Restaurant Recommendation Thread - Anyone for seconds?

Overall I’ve found Golden Elephant to be good over the years. They’re a small operation and and work like that too which means you get the pros and cons of it. Some of the pros are a genuine interest in what they do, that warm greeting and they will happily talk you through the menu, especially when new, they do take feedback on board and work to improve it. Some of the cons are that they may make mistakes (for me it’s been once in 10+ years, also resulted in a voucher that took a few days to arrive) and they may take a while to sort vouchers etc.

All in all, I’m still happy going there and recommending it to people. I’m slightly concerned about them expanding but wish them all the best at the same time. Over the years have seen both Nakon and Banna Thai go, don’t want the same to happen to Golden Elephant.

I've been to Golden Elephant in Douglas multiple times and whilst their food is nice I have had very mixed results.

They are consistently very friendly and welcoming.

Their prices are fair for the quality.

Their fried Panang paste is excellent. Starters and desserts are average (meaning I don't bother with them).

When I go there to sit down for a meal they are always focused on takeaway orders and the service has been poor at times. I've given them this feedback in person.

Subsequently I've ordered takeway, been told to wait 20 minutes and an hour later the food isn't ready. I gave them feedback in person.

I like their food but I just couldn't be bothered ordering from there any more.

I went to a Thai restaurant in Dublin last week and it was far better, good value too:

Full Moon - Updated 2025, Thai Restaurant in Dublin, Co. Dublin

we had a lovely eve in The Bodega (Old Town Whiskey Bar) the other night - food was fab (esp the hake - was v impressed); service was fab and such a lovely setting.. v v reasonably priced.. will defo keep it in mind for the future..

Had another really good small meal in Paladar again. The kind of flavours and construction of the dishes are closer to fine dining, imo, than the casual dining that it is. Great cocktails and value, too.

It's strange. I've never been and I've never spoken to someone who has. It's been there years but has never been on my radar to go. I've never heard anything good or bad about it. Why is it so under the radar?

Yeah Same here.

I shall have to go...For science!

I checked out the menu and some things seem pretty expensive, alright. €29odd for lamb chops without any sides!

I shall go...maybe for lunch instead of dinner.

For now I have a report back from Fingas the new African place on Popes Quay. Apologies in advance for the long post.

From reading the reviews when it opened I wasn't expecting much.

Think they have paired back the menu since they were first posted, which is probably a good thing. (Unless they gave us the Irish people menu 😂)

It's lovely inside, waitress was great, she ran through what most of the mains were and made some recommendations.

Food wise, it's a mixed bag to be honest.

To start we got some chili goat on flatbread. Bread was great, goat was, as expected a bit tough.fairly spicy and a bit oily.

Portion of puff puff. Lovely lil balls of fried dough.

For mains-portions of jollof with a protein, friends got turkey and chicken. Came on the bone served with some plantain and salad. Fairly spicy again.

Probably would say this was the better dish.

I had Ewa Agoyin with chicken leg and plantain.I can really only describe it as refried beans with an oil based chilli sauce (i got the sauce on the side, more smokey than the one the goat came in) I found the beans bland. I dislike when things are just spicy with little flavour.

Last thing was a beef and tomato stew with rice. Friend also wanted to try foofoo so they gave us a portion with that instead of ordering it with one of the dishes that came with it. She liked it but the meat sparse and was overcooked.

3 "snacks" 4 mains and drinks came to just under 33 each. I dunno if I'd go back cause it's not really my thing..was expecting it to be...maybe more vibrant? I dunno! Anyway there ya go. Ye can make your own mind up

Tried Fingas at the weekend, too.

Same experience - a mixed bag. I agree that the service is friendly (if inexperienced) and they've done up the place really nicely. We had the tomato beef stew which we liked but found the beef to be both a bit burnt but also slightly underdone in that it wasn't quite tender enough.

Then there was the goat pepper soup. It was inedibly tough. I reckon it needed at least another 2 hours to be done. Thing is, it seemed they knew it wasn't done as it took ages to come out, saying, we're just waiting on the soup. They really shouldn't have served it at all.

Server didn't come near us while we ate so no opportunity to complain until we went to pay. The owner (I think) listened to our feedback and seemed to accept that they shouldn't have served it but only knocked €7 off the bill! He wanted us to order something else. (my wife was paying and talking with him) Not very smart. If they took the goat soup off the bill, we would probably return. Now I don't trust them not to serve up inedible food and charge for it.

The booze is really cheap there. €5 for a 600ml lager! €5 for Nigerian Guinness. €17 for house wine.

I really wanted to like this place.

Yeah its a shame, easy enough fixes to make as well