Lovin' Dublin

Good food on the Northside of Dublin an Oxymoron right? It’s been the running gag on here for months but lets dispel that myth once and for all today with the 2nd review from the dark side of the river and highlight by far the best Japanese food in the Capital. Before we start a rant….How fucking annoying are restaurant websites? All any of us want to do are quickly look at a menu, opening times and maybe a phone number to book a table. We don’t want to have to download a PDF or listen to shit music being piped out as soon as we load your flash website. Nobody cares about the awards you’ve paid to win and most importantly your customers are probably researching where to eat while on their phones so your hideous 10 year old site not working on a mobile is going to cost you business. Thats a fact. I think about this problem all the time and I was delighted when arriving on the Musashi website looking for info. Now I’ve seen a million better looking websites but this does everything I want it to. I got the location, opening hours and a quick look at the menu in less than 2 minutes. It is simple functional and there are links to social profiles, reviews and any other info I want to help with further research. This isn’t an expensive website (I’d guess a couple of grand) but it just works. Please go out and fix your websites restaurants because 80% of them are a fucking joke. Rant over I’ll start the review proper now..

Musashi is on Capel street which is a mixture of junkies, Adult shops, head shops, places selling mattresses and early houses. Thats not me beating up the North Side but simply a fact. The good news is that the best food spots in most cities are in unusual places like this. It was lunch time and we started with a free bowl of miso soup and a green tea. They looked like a little bowl of baby puke and some stale urine but tasted awesome. Next up was sashimi which you think would taste the same everywhere given that it is just a bit of raw sliced fish! You’d be totally wrong if you thought that though because there are different quality levels of tuna you can buy, different angles you can slice the fish at and lots of other variables like the quality of the soy and ginger served alongside the fish. This was the best I’ve ever tasted bar one time in Hawaii. Not even a doubt. Succulent, juicy and ocean fresh. If it weren’t for the fact that you’d need to take a mortgage out to eat sushi and sashimi for every meal I’d do it tomorrow. Nothing tastes this good and is as healthy bar maybe fresh orange juice.

Next up we went for a Bento box which was a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors. Pad Thai (Chicken and prawns), sushi, Gyoza and some little prawn skewers. It was the delicate nature of the cooking and the fact that it had edible flowers in there and the whole thing cost a mere 8.95 that blew my mind. I mean I know they have to cater for their local market (Junkies and Gurriers) but that is insanely cheap for food of this standard. It was way too much to even finish and it was one of those rare times in a Japanese restaurant where I left feeling stuffed.

The whole bill for 2 bento boxes, 2 sashimis and 2 cokes came to a paltry 33 Euros. As if that wasn’t good enough news the place is BYOB so you can bring a load of wine and cans to make an even better night of it. This is recession austerity Ireland at it’s best. Plonk this little delightful spot up on Grafton street, give it a bit of fancy branding (Yo sushi) and the bill would be closer to 100 lids. I’d eat here every single day if it was closer. It is completely authentic, clean and well run with professional staff. I’d strongly advise you to get a bullet proof jacket, hire a bouncer and head down there some evening to try it out. Just don’t let the locals see you carrying your own booze or you won’t make it as far as the front door.

The View From Others

I am only one person eating there on a single day and to give a little balance to the review here are some other people who have eaten there and written about the place as well
Stitch and bear
Pol
Cheap Eats
The Cook’s Belly
Fiona Japanese Cooking
Trickling Beauty

It’s that time of year where we all going absolutely fucking BBQ crazy. The sun pops out and we all run off to see just how much of a shit heap the grill is on from when we “forgot” to clean it at the end of last year. I don’t think I’d be exaggerating to say that BBQ is one of the most loved types of food in the world. It could be pulled pork in Texas, Lobsters in the Caribbean or tuna down in Australia but anything that gets slapped on the BBQ inevitably just tastes way better. With the sun splitting the skies and the mercury hitting a barely credible 18c at the weekend it was decided that nothing would be going in to our bellies bar BBQ. We also decided that rather than boring old burgers, potato salad and sausages we would go pimped out and head for what was reportedly the best BBQ in town…Asador. It may be a new restaurant in Dublin but the literal meaning comes from the Brazilian or Portugese for “to grill” or “to have a social gathering” and unlike the enormous pile of horse shit that was the Aussie BBQ a couple of weeks ago this is the real deal…

Its one of those places where you know you are being a complete gobshite by even thinking of having a starter but where you go ahead and have one anyway cause you get carried away in the moment. Prawns Pil pil and beef carpaccio were delicious but why is it that the most iconic of Spanish holiday dishes never tastes as good at home as when it does in the sun? 
Not only had we been looking for BBQ but cocktails were also very high on the menu. What is it about Irish people that as soon as the sun comes out we all feel we have to drink even more than usual? Maybe it’s the fact that we have just lived through 6 months of sideways freezing rain and that this could very possibly be the last sunny day of the year even though it is only May? The cocktails in here are absolutely fucking insanely good. I might have been influenced by the fact that we were sitting up at the bar and every time the Italian bar man made one for anybody in the place he gave us a shot to taste. A mixture of pink champagne, whiskey based cocktails and fruity specials later and we were getting smashed and nearly slipping to the point where you forget about the food. 

