By Zach Brown, Berks County Eats
With two kids in the house — and all the activities that go along with it — date nights are fewer and farther between for Julie and I. Instead, we’ve been trying to make time for lunch dates whenever we can.
Thankfully, with her working in Sinking Spring and me working from home in Wyomissing, we have plenty of options around us.
And one of the best lunch dates we’ve had recently came at Ganly’s Irish Pub.
Ganly’s is a restaurant we’ve visited many times before, but it had been a few years since we enjoyed a meal at the restaurant just outside Sinking Spring.
Usually our visits have come at dinnertime, and we’ve always eaten inside the main dining room. But on this visit, it was a beautiful April afternoon, so we opted for a table on the patio.
We walked through the bar side of the building, which reminded me of a pub at a golf course with its wooden interior and TV’s above the bar. Outside, the stone patio is filled with metal bistro tables and chairs. Heat lamps provided flashes of warmth as the cool air breezed through the open space.
Ganly’s doesn’t have a specific lunch menu, but the sandwich side of the menu felt like the right choice for a midday meal, so I ordered a Guinness beef dip with an upgrade to a side of sweet potato waffle fries.
I love a good French dip sandwich, and Ganly’s take on it was excellent. It featured roast beef, sauteed onions, and provolone cheese with a cup of broth for dipping.
I’m not sure if the beef was marinated in Guinness or it’s just a name, but the meat was tender and flavorful. I’ve had French dips in the past with Swiss cheese, but I find that Swiss overpowers, while provolone complements the meat. And that was the case here. The broth added more savory notes to every bite. It was exactly what I was hoping for.
The sweet potato waffle fries are a favorite of ours. Good on their own, they are great when paired with the sweet caramel dipping sauce. Together, it was too much food for lunch, but I shared the fries with Julie and took some home.
For her meal, Julie ordered the day’s special, a seafood quesadilla with lobster, crab, shrimp, and a chipotle-style sauce. While I don’t like seafood, Julie absolutely loved it. It had just that little bit of kick to go along with the rich meat.
And even though her meal didn’t come with a side (there were some greens for garnish), it was filling enough that she didn’t eat too many of my fries.
The only hiccup in our meal came at the end, where our server — who had admitted early on that she was new — took a while to get our check. But everything had been quick up to that point, so we were still in and out in just over an hour.
Our total bill was around $40, a little on the higher side for lunch, but the sweet potato fry upgrade was a splurge (and I did have an iced tea), so it didn’t seem unreasonable.
It seemed especially reasonable for the quality of food we got — one of the best lunches we’ve had in a while and a meal that will have us coming back to Ganly’s for more lunch dates in the future.
BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Service: Good
Price: $$
Ganly’s Irish Pub & Restaurant
500 Brownsville Road
Sinking Spring, PA 19508
This story was contributed courtesy of Berks County Eats, a local resource for food and dining information. Berks County Eats is dedicated to promoting the dining scene in Reading and Berks County, PA, offering restaurant reviews, news, and events, and a comprehensive Berks County restaurant directory. You can read more at berkscountyeats.com.
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