Shamrock’s – St. Paul, MN

After driving by the place we were REALLY hungry for (Chris & Rob’s Hot Dogs on 7th) and seeing it closed, D.Rough and I ended up deciding on Shamrock’s on 7th in St. Paul. I’d been to Shamrock’s before, but only for a drink and hadn’t tried any of their food. It’s the sister restaurant to The Nook, so if you’re familiar with that place, it’s basically the same menu, just about 5 times larger. There was a live band (two guys, so not really a BAND) playing guitar and singing, but we only caught the end of the last song before they were done for the night. It was pretty slow inside, so we got seated right away and got some menus.

Like I said, it’s The Nook’s menu, which I am familiar with, so it didn’t take that long to get it narrowed down to 15 things I wanted. We started by ordering 8 Buffalo Zingers to begin the meal. 8 Boneless wings with buffalo sauce – D.Rough told me the sauce has kick, so don’t order the spicy ones unless you like to cry – I’ve now have heard horror stories. You do get your choice of sauces you can get, but the buffalo sauce sounded good to both of us.

They have LOTS of sandwiches, all of which look and sound great. D.Rough wanted the Triple B-Bacon Bourbon Burger. I finally decided on a burger and then the waitress came over and told us about the burger of the week – a Taco Burger. It is a beef patty tucked in a hard corn taco shell, and lettuce, tomato, and cheese on the side. How could it be bad, right? I also got an Iron Horse Root Beer to check that out, as well.

The Buffalo Zingers came out and I’ll be honest with you – these were really good boneless wings. The sauce DID have serious kick to it, D.Rough was right (she loves it when I admit that). But it was a really awesome bite. Great pieces of meat with perfect amount and spice level for sauce. I loved these things. Next time, we’ll split a large order of Zingers and just drink.

The burgers came out pretty shortly after that. The taco Burger comes with tortilla chips and a small container of salsa. I ate some of the chips first to let the burger cool – simply plain tortilla chips, and average salsa. Nothing to write home (or on a blog about). The burger needed to be assembled since most of the toppings came on the side of the plate. I put it all together and was kind of surprised by the height of the sandwich – it was serious. But you can’t be deterred by mere physical limitations. I went for it.

It’s really awkward to eat due to the height of the burger vs the opening in my face. It would have been much better if the burger patty had taco seasoning in or on the meat, but it was a decent burger. Still about average and I wish I had ordered something else or at least had enough salsa to put on my burger (I had used it all on my chips). But overall, it was just fine. I was actually a tad let down, since she made it sound way more awesome than it really is, but I guess sales/wait people have to do that. Sigh…

The Iron Horse Root Beer was just ok. Not very carbonation-y, so I liked it better than a lot of them with too much sting on your tongue. It was fine, but it wasn’t Sprecher or A&W, sorry.

D.Rough’s Triple B-Bourbon Bacon Burger was pretty good as well. It had cinnamon brown sugar bacon with cheddar and bourbon sauce. It normally comes with fries, but D.Rough got onion rings that were delicious. The burger was good but not stellar. It also was really tall, but you were able to smoosh it down to fit it into your mouth. I liked her burger better than mine, but it was obviously because there was bacon and some sort of liquor sauce on it.

Sadly, D.Rough never got the Strongbow she ordered, but thankfully, it wasn’t on the bill either.

I think we were just in the mood for fun and ingredient-heavy hot dogs and nothing was going to live up to the expectation of that. The burgers were fine and filled us up, but they weren’t what we really wanted. We’ll be back since we know the food there is pretty good most of the time, but mostly when you’re in the mindset for it. I should probably wait to post a review until I’m in the mood for a burger, but I can’t wait that long. I’m not that patient.

Top 5 things about Shamrock’s
1. Buffalo Zingers
2. Really large menu to choose from (and it’s the Nook menu, so it’s good)
3. Onion rings were really tasty
4. Normally there’s live music, even if we missed it
5. There’s lots of room inside and they opened up another side it looks like

Bottom 5 things
1. Never got the Strongbow D.Rough ordered
2. Taco Burger was just ho-hum (could have been our mood, possibly)
3. Triple B Burger was also ho-hum (our mood, likely)
4. Iron Horse Root Beer – just not up to snuff
5. Kind of slow service for it being dead in the place

www.crnook.com