St. Paddy’s Day fun at Tam O’Shanter with Kat Cressida

For St. Patrick’s Day this year, I flew out to Los Angeles to enjoy the festivities with our friend Kat Cressida at Tam O’Shanter. Tam O’Shanter was one of Walt Disney’s favorite watering holes.

Tam O’Shanter is the oldest restaurant in L.A. owned and operated from the same family from the beginning. Walt Disney worked just minutes away from the restaurant and was a regular. He loved the food! Walt even had a favorite table, number 31 in the corner by the big fireplace. You can’t get more of a Disney tie-in than being a favorite of Uncle Walt.

We were thrilled to be invited by voice over artist, Kat Cressida. If you’re a big Disney fan, you know her work. She has an extensive list of projects she’s worked on. A few that you may know are… Constance Hatchaway (the black widow bride) in The Haunted Mansion, Jessie in Disney Infinity and Zahra in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands video game.

My day started at 3 pm at Tam O’Shanter along with Kat, Angela from DisLights, Shannon and Vera, who work for Kat. We had a two tables in the corner where they could bring us plenty of food and drink to enjoy while we took pictures and posted away on the web.

Atmosphere

This restaurant has a wonderful atmosphere. If you’re looking for something that will make you feel like you’re in another country, then this is it. You’ll find stonewalls, fireplaces, Scottish flags and other decor that will make you feel like you’ve stepped into a Scottish pub.

We made sure to check out Walt’s table. As we mentioned, it sits in the corner and it has a placard on it so you know it was Walt’s table. You can even see a doodling that he did back in the day.

Menu

The menu is different than usual because of this being a special event. Make sure you visit their website to check out the various menus they offer. Here’s a look at what guests could indulge in on St. Paddy’s Day.

Food and Drink

We had a lot of food and drink! Tam O’Shanter’s general manager John Lindquist was kind enough to bring us plenty of food to photograph and to enjoy during this special event.

Corned Beef and Cabbage – This dish was one of our favorites. The potatoes and carrots with it were perfectly cooked, definitely still has their texture. There is nothing worse than mushy veggies. The corned beef was tender and had a lot of flavor.

Roast Prime Rib English cut – I should start off by saying, I don’t like prime rib so I was a little hesitant about this dish. However, oh my… this prime rib was the BEST I’ve ever had. It was so tender that you didn’t event need a steak knife to cut it. As you can see, we used a butter knife. It was really top notch and would highly recommend giving this dish a try, even if you aren’t a prime rib eater.

Toad in the Hole – This dish is the perfect comfort food menu item. It’s kinda like a Scottish pot pie. The bread is light and flaky, kinda like a croissant. The beef was tender and the veggies can just enough crunch left to them. The salad was a nice healthy accompaniment and the vinaigrette was great. We had to have this with a Guinness.

Beef Brisket Sandwich – This sandwich is large. It has a lot of beef! The beef is tender and moist.

Scottish Meatballs – This was on the “To Begin” menu. These were really good and very unique. The best way that I can describe them is that they had the sweetness of chili meatballs from the flavor of the Lingonberries. You may be familiar with them, they are used in Swedish meatballs.

Scotch Rarebit – This is Scottish queso. It’s made with cheddar cheese, Scottish ale and cayenne pepper to give it a little bit of a kick, and served with sourdough bread. This was my favorite of the two appetizers that we had. It had a lot of flavor and you could pick up on the sharpness from the cheddar. There was a hind of the ale and the cayenne pepper you tasted on the back end. Really good!

Entertainment

There were three bands that performed – Bracken Band Celtic Duo, Ploughboys and Whiskey Sunday. We caught the Ploughboys performances. This band has been performing at Tam O’Shanter for over 20 years! They are a fan favorite, as well as Kat’s.

The band members are extremely talented and they are a lot of fun to watch. They perform regularly at Tam O’Shanter on Thursday nights, so make sure you catch one of their shows.

Overall

This restaurant was incredible! If you are in L.A., make sure you don’t miss this restaurant. The food was all fantastic. The atmosphere is super cool and very Scottish. We had great service and the entertainment was great. We’ll definitely be back. We HAVE to get the fish and chips.

Normally, we let you know about service but since this was a special event we left it off.

Have you been to Tam O’Shanter’s? We’d love for you to share your experience with us in our comment section below!