Boxcar Benny Review: McNamara’s

I sat down to a much-needed Sunday brunch to recover from a wild Saturday in Chicago.

Eggs Benedict From Irving Park

 

The eggs benny of choice was served by McNamara’s – an Irish restaurant and bar in Irving Park. Their menu shows a classic style eggs benedict.

 

“Poached eggs, Canadian bacon, and hollandaise sauce atop an English muffin served with pan fried potatoes.”

 

Simple and straight to the point – exactly what this roaring hangover needed.

 

So how did their benny hold up? After I settled my stomach with a bloody mary, I dove in. Here’s what I thought.

 

Brunch eggs benedict

 

Hollandaise: 2/5

It was interesting. Rather than pouring the hollandaise over the eggs, meat, and muffin, bathing them in a sauce of golden glory, they opted to put it on the side and let you do it yourself. Now, I am not opposed to that concept and didn’t knock any points because of it. However, the hollandaise itself was just kind of off. It was thicker and heavier, with a mustard-like consistency. Interestingly enough, it also had a mustardy/horseradish flavor. I just wasn’t feeling it.

Eggs: 3.5/5

These eggs were on the smaller side, but they were poached perfectly and exploded with yolk as soon as the fork hit, giving the rest of the dish a much-needed bath of deliciousness.

Meat: 3/5

The meat, a simple slice of breakfast ham, was solid. It didn’t stand out in any particular way. It had a decent amount of thickness to it, which helped. But it just felt too much like those prepackaged grocery store ham slices. This hangover needed something a bit stronger and savorier.

Muffin: 3/5

The muffin, much like the ham, was good. It was well buttered and perfectly toasted so that it had that golden brown crispiness but still kept that softer, bready-iness inside that helped soak up the runny egg yolk.

Side: 4.5/5

These were some delicious breakfast potatoes. They came out piping hot, the right amount of pan-fried greasiness, complete with a crispy skin. There were also some pan-fried onions, and the whole thing was seasoned beautifully with some breakfast herbs. The epitome of a perfect breakfast side. I guess it’s no surprise that the Irish can make some bomb-ass potatoes.

 

Eggs Benedict

Overall: 16 out of 25

Not bad at all. So far in the quest for the best eggs benny, McNamara’s sits just a .5 point below Eggsclusive Café’s Butcher Benedict, which places it a hair’s breadth away from a tie for second place (out of 4 reviews so far). But something’s telling me this journey is far from over. Let the search for the best benny continue!

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