Eat Your Way Around Ireland

[quote]Side note on Michelin places, non Irish. Casamia in Bristol is one of the best meals I've ever had. Top notch from start to finish, including a tour of the kitchens.[/quote]

I never ate there but I’ve had the tasting menu in their next door sister restaurant Paco Tapas three times! Always visit it when in Bristol. I believe it also has a star, bit of a funny one.

There’s a Sherry pairing option that is very boozy.

Did the tasting menu at Liath in Blackrock last night.

I went in with no clear expectations. During one of the COVID lockdowns I did a Liath dine-at-home package and, if I'm honest, it wasn't my favourite of the various options we tried. I'm not sure why that was, but at any event, it mean that I went to Liath looking forward to it but not particularly expecting greatness.

Happy to report that I was taking notice after the first couple of courses, and as I got deeper into the tasting menu I was sitting up in my seat and starting to feel like I might be eating one of my best dinners of the year...

The restaurant is a compact, slightly eccentric space that is over what would have been three market stalls in Blackrock Market, in the old days. They've retained an original stone wall, against which the mere 12 patrons are sat in separate booths, but the rest of the restaurant feels very contemporary and cool. The booths are separated by Art Deco partitions of glass and gold frame, a nod to the COVID era. The kitchen is open to view, with Chef Damien Grey at the pass, assisted by two juniors, from what I saw. Staffing is lean, there was a sommelier and a front of house / manager, and everyone pitched in to serve various courses.

So, the food...

Firstly, I like a tasting menu that's cohesive, and this one went beyond that and actually had a really strong concept beyond it, it took us on a thematic taste journey. They have designed the menu so that the amuse bouches / pre-starters are little morsels that capture the five major tastes that Damien Grey is interested in: Bitter, sour, salt, savoury and sweet. Several courses then focus in on these, and then it's brought back together at the conclusion with petit fours that mirror the amuse bouches by covering the same five tastes again.

Cleverness and a bit of a narrative are one thing, though, but they only really impress if the food underpinning them are of a Michelin standard.

And yes, this is good stuff. Some modern elements but drawing on pretty classic French approaches to sauces at key points like the pigeon meat course and a truly exceptional desert red wine reduction.

I won't go into the whole menu, but there were a few stand-out dishes for me. A smoky, chipotle bowl of shrimp and sweetcorn, and a really attractive cheese course of thin rolled swiss cheese served with tall crackers that looked like a ship's sails.

The wine pairings were sound. A couple of very heavy hitting whites along the way. The tendency with the reds was to go lighter, and although I understood the rationale I still feel a little sad when I get a light bodied pinot noir with a meat course.

My partner wasn't drinking and got non-alcoholic pairings with each course. We were impressed that the sommelier seemed to have put a tremendous amount of thought into the various infusions and mixed drinks involved. Some worked better than others, but I'd certainly say that this is the best range of non-alcoholic drink pairs I've seen in a restaurant of this sort, and may be of interest to non-drinkers and the pregnant among you.

The service: Friendly, gregarious... I hadn't realised Damien Grey is an Australian, for some reason. I never watched Liath's RTE show when it was on. He reminded me a little of an Australian strength coach I had years ago... High energy, brash, heart on his sleeve but very much at the top of his game and delivering the goods.

Thanks, that's very kind. I enjoy writing, even if I have to keep going back to edit out my typos.

Sprezzatura Camden Street.

Sprezzatura was mega buzzy... A mixture of families, cool hipsters and tourists. I'm guessing the mix is because everyone appreciates hand-made pasta, great ingredients and oddly non-Dublin low prices.

We had three small plates, four drinks, four pasta dishes and one desert for 88 euro (Rounded up to 100 with a tip). That's good value for a restaurant that is considered one of the best Italians in Dublin right now.

We cook a lot, and if I'm honest the chicken milanese and arrancini were no better than what we would make at home ourselves, but I think these will appeal to a lot of people, they're crowd pleasers. The arrabiata with the arrancini could have been spicier.

The other small plate we got was a buffalo mozzarella served with a kind of pancetta, and that was the stand-out of the small plates, really really good for the price considering it was Toonsbridge.

Pasta-wise we had a Jane Russell sausage and fennel with tagliatelle (Unexpectedly spicy, it was objectively too hot and I was the only one who really enjoyed this), a mushroom tagliatelle (Supposed to have a blue cheese and mushroom ragu but there was very little blue cheese evident), a 10 hour beef cheek (Excellent, probably the best) and a salmon and radiator pasta (Fine).

Very small but fun wine list. I only recall the red, but you have a choice on tap of a beaujolais, a primitvio, a house red and a rioja.

