Kamille W.
Yelp
After two years of living half-a-breath away, I finally made it to PJ Ryans. The fact that I have been missing out on this spot for so long is completely unacceptable. This place is awesome. On the night I came by, we snagged a couple of seats on the patio (it was crazy loud inside) and after a few minutes had menus in hand. To get the night started, I ordered a white sangria. It was citrusy (grapefruit, I wanna say?) and refreshing, which is exactly what I wanted from that drink. My boyfriend's black velvet was also super good. Then it was time to get down to business: hot, tasty food, in and around my mouth hole.
We ordered the gypsy eggs and the slow-braised beef and cheese sandwich. Now listen closely my children, because I am going to tell you something very important. Those gypsy eggs*... were so, effing, good. It is imperative that you order them as soon as you possibly can. Spicy stewed tomatoes with chorizo, garlic, and onion, and an egg baked on top? With ricotta cheese? And toasted bread for dipping? It was beyond bomb. Mixing that runny egg yolk in with the ricotta and tomatoes brought even more magic to the bowl. I ate the crap out of that stuff.
The sandwich was tasty for sure, but I much preferred the eggs. I think my main issue with the sandwich was a lack of textural variety. There was a lot of melty-gooey-tenderness going on, which is by no means problematic in and of itself. However, I think it's always important to have something to cut the creaminess with. For me, that braised beef and cheese sandwich was missing that element. Tossing the pickles on top really helped though. The fries that came with the sandwich were fine; nothing special, although I did appreciate that they weren't too salty. I even let a few spuds take a swim in that eggy-tomato-chorizo sauce from the other dish. YUM.
Overall, I was very satisfied with my experience at PJ Ryans. I initially thought the service was a little perfunctory, but it got much better as the night went on. I'll definitely be back for soon.
*A quick note on the gypsy eggs: I was surprised to hear from our server that a lot of people find the gypsy eggs to be too weird for them, and they just end up eating the egg and the bread. That makes absolutely no sense to me, but to each her own.