So, I didn't know what to expect from Beantown Pub because I have never eaten there before and I tend to think of it as a tourist trap. Who doesn't want to admire a cemetery when eating? I was pleased to find out that Beantown Pub's nachos are a lot cheaper than other places! SCORE! Only $8 for the nachos w/no meat and only $3 to add meat (chili or chicken). So in total, they were only $11! Not bad (and affordable for poor graduate students or people right out of college).
So...here's the "scoop". The $3 was SO worth it for the chili because they give you SO much. It was like a mountain of chili! It could almost be overpowering but I ended up loving how much they gave us because I never ran out of chili and I love me some meat. Rawr. It was just piled on top like crazy. The thing I did feel like was I had to construct my nachos -- scoop some chili and then put it on the chip etc rather than it being on there with the melted cheese. So, now I had to work hard to eat my nachos and I am sorry but if I wanted to do that, I'd make my own! I am paying for convenience, baby! But, the chili was awesome -- I am craving some right now! Give me some BTP chili, stat.
For all of the chili there was, the sour cream was lacking. They only put a dollop of it on there and it would have been nice to have more to plop on top of my chili. Good thing the chili wasn't spicy or my mouth would have been on fire. Also, the tortilla chips weren't great...they seemed almost stale. Who the heck likes stale chips? NOT ME! Boo. Also, there were a lot of soggy ones and I got to a point where I was like, "is this a soggy nacho or is this just a hunk of melted cheese?" not that I mind lots of cheese but...I want to be able to tell my cheese apart from my soggy 'chos. The presentation was nice at first and the toppings were pretty well distributed but when we got to the bottom layers, things go sloppy. It was like at the end of a crazy night out when you look around and everyone is a sloppy mess. There was a lot of cheese caked onto the plate and not the nachos and there were also some nachos w/no toppings. They didn't evenly distribute the toppings and I feel like this is important when creating the perfect nachos. My solution: Cook them on a greater surface area to be able to spread out the toppings evenly.
The other downside, no guacamole and not an option to add it. LAME! I missed my guac. I would also say that for the amount of chili they could have had a little more salsa. Slightly less chili and more salsa would even it out a bit. Also, no lettuce or olives. Basically cheese, chili, chips, and some sour cream and a few jalapenos.
This portion feeds 2 adults easily. Two people shared this and it was a perfect amount but because we were both starving, I don't think that 3 people could have shared it.
I want to give it a higher rating on the nacho-meter because I loved the chili BUT because I felt like there were some missing ingredients and ratios not equal and the chips not being so great...I have to take away some points.
Nacho-meter: 6/10.
Xo,
Miss Nacho
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Mr. J here, throwing in my two cents and giving you a second look at the Beantown Pub nachos. Let’s break it down.
First of all, I should make it clear that I'm a fan of Beantown Pub (BTP). I've only been here a handful of times, but I usually get pretty good service, decent food and heck, there is even a pool table in the back. As one of my Foursquare tips so eloquently put it, BTP is the only place "where you can have a cold Sam Adams while looking at the cold dead body of Samual Adams" across the street. What's not to love?
Answer: The nachos.
That's not to say they were bad. Actually, I was really digging them when they were first presented to our table by the wait staffs most thickly accented and highly inaudible Irish waitress. The presentation was great and the portions spot on. It was the chili, however, that made the nachos a meal for me. For only three extra dollars our nachos were inundated in some quality chili which was definitely worth the extra money and just a nice touch to boot. If our nachos were the Gulf of Mexico, the dark thick chili was another BP oil spill - this stuff was everywhere. I was about to call in the US Coast Guard. Regardless, I think it is definitely safe to say that without the chili, I would have probably been extremely disappointed. I always had something to put on my chip and the meat unarguably added some much needed protein to my nacho dinner.
At the same time, it was almost as if some ingredients were thrown out to make more room for the copious amounts of chili that deliciously bathed my nachos. Now chili is great and all, but I'd like to see some diversity in the ingredients. If I wanted to dip chips into chili, I would have ordered that instead. But this is a nacho blog, and damn it I wanted nachos. Where was the sour cream? Where was the salsa? Where were the jalapenos? This whole nacho situation at Beantown truly made me understand and appreciate the concept of affirmative action. Attention people of Boston! In order to build a better nacho society we must be inclusive and accepting of diversity in choosing ingredients!
I also have to briefly criticize the last quarter of the nacho eating game where, for whatever reason, the cheese had encased every bottom layer chip in a Mattel® Barbie-like casing that reminded me of the mosquito from Jurassic Park. Someday in the future, scientists will drill into this cheesy amber and build an amusement park with my reanimated nachos. Don’t act like you wouldn’t totally pay to see giant chips chasing humans around an island, but I digress - Spielberg, call me.
On the upside, I would say that the cheese was fairly well distributed across the dish and there weren't any bare chips meaning that every chip was covered in one ingredient or another. Still, at the end of the day my feelings were mix.
Nacho-meter: 6/10.
Over and Out,
Mr. Jalapeno
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