Marco Pierre White, or Patrick Guilbard Restaurant?

Africa

hi eeveryone

Basically i have a 1 year anniversary coming up, and already have a reservation at Fire... but thinking about it i dont think that it is upmarket enough (unless someone can convince me otherwise) but i have also never been there.

Last night i was watching the hells kitchen and remembered that Marco has a place across the road from Fire. And then i found the Partick Guilbard rest. So basically, i was wondering what you would recommened? Go for something nicer? Or stick with my Fire reservation? Money is not a problem cause its special occasion...

Reviews? thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks


this is for lunch, not dinner...

fmhickey

Hi There

MArco's restaurant has recieved mixed reviews and is very ordinary, as is Fire. if it is a special occasion i would recommend Guilbaud's or otherwise l'ecrivain and pearl brasserie on baggot street are both fantastic i love them both. They will really pull out all the stops for you. you will need to book any of these 3 soon though because they book out very quickly

antoniosicily

Patrick Guilbaud has two michelin stars, the tasting menu is 180 eu per person and you should expect wines at 80/100 eu pp; I don't even know who Marco Pierre is, even if there is much hype around this restaurant.

IMHO the best deal at the moment for high-range restaurant is l'ecrivain, have a look at their fixed-price menus; you could get away with 100 pp including wines. The dinner tasting menu, which is wonderful, is 125 eu pp including wines.

Africa

Ah i forgot to specify that this is LUNCH im going for... not dinner...

Its planned for about 2.30pm, and id like to book it today if i could!! Which is why im wondering where to go

So far the score is... (cause i have other threads)

Guilbard - 2 positive, 1 negative
Fire - 4 positive, 2 negative
Marco Pierre - 0 positive, 2 negative
L'ecrivian - 2 positive, 0 negative
Chapter One - 1 positive, 0 negative.

olaola

My personal favourite is Chapter One. I've never been to L'Ecrivain, but it's on my list

rich87

Go to Guilbauds, it has two michelin stars for a reason

Africa

Whats so amazing about it?

I also read its VERY VERY fancy... as in i will have to wear suit and she should be in ball dress?!

Looking for something slightly more casual, not proper casual, but maybe something that i can wear a smart shirt and good jeans and shoes, she can wear a dress or something... :S

olaola

If you're looking for something more informal but romantic - Le Mere Zou is a good bet. BTW Chapter One (I'm bleating now) is not that formal, a mate has lunch before a six nations match in Croker with his jersey on and they were only too happy to have him.

Africa

Yeah, i have just gotten an email from Chapter One. Close enough to where i live as well...

Guilbard - 3 positive, 1 negative
Fire - 4 positive, 2 negative
Marco Pierre - 0 positive, 2 negative
L'ecrivian - 2 positive, 0 negative
Chapter One - 4 positive, 0 negative.

Starting to like the look of Chapter One, and they just said that lunch finishes at 2 but if i was there for 2 they would accomadate me... sounds good. What do you guys think?

olaola

Africa wrote: »

Yeah, i have just gotten an email from Chapter One. Close enough to where i live as well...

Guilbard - 3 positive, 1 negative
Fire - 4 positive, 2 negative
Marco Pierre - 0 positive, 2 negative
L'ecrivian - 2 positive, 0 negative
Chapter One - 4 positive, 0 negative.

Starting to like the look of Chapter One, and they just said that lunch finishes at 2 but if i was there for 2 they would accomadate me... sounds good. What do you guys think?

We were talking to the head waiter about this... he said they are happy to accomodate anyone as long as they want to stay cos they're there anyway. I think as long as you get your order in before the kitchen closes they're cool.

antoniosicily

rich87 wrote: »

Go to Guilbauds, it has two michelin stars for a reason

yes, because the owner is french and they do french cuisine, Thornton should get his star back but anyway.

Chapter One is also good, if it's just for lunch I would give a try to the Guilbauld's restaurant, but remember that the prices are more than Ecrivain/Chapter One.

Le Mere Zou is over-rated and it cannot be compared to the high-range resturants above.

Africa

Hmm... I have just replied to Chapter One's email. Asking about corkage (cause fire wanted to charge me €25 to open a bottle of bubbly) so hopefully she will reply to me soon with information.

However, i am contacted several restaurants ( I am in the process of email the L'Ecrivian) so please keep your suggestions coming!!

Scoreboard
Guilbard - 4 positive, 1 negative
Fire - 4 positive, 3 negative
Marco Pierre - 1 positive, 2 negative
L'ecrivian - 3 positive, 0 negative
Chapter One - 5 positive, 0 negative.

CathyMoran

We went to fire for lunch for my birthday, they went out of their way to make it special - the staff were polite and attentive and the food was delicious, their prawn dish is amazing. I would rather have food that tasted amazing but was real food, if that is what you are looking for then Fire is excellent - I can not comment on the other places as we have never been there, but we really loved Fire.

Edit: we went from the A la carte (not strictly the lunch menu) but they had no problems with that.

rich87

antoniosicily wrote: »

yes, because the owner is french and they do french cuisine, Thornton should get his star back but anyway.

Yeah its nothing to do with the quality of the food:rolleyes:, Agree about Thornton btw

Seaneh

olaola wrote: »

If you're looking for something more informal but romantic - Le Mere Zou is a good bet. BTW Chapter One (I'm bleating now) is not that formal, a mate has lunch before a six nations match in Croker with his jersey on and they were only too happy to have him.

