Are Irish food and restaurants underrated

pwurple · 24-07-2015 3:46pm

the beer revolu wrote: »

I've known many places over the years where you could get good ham between slices of good bread.

I was going to say this too. Loads of sandwich places in Cork do real bread, with decent ham, or whatever else you ask for. Wouldn't be hard to find at all. Oscar's cafe, the wholly grain, Ross's, cafe gusto, the long valley, the sandwich stall (might be a bit fancy), brackens, joup...

Anywhere that has arbutus breads listed as their bakery
http://www.arbutusbread.com/#!from-the-chefs/ccgn

Here's a list of more.
http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/best-sandwiches-cork-2190312-Jul2015/?utm_source=shortlink

Alun · 24-07-2015 3:48pm

I like my beer too, but I'm not really enamoured of the style of the vast majority of "craft" beers in Ireland to be honest. I much prefer a good pint (or 2, 3 or 4!) of English real ale over the over-hopped pale ales that have become the trend over here. Oh yes, and there's more to German beer than just "lager" too,as I'm sure you're aware ... Altbier, Kölsch, Bock, Doppelbock, Weissbier etc. etc.

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-07-2015 4:03pm

Alun wrote: »

I like my beer too, but I'm not really enamoured of the style of the vast majority of "craft" beers in Ireland to be honest. I much prefer a good pint (or 2, 3 or 4!) of English real ale over the over-hopped pale ales that have become the trend over here. Oh yes, and there's more to German beer than just "lager" too,as I'm sure you're aware ... Altbier, Kölsch, Bock, Doppelbock, Weissbier etc. etc.

+1000
If in Germany try an Altbier, or go to Bavaria during "Bockbier" season and have your socks knocked off, don't just drink Export (lager), but make sure you get Pils. Weissbier not really my thing, too sweet. You will also find that the logos change from town to town, because small regional brewers are still very much the norm.
I can't even list the amount of beer available, it's in the thousands, along with bread, cheese, wurst and so on.
Beer and everything else is gradually improving here, I still remember when I came here first in the 90's, Ireland was a culinary wasteland. There was one sort of bread (white sliced pan), one sort of cheese (cheddar) and one sort of sausages (50% sawdust).
Now things are vastly better, the cheese and sausage selection is far, far better and a lot of it is very nice. Bread is still catching on, people cannot get the fact that rye and sour doe exist in their heads. As for soda bread, I simply cannot accept that a bread should rise by anything other than yeast.

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-07-2015 4:20pm

Just as an additional:

It would seem that most of the good examples cited here are located in Urban centers. So if you live in the country, one will see an entirely different culinary landscape. So me living in de shticks would see a totally different Ireland than someone who likes to go out in Dublin or Cork.
Also, good food don't come cheap in this country, when I go out with herself and we're spending €40 (that's for both together!), it's already stretching my finances.
In a lot of European countries you can get decent food in fairly middle of the road establishments. This is where Ireland seems to struggle.
I'll have a think and try to come up with a few good examples in the interest of fairness and most of my ranting is based on food experiences over 20 years and things have changed quite a lot since then! I just miss the food I grew up with and that's never going to happen here, so forgive my rantings.

stefanovich · 24-07-2015 5:10pm

Not a fan of all the micro brewery, craft beer, IPA malarkey. (too trendy) My go to canned beer would be Becks, I quite like that Japanese beer Asahi, Kronenberg is nice. Went through a phase of Weissbier but got sick of it.

I cannot stand Carling etc

Alun · 24-07-2015 5:15pm

stefanovich wrote: »

Went through a phase of Weissbier but got sick of it.

Weissbier has it's place, on a sunny cafe terrace on a warm summer's day with a slice of lemon watching the world go by, but in cold, damp Ireland it just doesn't seem right to me.

on_my_oe · 24-07-2015 5:15pm

Ireland is the fifth country I've lived in, and generally I'm disappointed by the food.

