Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle Website

Elephant and Castle is a long time favourite of mine. Its right in the centre of Temple Bar (Tourist Zone) and so is always busy and if you get a window seat you are sure to be entertained by whats outside the window. Either the buskers or the characters that hang out in this area.

A friend of mine was over visiting from Toronto so I decided to meet her here. We hadn't a table booked and even though it was Sunday we were told we would have to wait a half n hr so I decided to show her some of the sites. Took her to Trinity College, down Grafton Street (Shopping street in Dublin) and walked around Temple Bar.

The reason people go to Elephant & Castle is because they make the original delicious chicken wings that everyone in the world loves including myself.
I did recommend to my friend to order some too. We decided to get a basket each and some fries.

 I have to say this time I was disappointed. I know that I have potentially overloaded on them over the yr and this could be my problem but to be honest I don't think that was it. In Toronto we used to have wings every Tues in Louis Wings. $5 for 1pd of wings and fries....Louis Wings
The wings themselves were very big and possibly there were too many.

Normally if I go somewhere I don;t like it, I don't go back but I will go again and maybe share a basket this time because as you can see they are big....

Christmas dinner

I know I normally review restaurants or places to visit but I thought why not talk about my Christmas dinner?!

This year myself and my husband offered to cook dinner in our house for my husbands family. There are 5 of them so we had to cook for 7 of us altogether.

My job was the veg and my husbands was the meat. I had ordered 5pd breast only turkey from my local butchers and then we got a nice unsmoked ham from Dunnes Stores.

This is how the meat looked.... Drool

He brimed the turkey over night so the meat was so moist. He then placed streaky bacon over the top. He made the ham the night before by boiling it and then after that scored the fat and put honey, brown sugar and cloves on top. 

For the stuffing I used a friend from work's recipe and OMG.... Amazing. I used 16 Denny Gold Medal Sausages skin removed. Popped them in the pan. Added onion, herbs and some mash potatoes. 20 Mins before we served food I popped it into the oven. This was by far the best stuffing I have ever had.

Now my veg. I parboiled the potatoes and then coated them in goose fat, I then left them over night covered. Roasted them the next day for 30 mins. I pealed the carrots and parsnips and again parboiled them. Put them on a tray and added honey to them. Roasted them for 20 mins. 

You can't have Christmas dinner without Brussel sprouts which are my favourite veg. I peeled them and cut them in half. Fried them in bacon and Dairygold butter.

I cut up a head of read cabbage. Fried off bacon and apples chunks for about 10 mins. Added the cabbage to the pan with a cup of balsamic and let that simmer away for about an hr. I got this recipe from Jamie Oliver http://www.jamieoliver.com/r

I also made some roast potatoes. We had an amazing meal and day.

Lovely Food Co - Terenure

http://www.lovelyfood.ie/

I have been to this place ssssooo many times I have never actually posted a review of it!

Terenure has so many cafes/restaurants its hard to pick your favorite but this place has to be the best.

They have a small menu but what they do, they do well. Although menu is small and the kitchen is tiny!!!

I went here with my mother this time for a spot of lunch. Normally I would go for the Pulled Pork sandwich but as I wasn't that hungry I decided not to. I did however recommend it to my mom and she was not disappointed. (I always recommend this) Its Pulled pork, Coleslaw & apple chutney in a brioche bun. This comes with a salad but if you are there during the week, it comes with Fries for €10.
I went for the soup of the day as I wanted something small but alas they don't do anything small. Today's soup was Mushroom, it was not too thick and the mushrooms were blended well.

After lunch we decided to get some cakes to go and what a selection. We went for a gluten free slice, rice krispie square and malteser cheesecake. The chose of cakes is amazing. They do a massive selection of gluten free food and cakes, all cakes are made on site everyday.

In the evening Tues - Thurs they also do 2 courses for 2 people with a bottle of wine for €50. I recommend booking that as it fills up pretty quickly.
On a Monday night they also do a cooking class which I haven;t gone to myself but is quiet popular.

The original cafe is Terenure but with that success they have opened one in Drumcondra.

The Hen House

The Hen House - Dublin

Hopped on the bike last Sunday and headed out towards Greystones but as we do live in Ireland it started to hailstone.

We were about 4km from Stillorgan so we decided to cycle onto there.

We locked up our bikes and headed into The Hen House http://www.thehenhouse.ie/

We had been here once before and ordered the chicken, bacon & lime mayo on Ciabatta and I was not disappointed.

