O'Donovan's

2100 W. Irving Park
Chicago, IL 60618
773.478.2100

O'boy, could we have done without a trip to this place, which is an overgrown Irish pub/sports bar (with two outside seating areas) in the North Center neighborhood. As we reach the end of the list, restaurants are being picked pretty much at random. I happened to know where O'Donovan's was, so it got the nod for an early lunch over Memorial Day weekend.

Click for the large size - note that all burgers come with "fires." Debateable.

Adam got the standard, and I got mine with bacon and cheddar.

We'd forgotten what category the O'Donovan's burger had been mentioned under---turns out it's the fourth-place cheap burger, available for $2 on Mondays with a drink. (Time Out cites a "peppery kick" that would prove nonexistant.)We were paying Saturday prices, but I don't think it would have mattered. It was pretty bad, along the lines of the McCormick and Schmick's $2 burger. Things were looking promising when the waitress asked us how we wanted our burgers cooked (medium for both of us). But we got these charred-out pucks:

This kind of patty just cannot be cooked anything rarer than well-done. Just sad. Why bother? The bun was lightly toasted and a little stale. At least we're in decent-tomato season. Fries are forgettable McDonalds clones. It will come as no surprise that a Sysco truck was unloading box after box through the back during our meal.

Two things saved the morning from being a total waste. First: O'Donovan's makes a really good bloody mary.

All essential elements (salt-pepper sand, salami, pickled vegetables, 6 oz. beer back) are present.

What makes a big, dumb beer garden care about their bloody mary but neglect about their burger? Everything tasted fresh, with an agreeable (read: noticable) spice level. I think these are a big-ticket item, but there was "a problem" getting our order into the computer and we weren't charged for these, which was the second good thing that O'Donovan's has going for it. Consequently, I have no idea how much these cost, but they'd go for $10 most places, and getting them free was about the best trick O'Donovan's could have possibly pulled on us. That being said, even for $2, there's just nothing to recommend about this burger.