Love Supreme Coffee

One of the girls I work with got a new car so we decided to take a little road trip at lunchtime to escape the office today. Very little roadtrip as it only took us about 15 minutes to get to Love Supreme Coffee (Stoneybatter, Dublin 7) 

Great little spot! 

Nice selection of pastries to choose from... Found it hard to choose one but as try to be "good" during the week just chose a mini honey nut cake. 

Two Americanos and two mini honey nut cakes to takeaway cost €7.40... The order is inputted on an iPad (as most places seem to be these days) and then I stood waiting while the freshly ground coffee was made. 

The smell of the coffee as we drove back to Blanchardstown was just amazing!!! 

Got my loyalty card stamped so have the perfect excuse to go back...! :) 

If you're in the D7 area you should definitely try here. 

Sunny Sunday

Gorgeous Spring day today so we headed into town to pick up some coffee beans.

Parked at Drury Street car park. Returned to Sasha House Petite for coffee and a pastry so Sean could try it out. I had a cinnamon swirl and an americano. He chose an apple and berry crumble tart. He enjoyed his tart but didn't agree with me about the coffee. It's a shame. I still think they do the nicest coffee! 

From there we went to Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street to get new coffee beans. This time we chose 3FE Costa Rica Farami De Dota: Red Honey Red Catuai

After a little walk in the sunshine (everyone seemed so happy - amazing what a little sunshine can do!) we ended up at Murphy's ice-cream on Wicklow Street. 

I got a small tub of caramelised brown bread and Sean chose rum and raisin. They have a great choice of flavours and have a little seating area at the back for you to "eat in"

It's a stones throw from Grafton St and well worth a quick visit! 

 

I will leave you with this view of the Phoenix park in the Spring sunshine

Return to L. Mulligan Grocer

After our first visit to L. Mulligan Grocer, Stoneybatter for drinks and (unintentional) dessert in January we decided we had to return for dinner. 

From first glance you might think this is an ordinary Irish pub but you'd be very much mistaken. They have an extensive craft beer and whiskey menu along with a decent wine list and some craft ciders thrown in. Then there's the food. This place has completely reinvented itself as a gastropub. The menus are inside vintage books which I've mentioned in my previous post. I've included photos of the menu but it does change to reflect seasonal produce. As you can see they pair their starters and main courses with beer and their desserts with whiskey. 

It didn't us long to choose what to have. 

Starters 

I went with the pork and gubeen chorizo bon bons and Sean chose the Scotch egg. 

The bon bons were fab. The sauce and apple were a great balance to the kick you get from the chorizo. Sean loved the scotch egg and he let me try a bit of the pork and breadcrumbs - it was yum! 

Main courses

Sean chose the braised wild boar and I decided on the chicken.. All elements on both dishes were perfectly cooked. 

Dessert

I repeated my choice from our last visit and got the dark arts porter brownie served with honeycomb and blackcurrant sorbet. Sean got the special - creme brûlée with marshmallows and Turkish delight. I got a French press coffee and Sean got a glass of Yellow spot whiskey. 

 

Drinks - I chose wine (Viognier) and Sean had Galway Hooker cask ale. 

The bill came in an Oxford Mathematical instruments tin (how many of us had one of them in school?!) and was accompanied by a little brown bag of jellies. This time there were cola bottles and jelly babies inside. 

The dishes are presented so well. The staff are extremely pleasant. I just love the little touches like how the menus and bills are presented (and the jellies are a really nice touch!) 

If you're looking for something different  or don't want to travel all the way into the city centre for great food & beer you should definitely try here. 

What do yis want to eat

Yes that is how the waitress at The Chophouse addressed us when she came to take our order!!! 

After about two years since our last visit we decided to return to The Chophouse when Sean's brother came to stay with us for the weekend. I don't know if I had rose tinted memories of my last visit but I found this trip to be very hit and miss.. 

We arrived about 20 minutes early for our table but as the place was practically empty it wasn't an issue. 

Here's the menu

The specials are up on a blackboard. In fact there's more info on the blackboards dotted around than on the above menus.

The bread that was brought to the table was good. 

So we were asked what we wanted to eat. I chose the rare yellow fin tuna. Fiancé and his brother decided to share the fish board. 

For main course I chose the 8oz fillet of Hereford Beef. I asked for Bearnaise sauce and ended up having my sides changed from the standard gratin potato and spinach and garlic cream to chips, caramelised onions & green beans. I won't complain about that as I don't actually like potato and the lads got to eat the chips. Sean chose the fish and chips and his brother went with the ribeye. In case your wondering the sauce on my board was pepper not Bearnaise but that was easily swapped over.

For dessert I chose the Asiette of chocolate (chocolate raspberry opera, chocolate hazelnut brownie @ chocolate mousse) with an americano. Sean had an espresso martini and his brother tried the poitin smash. 

OK so the food is great. The service not so much. I assume they're mental busy when there's games on at Aviva but they weren't that busy at that hour (and the rugby game was away that day!) 

We were brought to our table. It had been reset from the last sitting but not wiped down. We had to ask for the table to be wiped and it was done half arsed. They wiped one half of the table down and left the glass marks on the other half of the table! 

Other tables were brought a board with all the various cuts of beef and these were explained. I mean I know steak but I assume that that is part of the experience if you decide to visit here.

I could be wrong but it seemed to me that if you were a regular you got a lot of attention from the wait staff. This visit would not encourage me to return. Especially when it's not in the centre of the city and there are plenty of other places to try.

Sunday cravings...

*Updated November 2015*

Meet & Meat is now closed 

A craving for a good tuna melt took us to Meet & Meat located on South William St, Dublin 2. 

Have to be honest I've walked by here anytime I've been heading for Fallon & Byrne and not given it much thought but a quick search on Yelp for a good tuna melt this morning suggested here and after checking their menus online we made our way into the city centre. 

The menu is up on a chalkboard above their sandwiches and pie display. If you're interested the Hot Sandwich of the day was pork with an apple chutney. 

I chose the roast chicken & stuffing and Sean went for the tuna melt that brought us here!! 

While we waited for the food to be brought over I took some photos of the surroundings. The ceiling is high and exposed. The lighting is industrial but it's not harsh. In fact it felt quite cosy! 

Then the food arrived and there was no conversation out of either of us! 

The rotisserie chicken is perfectly juicy. The garlic and stuffing don't overpower the flavour so the chicken remains the star of the show. 

The tuna melt was packed with filling and Sean said it was really good. I assume he'll review on Yelp and go into more detail ☺️

The sandwiches are exactly how they're described on the menu but that doesn't begin to tell you that you can get a bloody good sandwich here!