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| - Rosie McCaffrey's
The short: The best no-frills bar food I've had in a long time in a dim, but clean and cheery pub environment with decent service--a good addition to a list of dependable, casual standbys.
The long:
Rosie's located on the north side of Camelback and it really sticks out because it looks like a cute, two-story Irish pub dropped down between a couple of car dealerships. Every time we drive by on a weekend night, the place is lit up and packed to the gills with a line of cars waiting to get in to park, so I can attest from that that parking is a stinker during prime pub hours. We went on a Saturday afternoon, though, for lunch, and parking in their lot on the west side of the building was a breeze. The pub theme carried through inside, even more so, with dark-stained wood booths and trim everywhere. There were a couple of handfuls of patrons starting their bar tabs early, and as we progressed through our meal, more people came in to eat and drink. It was nice how all the wood sucked up the sound, so while the place filled up slowly but steadily, it never got very noise. The walls are covered with really cool art, including giant portraits depicting Irish heroes and influences like James Joyce.
We snuck in through the west entrance and were at first confused as to where and how to get a table, but after we flagged down some help, we were told to sit anywhere and were brought a couple of menus after a short wait. We gave a drink order, and it took another short wait before someone came to take our food order. After that, service rolled along pretty well--our glasses were kept full and empty dishes were quickly picked up and taken away.
We started with Rosie's chili con queso dip--queso with beef brisket, rotel tomatoes, chilies, and tortilla chip. The dip was brought in a little cauldron surrounded by tri-color chips. Some were stale, but most of them were fine. The dip started off a little runny and seemed to be all liquid cheese, but we could taste the yummy brisket, and after awhile, we found the few precious, tender meat chunks that were in there. All in all, it was pretty tasty, even if it wasn't uniform.
My boyfriend had Rosie's Reuben with fries. The Reuben came with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing. I was jealous when I tried it. I love a good Reuben, and Rosie's Reuben is solid--grilled-crisp bread, tender and succulent flavorful corned beef, not overdressed, gooey cheese that doesn't take over--so good. I had "Our Famous Best of Phoenix Harp Battered Fish-N-Chips," which came with coleslaw, sweet potato fries, and tartar sauce. I saw several awards Rosie's had won from rags like the New Times, so I figured I should go with those blaring recommendations. I'm happy I did! The fish was crunchy, but not overbattered and had a clean taste. Both the sweet potato fries and regular fries were great--they came crispy and stayed crispy through the whole meal.
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