Eating Dublin - Page 8

Diapason · 24th November 2009, 07:23 AM

Yeah, hate the silver bucket of chips thing as well.

italian foodie · 24th November 2009, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclepat

If you try www.sweeneyorouke.com or www.hughjordan.com you should get sorted.
I have to say, I'm not personally a fan of the silver bucket of chips. I had some in Exchequer last week and I ended up with about a dozen or so average size chips for €3.25. I think it looks very stylish but isn't a practical way to serve a portion of chips.

thanks Pat, tbh they're a bit of a novelty down here, nobody really uses them. Just want them for specials. Got a nice white bowl in Ikea yesterday....

meatmonger · 17th December 2009, 08:14 AM

Ate in Pichet last night and v enjoyable meal, place buzzin. Rose veal pasta and crispy hen egg starter followed by very enjoyable duck and venison mains and couple decent desserts, large bottle sparkling and pichet wine total €100 before tip.

Think we covered the most interesting things on the menu, and worth the trip.

italian foodie · 17th December 2009, 07:21 PM

Lucky you

Will try again next time I'm up!

mreeyore · 29th January 2010, 08:36 AM

Bloom's Brasserie are doing an early-bird menu up to 9pm every night of the week these days. €18 for 2 and €23 for 3 courses with 5 options in each. Such good value, I find myself looking to order extras off the menu just so I feel like I'm not robbing them.

Have eaten there about 7 or 8 times now since they've opened and am yet to be disappointed. Definitely the best recent opening in Dublin in my opinion.

In case this comment seems a bit too gushing, I have no connection other than being delighted to have somewhere local I'm happy to go back to regularly. I like Juniors, but it's too much hassle trying to get a table.

Melendez · 29th January 2010, 01:34 PM

I've taken full advantage of these value menus, and restaurants like Alexis doing good value meals, but I wonder is a business model workable that you can offer a higher end "value" meal. E.g Grilled Dublin Bay Prawns, Dover Sole, CheeseBoard, washed down with a glass of Pouilly Fuisse for €40?

Is there any profit on doing simple meals with high end ingredients rather than doing goodly work with lower end cuts?

(ducks for cover in anticipation of a tirade of abuse from (ex) restaurateurs blagging on about percentage margins)

sean_dru · 29th January 2010, 02:48 PM

haha i dont think anyone will jump down your throat, as restaurants go it is important to get better and not worse, so new ideas are an important part of running a ''Bankrant'' ( my new name for restaurants, as banks prity much run everything now) i got rid of my early evening menu, to be honest its just soul destroying working on a 2 and 3 course menu for 20 quid and under and finding new ingredients that just cover costs, so now i do a great quality main course plus a glass of wine or beer for 20 quid and its working out really well, f--k the early birds, the majority are crap and just ruin the good work that goes on after them, never liked that word anyway '' early bird'' it means early morning anyway, the early bird catches the early worm!!!!

meatmonger · 29th January 2010, 04:25 PM

What's also funny is watching these same "cheaper" cuts and fish going up so much in price while they can't give, for example, fillet steak away these days.

unclepat · 1st February 2010, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melendez

I've taken full advantage of these value menus, and restaurants like Alexis doing good value meals, but I wonder is a business model workable that you can offer a higher end "value" meal. E.g Grilled Dublin Bay Prawns, Dover Sole, CheeseBoard, washed down with a glass of Pouilly Fuisse for €40?

Is there any profit on doing simple meals with high end ingredients rather than doing goodly work with lower end cuts?

(ducks for cover in anticipation of a tirade of abuse from (ex) restaurateurs blagging on about percentage margins)

We're currently doing a midweek four course tasing menu plus coffee and petit fours for €25. Ingredients include foie gras, venison, morels, scallops, red leg partridge and Valrhona chocolate. As meatmonger pointed out, the cost of high end ingredients has dropped to a level where we can now afford to put them on the menu. We may also be close to doing a deal for fresh wild turbot at a price which will allow us sell it for under €20 for a main course.
In the meantime, the price of lamb shoulder and oxtail is rising off the charts!!

meatmonger · 1st February 2010, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclepat

We're currently doing a midweek four course tasing menu plus coffee and petit fours for €25. Ingredients include foie gras, venison, morels, scallops, red leg partridge and Valrhona chocolate. As meatmonger pointed out, the cost of high end ingredients has dropped to a level where we can now afford to put them on the menu. We may also be close to doing a deal for fresh wild turbot at a price which will allow us sell it for under €20 for a main course.
In the meantime, the price of lamb shoulder and oxtail is rising off the charts!!

