Obroni @ Ryans Irish Pub
EVERY CAPITAL of the world has its own Irish pub, thus Accra couldn't stay behind in the beginning of the nineties.
The original owner of Ryans's Irish Pub on the Osu Oxford Street went back to Ireland several years ago, and a British/Ghanaian couple took over. We hadn't been there in years.
The Irish pub concept was established long ago but took its first careful steps onto the continent in the late 1980s.
I had my first encounter with the smoky Irish pub concept in 1981, in Paris, where I got drunk with the then famous band The Dubliners after a sold out concert. Lots of beer, lots of cigarettes and Irish stew!
I think Martin Ryan created a perfect Irish atmosphere in Osu. Same type of interior, same smoky atmosphere, busy every day and crowded every weekend. Today was different however, 4 -5 cars at the parking lot, 10 – 15 people inside.
Ryan's Irish Pub had been turned into a restaurant with pub facilities instead of a pub with some food available.
Although I am against changing concepts, we gave it a try. We were welcomed by a young girl who led us to a table in the restaurant. We asked if we could sit upstairs, but that had been changed into a pool bar.
We ordered a Club beer and a Smirnoff Ice as we went through the large menu. A large variety of starters was presented.
I personally missed the “Irishness” of Middle Eastern starters like kibbeh and homos, but at least there were others like octopus, chicken wings and spare ribs. The menu of the day promised pumpkin soup and green bean soup.
Starters, including salads, were presented from GH¢9 to GH¢14. The main courses were more Irish; stews, pork chops and fish priced between GH¢19 and GH¢30. Specials of the day included lobster and shrimps.
My partner chose the marinated grilled octopus as a starter, while I decided on the spare ribs of pork.
To follow up, we chose fillet steak and banger and mash, obviously “Irish” sausages and mashed potatoes with gravy.
My fillet steak (which I ordered rare as usual) could be ordered with pepper or blue cheese sauce with chips or with fried rice. I chose the blue cheese sauce and chips.
Our waitress however returned to inform us that the marinated octopus was sold out but the fried version was available, my partner changed the order reluctantly.
We enjoyed our drinks and took in the environment, which included foreign nationals mainly and about 4 Ghanaians.
The interior hadn't changed, still the dark “smoky” pub atmosphere (good old days), with pictures and adverts on the walls, and the long bar at the back.
But something had changed. We missed the crowd! An Irish pub is supposed to be a noisy, crowded bar. A real pub! That specific atmosphere was gone.
Despite the availability of TV screens to watch football, this wasn't an Irish pub anymore. And more, to us, with all the smokers around us, it wasn't a real restaurant either.
We decided not to judge prematurely since the food was yet to arrive. When it did appear the spare ribs looked fabulous, exactly the right color and right degree of cooking inside.
It tasted good, but not as mouth watering as it looked. The portion served was too small for its asking price.
The fried octopus consisted of small pieces of dough fried octopus with a mayonnaise based sauce which lacked finesse and was over spiced with dill.
The portion was equally small and reminded us of the nouvelle cuisine of Mr. Paul Bocuse, it lacked any finesse.
For half the price we wouldn't have complained, but at this price level you either expect great tasting food or large portions of good food.
We decided to forget about wine and ordered some more beer; after all we were still in a pub.
The size of my fillet steak was much better than the size of my starter, a large steak covered with blue cheese sauce was served with a good portion of crispy French fries and some perfectly prepared vegetables.
My partner's pork sausages were 3 and were even smaller than the size of our starters. My steak was very tender and was totally unnecessarily “extra tenderized”.
Let me explain. In Ghana there are not many professional slaughter houses where meat has been hung ripe on the carcass. Because of that some butchers and restaurant owners have a hammer or machine with fine needles to cut the muscle structure of beef to tenderize it.
In this case the cook or butcher probably didn't understand what it was for because a perfect tender piece of meat had been hacked and mutilated almost to the extent of minced meat.
What a waste of a perfect main course; good tasty tender meat, crispy fries and perfect vegetables.
My partner's sausages were a shame; 3 small pork sausages which could have been served on the breakfast table of any of the international hotels in Accra.
The mashed potatoes were probably fresh and very well prepared, but you can't ask for GH¢21 for breakfast sausages with mashed potatoes.
The friendly waitress took away our plates as we ordered apple pie with vanilla ice cream and espresso for dessert.
The waitress had served us well but was not very communicative, just like the owner, who had entered the establishment with his wife and gone to sit with some friends without bothering to interact with anybody else in the restaurant.
Our apple pie was hot and tasteful. We asked for the invoice and were presented with a bill of GH¢133, out of which GH¢3 could not be explained.
Overall Impression: The atmosphere is still there, but you miss the crowd. The food was not special; the price level is too high for the officered quality. The service was okay, the girl was there when she needed to be but we wonder how she would have done if the restaurant were full. Negative point: We had to shower to get the stench of the smoke out of our hair when we got home. Smoking sometimes suits the image of an Irish pub, but it doesn't belong in a restaurant, especially in Accra where majority of the people don't smoke. As the owner of a restaurant or bar you don't select friends to sit with, your job is not only to manage but also to entertain your guest and “spoil them”.
Atmosphere: 7
Service: 6
Food quality: 6