February date night

At least once a month my fiancé and I do a date night. We try to pick restaurants we haven't been to before and the list is growing!!!! This month we chose Camden Kitchen on Grantham Street, Dublin 8.

Before we went for dinner we visited The Liquor Rooms on Wellington Quay (entrance we used is beside The Clarence Hotel and you could easily miss the little sign on the door. 

Walk down the stairs and it's like stepping back in time...

Had two bloody good drinks here. I had Doc's Gigglewater (Martell VS, Rosemary & lemon cordial, grapefruit bitters & soda water) and a French Martini (Vodka, Chambord & pineapple juice) 

Fiancé had a bottle of Williams Bros Birds and Bees beer and also their Roisin beer (made from Tayberries)

Left here for the 1.5km walk to Camden Kitchen. Town seemed to be hopping last night. Lots of tourists around, Great to see! 

Camden Kitchen is pretty small, the tables are close together but there's a really nice feel to it so I'm not complaining. The couple beside us were almost finishing up and when they saw what we'd ordered they told us it was excellent! :) 

For starters I chose chicken liver parfait with brioche toast and plum chutney. The parfait was melt in the mouth. Fiancé chose haddock croquettes with salmon sashimi, a beetroot purée and celeriac sauce. 

For main course I went with the Hake served with clams, risotto and braised scallions. He chose the special - Wicklow pheasant which came with cauliflower purée and Jerusalem artichoke. Both dishes were cooked perfectly! 

Two bottles of red wine but now to my favourite part... Dessert.  

I had chocolate brownie which came with chocolate brownie ice-cream. OMG - food heaven! Fiancé got the orange Madeleines which came with Cointreau ice-cream. I got coffee with mine and he got a glass of Muscat.

Just writing about the food is making me want to go back even though the cleaver on the wall above the kitchen is a tad unnerving!

Next stop on date night. A new bar on Camden Street - Camden Exchange which opened on Thursday. The building is an old bank and was the filming location for RAW (an RTE tellybox show) 

They've a decent selection of cocktails, craft beers and cider. I didn't look at the cocktail menu for too long.. I asked for 
craft cider and the barman let me try some before I got a glass of Falling Apple. They serve the cocktails in those mason jars with handles. The interior is pretty quirky with industrial lighting...

There's metal mesh on the wall, some kind of Citroen truck that looked like it was embedded in a wall but actually it's their food truck!!! In the middle of the floor there's an old Chubb safe... According to the doorman it would've cost too much to have it removed. It's good that they didn't. Pretty sure it was a conversation topic at every table last night. 

Strolled back down towards Temple Bar. Tried to get into VCC but they were booked out for almost 3 hours! So we ended up back at The Liquor Rooms. Had another French Martini.. 

Last stop of the night was Bison bar. I finally got to try their apricot sour whiskey cocktail (Jameson whiskey, apricot brandy, apple juice, lemon juice and apricot jam) It was served in a jar but minus the jam as they were out. A great ending to date night.