Late September weekend

We attempted to go to Oktoberfest on Friday but the queue was absolutely mental!!! 

Our first stop of the night was Brew Dock on Amiens Street - the place was absolutely hopping and had a great atmosphere. We managed to grab two stools at the bar. I had some Macivors cider which they have on tap. The Keogh's salt and malt vinegar crisps I ordered went down well too... Sean had some 8 Degrees Ochtoberfest and some dunkel I can't recall. 

Brew Dock are currently celebrating Docktoberfest...

From Brew Dock we walked to Mao on Chatham Row. 

Here's the menu...

I'm Mad for Mao... Isn't that the radio ad? Well I'd totally agree with that! We had decided we'd try somewhere we hadn't been before and why not choose somewhere that's been around for a couple of decades?? 

Great menu. For starters I chose Wasabi prawns - butterfly prawns in a spicy wasabi sauce served with a mango salsa. It had a little kick but not overly spicy. Really yum!

Sean had the chilli squid and he let me try some so I had my first taste of squid here. It was OK but much better when dipped in the accompanying sweet chilli sauce.  

For my main course I had the Thai green chicken curry. This has got to be the best one I've had yet - the sauce was spicy, plenty of chicken and I actually liked all the veg etc they added to the curry (yellow peppers, red peppers, red onion, fresh chilli, spring onion & button mushrooms) 

Sean popped his ramen "cherry" ha! He chose the Chilli Chicken Ramen which was spicier than he expected - to be fair the server warned us about this and it has three chillies on the menu!

For wine we chose a Pinot Grigio - lovely peachy flavour and I loved the glasses.

There's a very nice feel to the place. Awesome tuneage from the DJ in the corner :) 

The only reason drawback about here was that I was far too warm!!! 

After there we stopped in at P. Macs for one drink after dinner. Place was hopping as I think it is most weekends.

I was delighted to find they were serving Lindemans Framboise - it's rare enough in Dublin itself but they have it on tap! Brilliant :) 

Yes it is a little dark and quite hipstery but so what? If you're after a decent beer selection, great vibe, nice friendly staff & good service then this is the spot.

Will definitely have to try another visit!!!

Saturday morning we went to Dundrum Centre for a search for a new winter coat. Stopped at Frango's world cuisine for breakfast. Huge selection of food here but I chose a Nutella crepe at their La Creperie... Served with mini marshmallows this was decadent and delicious!!!

For dinner on Saturday evening I had chicken Wellington and Sean had veal croquettes served with yams. All from Fallon & Byrne. So so good! 

Sunday we took a trip to the People's Park Farmers market in Dun Laoghaire. 

Loved wandering around in the late September sunshine. Picked up treats at The Baking House stall - got six muffins for €5 because we couldn't choose flavours to buy! 

After that we stopped at the Llewelyn's orchard produce stall. Here we bought some apple cider vinegar and a bottle of their medium cider to try that.

We didn't get any of it but you could have got "Christmas in a cup" here - warmed apple juice with spices and a shot of whiskey!! 

Took a quick coffee break at Fallon & Byrne. Sat outside and enjoyed the coffee. Such a nice day.

After there we explored the market some more. Got some hummus and sundried tomato pesto from the Lilliput Trading Co. 

Last purchase here was sourdough bread from the piece of cake bakery.

This is a great spot to while away a Sunday afternoon. Great choice of produce and craft products from all the vendors. The smells are incredible!! 

Once we left Dun Laoghaire we drove to Farmleigh Estate and visited the farmers market there. The only thing we bought here was some Compte cheese but it was lovely to have a wander around here too in the Autumn sunshine. 

Culture night 2015

Culture night - What a brilliant night !!! 

The only places I went to were Christ Church Cathedral, Saint Patrick's Cathedral & The Freemasons Hall. 

I'm almost ashamed to say that I've not been to any of these three places considering I've lived in Dublin all my life!!! 

Highlights of Christ Church. I mean never mind the building itself - it left me a little awestruck! Strongbow's tomb, the treasures in the crypt, the mummified Tom & Jerry (the cat and the rat that were trapped in an organ in the 1860s) and the Magna Carta 800 celebration. 

They had a little story telling section set up - very sweet! There was also some costumes from The Tudors. 

From there we walked to Saint Patrick's Cathedral - the photo was taken as we walked through the park beside the Cathedral.

The building is in the shape of a cross. There really is so much to see here and there is such a feeling of history as you wander through. Highlight for me here was the model of the building and the bust of Jonathan Swift. This should definitely be a must do for any tourists or even native Dubliners who have never been.

From there we went for food. Everywhere looked like it was hopping but we stopped in at Bobos Burgers on Dame Street and managed to get a table. I chose the cock a doodle do - Southern Fried chicken goujons burger with BBQ sauce, lettuce and red onion. 

Sean got a hamburger and we got skinny fries which had a little sprinkling of rosemary on them. 

