Murphy's Law Irish Bar product reviews

This was a really tough one to review, for a number of reasons. Firstly because it is a cafe/restaurant in the mornings, serving '$2 breakfasts until 3pm' (I'll give more details on that later), but turns into a good-natured Irish-style drinking house as the sun gets lower. Secondly, because the food struck me as a little on the high-priced side, however some of their drinks are the cheapest in town. So, I shall attempt to keep the two seemingly distinct sides of this business separated, but please forgive if it gets a little blurry.

First visit, I went in the late afternoon for a few drinks with a workmate and his father, to discuss a bit of business. We parked ourselves at the bar and ordered from the taps. I was surprised to find cider on tap, as it is more usually sold in bottles in this region. Not enough 'sales flow' to warrant on-taps really. This was a plus-point for me, and the price was fairly reasonable when compared to other bars in town.

The noise level was moderate, but grew steadily in proportion to the growing crowd. By 8pm we could hardly hear ourselves yelling from less than 1m apart, so decided it was time to wrap things up and hit the road. I was impressed with the level of 'regular customers' evidenced by the familiarity of the bar staff with many patrons. This indicates to me that the place has a loyal core crowd who have become well known through frequent visits.

The second visit was early morning, when I took my son in to sample their $2 breakfasts. I don't usually get caught in simple 'traps' of marketting, but I admit to being curious about this one. And sure enough, it's not as it first seems. Your $2 breakfast is actually $2 for 2 eggs, either poached, fried or scrambled. These are placed on a slab of taost. That it for $2. However, you can choose to add from the list of extras: more eggs, more toast, fried ½ tomato, 2 small hash browns, 2 fried ½ sausages, a scoop of mushrooms, 2 strips of bacon. EACH of these will cost an additional $2 per portion.

So, I ordered fried eggs on toast + 2 portions of hash browns + sausages + bacon + tomato. This was $12 and didn't do much to tame the ravenous hunger-beast swelling within me. Due to daylight savings, I had to wait an extra hour for breakkie and that's just not good. No-one's fault, but still... On the up-side however, everything was very well cooked, we got a small dish of sauce for no charge, and the staff were wonderful and friendly.

Overall, I would have to say this is an excellent place to come for drinks and social meetings, however if you are after food, be wary of the prices, they can be a little scary when you get to the end of the night.