In the supermarkets the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables is I feel expensive for what it is, and most seems to be imported. Buying seasonally doesn't improve it. I've given up buying pears, apricots, peaches and apples; Lidl often sells bags of royal gala apples from NZ, which have been shipped to Poland frozen to be defrosted and packed in bags before bring transported here. Meat is a bit hit and miss - you can get good meat but again it's often pricey (though NZ lamb is cheaper here than in NZ?). I've thrown out more meat here than anywhere else I've lived (and the fridge is brand new!).
The mid range restaurant is either bland and expensive for tosh, or crap and very expensive. We used to go out in the UK weekly and feel we got good value for £59-70 (or less) - here I can count on one hand the number of places I've enjoyed under €120 for two people. Ireland often feels like it's late to the party on food trends, like burritos or sushi or BBQ meat or street food. I miss the food markets of France, and can't wait to explore the food in Berlin at Christmas.

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-07-2015 8:31pm

stefanovich wrote: »

Not a fan of all the micro brewery, craft beer, IPA malarkey. (too trendy) My go to canned beer would be Becks, I quite like that Japanese beer Asahi, Kronenberg is nice. Went through a phase of Weissbier but got sick of it.

I cannot stand Carling etc

Weissbier is the dumb blonde of the beer world. Intriguing to begin with, but gets too sickly sweet fast. Flensburger, Budvar, Becks, Jever, Bit, Krombacher.

quaalude · 21-08-2015 11:03am

quaalude wrote: »

I saw this yesterday and thought of this thread:

The food in the Beggar's Bush is, like most pub grub, overpriced, incinerated ballast for those who went out after work "for one" but then stayed out drinking - but calling frozen deep-fried chicken nuggets, sausages and chips a "tasting plate" is unbelievable.

I noticed the Beggar's Bush upped the price of their fabulous "tasting plate" to €9, sparing no expense on carefully altering the menu board outside:

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aperocot · 21-08-2015 11:17am

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Image of UHT Milk

The same goes for Switzerland. A country that pats itself on the back for its amazing dairy. "Swiss cheese" has become a name and is famous its holes. French cheese or even English cheese has so much more variety and depth of flavour than the Swiss.

The milk is 75% UHT and thus slightly sweet and, well, unpleasant.

The beef is fine, but nothing special. Overpriced. The supermarkets "gourmet" lines are often Irish or South American pieces. Says a lot.

The Hill Billy · 21-08-2015 1:00pm

"Swiss cheese" is a label given by Americans (& latterly by Europeans) to bland cheese with holes in it. The Swiss make some fantastic cheeses.

All of their meats are horribly overpriced compared to other European countries.

But we digress... This thread is about Irish food & restaurants.

aidan24326 · 24-08-2015 5:04pm

munchkin_utd wrote: »

sorry but the general irish food you get out is poor to be honest.
its no good having decent ingredients if you make a hames of cooking it. I've had nicer food at motorway service stations in Germany than most of what I ever have in Ireland. And even then you can get fatty chewey putrid mutton served as lamb in even good restaurants.

Aside from what my mother cooks, and even then I have issues with its blandness at times, food is the last thing I look forward to when visiting Ireland. It barely registers to be honest as how can you look forward to something when you are never sure it'll be edible let alone enjoyable.

Then you're going to the wrong places. Can't speak for the smaller towns but Dublin, Cork, Waterford and to a lesser extent Galway now have some really good places to eat and the overall standard has improved dramatically from what it used to be.

wakka12 · 24-08-2015 5:11pm

I hate rating the food of an entire country with millions of people living in it..its ridiculous. People will go to say Paris or London for a weekend and come back saying the food was good/bad/average etc probably visited maybe 3/4 restaurants during the trip and tried to eat cheaply as possible(within reason) and they make this general statement about an entire cities food despite the fact that theres thousands of restaurants in it.

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-08-2015 6:33pm

aidan24326 wrote: »

Then you're going to the wrong places. Can't speak for the smaller towns but Dublin, Cork, Waterford and to a lesser extent Galway now have some really good places to eat and the overall standard has improved dramatically from what it used to be.

"What it used to be" being the key phrase here.
Things have dramatically improved over the years, I'm still mentally scarred from a lasagne in Lahinch in the 90's, the "food" a nightclub in Ennis served when they still had to, an endless parade of sandwiches that consisted of bread and ham and nothing else (nope, not even a knob of margarine, butter being unavailable for 90% of sandwich bars), takeaway coffee that was instant and the rest of whatever you could get being boiled and fried to absolute death.
The first 10 years here (from the mid 90's on) were absolutely shocking.
Things are better, there is good food.

katydid · 24-08-2015 6:58pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

" the "food" a nightclub in Ennis served when they still had to,
.