This time I went for the beef burger and it was as good. It came with Onion Rings, Mushrooms, Tomato and lime mayo. The bun was bread not a normal bun.

I personally don't eat the bun's myself but that's because I find bread makes me very bloated. I was so full after this meal that I was glad I didn't the bread.

The only flaw is that they don't ask you how you want your burger cooked. I would like it medium rare but they standardly cook it well done. It is a family restaurant so that's probably why. If the sun is shining you can sit outside on the deck looking at the sea.

The restaurant was pretty packed on a Sunday at 2pm but you aren't sitting on top on the people next to you.

Damien went for the half chicken. Dishes here are around €10-€16 each. This can be a bit expensive but to be honest it was such a good feed, there was no need for dinner later.

Our bill came to €35 for the food. We only had water as we were cycling.

Zaragoza Dublin

Taste Sensation - Zaragoza Dublin

Went out for dinner last night with my best mate. We wanted to do some cheap casual eats but weren't sure where to go.

We walked past a few places and stopped in at this new Tapas bar on South William street called Zaragoza.

Were we in for a treat.....

The place was fully booked out but they have a large table that goes around the bar for walk ins. Having the place booked out and nearly full at 7pm on a Friday is a good sign.

The menu is split out as Fish, Meat, Vegetarian and Sides.

The menu recommends ordering 2 tapas each which I have to say was enough. Dishes range from approx €7.50 - €16. The €16 is for a 12oz steak so that's why it is more expensive. Most dishes are at the lower range.

We weren't sure weather to order 3 meat and 1 vegetarian but having chatted to the very helpful waitress we decided not to. My friend isn't mad on fish so we decided to order 2 meat & 2 vegetarian dishes.

We went for the Chicken Wings with blue cheese (hot & spicy), Duck in filo pastry with blackcurrent sauce, Goats cheese & spinach with apple compote and fries with truffle mayo & parmesan cheese.

All of this was €30. We were very full after.
We got 2 Corona's for €5 each which is pretty standard.

They do a cocktail of the day for €7.50. Every other cocktail is €9.50.
Spirit's are €5.50 and mixers are €2 each.

http://zaragozadublin.com/

After this we went onto Sinnotts for cocktails as they do 2 for €6 until 9pm.

http://www.sinnotts.ie/

Bison Bar BBQ - Dublin

Yesterday was my brother in laws birthday so we went to Bison BBQ for dinner http://www.bisonbar.ie/
I had read a review of this bar a few months ago but I had forgotten about it......Lucky it was remembered!!

Its centrally located on Wellington Quay, right beside the Clarence Hotel/

Kitchen is open till 9pm and gets very busy about 8pm but you can put your name on a list and they will call you when your table is ready.
You can eat in doors or out doors.

We sat in doors and at the window. Very casual dining but comfortable.

The menu has a choice of Sausage, Brisket, 1/2 chicken, Pulled Pork & Ribs. You can get either for €13.95 with a choice of 2 sides. Either Potato Salad, Coleslaw, Onion Rings, Fries & Burnt end Beans.

You can get a choice of 2 meats and 2 sides for €16.95.

I personally went for the Brisket & Pulled Pork to which I was not disappointed.

I would say I actually thought the Brisket was my Fav.

The bar itself is a Whiskey Bar so they had all types of Whiskey's from America, Canada & Ireland. Very reasonable from €5.20.

If your not into Whiskey you can get draught beers which we got. They had Heinken, Coors Light, Tiger, Guinness and more on tap.

You can go into the Workmans club from there as its attached or do what we did and walk around the corner to Temple Bar.

Seabreeze Restaurant - Portobello

Seabreeze Restaurant - Portobello
Went to Seabreeze restaurant for my friends 30th birthday.

Apparently it was supposed to be Gaelic Mediterranean but it wasn't Mediterranean at all.

Company was amazing but food was so over priced.
They explained that it was expensive because it was BYOB but that is ridiculous.

We were given a set menu 2 courses €27 & 3 courses €33 and €6 supplement for the steak.

I can't personally eat 2 courses and as it was 8pm I asked for a different menu and I was told I couldn't have one.
The waiter was very nice though and we came to a deal that instead of getting 2 courses I would get the steak and not pay the €6 supplement.

The food was very good and people that got the 2 courses were generally full after the first course so I was delighted I didn't get it.

All in all I will never be back