For my last dinner in Dublin, I went to D’Olier Street restaurant which, at the time of writing, has a near perfect (4.9) score on Google, and is listed in the Michelin Guide (though I think it should have a star or two).
We were seated at the counter with a view of the open kitchen. I definitely recommend this seat as opposed to a table in the dining room.
I noticed one of the books in the pic above was a restaurant in Vancouver, and learned that one of two chefs had worked there briefly in the past. That made for some good conversation with the team. Here was the menu for the evening.
For our first dinner in Dublin, I chose Orwell Road restaurant. We started with the crispy chicken skin, crab and chicken and scallops.
For main, the halibut. For dessert, the roasted peach and vacherin. Service was ok. I don’t remember exact details of each dish, but it was pretty good. Its also worth noting that the restaurant is small so you will be in close proximity to other tables.
Xi’an Street Food (spice bag – one of the best things you will ever eat)
When you go to Ireland, make sure you have a spice bag. Its sold at Chinese takeout places. The “dish” consists of a bag of pieces of chicken (somewhat similar to popcorn chicken), fries and a few “vegetables” (like onions).
What makes this so amazing are the intense flavors. With each bite, your mouth will get an explosion of umami. The seasoning, from what I could tell, was some sort of mixture of five spice, some sort of chili, garlic and MSG. They are highly highly addictive. The food is considered “drunk” food, but I would eat this anytime.
Upon arriving in Dublin, the first thing I wanted to do was taste a few of the local Irish food that I had been researching about, and it had to be in a pub. I picked Lennan’s Yard because it had decent ratings, it was near the hotel and I was starving.
People say that Guinness tastes better in Ireland. I am not a beer drinker, but in order to test this out, I specifically went to a local pub in my hometown to have a Guinness before leaving for Ireland. This was my first Guinness ever. Comparing the two, I can definitely agree that its better in Ireland.
Foods and Drink You Should Try in Ireland – Quick and Cheap (mostly)
This post will be about some uniquely Irish things you should try on a trip to Ireland. Note that I will only be talking about things I had in the Republic of Ireland. I will do Northern Ireland on a separate post.
Irish Breakfast No trip to Ireland would be complete without having a Full Irish Breakfast. This usually consisted of a fried egg, blood sausage, white sausage, sausage, ham (bacon), tomato, some sort of potato (hash browns, roasted potato etc) and mushrooms. I am usually a light breakfast kind of person, but how could I resist when in Ireland?
Ireland has an abundance of castles. They are majestic and set amongst various beautiful landscapes. Naturally, I want to stay at a few during my trip there. he first one was Dromoland. We pulled up to the castle and went to the lobby to check in. We were then shown to our room and I was blown away by what was to come.
and every detail was amazing. It was large, spotless, and beautifully decorated. There were some issues with the bathroom lights flickering but that was a minor issue. We then headed to the cocktail bar for a drink and snack, and this was where we had our first encounter with the food and beverage aspect of the castle.
I started Day 2 at Dromoland with some gym time. The gym is about a 10 minute walk from the main building. From my experience, hotel gyms in Ireland were annoying because they were either non-existent, open only during certain hours (with some opening late in the morning), or had poor equipment. The gym at Dromoland opened at 7am and the equipment was decent.
After the gym, I went for breakfast and then tried a seaweed bath with the seaweed provided by the hotel. Apparently, this is a very Irish thing to do.
Aniar is a one Michelin star restaurant located in Galway, Ireland. Upon arrival, the restaurant was not ready for us so we had a drink at the wine bar across the street. When they were finally ready for us, I spotted somethings that are always signs of a good restaurant – cookbooks and things fermenting in jars.
The tasting menu was extensive. The dishes were flavorful and beautifully presented. There were very few flaws. In fact, reviewing my notes, I only see one “fish carpaccio too acidic”.
