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brezairola
Member since: 21 September 2007
Location:
No. of Reviews: 14
Status: Connoisseur
Last Visit: 09 December 2012
Member since: 21 September 2007
Location:
No. of Reviews: 14
Status: Connoisseur
Last Visit: 09 December 2012
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57% |
777Posted on 30 December 2012
Heard so much about this restaurant, so brought along a few people. We drank margaritas and ate a selection of starters and sides only. One of our group didn't eat meat. Tough for her really, as food, while acceptable, isn't a priority here. She ordered some crisps and canned beans.
I had two margaritas, and was floored, and I mean floored the next day. Might just be too strong? I know in Ireland stating that alcohol is too strong isn't fashionable...
The experience was OK. Staff were OK - bit cool for my liking [in that they thought they were], but attentive and efficient. The music was, frankly, awful. Started OK volume and gradually expanded to the volume of the space-shuttle launch. Obviously younger clientele like to scream at each other, but I was with a group of singers who all hate shouting in bars, and we eventually left because we were screaming at each other, tanked up on over-strong booze.
This isn't really a restaurant, its a bar with food. A loud, trendy one with oddly sited toilets. Definitely not suitable for an evening of talking and relaxing. Must suit someone, as it it appears to be so popular, or maybe, as I have always suspected in Dublin, the bar is pretty low for dining experiences. Could do better.
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Talavera RestaurantPosted on 22 June 2012
Went here for my Birthday recently. I have reviewed this place before, but they have taken away the buffet... and I had a voucher. Well, the food was only so-so. The Beef carpaccio was pretty awful - salty out of a packet. with extra foliage. Pasta was only OK, and really, really missed the buffet. The atmosphere was terrible - loud hotel guests were let be, well, loud, and the servers varied form lovely to disinterested. Not going back, which is a pity. Why did you take away the very plane antipasta buffet?
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First Floor Bar & Brasserie @ Harvey NicholsPosted on 22 June 2012
Went here today. Service fantastic, but place nearly empty on a Friday at lunch hour. Food was OK - had crayfish and Tuna. Crayfish was fine, nicely presented with apple jelly. OK, but something I could have rustled up easily myself. Tuna was OK, but the barbecue was overactive - very burny taste, with dull new potatoes that were a bit too waxy and tasteless. Not a great combination of flavour here. To be honest, none of the other mains appealed at all. Not sure I would go back for anything except the service. But, that counts for a huge amount these days. However, i have to say that the ice-cream was fantastic...
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Salt Cafe @ AvocaPosted on 22 June 2012
I went here last night with three people. Food was excellent in the main. Starters were detailed and good quality. Beef Carpaccio was a bit listless, but usually is (why do I keep ordering it...?]. Scallops were good if sparse, so ordered 6 extra ones for all of us. Duck egg dish was presented finely, but Duck egg has no taste really [lets be honest] but the trappings were good with it. Mackerel starter was fantastic...
Main courses - Bass - good, if a little over-salted - but fine and very fresh. Lamb good and well presented. Vegetarian option was eaten so assume she liked it. My pork was not great. I was assured it was slow cooked and then the crackling was cooked - pork just ended up having no taste at all presented beautifully, as was everything on the menu.
Any reservations above are trifling. The food was cooked with love, skill and art. So rare here - brilliant chef with excellent staff. Great wines too. Will come back so that I can try everything else.
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La CavePosted on 22 June 2012
Really like La Cave. Went there last week, and had wine with food. Not sure why people go here for a standard meal, probably some kind of genetic thing among Irish people that a meal is a meal a drink is a drink. La Cave is like many places I have been to in Europe. Wine is good with solid glasses and very informed manageress. The food is also good - its food for people who like the wine. We had a brilliant evening, and people always talk to each other, even if you sometimes can't understand what they are saying.
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Mao Restaurant (Dun Laoghaire)Posted on 02 January 2010
Visited here with my family, two under 6yrs and my other half. After waiting ten minutes for service, we eventually caught one's eye and we ordered the lunch menu for one, two children's dishes and a salad.
Service was quick. Then we were forgotten, and my main course didn't arrive. We had been there under an hour, and kids wanted to move on. I called the manager over and said that as the main course hadn't arrived the main course should be cancelled, which he did. This now meant that I had to pay full price for the starter I had, which was just about enough to stomach. I had ordered a beer, and that cost two euro if it was purchase as part of the lunch deal. The manager charged me 3.95. I had entered into the restaurant and ordered on the assumption that I would get a product at the set price. Through their negligence I didn't and I was expected to pay for that negligence.
This will be the last time we eat here, and all simply because the manager charged me a measly 1.95 extra for a beer that I should have got for 2 euro.
It wasn't as if I didn't point this out to him, very publicly, nor that my wife was a little less subtle [it was her treat], and pointed it out strongly. Obviously the manager is a graduate of the Celtic Tiger School of Restaurant Management. I assume that no one from Mao's will read this - however, it seems to me that no restaurant will survive long with this kind of attitude.
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UkiyoPosted on 06 April 2009
Ate here last Wednesday later in the evening. I haven't been here for a good while. Service was good. One of the things I used to like about this restaurant was the cocktails - very big glasses, Ketel One vodka and imaginative combinations. The new menu looks the same, but the Plum Sake cocktail I ordered was appalling. Tasteless and dull - the worst cocktail I've drunk in Dublin. reminded me of watered down sake... with added water.
The wine was nice for the price and big too by the glass. The food is pretty much the same as it was, the Tuna carpaccio was nice, the sushi was tasteless but looked nice [which is really all that matters in a place like this]. The Tofu salad was a nice salad with big, ugly cold lumps of Tofu pelted into it with wild abandon. No wonder so many people dislike tofu here when it is introduced to them in this way.
