The Restaurant Recommendation Thread

NiaBlack

Has anyone ever tried Café Gusto? I'm looking for cheap but nice food and from their facebook it looks alright but has anyone actually tried it?

gimmick

Myself and my friends, we do a Christmas dinner night in the week between Christmas and New Years. I am left to book it this year.

I contacted 4 places asking them that if I were to make a booking for 25 people would they throw in a free beer/glass of wine for all. Not a single reply from any of them.

Considering last year we left approx €600 behind us at La Dolce Vita (who gave us the above), I think this is pretty short sighted of the restaurants.

Gamb!t

gimmick wrote: »

Myself and my friends, we do a Christmas dinner night in the week between Christmas and New Years. I am left to book it this year.

I contacted 4 places asking them that if I were to make a booking for 25 people would they throw in a free beer/glass of wine for all. Not a single reply from any of them.

Considering last year we left approx €600 behind us at La Dolce Vita (who gave us the above), I think this is pretty short sighted of the restaurants.

They should even give a free meal to 5 people if you can sit 25.

Malari

sporina wrote: »

went to Kethners a few weeks ago - they have a lot of work to do unfortunately..

I was there a couple of months ago. Dreadful. Really standard fare and not even done well.

I like to try new restaurants when they open in the hope I'll find a new gem! Last attempt was Flamenco, that place on North Main Street what used to be Casa Nova. We sat down, looked at the menu and walked out again. The place was dead, the food descriptions were poor and just didn't seem in any way authentic (tapas served with chips?!) and the waiting staff were unfriendly.

I'm looking forward to trying the fish restaurant in the Clarion though!

ABajaninCork

gimmick wrote: »

Myself and my friends, we do a Christmas dinner night in the week between Christmas and New Years. I am left to book it this year.

I contacted 4 places asking them that if I were to make a booking for 25 people would they throw in a free beer/glass of wine for all. Not a single reply from any of them.

Considering last year we left approx €600 behind us at La Dolce Vita (who gave us the above), I think this is pretty short sighted of the restaurants.

I'm shocked at this. About a grand guaranteed dosh at a quiet time of the year (No more Christmas parties, and most people Boracic Lint after Christmas!!) and they don't want to give you a glass of water for free???:eek: In London, they would have your hand off!

Which places did you try?

sporina

Malari wrote: »

I was there a couple of months ago. Dreadful. Really standard fare and not even done well.

I like to try new restaurants when they open in the hope I'll find a new gem! Last attempt was Flamenco, that place on North Main Street what used to be Casa Nova. We sat down, looked at the menu and walked out again. The place was dead, the food descriptions were poor and just didn't seem in any way authentic (tapas served with chips?!) and the waiting staff were unfriendly.

I'm looking forward to trying the fish restaurant in the Clarion though!

ah that is sad for the new spanish place - why open a new restaurant and not go to any effort?

I am mad to try Oysters too - just looking for an excuse to do so. It would be an expensive affair. And apparently Electric is gonna be exclusively a fish restaurant and and An brog is gonna be something of a mexican offering. Interesting - Thats for the new year.

gimmick

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I'm shocked at this. About a grand guaranteed dosh at a quiet time of the year (No more Christmas parties, and most people Boracic Lint after Christmas!!) and they don't want to give you a glass of water for free???:eek: In London, they would have your hand off!

Which places did you try?

Banna Thai, Bombay Palace and Cafe Mexicana. Dolce Vita have replied this morning.

Malari

sporina wrote: »

ah that is sad for the new spanish place - why open a new restaurant and not go to any effort?

I am mad to try Oysters too - just looking for an excuse to do so. It would be an expensive affair. And apparently Electric is gonna be exclusively a fish restaurant and and An brog is gonna be something of a mexican offering. Interesting - Thats for the new year.

Really!? I don't know if that's going to work. You usually have to offer some alternative for those who don't eat fish

sporina

Malari wrote: »

Really!? I don't know if that's going to work. You usually have to offer some alternative for those who don't eat fish

i guess it works for fishy fishy..

