Oh Danny Boy

Irish music only allowed on St. Patrick’s Day unless it’s Danny Boy or unless we change our mind, is one of the house rules at the restaurant I picked for my St. Patrick’s Day article.

Last week we went to one of my favorite area restaurants, , located at 1520 Randall Road in Algonquin. I have been a big fan of Barley House since it opened in 2009.

We were a party of five: three adults and two kids. We were seated near the fireplace in the main dining area. The inside of the restaurant is decorated nicely with lots of things to look at, but it does not come off as gaudy or over-decorated.

After we sat down, a runner brought popcorn to our table and we looked over our menus. The adult menu is large and fun to read. There are many hidden jokes and the house rules are pretty comical. The kids menu has a large variety of items including mini burgers, cheese pizza, chicken fingers and more.

We started our meal with an order of Portabella “French Fries.”  Portabella French fries are portabella mushrooms cut to look like French fries then breaded and fried and served with honey mustard dipping sauce. These are delicious. One of the adults in our party ordered the soup of the day—Roasted Chicken & Vegetable, which was very salty, almost inedible. 

For their main course, two of the adults ordered the Special of the Day which was a $5 half-pound Angus Burger. I ordered the Traditional Rueben and the kids ordered buttered noodles and mini corndogs. All of our meals came with fries.

The kids loved their choices and gobbled up their meals in record time. One of the men ordered his burger medium-rare while the other one ordered his well done. Both burgers came out well done.

My Rueben was perfect. Not only was it perfect, I would have to say it might have been the best Rueben I have ever eaten. The bread was perfectly toasted, the corned beef was piled high, the cheese was melted just right and the sauce was not too saucy and did not taste like it came out of a bottle. Perfection.

Overall, there were good and bad parts to our meal. The service was fantastic and the kids’ meals and my Reuben were great. The kids and I would give Barley House 5 out of 5 stars. The other two adults would give it 3 out of 5 stars for an average of 4 out of 5 stars!