Very young vibe, which was appropriate for the faux sophistication of the food. In short - nice ambience, good staff, rubbish cocktails [which makes me very sad], food good quality prepared with minimal effort.
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Citron @ Fitzwilliam HotelPosted on 06 April 2009
Went here for a bite last weekend. Very, very quiet, but the staff seemed to be in great form. Service was OK, if a bit haphazard. The tomato soup was excellent as were the hot rolls. The calamari was very a very small serving for nine euro, and was utterly tasteless and pretty greasy. The salad was very tired in places. The salmon and parma ham was, well, a pile of dry parma and nice smoked salmon, and nice for a snack. This is a snack bar, not really a restaurant. the mezzanine level makes it lack intimacy, so they should work to that - this place needs good ambient lighting, some booths, a funky fusion menu an a cocktail ambience. Only so-so, but would return if I was a looking for a quick bite, not a three course meal.
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YO Sushi (Dundrum)Posted on 31 March 2009
This is very ordinary sushi. The nigiri, which is the judge of a decent sushi restaurant, is probably their worst dish. The setting is exposed and barely comfortable, and fine, there are booths, but only a handful. This is "fast" food on the level of well know chain outlets without the massive calories but with a huge price tag. Like all these Yo Sushi outlets, there seems to be nil respect or love for the food.
I despair when people tell me how wonderful the sushi is here. Just visit the Yo Sushi in Paddington Station and you'll see this restaurant in its proper setting - a railway platform. And its better there too... This is food for commuters/shoppers, not something that I would want to do often, but it is better than the other rather unispiring [also overpriced] fast-food-posing-as-quality-cuisine joints in the Dundrum ziggurat.
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Michie SushiPosted on 05 February 2009
technically this is a delivery and takeaway service, but Michie will serve you some of the hot dishes at the counter if you are waiting. this is easily the best Sushi I've eaten in Dublin, and the prices are as high as you can expect from this high-quality product. The key to good food is consistency. if a restaurant or takeaway varies slightly from a successful formula, then that can be fatal to regular customers. Michie sushi gives the same consistency of taste and quality at all times. I can highly recommend the mackerel nigiri, not an Irish favourite, and the avocado maki. Salmon is always good, and the temaki rolls, while small, are tasty. Nice, simple Japanese dressings available, plus some hot dishes and salads. For all of you sushi fans this is a must-try.
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The Winding Stair RestaurantPosted on 18 October 2008
The "Winding Stair" has been recommended to me many times. Based on my visit, I am mystified as to how the experience I had could be seen as an enjoyable evening's dining. The room is cramped, noisy and small. The initial service was pleasant and effort was made to inform us as to the ancestry of the food, and we ordered a mixture of beer and water.
The starters we had were a mixture of prawns on toast [OK], platters of cold meats [small and ordinary] and smoked fish on a platter [OK]. By OK I mean that the food was good value if it had cost one third less than it did. For the huge cost in such unpleasant surroundings it was just OK.
The main courses were, well, what you get at home. The medium-rare lamb arrived rare on a cold plate, with cold vegetables and was sent back for reheating. My food was trout [overdone], with a creamy ordinary sauce with boiled potatoes [nice] and well-presented broccoli. Steak and chips were fine. All the dishes we ordered were acceptable, but overpriced for something that i could, frankly, have made better myself at home.
We ordered one dessert because our friends were visitors and we wanted to let them taste Carrageen - a dish that is traditionally made by boiling seaweed with milk and sugar. What I got served bore no resemblance to the dish that I know. It was made with cream or creme fraiche, was flowered-up with some sweet "jus" [read "jam" for that], and had the consistency and flavour of wall-paper paste. I would have been proud if I had produced wall-paper paste like this, but instead was dismayed at the lack of respect for a traditional dish, particularly as we have so few of them.
Bill was 300 plus service. The bill took 25 minutes to arrive it was requested four times. The polite staff were over-worked and few. We were asked to vacate by 8.30 [we arrived at 6.30]. It was Friday and the restaurant was busy, but the food was ordinary, the atmosphere oppressive and uncomfortable and it felt like the staff were not in control due to the excessive permitted bookin
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China SichuanPosted on 21 September 2007
I eat here more often than anywhere else in Dublin. The restaurant is old-fashioned and the service is always good. It isn't trendy or hip, but the food is always very good. I often look around me and watch what other diners are ordering and, as most of the clientele is middle-aged, they tend to order safer food. However, for the adventurous diner, the food is wonderfully varied. Fish, when fresh, is wonderful. The vegetarian options are wonderful. Their speciality is Aromatic Spicy Duck, and it is very, very good. The house wine is the best value on the wine list and well chosen. I really wish they still did take-away - we really need a decent Chinese take-away in Dublin.
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My ThaiPosted on 21 September 2007
I live very near to the wasteland of Sandyford, and I brought my dad here for a meal for lunch. When are restaurant creators going to realise that reflective surfaces reflect noise...as Irish people talk so much, I give a restaurant a wide berth if I can't hold a normal conversation with someone at a normal distance without raising my voice. This is what is erroneously called "atmosphere" by some reviewers. Atmosphere is when the decor, staff and clientele combine to enhance the overall experience of a meal. This is a noisy restaurant. Service was OK, and staff were pleasant. Food was bad to mediocre. I had some blobby, damp, saggy tasteless lumps of rice that were listed as sushi on the menu. I sent them back and was given an alternative. I wouldn't have fed the sushi to my dog, so who thought it was appropriate for a customer? Did they care? Won't go back.
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