Celtic Ray Public House — Restaurant in Punta Gorda

Growing up in the UK & Canada, travelling extensively for both work & pleasure (along with being the family cook for 40+ years) I do believe I had to share our experience yesterday at the Celtic Ray. We had to drop our daughter at the airport in F.M. so wanting some good pub grub, found the location convenient & the menu pleasing to our 3 different tastes. In reading the menu, we all missed the self serve notice. We arrived via the back patio area which was packed with people enjoying some great live music. Standing for a few minutes & not finding a host/hostess we seated ourselves in a small triangular 3 seater booth. After several minutes daughter B asked a busboy about a waitress & that is when we learned the local protocol. Off B went to the bar to order our 3 drinks & thee long anticipated scotch eggs ……. I joined her at the bar to assist in bringing our drinks back to the table. My wife H had decided on her main so being under a deadline for the airport, off I went back to the bar to order our entrees. I arrived back to find the eggs had arrived. Unlike their picture in the menu & their $8.50 web / in house $9.00 price, they had barely (being generous) 1/8” (at best) of sausage meat wrapping. (menu photo) Not the ¼”+ of meat that should have encased the eggs. Oh well lets enjoy what has been placed before us … ½ way into our appi. our mains show up – I want to say max. 5 minutes from ordering, made to order. So B had opted for the chicken curry & she loved it. I had wanted bangers & mash, but based on the bartenders review I went with the Sheppard’s pie, as did H. I have probably consumed hundreds of dishes of SP & it is 1 of my grandsons favourites that I make regularly for them, when visiting or staying for sleep over’s. The quick presentation was nice (once we finished our starter), but the flavor left us confused. I am not a sweets person, don’t use sugar etc. H does like sweetness, with honey garlic sauce on wings being her fav. The meat had some sort of tangy sweet (more to the sweet side) B who manages an events food catering company & has a more outgoing eating palate then H & I was not able to identify the flavouring. Neither of us found the taste to our personal liking & we ate a little before heading for the door & the airport. Perhaps if we had an opportunity to talk to a waitress about our option (rather than a busy bartender) we may have learned of other option. Of course, because no one came to ask us how our meal was, there was no opportunity to question our decision.

So we did go to C.R. based on reviews & it may well be that this is the type of food people are used to / enjoy in Punt Gorda

p.s. tipping became another confusion, if we are seating ourselves, taking the orders, delivering the...

I never leave food reviews, especially to local restaurants because I understand that sometimes they can miss a beat but it doesn’t make them a bad restaurant. This was the WORST experience I’ve ever had and I have been going here for over 10 years. My husband and I got take out tonight after not eating there for a while. I got the chicken curry for 17.00 and payed 2.00 for extra naan. I was shocked when I opened my big to go box and found two tiny to go mini soup styrofoam containers, one filled with four bites of rice and the other with the saddest chicken curry I’ve ever seen. It had three pieces of chicken and was so unbelievably spicy. I ordered medium spice because I know I can handle even spicer. I regularly order local Indian as hot as it comes and this blew that out of the water. After two bites my teeth and mouth and head were buzzing. I was literally crying into my 6 bites of food. I took a picture of the food in one corner of the to go box after only ONE bite. If they think that’s an acceptable amount of food for 19 dollars… they gave me one little half piece of dry naan for the extra 2$. My husbands meal was skanky and scarce too. The coleslaw was so bland. With this economy, if we splurge to eat out I hope that the food is atleast edible never mind enjoyable. I am a long time restaurant worker so I understand how things can go wrong. But for a 40 dollar tab and to get the worst food I’ve literally ever had and not even be able to eat the smallest portion I’ve ever ordered from a restaurant. I won’t be back. They lost a long...

Having recently returned from our first trip to the UK, Celtic Ray was a fantastic reminder of our vacation. It definitely scratched the British Pub itch, even though it’s technically an Irish Pub. I had the fish and chips and while not quite as good as it is across the pond, Celtic Ray does a great job at getting pretty close and the generous portion size definitely helps. My wife ordered the Breton Chicken. The menu says it’s chicken breast pieces in a rosemary Chardonnay cream sauce but I’m fairly certain they left out that it was made by angels. Everything about this dish was perfect…and has been consistent each of the times we’ve been back since tasting it…it’s been 2 weeks and we’ve gone 3 times. We might have a problem. I wish they had actual malt vinegar for the chips instead of the malt vinegar substitute, but it’s a small issue I’m more than willing to look past. For dessert we had the strawberry pouffe which was very good. Puff pastry with strawberries and real whipped cream. Simple but tasty. The star of the dessert show was the Dublin Tart, though. Chocolate, smooth, deliciousness. But try to order it early, one time we went they had sold out of it. It was a travesty. I guess we’ll have to go back.

Like a traditional British pub, you find your table then order at the bar and they’ll bring you the food. If you like live music, they seem to always have it starting at...