Fire Restaurant - Dublin

On my last evening, my colleague R and I got to talking about food. She recommended Fire as a place with excellent cocktails and steaks. Since I wasn't sure where to go, I decided to head over there. It's next to the Mansion House, which is some sort of event place, and the restaurant itself is kinda huge. It's in one giant room with extremely high ceilings. It's rather daunting, bordering on gawdy. It's another place that probably considers itself fine dining. It sure has fine dining prices, that's for damn sure. Did I get cocktails? No. Did I get steaks? No. So here's what I did get.
Some complimentary bread. It was only ok. They have their own brand of water. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I got the soup, which was sweet corn and fresh tomato. Only thing though, I don't recall any tomatoes being in this at all. It was more of a creamy corn soup. I quite liked it, but the name and description was a bit of a misnomer.
For my entree I got the pan fried fillet of monkfish, served with a basil and lemon hollandaise sauce with asparagus and scallion mashed potatoes. This dish was quite good, but man, so just not worth the high price tag. It was three fairly teeny bits of monkfish, a small heap of mashed potatoes, and three asparagus. This is all you get for nearly 30 euros? It's slightly offensive. I said it was good, but it was way overpriced. The soup was a bit expensive too, but it was a lot of soup, so that price point didn't offend me as much. I was pretty stuffed though, so I didn't have room for dessert. The food was good, but it wasn't great. It wasn't good enough to have the price tags that it did. The high prices seem to be because of the ambiance, but for me, the ambiance wasn't that rich either. It was a bit showy and cheesy. So maybe I would have done better if I had gotten steak and cocktails as per the recommendations, but I have a feeling I would have found them not worth their price either. For me, I say skip this one. You can get much better food elsewhere in Dublin. Service was only ok. Again, for these prices, I expected much more.

Burlington Hotel Buffet Breakfast

My last hotel on my european journey was the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. This was my least favorite out of the three breakfast buffets. None of the fruit was fresh, except for whole oranges and apples. These berries were frozen, these apricots and grapefruits were canned, and there wasn't a kiwi in sight. The yogurt wasn't bad. The pastries were ok, but nothing compared to the ones from Basel. Croissants... didn't try them though. Cheese and cold cuts, it's everywhere in Europe. The cereal selection was pretty good. There were these weird cereal blocks here. I think it's weetabix, whatever that is. And I thought I'd try a bit of the full irish breakfast before I left. Sausage, black pudding, and some beans. The beans were fine, a little on the bland side. The sausage was pretty good, and I'm not usually a sausage link type of person. The black pudding wasn't bad either, but it wasn't really my thing. I just wanted to taste it to see what it was like. Not bad, but I'm not necessarily going to order it.

French Fine Dining At Pearl Brasserie

After my fine dining experience the night before, I decided to treat myself for the rest of the trip and continue with the fine dining streak. So for my next adventure, I dined at Pearl Brasserie. It is a French brasserie located in a basement. But don't worry, it's a very nice restaurant, despite its underground location. From my first moment in, it was an extraordinary experience. And that's exactly what it was, an experience. It wasn't just a regular meal, it was an event. The place is very nice, but not snooty at all. There are light fixtures that look like pearl onions. I assume that's where the pearl in Pearl Brasserie came from.
Complimentary whole wheat baguette with pesto and butter. This butter was incredibly rich and amazing. And while I'm not normally a pesto person, I enjoyed it on the baguettes.
While waiting for my entree, we were all treated to a complimentary appetizer. It was pork with cumin with a horseradish sauce. Man, was this thing good. With a start like this, I knew my entree was going to kick ass.
And kick ass it did. I got the seared queen scallops and dublin bay prawns. It was served with curried gnocchi, and fresh garden peas, in a prawn bisque. Everything about this dish was amazing. The scallops and prawns were perfectly cooked, the gnocchi was tender, the peas had just enough crunch, and the bisque had an amazing flavor. I could have licked this plate. And if I wasn't surrounded by so many high class people, I totally would have.
I couldn't stop eating. Since it was french brasserie portions, I still had room, and a need to keep eating. So I got the creme brulee, and my server said it was a good choice. I love me some creme brulee, and if it's on a menu, and I'm feeling dessert, there's a good chance I'm going to pick it. This one was particularly great. It was made with organic free range eggs, and you know what, you really could tell. It had good texture, a lovely strong vanilla flavor, and a nice and crispy burnt crunch on top.

