When you think of restaurants in downtown Saint Charles, you probably think of such places as Francesca’s, Pizzeria Neo or even the Finery. But one place that has recently gotten a makeover for the better is McNally’s Pub right in the heart of downtown Saint Charles. Located at 109 West Main Street (Route 64,) McNally’s has a lot of stiff competition being located right in the downtown area of a large city. However, we are happy to say that our trip was well worth the wait and that we came out of McNally’s with our bellies full and our minds changed about this restaurant.

McNally’s poses a classic atmosphere and feels like it’s straight out of Dublin. Downstairs is a full bar with extra seating while upstairs has a more classic style of dining. There is a small outdoor patio area with a view of the river and often features live music. The menu offers a wide variety of foods from American staples to more traditional pub foods like Fish N’ Chips and Irish Boxty. The menu is a bit on the pricey side, especially for a college student. Our meal ended up being around $25 for an appetizer, soda and meal.

After a little bit of a wait and sitting around talking about how nice the updated McNally’s looked, we took our orders and we decided first that we were going to order two appetizers. For starters, we enjoyed Blarney Baked Mac n’ Cheese; combinations of Kerry Gold Irish cheddar sauce, Stilton blue cheese, Cherrywood bacon, sliced jalapeño and scallions. Overall, this was one of the best appetizers that I personally have had in the past couple of years; it easily could have been a whole menu with the size of it and how full we were. One of the things that made it so delicious and so unique was the sliced jalapenos that were scattered inside of the dish. This was different because you don’t see a lot of Irish places around here add jalapenos to their dishes and the taste was pleasantly surprising. Overall, if you’re not too hungry and want something nice and cheap just for yourself, I would go for the Blarney Baked Mac n’ Cheese, easily a 5 out of 5 stars from this reviewers point-of-view. At a cheap 10 dollars, we would highly recommend getting this dish if you are on a budget for eating out.

Another appetizer that we ordered was an Irish staple of Scotch egg and stone ground mustard. A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in Irish sausage and deep-fried in some sort of breading, in this case Panko breadcrumbs. The Scotch egg is served sliced in half, with the yolk of the egg still a bit soft and slightly gooey. The sausage was wonderfully seasoned and the breadcrumbs added some much needed texture and crunch to a dish that would otherwise be mushy. The mustard was spicy but did not crowd all the flavors that show up in a traditional Irish sausage. A traditional dish done very well.

Coming off such a well-done appetizer, our hopes were very high for the main course, which was the Oscar Wilde Pulled Pork Sliders; fairly standard barbecue pulled pork with fried onion straws. It was, in all parts of the phrase, “just okay”. The barbecue sauce tasted like a generic barbecue sauce that could be purchased at a local grocery store and overpowered the flavor of the pork. The onion straws, which are usually a welcome crunch in such a wet sandwich, did not hold up their end of the deal for long. The brioche buns were soft and took in a lot of the natural meat flavor that the pork gave off.

The next meal that we got, that was better than the previous, was the Fish N’ Chips; Guinness battered cod filets, fresh cut fries, house slaw and tartar sauce. Overall, this was a fine way to end our meal and experience at McNally’s Pub. The only thing that I could say about this dish was that, although flavorful, it lacked any sense of specialty.  If you want to try something new, we recommend avoiding this dish. However, if you want something old and reliable, this dish is for you. The french fries that accompanied the fish, however, were wonderful. You can tell that they put a lot of time into making the side dish and seasoning them to perfection. This entree sits at a price of 16 dollars. While one of the cheaper selections on the entrees list, it is also one of there weakest dishes on the menu, in the opinion of these reviewers. Perhaps check out something else when you eat at McNally’s. Overall, I would give this dish a 3 out of 5 stars.

Overall, the charm of the pub is what really stood out. Like most, pubs it’s more about the drinks and small plates rather than a big meal. Perhaps if we had gone with more traditional Irish foods like Sheppard’s Pie or the Boxty, we would have ended on a better note. We give McNally’s Irish Pub an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars.