All posts tagged: brunch

Brunch in Dublin

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I adore brunch. It’s the lovely comma after breakfast and before lunch that usually means it’s the weekend. I certainly didn’t grow up with it, and only heard fabled tales from my Mom (she grew up in New Jersey before moving to Ireland) of such things as diners and eggs and breakfast dishes that weren’t a heart clasping fry, and that were served after 12pm. We’ve now cottoned on to the sheer joy of eggs benedict of a Saturday afternoon and brunch is now an important part of the tapestry of restaurant menus in this fine city. Dublin has got some wonderful options for brunch, here are some of my favourites: Whitefriar Grill They had me at ‘anti fear potion’ on their drinks menu. The Whitefriar Grill  is a perfect Sunday brunch spot with a menu that has all the egg dishes you can dream of plus a few little gems like Jack McCarthy’s black pudding waffle with whipped foie gras and plum chutney if you feel like indulging. They have great cocktails, the staff are friendly and …

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 …

Restaurant Crush: Brother Hubbard, Capel Street, Dublin.

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The best time to have lunch is never lunchtime. I adore the wonderful, bumbled, disarray of having meals the wrong way round, or at the punctuation points of day when the world, and everyone else, are busy. Everything tastes sweeter when you are having something at the cheekiest times of day. Like the first sip of a beer or bubbles on holidays, far too early, far too irresistible. Or leftover cake at breakfast, far too sweet, far too delicious. Lunch in Brother Hubbard’s on Dublin’s Capel Street was in the heavenly part of late afternoon. And it was supposed to be just a coffee. The long room has cleverly got what I call its lipstick on properly with waist level displays of cakes, salads, scones and delicious treats upon entering. Even though it was a very late lunch, the long and narrow room was full, but we managed to get a table outside in their sweet and sunny little back terrace. A talented friend, Kevin Powell, had told me about this little café, so it …

Farewell at Fumbally

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I’m fed up with goodbyes. In the last year I’ve had some very dear friends move to a country or continent that ends with the letter ‘A’, has seven star hotels in aggressive heat or somewhere you can’t get ‘proper Tayto.’ The destination was London for the latest parting friend. His talent hasn’t had the chance to be rewarded here, so he has made the brave and, in his mind, necessary decision to leave. The day before he left we decided to meet for lunch. Lunch is easy for goodbyes. You can’t cry over soup and sandwiches. He suggested a new cafe called ‘The Fumbally’ in Dublin 8. Dublin 8 has always fascinated me. Since moving to Dublin from Donegal 10 years ago, it’s still a postcode that seems to go on forever with places within that are equally hip and horrific. Perhaps that’s the trick of it, and I always get lost there, even when I lived there. The Fumbally, just off New Street, is a place I knew I would get lost trying …