Great food and the staff are lovely. Great pit stop to refuel :) 

Our final stop of the evening was the Freemasons Hall which is in a Victorian building. It looked to me like this had the biggest queue and wow oh wow I can see why! Where do I even start with here? The building is pretty spectacular yet I've never paid it much attention!!! There was a guide advising us to start upstairs. First stop was the Grand Lodge room. 

The ceiling was something else!!! It was just incredible. The next highlight was the Knights Templar room. That is really something. Took a seat along the side of the room to just take It all in. 

We then wandered through the rest of the Hall before visiting the museum. It felt a little like walking in history - it's fantastic to have something like Culture Night to experience and learn something new. 

Think Culture Night is a really great idea and there was such a nice vibe around town that night... Will definitely do it again next year!!

Third time unlucky

So I've thought long and hard about posting this but I decided I needed to be balanced because I had such brilliant visits previously but unfortunately it was third time unlucky for our visit to L. Mulligan Grocer. 

My fiancé chose here for his 40th birthday celebration with his parents and brother after we had been twice and enjoyed the food and drinks. 

We arrived about 15 minutes before our booking but that wasn't an issue and we were brought to our seats but after that? Well the best I can say is that service was chaotic. 

Here's the food menu for that night... 

The birthday boy's drinks were wrong, firstly he ordered a saison beer that didn't arrive. He asked another server who initially said they were changing the keg and eventually then told him they didn't have it anymore! 

Then after our meal he tried to order whiskey (Ardbeg Uigeadail) that was on their menu. First it didn't turn up and then we asked for it again he was brought a cocktail we didn't order before another server came back to query what the order was and he was finally told that they didn't have it anymore!!! 

When we got the bill the wrong drink that arrived and returned was still on the bill. I got that removed pretty sharpish!! I was a little disappointed with the number of jellies that arrived with the bill - also it didn't turn up in the Oxford maths tin like on previous visits. We asked for the bill and then we had another server come over with a bit of an attitude to ask for the table back. 

Unfortunately all of the little touches I loved on previous visits weren't there this time. What a let down! 

I have to admit that we left a crappy tip and told the manager on our way out. We got a bottle of wine as an apology which was something but honestly it wasn't a great night for my fiancé's 40th birthday celebration.

With that being said the only reason I haven't been so harsh is that I absolutely loved my food!!! 

To start I had the black pudding with almond crumbed sweet potato and apple croquette, goats cheese, pickled beetroot and balsamic syrup. 

Sean chose the hake and haddock scotch egg served with samphire, grapefruit, crispy capers and charred lemon. 

Sean's mum chose the black pudding as well. His dad had the butternut squash soup and his little brother chose the scotch egg. 

For my main course I ordered the chicken Kiev which came with a drumstick, charred corn, beetroot slaw and twice cooked chips.

Sean ordered the pork belly which came with a bubble and squeak potato cake, pear and star anise purée, roasted carrot and crispy sage and gravy.

His mum and dad both chose the rib eye and his brother had the boar burger. 

Finally I was the only one who ordered dessert. I chose the smoked caramel brownie which came with blackcurrant purée, candied popcorn, apple chantilly cream and an apple crisp.

I ordered 3fe French press which unfortunately was very weak. 

To sum it all up everyone loved the food. It is still amazing but I'm sorry to say we were left feeling a little like an inconvenience. There was an air of complacency or dare I say it just a little air of carelessness about the staff this time. Such a shame! 

Super Supper Club

A few weeks ago Ugly Duckling tweeted about a Supper Club in their George's Street Arcade - €39.95 for a five course tasting menu with drinks and I managed to get two tickets and last night we went along. 

Started off with a Wimbledon cocktail - Gin, Pimms, cucumber, lemon and lime. Soo good :)

First course was a crispy hen's egg with asparagus and Hollandaise sauce. The egg was so good. When you cut into it the yolk just oozed. I think it was the nicest Hollandaise I've tried. This was paired with a glass of white wine. 

Second course was scallops with grapefruit and a pea and avocado purée. The scallops were really well cooked and v moreish :) They paired this with a Brooklyn Sorachi Ace beer.

Next up was a passion fruit, mango and gin sorbet. Seriously refreshing! 

Main course was pork three ways - a pork chop, crispy pork belly and a  ham hock croquette served with mash, carrot purée and cabbage with apple and vanilla. This was paired with a delicious Floris apple beer.

Last course was chocolate heaven!!! Chocolate macaroon, chocolate sauce, chocolate brownie and a warm chocolate soup. Absolutely amazing and I wanted to lift the bowl and finish it off but managed to behave :-) 

This was the first time they've done the supper club and it was mainly the guys' families that were there but I'm chuffed to have been part of it - huge thanks guys!!! 

If you've been to either Ugly Duckling spots then this is is not what you'd expect to be eating but OMG the guys are incredibly talented. The supper club definitely needs to become a regular thing. Brilliant night