The wait staff were friendly and "ok". They are the type of cool college students who, when you ask them for something, seem to suddenly remember they are working as wait staff, and look faintly surprised to be there. But great attitudes and no slip ups other than a bit inattentive.

Hakkahan in Stoneybatter village.

I think this is going to become known as one of the best value Chinese restaurants in Dublin in the coming years. Specifically, this is Sichuan style cooking. I'm not sure how it will overcome its rather humble interior, and limited seating, but when you go in here you are getting food that is freshly prepared, with high quality ingredients, like silverhill duck. From talking to the staff, it seems their "thing" is that they're doing all the prep fresh and daily, and avoiding using 'bought in' products like other Chinese restaurants tend to do.

The menu is more compact than the generic Irish Chinese restaurant as a result, and although it contains recognisable 'favourites' such as sweet and sour chicken, and varieties of dumplings, they are executed to a particularly high standard. You'll also find dishes which are a tiny bit more challenging for some, like sliced beef shortrib (bone in) and whole scallop dumplings.

The head chef is ex China Sichuan, which is probably the best "high end" Chinese restaurant in Ireland*, and all I can say is if Hakkahan keep delivering food of this standard I would struggle to go back into some of the Capel Street Chinese restaurants I would previously have frequented.

Hopefully in time, in addition to the Cantonese style dumpling and duck places we've got, and the few places doing Sichuan cooking, we get places offering other regional styles.

*I'm not counting the likes of Hang Dai which feels very westernised, albeit it's super in its own right.

Popped into Uno Mas for a lunch for two.

During the lockdown (Will we still use phrases like that twenty years from now, and baffle an entire generation, who can't relate?) Uno Mas produced probably my favourite "Dine at home" boxes. Although, it must be said, it was Mrs Black Sheep who did the brunt of the assembly and cooking. The techniques required weren't crazily difficult by any means, but she has the deft touch and experience to serve up plates that looked like they could have come out of Uno Mas' own kitchen.

I had a bone dry glass of manzanilla sherry to start, and away we went.

For snacks, mini croquetas, filled with some kind of well-seasoned cheese filling, and perfectly-cooked octopus la plancha arrived and were hoovered up very quickly.

We hit a slight bump in the road at that point. There was a long wait between courses. Unusually long I would say. Not "they're letting us take our time" / "enjoy the ambience" time / "Just a short delay folks" but a kind of elongated hanging about where everyone's table had wine but not a whole lot of food going on. 'D'you think they're all waiting?' I asked the missus? 'Dunno', she said. Well, they were. So we played the game of seeing food leaving the pass and watching it wind it's way to the relevant table. In fairness, the other diners, mostly retirees or tourists, didn't seem to be against the clock like were, and didn't look bothered at all. Ah, freedom...

Eventually - success... Starters... One of their iconic potato tortillas, and a red snapper and seafood rice, which we shared. I also gained an insight into how Uno Mas manages their perfectly pristine tortillas, while I manage to slop mine about the place at home. Apparently they use two torilla pans to make the flip. That's cheating in my book, but perhaps considering those pans are cheap as chips it is worth investing.

This was followed by a further stagnant period of hanging about and looking at watches.

Eventually: Mains. Lamb for her, and butternut squash agnolotti for me.

Their agnolotti was one of their stand out home dishes, and I was eager to have it at lunch also. I always feel like agnolotti is like a smarter chef's version of ravioli... Ravioli requires two pieces, but agnolotti is just one piece folded. I dig it.

Alas, it was at that point our time ran out, so we had to scarper without having the chance to partake of desert. As my toddler would say: "Sad face".

The waiting aside, excellent service and food. Two drinks, two snacks, two starters and two mains was 140 euro including a 16 euro tip. Considering the execution I would consider it "worth it" and the portion sizes were actually quite a bit bigger than the last time I ate in Uno Mas.

No, just on here.

I thought about an Instagram page but I have reservations and it hasn't happened so far.

Hah! The review of The Ivy made me laugh.

It’s a funny place, perhaps intended for bankers and brokers entertaining. But even they don’t like it.

I do like Totally Dublin, I don’t know who funds their magazine (Is it just the ads?) but I admire their commitment to focusing on creative stuff in Dublin, sometimes quite out-there stuff in the features.

Resurrecting this thread since I don't want to put this in the 'what did you eat for dinner' thread (I always assume that thread is for homecooked stuff only).

For a few years I've been aware of Paulista esfiha and pizza on Dorset Street. I have Brazilian friends who seem to get pizza from there every weekend, but I've never taken the plunge until tonight.

