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 

Wine, cider and Asian street food

Stopped in at Cavern at Baggot Street Wines on Upper Baggot Street after walking in the rain from the beer and cider festival at the RDS.

We didn't have food just had glasses of wine. I chose a Viognier - decent glass size.

The staff are so so nice and were v attentive! Brilliant vibe in a great space. 

You can also buy wine from Baggot Street wines and they charge corkage - I think it's €5 for wine. 

They brought out some popcorn with Parmesan, rosemary and sea salt. They were so moreish!! 

I will definitely be back for more wine and food!

The rain had disappeared when we were leaving so we took a stroll around Stephens Green and then headed Camden Street for food. 

Lots of places to choose from but we settled on Neon Asian Street food.

First off I will say that this would have been an exceptional visit but for the fact I'm not really a fan of communal style food sitting beside people and listening in on their conversations. 

You're brought to your seat, given menus and then when you're ready you go up to order at the counter.

I ordered Pinot Grigio and the Thai green curry with tiger prawns and steamed rice. The curries and rice are brought out in takeaway containers and the bowls are already on the table with plastic cutlery. 

The portions are generous and there were LOTS of prawns in the curry.  The curry had a lovely kick to it. 

The food is AWESOME!!! 

They give you cones so you can make your own soft serve ice cream but as you can see from my photo I'm not very good.

If you're a fan of Asian food you have got to try here!

Last stop of the evening was Against the Grain on Wexford Street. Just had a glass of Macivors Cider (they have it on draft here!) and then headed home! Spotted this on Leeson Street... Don't you just love Dublin sunsets?! 

Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival

Industries Hall looks a lot nicer when it's not set up for insurance exams (shudder!!) 

So you collect your glass and wrist band on the way in. Paid €2 to upgrade to the goblet glass. 

Didn't notice the route map so we basically "winged" it :-) 

Great choice of beers and ciders with a couple of distillers thrown in!!

Was good to see so many of the brewers there representing some very fine drinks indeed. 

I did try some beers such as Vincent van Coff by Mountain Man and the Rascals / 250 square coffee beer...

My favourites had to be the special ciders I tried from Toby's (saddle sore scrumpy) and Macivors (festival special) 

The honey cider from Doyles was a lovely way to start the journey. 

Food wise I chose sweet potato fries from Dave's woodfire pizza co (with rosemary & sea salt), thai curry from Bitchin kitchen and then some cookies from the Dublin Cookie Co. Sean went with the fish and chips from Say Fish. 

We tried the salt caramel, chocolate and beer and apple cider cookies. They were really good so we got a box of cookies to bring home! 

We were lucky that we went Saturday afternoon when it wasn't that crowded but the heat in the hall can get unpleasant!! We also managed to get a seat outside in the tent to eat our food and enjoy some tunes. 

My only issues were the lack of seating inside and the greenhouse effect inside the hall.