Paddy's Irish Bar

Bourbon got a literal lick of paint (light green, of course), five screens of sports, a projector, a band stage, a couple of football scarves and approximately twelve hundred thousand million billion tones of Guinness memorabilia, lest ye forget that this is an Irish pub, so it is, ah begorrah, the Blarney Stone, pot o’ gold, Westlife, me Lucky Charms, etc. The sports screens are there to replicate O’Shea’s packed-out sports nights, but the cramped environs and view-obstructing pillars aren’t conducive to that.

The house bands that play on Fridays and Saturdays are pretty good, if overloud, but the second-floor location means they won’t draw in anyone off the street. The food is excellent. We ordered the roasted lamb loin with ratatouille, cinnamon and blueberry sauce (118 RMB), expecting to laugh at a ham-fisted recreation of fancy-pants cuisine. Reader, we were oafs.

Delicately balanced flavors, tender meat, and lovely presentation – if we’d been served it in a mid-level restaurant we’d have been satisfied. The burgers (from 48 RMB) also came up trumps. A smattering of the usual suspects (Guinness 55 RMB per pint; other pints and bottles from 20 RMB), a good spread of whiskeys, spirits and not-too-bad cocktail work (all from 35 RMB) and you have the beginnings of a pretty good gastropub. Perhaps that’s the direction this new Paddy’s should pursue. Without it, we fear, it really will need the luck of the Irish.