We dropped into Jack Whites the memorable weekend when Ireland beat the English at rugby (what's seldom is wonderful) - it was also the weekend before we got the keys to our new home in Arklow so it's not a bad place for a pit-stop. The bar was fairly full with rugby fans shouting words of encouragement at the widescreen TV on the wall & this seemed as good a place to combine my two loves - food & sport.

We had a glance through the menu & decided to have a very large late lunch as we were heading out on the town later. There are plenty of starters and mains on the menu to choose from including burgers, chicken, fish & pasta but steak was the order of the day. We ordered two sirloin steaks, one well done & the other rare to medium, to be accompanied with mash & home made onion rings (there was also a mention of chips but we ignored that for the time being). After about 20 minutes, two giant plates landed on our small bar table. just as we scored a try!

For £12.95, the sheer amount of food on the plate was breathtaking - a steak the size of a giant's hand, on a bed of very tasty mash, fried mushrooms and crowned with three crispy, definitely home made, onion rings - and to top it all off, the very friendly waitress gave us a huge dish of chips, which perched precariously on the edge of the table.

The food was gorgeous, apart from a peculiar pesto-ish sauce drizzled around the mash which smacked of "trying too hard" - this food didn't need gilding. We struggled to finish the steak & mash, failing miserably - as for the poor chips, they didn't even get a second glance.

Jack Whites had a bit of a problem with their phone lines when we went to pay the bill - the phone line was down which mean that using Laser or Visa was out of the question! We frantically went though the wallets & the car to come up with the £26 required - surely a manual credit card machine could have been found? Apart from that, it was a great lunch & an even better result in the rugby. well worth a stop-off.