Gold standard sports bar nachos

Timothy O’Toole’s – you spark endless joy.

This bar is particularly close to my office, and I’ve been coming here on and off for approximately 10 years. A younger me was typically pumped about the extensive beer list. A present-day me encourages gatherings be held here for “nacho-related reasons.” Photos featured were taken in a hurry, as a group of us were about to descend on these platters like vultures.

Their basic nachos are likely my gold standard for bar nachos. There’s nothing fancy about them, and everything delicious about them.

Meat: 5 – Technically, there wasn’t any meat on this plate. But if we think “protein” instead of “meat”, I give a 5/5 for the black beans – perfectly cooked.

Other ingredients: 5 – The cheese, tomatoes, jalapenos – perfect. The side containers of sour cream and salsa – even more perfect. (Sour cream and salsa can be delicious, but can also make nachos prematurely soggy. This place has it down).

Chips: 5 – Really solid, but nothing to write home about

Architecture: 5 – These nachos are perfectly messy and loaded with toppings. A handful of chips weren’t covered, but there were ample toppings to make this feel right.

Value: 3 – These aren’t expensive and the platter is decently sized, but I always want more of them.  How much I love these nachos is clearly confounding my value rating.

The It Factor: 5. Have I mentioned I love these?

Next: Irish nachos. The Irish nachos are… very tasty cheese fries.

Meat: 2 – bacon bits are fairly mediocre

Other ingredients: 3 – the ingredients are mostly cheese. I love cheese. But it’s not the best cheese.

Chips: 4 – clearly these are fries instead of chips, but they’re really good fries.

Architecture: 4 – how the kitchen manages to get so much cheese on each fry amazes me. Excellent architecture.

Value: 3. I don’t know. It’s fine. I couldn’t eat these as a meal.

The It Factor: 3 – this plate doesn’t wow me. However, I grew up on a heavy potato and cheese diet and this plate feels like really solid comfort food.