Ah, the good old "chicken suppers"...

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-08-2015 7:08pm

katydid wrote: »

Ah, the good old "chicken suppers"...

I'm not quite sure, I never was able to ID the "meat". At the time DNA testing to determine at least the species of origin was not widely available to the public.

:cool:

katydid · 24-08-2015 9:49pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

I'm not quite sure, I never was able to ID the "meat". At the time DNA testing to determine at least the species of origin was not widely available to the public. :cool:

My boyfriend back in the early eighties was a dj (big boxes of records, deck and speakers in the back of an escort) and we used to do discos in a hotel in a seaside town which shall remain nameless. Our joke was to announce that "seagull suppers are now being served". I don't think anyone ever noticed

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-08-2015 10:08pm

aidan24326 wrote: »

Then you're going to the wrong places. Can't speak for the smaller towns but Dublin, Cork, Waterford and to a lesser extent Galway now have some really good places to eat and the overall standard has improved dramatically from what it used to be.

Also, have you ever tried the food in German motorway rest stations? Some of them are actually seriously good.

katydid · 24-08-2015 10:15pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Also, have you ever tried the food in German motorway rest stations? Some of them are actually seriously good.

Expensive, though

dr.fuzzenstein · 24-08-2015 10:33pm

katydid wrote: »

Expensive, though

Dont recall, its been a while. But have no specific memory of thinking it was particularly expensive. Mind you, about 2006 myself and the OH went to Paris for a week. Ireland was so bad back then that we thought "oh, this isn't so bad" when looking at the prices there.

katydid · 24-08-2015 10:54pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Dont recall, its been a while. But have no specific memory of thinking it was particularly expensive. Mind you, about 2006 myself and the OH went to Paris for a week. Ireland was so bad back then that we thought "oh, this isn't so bad" when looking at the prices there.

I travelled on the motorway north out of Berlin in June, and we stopped off twice, once on the way out and once on the way back. When I think about it, the food prices weren't too bad, about ten to twelve euro for a main course. I think what's expensive in those places are the small things; the drinks, the ice creams, that kind of thing.

The food can vary. On the way up we stopped at one place where they had gorgeous food, very German. Goulasch soup, beef roulade, that kind of thing. I've had gorgeous pumpkin stew in the same place one autumn a few years ago.

We stopped at a different place on the way down, don't remember the name of it, but it had a McDonalds and a restaurant. The food in the restaurant was OK. Chicken and chips, that kind of thing.

At least there are motorway services. All you have between Waterford and Dublin is a stop off in Castledermot to eat the usual deli-counter stuff.

aperocot · 25-08-2015 10:37am

katydid wrote: »

I travelled on the motorway north out of Berlin in June, and we stopped off twice, once on the way out and once on the way back. When I think about it, the food prices weren't too bad, about ten to twelve euro for a main course. I think what's expensive in those places are the small things; the drinks, the ice creams, that kind of thing.

The food can vary. On the way up we stopped at one place where they had gorgeous food, very German. Goulasch soup, beef roulade, that kind of thing. I've had gorgeous pumpkin stew in the same place one autumn a few years ago.

We stopped at a different place on the way down, don't remember the name of it, but it had a McDonalds and a restaurant. The food in the restaurant was OK. Chicken and chips, that kind of thing.

At least there are motorway services. All you have between Waterford and Dublin is a stop off in Castledermot to eat the usual deli-counter stuff.

I remember travelling around the UK as a kid thinking Little Chef was absolute gourmet cuisine at its finest!

I do appreciate the deli counter from time to time. Nothing like it on the continent. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is open to debate.

aidan24326 · 25-08-2015 1:33pm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

"What it used to be" being the key phrase here.

That's what I was getting at though, we still have some way to go but compared to when I was growing up in the 80s we really have come a long way.

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Also, have you ever tried the food in German motorway rest stations? Some of them are actually seriously good.

Never been to Germany. Here of course they decide to build motorways without bothering to even put service stations on them.

dr.fuzzenstein · 25-08-2015 1:48pm

aperocot wrote: »

I remember travelling around the UK as a kid thinking Little Chef was absolute gourmet cuisine at its finest!