that's a great sounding menu, and fantastic ingreds. It caught my eye when mentioned by Paulo T yesterday.

unclepat · 1st February 2010, 10:48 AM

Cheers MM, I didn't see that-where did he mention it?

meatmonger · 1st February 2010, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclepat

Cheers MM, I didn't see that-where did he mention it?

must have been a small piece in The Weekender Magazine on Saturday. Weekend is a bit o a blur already! Jan was better than expected!

unclepat · 1st February 2010, 01:25 PM

Glad to hear it MM. The general consensus seems to be that the first two weeks were a write off due to weather etc but the last two weeks were back with a bang.

meatmonger · 1st February 2010, 05:53 PM

Pat,
is your tastin menu just tue-thur? Or fri as well? How is it going down?

unclepat · 2nd February 2010, 07:08 AM

It's tues-fri and going down really well. We've paired wines with each course and had priced them individually but from this week we'll be offering a tasting glass of good quality wine with each of the four courses for €10.

sireatsalot · 2nd February 2010, 02:01 PM

on my way to dublin for a few days, alexis and 1014 on my list of to do( saw the dinner special in alexis looks vgv

Diapason · 2nd February 2010, 02:26 PM

I can report that the Alexis taster is absolutely cracking value. I truly don't know how you guys can do it, but I'm not complaining!!

unclepat · 3rd February 2010, 09:09 AM

Glad you enjoyed it Diapason. As I mentioned upthread, the price of high end ingredients is falling so it's now affordable to use some luxury ingredients.

petitechef · 4th February 2010, 09:46 PM

Last night was our Ballymaloe re-union (well the Ballycotton residents of 2002 - all three of us!) and the venue was Green 19 on Camden St. When we arrived the restaurant was buzzing and thankfully we'd booked as people were being turned away. We started with cocktails - A. had a Winter Sidecar, G.a Moderngreen Gimlet and I went for the spicy option of Mexican Green complete with a chilli! These went down very well and surprisingly quickly...
We decided to order a bottle of white and red, choosing an Alsace Pinot Blanc and a New Zealand Pinot Noir. For starters G opted for the Cashel Blue Salad with quince paste and chocolate shavings - an unusual combination that really worked. A had the Portobello mushroom on Foccacia which all of us declared tasted decidedly mushroomy (the way they should taste!!) . I had the Goat's cheese and honey salad which was sprinkled with yummy poached pears and walnuts.
Picking the mains was more difficult - I wanted to try (almost) everything on the menu but the waitress steered me towards the Confit Duck Leg served with lentils and red cabbage - duck leg is not something i would normally go for but it was yum! A had the Slow Braised Belly of Pork - we thought it might have benefited from being slightly crispier but it was still good. G was craving spice (we think she meant in her food!!) so she chose the Mexican Chilli Bean Burrito - again good but personally i would have liked it a little spicier. The Burrito came with gorgeous homemade chips which G thankfully shared with us - just so we could taste the homemade tomato sauce of course!
The dessert menu is very short and didn't reall y excite us but in the interest of comparison G ordered the Chocolate Brownies which were declared passable, the only downside being the ice cream which we unanimously gave the thumbs down. Good coffees
Great night, great atmosphere and lovely staff and of course good food and great value!. We were the last to leave but were at no time made to feel that we were overstaying our welcome. We left feeling very happy and promising not to leave it so long til the next reunion.........

The Damage:
Cocktails - €9 each
Wine - €26 and €20
Starters - €5/€6
Mains - €10
Desserts - €5

Melendez · 14th February 2010, 10:19 AM

I had a magnificent meal in Ananda last night. I've been there for early-birds or chosen more traditional Indian items before but last night went for a pig-out.

The only time I've gone the whole hog before was the last visit, when I didn't chose as well and the evening was ruined by being given a lousy table while some Indian embassy "do" was on, complete with speeches, furniture removals and a constant stream of guests brushing by our corridor table. The manager waived the bill that night after a minimal complaint, which I thought was overgenerous as the food was still fantastic. I suspect we'd have been slow to go back if he didn't make some gesture though a bottle of wine would have done for me - spouse may have taken more convincing.