And let me tell you about the service. This place is run like a machine. But not in a cold and robotic way. Just in an incredibly precise and well-oiled machine kind of a way. Everyone worked as a team, and they were immaculate professionals. Everyone was nice, friendly, and great at their jobs. And you could tell they deeply cared about what they were doing. This was one of the most memorable meals I've ever had in my life. It was the type of meal where they spoil you a bit, and well, I enjoyed it. I wholeheartedly recommend anyone in Dublin to try this place out. You'll remember it for the ages!

Brazilian Fine Dining In Dublin

When I went to Green Nineteen, I had actually wanted to go to Sabor Brazil, but it was closed. So when I got back to Dublin, that's where I headed. The weather was a bit warm for hot stew, but I didn't care. My body wanted feijoada!

The place is really small and tucked away on a side street. It looks really crappy from the outside, but on the inside, it's really fancy. Or at least they try to be. It was almost too fancified that it borderlined cheesy, but that kind of made it charming. The tablecloths and the chair covers were a bit too much for me. And fine fancy dining when it comes to brazilian food is kind of an oxymoron. I was literally the only diner there. Which is a shame, but apparently, sundays are really slow in Dublin. It was fine with me, at least I knew I would have their full attention.
While waiting for my feijoada to come out, they gave me a little amuse bouche. This was like a shaved iced type of thing, made with cachaca, lime, and other goodies. Kind of like a frozen shaved caipirinha served in a cute little glass with a spoon. Whatever it was, I liked it.
The menu isn't too big, but boy, is it expensive. I ordered the feijoada, and here's everything it came with. My bowl of piping hot feijoada, a heaping of buttery rice, hot greens, sliced oranges, some spicy oil, farofa, and a veggie vinaigrette. Despite the freakishly inflated price, everything was delicious, and quite authentic. I did not finish everything and I was beyond stuffed. I guess for "fine dining" in Dublin it was not necessarily expensive, but for brazilian food and feijoada, it was ridiculous. If you order feijoada in brazil, it would probably cost a couple of bucks. This was well over 20 euros. And when you translate that to dollars... well, it ends up being about $30 overpriced. But whatever, it was still good, and the service was excellent. After all, I had the server all to myself!

Sabor Brazil
50 Pleasant Street
Dublin
01 4750 304

Flying Again

The next leg in this journey was in Switzerland, so I headed off to the airport to catch my flight to Zurich. Grabbed a lovely latte at Soho Coffee. It was excellent.
Swiss Air, my first time on this fine carrier. Great flight. They even gave us sandwiches, and I didn't have to pay for it. This is laugenbread, which I've been seeing all over the place now. There was sliced chicken, cheese, and mustard on it. At first, I freaked out about the mustard because I'm not a mustard fan, but I just decided to eat it anyway, and it was just fine. I could barely taste the mustard, even though it was very seedy looking. I am definitely a fan of this bread though! They even asked us if we wanted seconds... but I did not partake. The other sandwiches were laugenbread also, but just with mozzarella cheese.
And yes, they gave us little mini toblerones too.

