This was my second visit to The Dickens Tavern, again with my colleagues for business dinner (you can read about my first post here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/the-dickens-tavern/). I am not going to write the details about the restaurant this time, but you can find the background of this fun establishment on my first blog. We were there as a large group, so the waitress had her hands full, but she did a good job. I started off with a drink called Porch Peach Tea ($10), which is made with Ole Smokey Peach Moonshine, American Born White Lighting Moonshine, muddled mint, lemons, simple syrup, topped with iced tea and a frozen peach. The first thing I thought of when it arrived was “My goodness it is huge!!!” It was really, really big drink, and the glass itself was heavy too. After a long day of all-day meeting, I needed some drink, but maybe not this big… But then again, when I tasted it, I was no longer worried. It tasted like watered down iced tea with hint of peach flavor. Didn’t taste much alcohol at all, and peach flavor was really weak also. It was a big disappointment. Cheap for the size, but the quality also suffered.

We ordered couple of appetizers to share, Pub Shrimp ($9) and Pub Rolls ($9). The Pub Shrimp came with 8 tender shrimp wrapped in bacon and stuffed with sliced jalapeño, served with chipotle aioli. We ordered this the last time we were here, and it was pretty good, so we ordered couple of this dish (you can find the photo on my first blog). Pub Rolls isn’t a typical rolls with bread, but they are two crispy egg rolls filled with their slow roasted beef with two kinds of cheese and horseradish, served with chipotle aioli. The egg rolls were cut in half, and they were large size, so it was good for sharing. It was crispy on the outside, packed with flavorful beef. Didn’t see much cheese in the inside, but it was still a good finger food.

Their menu if kind of heavy, and I remembered the portion is pretty generous. I wasn’t hungry enough to eat the whole dish (of their size), so I looked at their “Lighter Fare” section of the menu. Here, the portions are smaller, and the price is also a bit less. However, the offerings are small too, not many selections to choose from. I wanted to have their Dirty Drunken Shrimp Pasta ($13), but that only offered in the regular menu, and not available in the Lighter Fare section. Luckily for me, one of my colleagues also wanted the dish, but he was not very hungry. So, we decided we are going to split the regular menu between us. The waitress was kind enough to separate the dish into smaller plates for us, and it was still substantial amount of food. It came with chopped shrimp, garlic, basil, caramelized onions and jalapeño cooked with O’Dells IPA and garlic creole sauce. Served with angel hair and crusty French bread. I had a nice little kick to it, and nice amount of shrimp. Good comfort food, and the right portion. I still got pretty full, I say the half portion is the regular portion in NYC…

Even though I was full, I somehow got talked into getting dessert. I ordered Makers Mark Chocolate Chunk Cookie ($9), which is made with chocolate chunks folded into a sweet bourbon cookie dough, baked and topped vanilla ice cream. I thought, “cookie and ice cream, how bad can it be?” Well, this is not NYC, but Longmont, CO, where the portion is huge and price is low. It came in a kind of soup bowl, making the cookie to be more like cookie cake, with a huge scoop of ice cream. It was huge! I am glad there were few people there who wanted to try a piece. The cookie was dense, with lots of chocolate chunks, and very sweet. The ice cream had real vanilla beans, and was very good quality. Creamy, milky, and smooth.

One of my colleagues also ordered Banana Bread Pudding ($8), and I knew he didn’t really know what bread pudding is (he is from another country). When it arrived, he was surprised, he said that he thought it would be kind of custard pudding. And, it was huge, of course. I tried to warn him before he ordered… It is served with warm cinnamon spice run cream sauce, topped with whipped cream. The bread pudding was really dense, and I didn’t get much of banana flavor (it got passed around the table since it was huge). I was expecting chunks of banana slices or something, but I didn’t see it. Maybe the piece I tried didn’t have it? It was very sweet, warm, heavy, and really filling.

We didn’t finish all the desserts since all of us were so full. The staffs were great and welcoming as before, and we had a good time here. With their large interior, they are very accommodating and made our business dinner smooth and enjoyable. We were well taken care of, and left with full stomach. It was more of volume than the quality of flavor, but comforting. I did feel really heavy for a while afterwards…  I am sure I will be back again, for another business dinner in the future.

The Dickens Tavern – 300 Main St, Longmont, CO 80501