Garcia Brogan's

Have you ever heard of an Irish/Mexican restaurant? We hadn't either! That's most of the reason why Callie, Chrissy and I had to go to Garcia Brogan's (another Lowell meeting spot) - we couldn't imagine a fusion of these two very different cultures. After eating there I'd say that its more of a 50/50 split between Irish and Mexican, and not really a fusion. When you walk into the restaurant there's an entryway and you can go in the door on your right for a full restaurant and bar in Mexican decor, and if you take the door on your left you will be in a full restaurant and bar in Irish decor. Its almost like they are two separate places that share a name and share a menu. 

We asked our waitress why the Irish and Mexican theme, and her answer was that these cultures have two important things in common - they like to drink and they like to have a good time. I'm not sure if that's the reason why this restaurant was created (I'm leaning towards not!) but that's the answer we got. Callie and I went for Mexican drinks (margaritas) and Chrissy ordered and Irish beer (Smithwick's).

In addition to chips and salsa that were brought to our table, we ordered the Chips and Curry appetizer (french fried potatoes in sweet and spicy curry sauce). I was expecting this to be actual potatoes - either slices or at least hand cut fries. These were just your typical fries, which I wasn't expecting (and would have preferred real potatoes) but at least they were very good fries - nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The curry sauce was very good. I might try making a curry dish at home.

Chrissy got a vegetable quesadilla, and specified that she absolutely cannot eat onions. It was served to her covered in scallions and full of red onions. She was able to send it back and get a fresh quesadilla without onions, but it still didn't look very good. It was supposed to be served with refried beans and rice, but they were never delivered.

I got the veggie wrap which had zucchini, summer squash, mixed greens, sweet plantains, and sour cream in it.  The plantains certainly made this wrap a success - I never would have though of adding bananas to a vegetable sandwich! This was very good.

 

Tuesday night is Family Fued night, which ended up being more like a game of trivia than Family Fued, because everyone could play and we handed in pieces of paper after each question was answered. By the time we left, we were in last place, although I think the guy must have added wrong because we got most of the answers right! Hmm.

We had a really good time here, but the service was terrible. Though quite nice, our waitress forgot to bring several things to us, didn't know the drink menu well at all, and disappeared for long stretches of time. In the future I'd say that this is a fun place to go for a drink (sit at the bar!) but not very good for a dinner spot or table service.