Guinea fowl breast and chips for starter. Much more elegant than it sounds but quite substantial for a starter, verging into lunch main course territory. The tasty bit was on the skin, which I'd normally discard, but this was fantastic. Wife had severely tenderised chicken with betrooty sauce which was also beatiful. Seabass was a large fillet with all sorts of goodly things. I would tend to avoid Seabass in favour of wild fish but this was perfectly cooked and all the accessories and added flavours made it one of the nicer dishes I've tasted. I had a perfectly cooked a fillet of venison with a curry gravy, chutney and dubiously named though very tasty risotto. I don't want to get bogged down in volume, but there is a tendency among restaurant folk to give tiny portions of venison fillet, I'm guessing this was a good 7/8oz portion. We got three sides - spinach, asparagus and potato - none of which was individually worth the €6 cost but collectively lifted the meal to a level well above what we paid for it. Not strictly required, but personally, I would want to get them next time.

For two starters, two mains, 3 sides, bottle and glass of wine, cocktail (Grasshopper - a worthy dessert replacement), and double espresso the bill before (exemplary) service was €143 of which food was about €90. I consider that excellent value for a really memorable meal - quite honestly up there with anything I've had in Ireland. I appreciate my descriptions leave much to be desired, partly because I don't know what flavours made up much of what I tasted and partly because I'm just not good at describing things, but to anyone at this stage who hasn't had a go at their non-traditional offerings I would highly recommend it.

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24th November 2009, 07:23 AM	#141
Diapason Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 299	Yeah, hate the silver bucket of chips thing as well.

17th December 2009, 08:14 AM	#143
meatmonger Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Bridgend, Co Donegal Posts: 370	Ate in Pichet last night and v enjoyable meal, place buzzin. Rose veal pasta and crispy hen egg starter followed by very enjoyable duck and venison mains and couple decent desserts, large bottle sparkling and pichet wine total €100 before tip. Think we covered the most interesting things on the menu, and worth the trip.

17th December 2009, 07:21 PM	#144
italian foodie Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Limerick Posts: 305	Lucky you Will try again next time I'm up!

29th January 2010, 08:36 AM	#145
mreeyore Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 108	Bloom's Brasserie are doing an early-bird menu up to 9pm every night of the week these days. €18 for 2 and €23 for 3 courses with 5 options in each. Such good value, I find myself looking to order extras off the menu just so I feel like I'm not robbing them. Have eaten there about 7 or 8 times now since they've opened and am yet to be disappointed. Definitely the best recent opening in Dublin in my opinion. In case this comment seems a bit too gushing, I have no connection other than being delighted to have somewhere local I'm happy to go back to regularly. I like Juniors, but it's too much hassle trying to get a table.

29th January 2010, 01:34 PM	#146
Melendez Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 381	I've taken full advantage of these value menus, and restaurants like Alexis doing good value meals, but I wonder is a business model workable that you can offer a higher end "value" meal. E.g Grilled Dublin Bay Prawns, Dover Sole, CheeseBoard, washed down with a glass of Pouilly Fuisse for €40? Is there any profit on doing simple meals with high end ingredients rather than doing goodly work with lower end cuts? (ducks for cover in anticipation of a tirade of abuse from (ex) restaurateurs blagging on about percentage margins)

29th January 2010, 02:48 PM	#147
sean_dru Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 231	haha i dont think anyone will jump down your throat, as restaurants go it is important to get better and not worse, so new ideas are an important part of running a ''Bankrant'' ( my new name for restaurants, as banks prity much run everything now) i got rid of my early evening menu, to be honest its just soul destroying working on a 2 and 3 course menu for 20 quid and under and finding new ingredients that just cover costs, so now i do a great quality main course plus a glass of wine or beer for 20 quid and its working out really well, f--k the early birds, the majority are crap and just ruin the good work that goes on after them, never liked that word anyway '' early bird'' it means early morning anyway, the early bird catches the early worm!!!!

29th January 2010, 04:25 PM	#148
meatmonger Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Bridgend, Co Donegal Posts: 370	What's also funny is watching these same "cheaper" cuts and fish going up so much in price while they can't give, for example, fillet steak away these days.

1st February 2010, 10:48 AM	#151
unclepat Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 733	Cheers MM, I didn't see that-where did he mention it?

1st February 2010, 01:25 PM	#153
unclepat Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 733	Glad to hear it MM. The general consensus seems to be that the first two weeks were a write off due to weather etc but the last two weeks were back with a bang.

1st February 2010, 05:53 PM	#154
meatmonger Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Bridgend, Co Donegal Posts: 370	Pat, is your tastin menu just tue-thur? Or fri as well? How is it going down?

2nd February 2010, 07:08 AM	#155
unclepat Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 733	It's tues-fri and going down really well. We've paired wines with each course and had priced them individually but from this week we'll be offering a tasting glass of good quality wine with each of the four courses for €10.