I do appreciate the deli counter from time to time. Nothing like it on the continent. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is open to debate.

Yes, I wouldn't know what to do without Brennan's bread, lo lo margarine, reformed pieces of ham with no more than 20% added water and grated cheese byproduct.
On the continent people have to choke these down:

katydid · 25-08-2015 2:09pm

aperocot wrote: »

I do appreciate the deli counter from time to time. Nothing like it on the continent. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is open to debate.

.
Not all deli counter food is bad. If you are choosy, you can get yourself something fairly healthy. Some of it is awful, though.

KungPao · 28-08-2015 1:45pm

People often advise on not eating the side salad on dishes served in cheap to mid-range places...not fresh/possibly recycled :eek: If true, way to value your customers. Could be very dodgy with mayonaise too.

A guilty pleasure of mine is chipper food from the "Italian" places...but would it kill them to serve some lemon and tartar sauce? They kind of go hand in hand with fried fish.

As for Irish "Delicatessens" (they serve delicacies, don't you know lol), they are just about one level up from being a disgrace. I stopped going to them in about 2006...couldn't stand any more yellow tastless gunk as a spread, and rubber raw rashers, tasteless bread, just enough "ham" to make it look like there's enough...tuna riddled with sweetcorn, disgusting looking egg mayonaise etc.

Bread in general is awful stuff.

Poor quality burgers. It's either a floppy McDonalds type or if you go gourmet it's 90% bun and it doesn't fit in your mouth, and served with 7 "rustic" chips in a tiny bucket...which brings me to:

Chips, chips, chips. Chips with everything. If you just ordered chips they'd probably ask if you wanted a side of chips with that.

As said by others, produce is generally good but the stuff cooks do with it is sub standard unless you are going to a high-end place. If I am out and about in town and get peckish I start to worry! It's hard to find a place for a decent snack that is fairly priced and isn't just ****e like goujons or a basket of sausages or mediocre sammiches.

veetwin · 28-08-2015 2:09pm

Interesting discussion and some interesting perceptions.

Just back from 2 weeks in western France. We were in self catering accommodation and cooked ourselves using food bought from local markets and supermarkets at 75% of the time.

A few observations;

French supermarkets have a much superior selection of fresh food,meat and seafood and it's super fresh.

French bread, cakes and pastries are way superior to most on offer here.

We ate in local restaurants and Brassieries usually at lunchtime. We were usually disappointed with both the quality and value on offer. Portions were small and the food was in general uninspired and even bland. Had we paid similar in an irish restaurant we would have expected to leave much more satisfied.

Service was generally woeful also with one or two exceptions. Again we would expect far superior service in an equivalent Irish restaurant.

meeeeh · 28-08-2015 2:37pm

Portions are a lot bigger in Ireland then in any other country I've eaten. That I think is part of the obesity problem here, because food certainly isn't that much healthier on the continent.

Lucena · 28-08-2015 2:58pm

@veetwin

Touristy area, was it? Out of interest, where was it and how much did you pay typically?

Where I live (not too far from Lyon) you can typically get lunch for 12-13 euros with starter, main course, cheese, dessert, coffee and wine. Tends to cater to labourers and the like, so hearty food rather than haute cuisine.

Something more refined would cost the same, but with a choice of cheese OR dessert, and coffee and wine not included.

veetwin · 28-08-2015 6:26pm

Lucena wrote: »

@veetwin

Touristy area, was it? Out of interest, where was it and how much did you pay typically?

Where I live (not too far from Lyon) you can typically get lunch for 12-13 euros with starter, main course, cheese, dessert, coffee and wine. Tends to cater to labourers and the like, so hearty food rather than haute cuisine.

Something more refined would cost the same, but with a choice of cheese OR dessert, and coffee and wine not included.

Yes Lucena, it was on the west coast in the Vendee region though we did our best to seek out non touristy restaurants. Most of the tourists were French anyway. Typically lunch for four including 2 children and a small pichet of wine came in between €50 and €75. At no stage did we leave saying what a great meal that was. I think had we tried similar in an Irish tourist area eg the west coast we would have eaten better with careful selection of the restaurant/pub

Are Irish food and restaurants underrated

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