The menu is split between 'traditional' and 'Brazilian' pizzas (With a separate 'sweet' pizza section). At first glance you feel like you're looking at a menu that would get a lot of Italians pretty angry, some of it makes Hawaiian pizza look restrained. But when you get right down to it though, a lot of the Brazilian style flavour combinations are not that weird. Smoked sausage, a lot of vegetables, maybe some use of tuna I can't approve of, but none of the combinations are actively revolting.

What does set these pizzas apart is that they go in for seriously dense amounts of toppings. I mean they trowel this stuff on, I ordered a medium size pizza and couldn't finish it. The last time I had this experience was with an authentic Chicago style deep dish pizza.

Paulista has a machine that slow bakes the pizza, probably takes about ten minutes to go through. Front of house is a couple of Brazilian girls who seem to mainly be dealing with an endless stream of Deliveroo drivers. You get the impression 80%+ of their customers are the Brazilian community.

The dough is very soft, a little bready but not unpleasant. It's elastic but firm enough to stand up to the great weight of toppings baked onto it.

Price wise this pizza is not cheap, 21 euro for a medium pizza and a drink. However, that medium pizza could feed two people in my view, which is obviously not the norm in Ireland. The value on offer likely increases if you split a large pizza between a few people.

The question is, though, would I get this style of pizza versus a light, fluffy neapolitan style pizza from the likes of Pi, Sano or Village pizza? To be honest, unless I was a Brazilian pining for the stodgy pizza style of my home country, then... Probably not... Sorry! It's nice, but probably just too heavy.

Another thread resurrection, another pizza review...

I've been visiting Bambino, on Stephen Street Lower, semi-regularly and developed a bit of a love/hate relationship with it.

They describe themselves as a "NY style slice shop", and sell whole pies, by the slice and also squares by the slice.

So far, so nostalgic-for-my-J1-year....

There's no part of a NY style slice I don't like... The convenience, the fold technique to eat it, the perfect combo of elastic dough and firm mozzarella and fresh tomato...

..But this just isn't it.

A cheese slice kind of looks like a NY style slice, but once you pick it up and begin handling it you realise that it's just not the same. There's actually a cheapness, almost a processed quality, to how real NY slices taste. They're very very easy to eat, including the crust. They're in very casual comfort food territory, and the price reflected it when I last had one.

Bambino's dough is chewier - bordering on tough, like a robust sourdough crust - and intensely flavourful, but it takes the experience to a very different place. The overall quality of the toppings is also several notches up above what you'd get in a normal pizza parlour in NYC, and overall you feel like you're eating a posher version of a NY slice.

Which is ... Well, they're very enjoyable. The ingredient quality is high and the flavour combos work. I particularly recommend the sausage and hot peppers.

On the downside, it seems hit and miss as to whether you get a kind of a crispy slice or one that's on the chewier side, I'm not sure why.

I thought about mentioning price - it's about six euro / six fifty per slice - but to be honest I'm not sure it's unreasonable by Dublin standards. One slice might be a full light meal for a woman, and it's a good sized snack for a guy. Realistically you're going to want two slices as a man, and then you're essentially paying the same price you'd pay for a full pizza in the likes of Pi Pizza down the road, which would be in restaurant surroundings rather than sitting on a high stool eating off a paper plate.

I keep going back, however, must be something about the sausage and hot peppers...

I've been back once or twice since I wrote that review. It's 'grand' as a restaurant but I feel like it's dipped slightly compared to when it opened.

The last time I was there with a group I was quite frustrated in the end because we had a load of drinks, ordered loads of dishes... And then were refused desert because we had hit our 90 minutes... I don't think there was actually anyone waiting to take our table, they are just one of those places that are still enforcing the COVID 90 minute policy - I presume to try to guarantee a few sittings. I really feel like they should have used some common sense and recognised that they could have served us a round of deserts and we would have been gone in about 20 additional minutes, maximum. It was galling to have spent a decent amount and then refused desert on something very arbitrary.

An unrelated topic, but I had a similarly frustrating experience in another restaurant in Dublin lately when I arrived in solo and wanted to sit at a table for two. They would only allow me to sit at a counter space, despite the restaurant being literally empty. It was a "computer says no" moment for the staff, again I could have been served and be gone before even a third of the tables were occupied, but instead I buggered off somewhere else over it.

And for something completely different to the above...

Cheese smashburger from 4Friends off Parnell Street.

Cheese and bacon dust fries also.

This was dry as hell... I can only assume the chef squashed all the juices out of the meat with great diligence. Disappointing as it "looked the part".

Three burgers and three fries, two shakes, 47 euro. To be honest I feel like Chapter One was better value in terms of comparing what I paid for what I got :0

Yes, even the caviar element, I wondered... Are they big caviar eaters where he's from?