"Irish Nachos" - McGrady's Irish Pub

I recently had the Irish Nachos at McGrady's Irish Pub in Charlottesville, Virginia. Irish, because they use potato chips instead of tortilla chips as the base. Other than that they were pretty much a standard plate of nachos, featuring cheddar cheese, a meat and bean chili-type concoction, and a side of sour cream and hot wing-type sauce. No shredded lettuce, onion, or tomato, which for this veggie-lover is a strike against any plate of nachos.

The nachos were polished off quickly, but I have to say that I think that is due more to the fact that we got up at 5:30am, did a four hour hike, drove an hour, showered, and sat down at about 1:00pm tired and starving, than to the quality and tastiness of the nachos themselves.

Rating* for "Irish Nachos" at McGrady's Irish Pub, Charlottesville, VA:

1. Layering

The cheese and chili-type stuff was just about all layered right on top, and cheese was not dispersed throughout. However, these nachos were saved from a rating of just one nacho chip for layering due to the fact that there was enough cheese and chili to put some on the bare chips once you'd eaten all the nicely covered ones.

2. Crispiness of chips

The chips remained crispy for a bit, but there was so much of the thick heavy chili stuff that they got pretty soggy pretty fast. Which is not awesome.

3. Variety of toppings

Really the only topping besides the cheese on these Irish nachos was the chili stuff, as well as the sour cream and hot wing sauce to dip. Adding chicken was also an option. If that's your style then you may be a fan of these, but I was missing the shredded lettuce, tomato or onion, and guacamole option.

4. Quality of toppings

The quality of these nacho ingredients was ok. They did make the potato chips in-house, and they were thick and crispy (until the chili got to them that is), and they used real cheese rather than "ball park" cheese, which is always a plus in our book. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the use of the hot wing sauce instead of salsa. I mean, these were Irish nachos, so I understand that they already are not traditional nachos, but unless there's something innately Irish about hot wing sauce that I'm missing, I would prefer to have some nice salsa.

5. OVERALL nacho experience

I would love to hear if anyone else has had nachos from McGrady's in Charlottesville, VA! How about, since these weren't our favorite, a suggestion for some other nachos to try next time we're in the Charlottesville area? If you have anything to add please share!

* For a reminder about our rating criteria, see this post.