Restaurant Review: Cookes of Dublin - Pleasure Island, Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista, FL

After a brief shopping stint at the newly refurbished World of Disney store, my two-year old son and I were ready to eat! With a visiting cousin in tow, we surveyed our options. We didn't want McDonald's and decided to head to Pleasure Island and see what restaurants were available. I had been wanting to try Raglan Road, the new Irish pub/restaurant, but didn't think the LB (little boy) could handle it. So, I was very surprised to see a new counter-service restaurant right next door to Raglan Road that served Great Britain specialties! The place is called Cookes of Dublin and I have to assume that it is affiliated in some way with Raglan Road. It is a small place, truly just a counter service eatery, with a few indoor tables and more outdoor tables to a patio on the left. The patio, conveniently, has a full bar including import beers from the UK. Entrees are mid-priced between $8-$14 and all include a serving of chips (that's fries to us Yankees). There was the old standby of Fish and Chips as well as battered chicken, sausages, and a selection of meat pies. There is also a Juniors menu that has smaller sizes of Fish and Chips, Battered Chicken skewer, or sausages. Since my LB is a big chicken fan, I went with the Battered Chicken for him, for about $5. Drinks are not included with the children's meals but since LB had a full sippy cup, I decided he could just share my drink. As a big fan of cottage and shepherd's pie, I went for one of the pies for my dinner. I tried the Chicken pie with mushrooms in a creamy wine sauce and my cousin went for the Fish and Chips. After paying, my cousin stayed to wait for our numbers to be called and I went to the outside patio to scope out a table with LB in tow. Luckily, we only had to wait a few minutes before several folks left and we secured a table. These are patio-style tables however, they did have a stash of high chairs in the corner. LB hates high chairs and booster seats and did fine with these regular chairs. It took about 5-10 minutes to get the food. My pie was deceptively small since I ended up being full having just eaten half of it and the chips. The crust was very flaky, more like a croissant than a pie crust. And the chicken and sauce were delicious! I'll definitely have to come back and try the beef and lamb pie. My cousin declared the Fish and Chips delicious and LB ate ALL of his chicken plus a good portion of his chips. The atmosphere was very festive, although since we were outside, there were some smokers here and there (for those of you who don't like smoke). Good food, nice atmosphere, LB ate and liked it... I'll be back for sure.