I've eaten there in jeans trainers and t-shirt during dinner service, they have once your are clean and dont smell it's fine policy, as do throntons, I've eaten dinner there in 3/4 lenght shorts and sandles!

antoniosicily

rich87 wrote: »

Yeah its nothing to do with the quality of the food:rolleyes:, Agree about Thornton btw

The quality of the food is more than excellent, I was only trying to explain why he has two stars

Seaneh

Patrick's restaraunt has two stars because (a) the food is the best you can get in dublin and (2) with the art they get on loan it's like eating in a world calss gallery.

Guilbaud's is the best eating establishment in the country, by a long way.

To the people who say Thorntons deserves to have two stars, you're wrong. Kevin himself has admitted he deserved to lose a star if not both, he let his ego and "Proformance" art and obsession with photography get in the way of his food for over a year, it was a merical he held onto two stars for as long as he did if you ask me.

While Kvin is, without doubt, a great chef he has been fantasising about opeing a place in singapore for far too long and this has cost the quality of food a lot, that coupled with his insane price adjustments in the last 3 years mean that his restaraunt has suffered.

Guilbaud's is on par with 2star kictchens in France/Italy/London/Spain where as thorntons IS NOT on par with 1 star kitchens in the same places and costs twice as much as most 2 star kitchens in france/italy so to say it deserved to have 2 stars is, in my opinion, laughable.

antoniosicily

Seaneh wrote: »

Guilbaud's is on par with 2star kictchens in France/Italy/London/Spain where as thorntons IS NOT on par with 1 star kitchens in the same places and costs twice as much as most 2 star kitchens in france/italy so to say it deserved to have 2 stars is, in my opinion, laughable.

Guilbaud can be on par with 2 star kitchens in France, where starred restaurants are pretty expensive, but I can assure you that at the same price you can go to a three stars restaurant in Italy, I think it's the same is Spain.

Thornton has the price of a two stars restaurant in Italy and one star in France so we could be on-par, based on what we look for. If you have a look at prices in England you will find that both Thorntons and Guilbauld are ridicously expensive but the comparison makes sense as soon as you factor in the foreign exchange cost.

As you know, it's a matter of taste so when it comes to this high-range restaurant we can all have personal opinions, comparing these two restaurants with other two stars places outside Ireland can be misleading, given that they have different styles (even if the basics are the same); anyway if you want to compare I'd like to suggest you some two stars restaurants in Italy, then you can come back and tell me what you think of Guilbauld's :-)

antoniosicily

Seaneh wrote: »

While Kvin is, without doubt, a great chef he has been fantasising about opeing a place in singapore for far too long and this has cost the quality of food a lot, that coupled with his insane price adjustments in the last 3 years mean that his restaraunt has suffered.

For the last two years the menu @Thornton's stayed at the same price (there is no reason to adjust them though, probably an adjustment can be done only downwards) and, again, two years ago Thornton's was not a two stars place, the food was great but his waiters and the sommelier were not the best, I've never eaten the years before so I cannot compare; anyway I've eaten there in December and I found some improvements, the waiters are a lot more professional now and the new sommelier is more expert; the food is still consistent and it is great so if you've not been there recently I suggest to go back and test.

Anyway, counting stars is not the best thing, we should talk of food quality and what you get in these restaurants (ecrivain included) is the best, then you can have different tastes or, if you write a red guide, assign stars based on your opinion and based on how much the restaurant is close to an ideal of French cuisine, but I think that it's useless to discuss about which restaurant should have one/two/three stars; I know that I started the discussion and I'm sorry; I'm also sorry that we are a little OT :-) Anyway I hope that who started this thread can get useful hints from this.

NewFrockTuesday

If its for a birthday Id plump fro L’Ecrivan. My previous boss used to use the place like a canteen (yea – he was loaded beyond belief) and I think out of the four (C1, Gbds, Thtns & L’E) it’s the most comfortable with top notch food and nobody minds if your boss nods off about 3.30pm and wakes up about 5 still holding vintage port in hand :rolleyes:

Pearl is brilliant too. Im a bit behind the times but is Sebastian still there? I haven’t been there in a few years and I keep meaning to go. I never ever had a bad meal in it. That’s prolly where id go actually come too think of it.

Enjoy wherever you go! I hope you have a lovely day!

AARRRGH

I've been to Patrick Guilbard a few times and I love it. Really, really good food with great service.

I've been there for lunch - much cheaper and just as good.

Marco's "Steak House and Grill" has very poor reviews, and I don't think a steak house is very romantic...

kmick

Heres my two cents

Guilbauds - Food/Service excellent. 2 stars makes it pricy though. Budget 400

Chapter 1 - Food Excellent/Service so/so. Really like this place and its a bit less formal. Budget 240

L'ecrivaine - Food/Service Excellent. More formal than Chapter 1 but less so than Guilbauds. Taster menu with taster wine is recommended. Budget 280

Fire/Marco Pierre are not coming anywhere near any of these places but their prices are not as high.

shrapnel222

kmick wrote: »

Heres my two cents

Guilbauds - Food/Service excellent. 2 stars makes it pricy though. Budget 400

Chapter 1 - Food Excellent/Service so/so. Really like this place and its a bit less formal. Budget 240

L'ecrivaine - Food/Service Excellent. More formal than Chapter 1 but less so than Guilbauds. Taster menu with taster wine is recommended. Budget 280

Fire/Marco Pierre are not coming anywhere near any of these places but their prices are not as high.

those would be dinner prices- they're going for lunch, so shouldn't be more than half that.

anonymous_joe

Must say my favourite would be Guilbaud's.

Africa

thanks everyone for the feedback I decided against the fancy thing though. Gonna just cook at home and we'll eat in. Get a couple of nice steaks or something

Cheers!