Restaurant Review: JD McGillicuddy's

Restaurant

Address: 33 Brookline Blvd., Havertown, PA 19083
Rating: (3 out of 5 stars): ★★★
Style: Sports bar
Food: A neighborhood sports bar with locally themed sandwiches and standard pub fare.
Atmosphere: Lively—rowdy during games
Parking: Metered lot parking
Service: Casual and friendly
Price Range: Affordable
Unique Feature: This place has a decent beer selection, upstairs dining area and game day specials.

With Phillies fever in the air, what better place to enjoy a meal than local sports bar chain, ? Actually, we arrived at the tail end of a Phlilies play-off game earlier this week and the place was jumpin’. Needless to say the Phillies won and the noise and crowd subsided shortly after the 9^th inning. We were seated in a cozy booth and began poring over the menu.

There are plenty of beers on draught and by the bottle much to the delight of my beer aficionado friend. We ordered a Yards, a Heineken light, Magners pear cider, Sam Adams Octoberfest and Flying Fish as the evening progressed. The availability of Heineken light was surprising and it really does taste like regular beer. The pear cider went down like juice and the Yards and Flying Fish were crisp and tasty as always. The Octoberfest is a fine example of the autumnal brews that come our way as the leaves begin to turn.

For appetizers we chose the cordon bleu bites and crab au gratin. The cordon bleu bites with ham, melted cheese and golden fried exterior were surprisingly good. The honey mustard dipping sauce provided a nice sweet contrast to the rich and savory bites.

The crab au gratin was not the thick and creamy crab laden goodness I had been hoping for. Instead it was basically a bowl of heavy cream with some sparse bits of fishy tasting crab. I could only stomach 1-2 bites. That being said my dining companions did enjoy the dip and commented that it was an ideal fatty and salty app to go with cold beer.

We ordered a prime rib sandwich, mushroom burger and Villanova sandwich for our mains. The prime rib sandwich was tender but slightly underseasoned and arrived without the horseradish sauce. Even with the horseradish there was a faint metallic taste to the meat which was bizarre.

The mushroom burger was a touch overcooked (I had ordered medium rare) but there were plenty of sautéed mushrooms and nicely melted cheese. The fries that came on the side were a deep golden brown and quite crunchy on the outside. The hefty burger proved too much for one meal and I could only finish half.

The Villanova chicken sandwich with broccoli rabe, roasted red peppers and provolone stole all our hearts. It was by far the best entrée of the bunch. The white-breast meat chicken was well cooked and nicely seasoned. The bun was soft and delicious. The slight bitterness from the broccoli rabe paired well with the sweet roasted red peppers and the vague funk of the provolone.

After such a savory feast we needed a sweet dining coda and went double Oreo. The Oreo mousse was in three layers and while I enjoyed the chocolate cake on the bottom and Oreo cookie crumble on top I didn’t care for the thick white mousse filling.

It had very little taste and the texture was spongy. The deep fried Oreos were delicious but I could taste traces of everything else that had been fried that night. Again, my dining companions didn’t mind the hints of chicken fingers and French fries in the deep fried batter but I wasn’t such a fan.

The service was excellent. Our server was unbelievably friendly and sincere. She checked on us often and could be seen constantly moving around the dining room, waiting on customers, cleaning up tables and even sweeping the floor. Her energy and work ethic were greatly appreciated.

Overall the dinner was fairly good, there were some hiccups but the excellent service and beer selection more than made up for them.

About this column: Clara Park is a contributing food writer to Patch. From recipe and entertaining ideas to restaurant reviews, hear what Clara has to say about all things food.