because I love this place I have to be real  This dish could be perfected, but it needs work. I'm Irish, I love Irish bars.  I love the atmosphere.  If this dish was perfected, not only would it bring people, it would bring notoriety.  Work on it Kelly's.  I believe in you.

 

Flaco (3) – PRESENTATION: Looks basic, but I am friggin hungry, so they're amazing.  Might be tough to get a good nacho all the way down.  It's one big brick! RAD: The chips are nice and crispy.  NO breakage, stays crispy until the end.  They taste quite good too.  LAME: Quite basic toppings, needs more queso, could use liquid queso. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 3.5, Our particular basket was quite good and had a lot of toppings but the other baskets were lacking. Still, the bottom was just chips. These aren't awful but these aren't that good either.  My hunger made them better, otherwise a 2.5.  Our particular basket was way better than the others.  Kelly's is a blackout.  Server and bartender were overwhelmed.  This was a totally "meh" nachos.  Sorry.  (stick to blackouts Kelly's)

 

Nacho Mushrooms (3) – PRESENTATION: Looks like the cheese escaped. RAD: BACON BITS! LAME: Chips cold. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2.  Who do you have to f$%@ to get a beer around here?

 

 

Nacho Beach (3.5) – PRESENTATION: Yum…looks yummy.  Cheese looks short. RAD: I love potatoes and cheese with sour cream and onion.  Extra credit for fantasmic homemade chips. LAME: Seriously lacking in cheese and layering which makes dry chips under the top row. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: Love chips and toppings, please layer more cheese like times 3.  Thank you to our server who was super busy.

 

 

Nacho Granny (2) – PRESENTATION: I see a lot of naked chips.  Topping pile looks tasty. RAD: Bacon is always rad. LAME: Cheese is not melty.  So it falls off.  Can't get stuff on chips. The toppings just fall off. TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 3, the ratio was fine but there was basically one chip glob.  Though not always ideal, cheese sauce would work better on these.

 

Shananigans (3.5) – PRESENTATION: Looks like lots of real bacon.  Love homemade chips. RAD: Chips are so tasty and perfectly cooked.  The bacon is thick and delicious and there is a ton of it. LAME: Toppings not well distributed.  Real cheese is great but it makes all the chips stick together and you have one giant nacho.  I would love some spice, maybe fresh jalapenos? TOPPING TO CHIP RATIO: 2.5, the toppings, as tasty as they are, don't spread out enough.  The creativity is rad, the flavors are yummy, the execution is just a bit off.  Our waitress Leilani got slammed.  Only one bartender and one waitress for a packed house.  She rocked it for us. Special of the night was Bushmill's Red Bush.