Flanagan's — Restaurant in Emmen

I'll qualify this review first by saying I'm Irish with a Dutch husband well versed in all things Irish and particularly fond of a pub of the Irish inclination. Firstly, the staff are great. Friendly, helpful and around just the right amount of time. Full marks. Waiting staff, these stars are for you. The decor. It was a bit like being in the fancy house of someone of unknown origin. A couple of Guinness signs. Grand. A sheep head on the wall. Generally these would be grazing outside but we'll let it slide. We have sheep. Gordon's Gin London sign. Quite the faux pas. There's this little known thing between Ireland and England. Barely worth mentioning. It's never really in the news or anything. Moving on. Lots of old Dutch paintings. I like Dutch paintings but I can't say in the pub in Ireland I've ever really thought, this place could really be livened up with some old Dutch masters. Decor verdict: This pub may have suffered a head trauma and is now terribly confused about who it is. The food. Ah, where to begin? I guess Irish food would have been nice. A stew of some sort. An Irish stew, a Beef and Guinness stew or a Coddle. Alas, no. No soda bread on offer either. Potatoes were very typically Dutch. Chips, fried spuds and the shredded salad thing you get in most Dutch restaurants were the sides. Not a boxty, champ or colcannon in sight. Not even some plain old buttery mashed spuds or a roasted vegetable selection. On to the starters. I had that good old Irish classic, bruschetta...... The husband had the prawns. They made me a veggie bruschetta. I don't think it was supposed to be veggie so many thanks for that. I enjoyed it. My husbands prawns were unfortunately a bit overdone so he wasn't so impressed. The mains. I went for the veggie curry. While not Irish we do enjoy a good curry. Unfortunately this was the second cousin twice removed from a good curry. Someone at one point may have waved half a mild chilli vaguely in its direction from two rooms away. It was assorted vegetables in a lot of coconut milk with tomato. Ah, for some chickpeas or paneer...... a girl can dream. I think someone also forgot to add all the spices. Or maybe they ran out of all of them. I can lend them some if they need. I couldn't finish it. On the side was a mound of sweetened cucumber. This left me as confused as the pubs decor. Some spiced Indian potatoes would have been nice or really any indian side. There was naan bread. It was fine not great

Now. The reason this place gets an extra star. Pure comedic effect that will make me smile for many years. My husband got the fish and chips. This is a dish beloved of Irish people. Unfortunately there may have been quite the mistranslation. In the container with his battered fish was..... crisps. In Ireland chips are the French fried potato things and crisps are the savory snacks you get in bags of the salt and vinegar, cheese and onion and (in NL) the paprika persuasion. There were chips on the side but they were the standard sides given with every dish. Set in front of my husband on his plate was all the glories of fish and crisps. Still it gave us a good laugh, so full marks for that. To be fair, the fish was good and he liked it but it's not something that pairs very well with the deep fried or baked crunchy potato items generally consumed in front of the tv watching bad films to take your mind off the hour and a half of your life you're wasting. In short, it's a confused place, lacking Irish food for the most part but it's called Flanagan's and serves Guinness and Kilkenny so I guess it's got to be Irish. Oh and the sheep. And the Bailey's bottle lamp. We're fierce mad for a good Bailey's bottle lamp. For a Dutch restaurant it's pretty middling. There would be a lot better Dutch restaurants in the locale. As an Irish restaurant it's a place that sticks pins in a world map and hopes one of them will land close. I'm also available to give lessons in how to pronounce Flanagan's. Van Flanagan's might work better for a...

I usually avoid Irish pubs like the plague - they are places of ill repute with vile food and cheap liquor. I'm pleased to report that Flanagan's is not your typical Irish pub. Other than serving Guinness, it is very much a local Dutch restaurant. The food was great. Steak was perfectly cooked - medium rare was medium rare and not medium or medium well done. The prawn starter in garlic was also excellent. All in all a very pleasant experience, albeit a tad expensive - but eating out in the Netherlands is unfortunately an...

een maand geleden met een vriendin bij Flanagan gegeten en dit was echt geweldig. Leuke bediening fantastisch gegeten. Gisteravond vol enthousiasme vrienden mee om daar lekker te eten. We kwamen wat laat binnen, maar dit was overduidelijk geen bezwaar. We kregen lauwe soep, maar nadat we het hadden gemeld werd het met de welgemeende excuses uit de keuken lekker heet geserveerd. We hadden geen bestek, dit kregen we toen we erom vroegen. Na ongeveer een half uur gingen de gasten in het zaaltje naast ons weg en ging het personeel de tafels afruimen. Geen probleem. Wat wij wel een probleem vonden, is dat ze de lampen uit deden. Dit geeft een gast niet het gevoel dat hij welkom is, eerder het gevoel dat ze hopen dat je zo weggaat. Wij moesten het hoofdgerecht nog krijgen. Mijn hoofdgerecht was een vegetarische fantasie van de kok. Het bord werd voor mij neergezet zonder enige uitleg over de creatie. Het gerecht was zo ongelofelijk zout dat het niet te eten was en ik kon ook niet uit het gerecht opmaken wat het was. Hier heb ik melding van gemaakt en mij werd een nieuw gerecht aangeboden. Dit heb ik afgewezen, omdat dat zou betekenen dat ik dan alleen zit te eten. Bij het afrekenen werd mijn gerecht gewoon berekent en hiermee ben ik niet akkoord gegaan.Al met al was het een teleurstelling. Ik ga zeker weer eten bij Flanagan, maar ik hoop dat ik jullie kan duidelijk maken dat elke gast bijzonder moet zijn en de moeite waard. Of geef aan dat de keuken gaat sluiten, dat was ook geen...