Green Nineteen

I actually hadn't planned on going to Green Nineteen this night. It was on my list, but I had really been hankering for some feijoada. So I had walked to Sabor Brazil and found out that it was closed. It looked like they had gone on holiday or something, and wouldn't be open again until the next day. The next day I would be leaving town. I had passed Green Nineteen on my walk to Sabor Brazil and noted to myself, oh, that's where Green Nineteen is. Well good thing I saw it, because I was starving, and then I had to end up going there. This place is cool. Yes, they have a big poster of Obama in their entry. It's modern, clean, and cool. Just cool. Lame description, yes, but it's true. This place seems to be quite popular, as I saw many people being turned away. I was lucky to get a spot right in the front where they have a couple of high tops.
I started with a red fruit smoothie that they made fresh just for me. I had wanted green but they only had this one available. It was super tangy and full of so many different fruits and berries. It was extremely seedy... but certainly tasty.
Their menu is actually quite small. And shocking to Dublin standards, these prices are positively cheap. Most things are 10 Euros or less. Seriously folks, that's cheap for Dublin! I asked the server for recommendations and one of the things he recommended was the lamb chump tagine. I went for it. It is a big hunk of lamb served with couscous and root vegetables. I'm not normally a lamb person, but I really enjoyed this. It had a tomato based sauce with lots of spices and it was delicious. The couscous was the perfect companion and even the root veggies (aside from carrots, as I dislike cooked carrots) were good. And this was only 10 euros! For something that equates to about $14-15 bucks, even that's cheap. They could, and should certainly charge more for a dish like this. That's even super cheap for american standards.
Service was great and super friendly. It's a cool place, but it's a totally relaxed and casual atmosphere. It's no wonder so many people want to eat here. I'm having good luck with Dublin eats on this trip!

Conrad Hotel Breakfast

I was staying at the Conrad Hotel and the buffet breakfast was included. It beats having to think about where and what I'm going to eat. Scones and pastries and spreads and such. Whence in europe, the obligatory Nutella.
I mostly stuffed my gourd with the fresh fruit, especially the kiwi. A big bowl of already peeled and cut up kiwi? It's like a dream! Some cheeses and some funny little irish yogurts. I wasn't too crazy about the yogurt. I tried one that came in a jar, and it just tasted a bit odd.
A bunch of breads, including irish soda bread. They also had hot items that are the normal bits and pieces of a traditional irish breakfast (bacon, eggs, tomato, baked beans, etc). And they had a really great variety of different juices (orange, mango, apple, tomato, etc). The coffee wasn't hot though. And they had a lovely selection of teas.

Thai Noodles In Dublin

I was staying in a fairly central part of Dublin centre, but I decided to roam around a bit to explore my surroundings. I ended up walking into a fairly residential and cute part of town, Ranelagh Village. It had a little strip of shops and restaurants and in general, life! I had read about Diep Le Shaker and saw that it had sister restaurants Diep Noodle Bar and Diep At Home so I decided to stop into the noodle version after all that walking. It's a thai place. They bill themselves as Thai and Vietnamese, but I'm sorry, there's nothing Vietnamese about this place. It's straight up thai.
I started with some spring rolls. These were nice and hot, but they were pretty boring. The dipping sauce was straight out of a bottle, and you didn't quite get enough of it. And for how little the rolls were, even though you got so many, these are expensive. But that's Dublin for ya, and that's the Euro.
For my entree I got the bangkok noodles, which was basically thai basil chicken with rice noodles. There was nothing extraordinary about this dish, but it was perfectly fine. It was certainly on par with other ok thai food I've had in the past. I haven't actually eaten that much thai food in my life, so I can't call myself any kind of connoisseur, but this was just ok. All the ingredients were fresh though, which is really fine by me. Again, this was expensive, if you think about it in dollars. You certainly couldn't charge $22 for something like this back home.
The service was good and the place itself is very nice. Attractively decorated, just the right amount of mood, and they play amazing music. Again, no problem with the credit card here as well.

