The Gold Standard: D'Arcy's Pint

D’Arcy’s Pint in Springfield is one of the major players in the horseshoe game and we knew it would be a real competitor for the top spot in our Quest. After its start up in 1998, D’Arcy’s rapidly became one of the town’s favorite destinations for horseshoes. As an Irish themed pub and grill, one may not necessarily associate Ireland with horseshoes, but D’Arcy’s Pint gained the reputation as having one of the best shoes in the city. Over the years, D’Arcy’s has expanded to a new location, but even today, you can still expect about a 30 minute wait just to grab a table. You may sometimes ask yourself, “Is the wait really justified, when I can go to five other horseshoe spots right around the corner?” The short answer is: yes. In all the times that we have been to D’Arcy’s, we are hard-pressed to remember a time when we ever had a bad horseshoe, or even bad service. The restaurant has gained a reputation for providing consistently high quality horseshoes with great service to top it off. D’Arcy’s has two bars as well as an outside patio that add to the atmosphere of the place. On a Friday or Saturday evening, you might be able to grab a seat in one of these areas, instead of playing the waiting game with a table. D’Arcy’s has a full menu complete with many tasty Irish and American specialties, but we were here for business and were one step closer to completing the Horseshoe Quest of 2011. Our original goal was to get the “horseshoe of the week” and we had been holding out until the ‘Gyro Horseshoe’ was the featured shoe; but we found ourselves impatient and decided to review the buffalo chicken horseshoe.

The buffalo chicken horseshoe is probably the best selling shoe at D’Arcy’s Pint and there is no doubt as to why it sells so well. First off, the horseshoe at D’Arcy’s in almost the perfect size. There was a great chicken to fries ratio, and the cheese sauce filled the plate masterfully. The cheese sauce was served very warm, a vital trait to any shoe, since as the cheese cools it loses some of its original flavor and can lead to the entire meal being saturated in lukewarm sauce. The white cheese sauce at D’Arcy’s Pint was phenomenal and is now the leading contender for the cheese category. It is almost as if they have mastered the art of creating consistently outstanding cheese sauce, because we have never been let down by the quality of the cheese sauce. The buffalo chicken carried its own weight in the horseshoe as well. The chicken breast was wonderfully breaded and attained a great balance of crispiness and tenderness. There are various other choices for meat, but we wholeheartedly believe that you cannot go wrong with the buffalo chicken horseshoe (if you are not a fan of spicy food, don’t worry because the hot sauce comes on the side). The fries on shoe were served piping hot, as they must have just left the fryer a few moments before arriving to our table. The fries at D’Arcy’s have been used as a grading point for most of the horseshoes up to this point. We are familiar with the quality and taste of their fries, and they once again delivered a high grade. It should also be mentioned that D’Arcy’s uses thick slices of Texas toast on their horseshoes. Some horseshoes try to get by with using regular pieces of toast, but the difference between the two is definitely noteworthy.

Overall, D’Arcy’s Pint received the second highest score to date (behind Norb Andy’s Tabarian) and the reason it did not take over the top spot is that the uniqueness factor was not as high. We can get a buffalo chicken horseshoe at twenty different places around Springfield, but we can only get a ‘Joe Rogers Chilishoe’ at one place in the city. If you are looking for the best buffalo chicken horseshoe, it is probably at D’Arcy’s Pint. There are still a few stops on our quest before we can say that with all certainty, but there is no doubt that this will be hard to top. If you have never tried a horseshoe or are taking somebody to get a horseshoe for the very first time, take them to D’Arcy’s Pint. You won’t regret it.

Cheese: 94
Meat: 92
Fries: 90
Overall Score: 94