Looking for a tad of Irish culture in downtown Concord, NH? The Barley House Restaurant & Tavern, on Main Street, showed us more than just a bit of Irish during our recent visit. This casual tavern and restaurant is host to much of the business district's social hour gatherings. First, we started with cocktails at the highly polished wood bar. A lovely lass with a great smile handled the folks gracefully and with an impressive knowledge of the 26 beer choices and many liquors that were available.
Then on to a table for two. The Barley House has comfortable booths with enough privacy to be able to talk without feeling as if you're the center of attention. Our waitress Liz was certainly the ambassador of goodwill for the Barley House, and greeted us with bread sticks and hummus just to get 
started. She had outstanding knowledge of both the Wine List (which we found to be quite nice) and the food. She had taken it upon herself to know what menu items would please certain palettes. We started by sharing Blarney Puffs with Guinness Cheese Sauce. These are potato puffs in a mild sauce that really enhanced the flavor. Next, we each had soup....Italian Wedding Soup for my friend, nice flavor, but the Pumpkin Apple Bisque stole the soup show.
Our entrees, Irish Whiskey Steak (whiskey peppercorn gravy and mashed potatoes for $14.95) and a full rack of 12-Hour BBQ Pork Rack, with house bbq sauce ($16.95) was superb. The steak melted in your mouth, the sauce wasn't over-powering, but the ribs took first place. These were not a drenched-in-sauce rib, these were more of a dry rub rib with incredible rich flavor. Many of the other items; Cherrywood Bacon Trout, Cider Chops, Vegetable Lasagna and Guinness Beef stew, Bratwurst, Burgers, Pulled Pork and Tavern Pizzas, looked mouth watering as well.
We completed this meal with tea and Bread Pudding. I am still not sure how we finished all of this food. It likely was due to the Irish Acoustic Session that began playing a bit after 7:30, and the fact that we were not rushed to leave, even though on a Tuesday night the place was completely full.
Rating this wonderful establishment was easy. We were there on a night when the owner was away, and the place ran like a finely tuned clock. The waitstaff all appeared very well trained, and the prices were extremely reasonable for the area. The Barley House is open for lunch and dinner Monday thru Saturday 11 am to 1 am. They are closed Sundays. They have entertainment most nights and post their entertainment calendar on their website. This is certainly a place for well behaved children and adults alike. A very big recommendation!!!
- Lynn B. for NHLiving.com