Malari

sporina wrote: »

i guess it works for fishy fishy..

Yeah, true, but even they are not exclusively fish. Plus they are pretty renowned and you go into a restaurant called Fishy Fishy you know what to expect!

I love eating fish when I'm out, but I've suggested to a couple of people that we should go to Oysters to try it out and the response is less than enthusiastic :rolleyes:

sporina

Malari wrote: »

Yeah, true, but even they are not exclusively fish. Plus they are pretty renowned and you go into a restaurant called Fishy Fishy you know what to expect!

I love eating fish when I'm out, but I've suggested to a couple of people that we should go to Oysters to try it out and the response is less than enthusiastic :rolleyes:

well i don't know - maybe they will have the odd chicken salad or what ever but i heard that it was gonna be a fish restaurant. I think its a new venture of sorts.

Faith

No, I think Electric are just opening a fish bar. I think they're still going to serve other food.

Hogzy

Faith wrote: »

No, I think Electric are just opening a fish bar. I think they're still going to serve other food.

Will this mean they are going to have 3 menus?

One for the bar, One for the restaurant and one for the fish bar.

Faith

Hogzy wrote: »

Will this mean they are going to have 3 menus?

One for the bar, One for the restaurant and one for the fish bar.

I would think they'd incorporate the fish bar into the main restaurant, but I'm just speculating completely.

The owners of Electric are unlikely to alienate people by only serving one choice of food.

JohnK

What I'd heard was the fish restaurant was going to be in its own area where there's currently some kind of balcony overlooking the river.

sporina

either way, sounds good to me. I hope its reasonably priced. Good fish dishes are always so expensive. And I don't why when you consider what the fish monger gets.

Ludo

gimmick wrote: »

Banna Thai, Bombay Palace and Cafe Mexicana. Dolce Vita have replied this morning.

And did they agree or decline?

gimmick

Oh sorry they said they want the booking, so booking has been made.

Nonoperational

Was in Oysters last week. To be honest I was pretty disappointed. It was nice, very nice, but I got the feeling it was trying too hard. The service was friendly but not at all polished. I would be slow to go back.

sporina

Nonoperational wrote: »

Was in Oysters last week. To be honest I was pretty disappointed. It was nice, very nice, but I got the feeling it was trying too hard. The service was friendly but not at all polished. I would be slow to go back.

wow trying too hard how? what was the food like? and the wine?

Nonoperational

We ate from the €35 menu and had a bottle of a French Chardonnay.

Don't get me wrong, it was very nice food and wine, but for €130 for 2 I thought it was missing that something special.

There was a gazpacho amuse bouche first which was fine. What I didn't care for was that the starter arrived before we were finished it and the empty glass remained on the table empty until well into the main course.

I had the salmon starter and it was nice but I found the accompaniments a bit bland.
The main was Hake on a seaweed potato. It was nice again and came with very good potatoes on the side. Couldn't say much wrong about the main to be honest it was quite good but wouldn't blow you away either.

The desert was a bit disappointing. It was a trio of deserts and consisted of a sort of banana mouse in a glass pot, a citrus sorbet and a small piece of what I think was flourless chocolate cake. They were all very cold including the glass pot and were out to us very quickly after the mains. No problem with that and again they were nice, but nothing special.

Obviously I'm being very very critical and there's no doubt it's a good restaurant, but at the prices I think it's fair to expect quite a lot from it.

When I ate in Augustines I came out of it thinking I had a pretty special 2 hours, I didn't feel like that after Oysters. Just my opinion by the way, I'm by no means an authority on this or anything.

Faith

Nonoperational wrote: »

We ate from the €35 menu and had a bottle of a French Chardonnay.

Don't get me wrong, it was very nice food and wine, but for €130 for 2 I thought it was missing that something special.

Did you spend €60 on a bottle of wine?! Wow!

Looking at it just from the price of the food - €35 for 3 courses and an amuse bouche, did it feel worth that? That's pretty good value for a seafood restaurant, IMO. I'm surprised you thought it didn't live up to €35 .