Wagamama

The first and last time I went to Wagamama was when I was in London. This was forever and a half ago. I have no idea what I got that last time, but coincidentally enough, this place looked exactly like the last one. It's in the basement (do they only build restaurants in basements?) and has cafeteria type seating. I actually don't mind seating like this. I think whatever I ate that time years ago, I was underwhelmed. But I was willing to try it again.
They sell asian-esque food here. The options aren't that many. But it comes out pretty fast. I went with the spicy chicken ramen bowl. I also got one of their special fruit juices, which was freshly squeezed with various fruits, including apple, orange, and a few other delicious things I can't remember. I had to keep stirring it so that the apple pulp wouldn't just be floating at the top.To my shock (because I had extremely low expectations, and remembering my past Dublin meals to be so meh in the past, I was simply being realistic) my bowl of ramen was great. There wasn't anything fancy or complicated in here, but the broth was fantastic. Super zesty and full of flavor with a hint of spice. The chicken was well cooked and good quality, and the fixins were fresh. It was simple, yet delicious. And I was thankful it was so. I happened to pick something good that I liked, but that doesn't mean their other dishes are going to be as good. I'm pretty sure I got one of their noodle dishes last time, and it was probably pretty bland.The service is ok. Various people help you. One person takes your order and writes it down on your placemat. Another person might bring out your food. And then someone else may give you your check. But it's a pretty efficient system.

* A note about credit card usage. In preparation, I found a bunch of articles related to the credit card technology in europe being different than in the US, and that many businesses in europe would no longer take US credit cards since they do not have chip and pin technology. I have not had any issues so far. Everywhere that takes cards, that I've tried, has been fine in giving me a receipt to sign. So as of now, I would say no worries. They'll happily take your money.

La Croissanterie - French Fast Food

I literally roamed around for 6 hours waiting for my hotel... there's only so much walking you can do in Dublin before you run out of things to do. But if you roam around enough, you get hungry. There's a big indoor shopping area at the beginning of Grafton Street. There isn't too much to eat here and it's pretty touristy, but I was tired and just decided to eat at La Croissanterie. Turns out to be a french chain. They sell sandwiches (baguette types, paninis, etc) and some sweets. I got a special which comes with a sandwich, dessert, and drink. I forget what this sandwich was called, but it had country turkey (don't know what makes it country, except it has an orange-ish ring around the edges) and cole slaw. The sandwich wasn't terrible, but it was freezing cold (everything is kept in refrigerated display cases). If they had maybe heated it up or put it in a press or something, it would have been a thousand times better. The pastry was an apple puff and it was stupendous. So I'd have to say oui to the pastry and peut-etre to the sandwich.

Lemon Crepes

What an amazing first meal to have in Dublin. I was seriously lacking sleep having just flown overnight into a european morning. While roaming around the Grafton St area a bit, I happened upon Lemon Crepe & Coffee. I actually remembered the location of this place. I don't necessarily remember the restaurant being this restaurant when I was last in Dublin (years ago now) but I definitely remember the corner it was on. And that whatever restaurant it may have been those many years ago, it was always busy and full of people. I was not only tired, but starving, so I gave this a go. I thought this place would be a safe bet. Good decision girl!

I got the house special lemon crepe. It's served with organic syrup and a lemon wedge. And I also got a latte. Yes, I needed to stay awake! I honestly don't think much was in this crepe, if anything, but it doesn't really matter, because it's perfect. I haven't had that many crepes in my life, but this was the best one yet, and it had no fillings of any kind. It was the batter that made it so good. I could eat this all the time. Just plain. It needs no accessories!!! Not that the syrup and lemon weren't good on it, but it's not necessary. And it's big too! The latte was also excellent. He asked me if I wanted it strong or not, and I said not. I'm still in the process of acclimating myself to caffeine again. But it must have been not too strong, because I did just fine. This place is teeny tiny, and there are only a few spots inside and a few spots outside. Cash only folks, so bring your Euros!

Dining In The Skies

Heading over for my european jaunt, they actually fed us on this flight to Dublin. And it was even hot food! The entree was actually chicken in a cream sauce. This chicken was high quality chicken breast and well cooked! And the green beans and roasted potatoes that came with this were amazing! I'm completely serious. The roll and butter were also good. The salad sucked. Trying to keep mixed greens fresh in an airplane must not work. And this cake was good too. I know, I sound crazy, but this was a well appreciated meal.