All posts filed under: Restaurants

Remembering elBulli

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Sunday October 18th  of 2009, table for 2 people at 7.30 p.m. under the name: CIARAN HAYDEN It is almost six years since I had the best dining experience of my life in elBulli restaurant. My friend Ciarán had won the gastronomic lottery and managed to get one of the 8,000 table bookings they offered a year. elBulli was a three Michelin star restaurant with head chef Ferran Adria at the helm until it closed a few years ago. The Godfather of molecular gastronomy’s cuisine was so sought after that the restaurant, on the Catalonian Costa Brava, received over two million requests a year for just 8,000 tables. Naturally, Ciarán and I thought we hadn’t a hope. He rang me a week before Christmas in 2008 to tell me about the table and I’m probably still not over it. Although it was over five years ago, I can still taste every dish. It was one of the most spectacular nights of my life.  Adrià closed the restaurant in 2011 because it was losing so much money. I was …

Review – The Cavern, Baggot Street

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One of the surest ways to my heart is a good cheese board. I don’t tend to order them in restaurants as they are often a menu’s lonely, back of the fridge afterthought, dragged out and given a quick shave in the hope the diner doesn’t notice. We do. It’s like the guy who douses himself with Lynx instead of showering. We just know.  So I was very excited about seeing what the Cavern, the new baby offshoot of Baggot Street Wines, offered on their cheese board. I’m a big fan of the wine shop, their staff are lovely, unpretentious and helpful and when they introduced a very good selection of Sheridan’s cheeses ‘to go’ by their cash register, I hoped it would evolve into a wine cellar. Enter The Cavern. I went on a Thursday evening with a very good friend who kindly ordered champagne to toast a recent happy event. It was delicious with star-like tiny bubbles. The staff members were attentive and warm, answering any questions we had and topping up drinks at just …

Restaurant review: The Vintage Kitchen, Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2

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This is a restaurant review from my previous website from March 2013. It was a special evening as I met my dear friend Paolo Tullio (R.I.P). You will find his review of the restaurant here. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. THIS was a blustery, rainy night that you wouldn’t be leaving a toasty house for, if at all possible. But the promise of an evening in the company of Paolo Tullio, and a quick scan of ‘The Vintage Kitchen’s’ menu was more than enough to get the brolly out. The Vintage Kitchen is only taking baby steps in getting its name out there in Dublin. However, if they keep the kind of standard we enjoyed, there will be some trouble in getting a table. Situated on Poolbeg Street, conveniently beside Mulligan’s pub (perfect for a digestif), it’s got a few achingly cool little touches. They play only vinyl records, and you can bring your own which they (might) play. If you’re cool enough. It was joyous to hear The Ronettes in a restaurant. …

Avoca Food Market and Salt Café, Monkstown, Dublin

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There is a gorgeous lull between Christmas and New Year where all that matters is what the next meal is. I was lucky enough to have my family come from Donegal to stay in Dublin this year, and after the chocolate comas, and tripping over the puppy one too many times came the, ‘What do we do now?’. We had a fine December afternoon in Dun Laoghaire seeing where James Joyce had once slept in the Martello Tower. Crouched, and with delicate steps, we reached the breezy and utterly lovely view at the top of those unforgiving stairs. Then onwards for lunch. It was my choice; and it was easy. Avoca is always somewhere  I love to go with my parents when they are in town. It’s like hiring a car and being given a Volvo. It’s reliable, trustworthy and you are guaranteed happy passengers and tummies. It’ll never be a sexy MG, but it will never as boring as a Ford. A solid all rounder. Salt at Avoca in Monkstown is one of my favourite …

Restaurant Review: Mishkins, Catherine Street, London

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I love birthdays. I love the delicious fluttery feeling in your tummy on the morning of it. I love the cards, the messages of love from my parents that make me cry, the breakfast, the lunch, the bubbles, the dinner, the karaoke where possible, the candles and the cake crumbs. I’m cheeky enough to stretch it into a birthday week. But this year, my best friend Niamh, knows me well enough to give me a gift that would turn it into a birthday season. While my birthday is at the end of June, she booked us a trip to London to visit our friend a few months later. After a gorgeous weekend trip, the last stop was to meet a friend for lunch at Mishkins, opposite the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, before heading to the airport. It’s owned by Russell Norman, proprietor of quite a few achingly hipster spots in London like ‘Polpo’ and ‘Polpetto.’ Mishkins describe themselves as a ‘kind of Jewish deli with cocktails.’ It’s not kosher, but the menu is laden with …