Nonoperational

€35+€35 + 2x Coffee + wine (around €40 I think) + tip.

I suppose your right, maybe for €35 I was being a bit harsh. I suppose the point was I didn't think it was excellent. I thought it was good but not excellent. I'm going to stop now because I sound like an idiot!

Faith

Nonoperational wrote: »

€35+€35 + 2x Coffee + wine (around €40 I think) + tip.

I suppose your right, maybe for €35 I was being a bit harsh. I suppose the point was I didn't think it was excellent. I thought it was good but not excellent. I'm going to stop now because I sound like an idiot!

Ah that's cool, I was just wondering about your reasoning because I'd really enjoyed it when I was there .

garhjw

Had dinner in oysters last Friday and it was 1 of the best dining experiences we've had in a very long time. The atmosphere, service, food and drink were all top notch.

gimmick

Went to Mexicana during the Christmas break. Thumbs firmly in the middle. Good service, but slightly expensive and the food was decidedly meh.

Ditto with Amicus re the food, but I ordered a steak sandwich which was just not nice. The wife ordered some sort of creole creation and it was very nice. Service was very good and quite reasonably priced.

leahyl

gimmick wrote: »

Went to Mexicana during the Christmas break. Thumbs firmly in the middle. Good service, but slightly expensive and the food was decidedly meh.

Ditto with Amicus re the food, but I ordered a steak sandwich which was just not nice. The wife ordered some sort of creole creation and it was very nice. Service was very good and quite reasonably priced.

Cafe Mexicana is gone waaaay downhill - we really need a few more mexican restaurants in Cork

Just in relation to christmas nights out and spending a lot of money in restaurants - we had our christmas night in the Bodega and the food was fine and everything - 24.95 for 3 course meal but then of course we spent a load of money at the bar as well so there was well over a grand spent by our company there on the night and one of my colleagues who organised the night found out that it was another staff members 40th birthday the following day so asked the manager if they could bring out a little dessert to her with a candle just as a little suprise -he was shocked when the manager pointed out something from the dessert menu and he had to pay a fiver for it :eek: - I mean for Gods sake - after spending a grand in there and they couldn't give a complimentary chocolate muffin - I just thought it was bad form.

sporina

My brother has his 40th here and we asked the staff if they would keep the other half of a very big delicious birthday cake and a present of 6 personalised cup cakes in the fridge for us and they said of course.
I was told that the cake had been put in the fridge. We wanted the other half for a family tea the next eve.

When we went back the next day to get the cake, the cake was no where to be found and the cup cakes were given to us in a now chocolate stained box and minus 2 cup cakes with the cake cases still in the box.

They said that they did not know where the cake was.

I called the manager the next day and she said that the cake was thrown in the bin the next morning as it had not been in the fridge (there was cream in the cake).

But she was sooo snotty about it and didn't even offer to replace the cake or anything.

We left a lot of money there.
I will never go back.

I am not mad about the cake - the point is that the manager should have been more sympathetic. Poor customer service - and from a manager!

ABajaninCork

sporina wrote: »

My brother has his 40th here and we asked the staff if they would keep the other half of a very big delicious birthday cake and a present of 6 personalised cup cakes in the fridge for us and they said of course.
I was told that the cake had been put in the fridge. We wanted the other half for a family tea the next eve.

When we went back the next day to get the cake, the cake was no where to be found and the cup cakes were given to us in a now chocolate stained box and minus 2 cup cakes with the cake cases still in the box.

They said that they did not know where the cake was.

I called the manager the next day and she said that the cake was thrown in the bin the next morning as it had not been in the fridge (there was cream in the cake).

But she was sooo snotty about it and didn't even offer to replace the cake or anything.

We left a lot of money there.
I will never go back.

I am not mad about the cake - the point is that the manager should have been more sympathetic. Poor customer service - and from a manager!

Why didn't you take the cakes with you when you left?

sporina

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Why didn't you take the cakes with you when you left?

because we were going out clubbing afterwards.. and its hardly the point. They were more than happy to keep the cakes in the fridge for us. Well now I know why - so that they could eat them!!!