2nd February 2010, 02:01 PM	#156
sireatsalot Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 4	on my way to dublin for a few days, alexis and 1014 on my list of to do( saw the dinner special in alexis looks vgv

2nd February 2010, 02:26 PM	#157
Diapason Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 299	I can report that the Alexis taster is absolutely cracking value. I truly don't know how you guys can do it, but I'm not complaining!!

3rd February 2010, 09:09 AM	#158
unclepat Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 733	Glad you enjoyed it Diapason. As I mentioned upthread, the price of high end ingredients is falling so it's now affordable to use some luxury ingredients.

4th February 2010, 09:46 PM	#159
petitechef Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: Beyond the Pale Posts: 1,064	Last night was our Ballymaloe re-union (well the Ballycotton residents of 2002 - all three of us!) and the venue was Green 19 on Camden St. When we arrived the restaurant was buzzing and thankfully we'd booked as people were being turned away. We started with cocktails - A. had a Winter Sidecar, G.a Moderngreen Gimlet and I went for the spicy option of Mexican Green complete with a chilli! These went down very well and surprisingly quickly... We decided to order a bottle of white and red, choosing an Alsace Pinot Blanc and a New Zealand Pinot Noir. For starters G opted for the Cashel Blue Salad with quince paste and chocolate shavings - an unusual combination that really worked. A had the Portobello mushroom on Foccacia which all of us declared tasted decidedly mushroomy (the way they should taste!!) . I had the Goat's cheese and honey salad which was sprinkled with yummy poached pears and walnuts. Picking the mains was more difficult - I wanted to try (almost) everything on the menu but the waitress steered me towards the Confit Duck Leg served with lentils and red cabbage - duck leg is not something i would normally go for but it was yum! A had the Slow Braised Belly of Pork - we thought it might have benefited from being slightly crispier but it was still good. G was craving spice (we think she meant in her food!!) so she chose the Mexican Chilli Bean Burrito - again good but personally i would have liked it a little spicier. The Burrito came with gorgeous homemade chips which G thankfully shared with us - just so we could taste the homemade tomato sauce of course! The dessert menu is very short and didn't reall y excite us but in the interest of comparison G ordered the Chocolate Brownies which were declared passable, the only downside being the ice cream which we unanimously gave the thumbs down. Good coffees Great night, great atmosphere and lovely staff and of course good food and great value!. We were the last to leave but were at no time made to feel that we were overstaying our welcome. We left feeling very happy and promising not to leave it so long til the next reunion......... The Damage: Cocktails - €9 each Wine - €26 and €20 Starters - €5/€6 Mains - €10 Desserts - €5

14th February 2010, 10:19 AM	#160
Melendez Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 381	I had a magnificent meal in Ananda last night. I've been there for early-birds or chosen more traditional Indian items before but last night went for a pig-out. The only time I've gone the whole hog before was the last visit, when I didn't chose as well and the evening was ruined by being given a lousy table while some Indian embassy "do" was on, complete with speeches, furniture removals and a constant stream of guests brushing by our corridor table. The manager waived the bill that night after a minimal complaint, which I thought was overgenerous as the food was still fantastic. I suspect we'd have been slow to go back if he didn't make some gesture though a bottle of wine would have done for me - spouse may have taken more convincing. Guinea fowl breast and chips for starter. Much more elegant than it sounds but quite substantial for a starter, verging into lunch main course territory. The tasty bit was on the skin, which I'd normally discard, but this was fantastic. Wife had severely tenderised chicken with betrooty sauce which was also beatiful. Seabass was a large fillet with all sorts of goodly things. I would tend to avoid Seabass in favour of wild fish but this was perfectly cooked and all the accessories and added flavours made it one of the nicer dishes I've tasted. I had a perfectly cooked a fillet of venison with a curry gravy, chutney and dubiously named though very tasty risotto. I don't want to get bogged down in volume, but there is a tendency among restaurant folk to give tiny portions of venison fillet, I'm guessing this was a good 7/8oz portion. We got three sides - spinach, asparagus and potato - none of which was individually worth the €6 cost but collectively lifted the meal to a level well above what we paid for it. Not strictly required, but personally, I would want to get them next time. For two starters, two mains, 3 sides, bottle and glass of wine, cocktail (Grasshopper - a worthy dessert replacement), and double espresso the bill before (exemplary) service was €143 of which food was about €90. I consider that excellent value for a really memorable meal - quite honestly up there with anything I've had in Ireland. I appreciate my descriptions leave much to be desired, partly because I don't know what flavours made up much of what I tasted and partly because I'm just not good at describing things, but to anyone at this stage who hasn't had a go at their non-traditional offerings I would highly recommend it.