We decided to ignore all the delicious meat and went for a sea food platter for 2 instead. It was 40 quid but it came overflowing with squid, prawns, monkfish on the bone, mackerel and sea bass all freshly off the BBQ and dripping with flavor. See with BBQ all you need are some good ingredients, no bullshit and a wedge of lemon. Pretty tough to balls that up but this place doesn’t just rely on the food. The service is top notch. The wines amazing. The buzz of the place intense and building to a crescendo as the night went on and people got more drunk.

I love the informality of sitting at the bar in a venue like this. There is something about the interaction with the staff and seeing everything from up high that changes the experience for the better for me.

This place is going to do very well. It has a great location with a mix of business people for lunch and the affluent D4 only over the bridge and a bunch of hotels to send them guests too. Whoever picked the location got this one spot on. It will cost you a few schillings more than most places but this dining experience oozes quality and perfection. I’ll go back many times and will add it to my top 10 places in Dublin where I’d bring family or an important client. When people are this good at their craft on the food and service side of things you’d be very surprised if they ever let you down. Sheer perfection and worth a visit.

The VIew From Others

I am only one person eating there on one evening so in a bid to give the review some more balance here are some other blog posts and reviews
Irish Times
Girl Eats
For N Cork
Irish Food Guide

I think a midday working lunch is the worst meal of the week in Dublin. Most of us grab a sandwich. Either a rotten half cooked roll from spar with that super bendy rubber chicken. Maybe One of those leather tasteless factory made abominations that Cafe Sol or Insomnia serve up and which have been sitting in their manky fridges for about 11 days. If you are willing to queue for about 50 minutes of your lunch break I’d reccomend Listons or the Pig and Heifer but time those spots wrong and no matter how good the sambo tastes you’ll be pissed off wasting half your lunch break staring at some fat geezers back and admiring packets of organic quinoa on the shelves. Given the pressure of the working week lunch is one of the few things we all dream about. A little foodie escape from the daily slog so I’ve a perfect spot for you and rather than give out to me about my favorite sandwich spot share your own in the comments so as we can all benefit! I’ve already found a ton of new foodie spots thanks to readers of this blog so be generous with your sharing!

I feel in love with the Green Bench Cafe when I walked into it. The picture at the very top was the scene that greeted me. 11.55 is about the worst time you can enter a kitchen because panic is setting in among the chefs and with the Green bench being an open kitchen I was able to stand back and have a laugh and pat myself on the back for getting out of the cheffing game. The last thing you want is some fucker standing there asking for 8 chicken sambos 2 minutes after you checked the chooks and they are still half raw in the oven. Nowhere to hide and all that. “10 Fucking chickens will never be enough get more on” roared the chef to some poor lad upstairs. Luckily the chickens weren’t raw and all the ingredients scattered out on the bench in front of me in organized chaos looked stunning. Whole roast chickens for their sandwiches!! Wow.

There were also a bunch of fresh cakes and slices coming flying out of the oven. Scones, carrot cakes and my own personal favorite of raspberry brioche with custard cream. See the thing is when you come in here you want absolutely everything. The coffee is amazing. The bread is good. The staff are friendly. They are the best at sharing their food on social media and it is all done with a real family feel to the place. I’m not sure of the economics (it is small and would have a high rent) but you want this place to do well. You just feel with every inch of the place that the product and the service provided is way more important than the bottom line. The people behind this place are real foodies. They live to see others coming in with a smile on their face.

Everything here is fresh. I cringe when I see the staff opening plastic packets of cooked chicken or wafer thin “bacon” in the likes of Obriens. How fucking hard can it be to make a good sandwich? Well the answer according to 95% of the places I visit is very fucking hard. They don’t just serve sambos here either with lovely soups, little stews and the devine little rice paper parcels that you can see below.

They have nailed this place just in time for summer beside St Stephens Green and Iveagh gardens and I hope they make a killing. I hate that dreary feeling when you leave the office and think “where am I going today for the same boring old shite” but the good thing with Green Bench is that you never know what they are going to be serving. Take an extra 10-15 minutes and walk to this place from wherever you work in Dublin city center. It won’t let you down but I just am dreading the day the queues are snaking around the corner because it is too good to stay this hidden for too much longer.

The View From Others

I am only one person eating there on the one day so here are some other reviews from others to add a little balance to the debate.
Le Cool
Shane gives it a mention

I slammed Dillingers for copying a New York eatery a few weeks ago and they closed down the following week for a complete refurb. Much as my ego would have me believe that they read this blog and decided to implement instant change that was clearly not the case. Dillingers was one of those iconic eateries that had quickly established itself as a firm brunch and casual dining experience. So when the place closed down for three weeks I thought it was a pretty ballsy move. Why fix something that is wildly popular and clearly not broken? Well because the guys behind this are clearly some of the most ballsy and brilliant restauranteurs in the country. Talking to the waitress they explained that the complete refurb has taken the place from 44 to 60+ covers while actually creating a ton more space. The massive cocktail style bar dominates the room and is beuatifully designed. Indeed the whole place makes you feel like you are sitting in New York and is a mixture of a diner, cocktail bar and fine dining restaurant. Its very hard for a restaurant to become a “brand” but that is exactly what this is. From the website to the tills and through to the menus and decor this is a branded experience. You can tell that this wasn’t a cheap makeover but adding 20 extra seats will clearly improve the bottom line in the long run. Like I said ballsy.

So even though it had only been open 2 nights when we walked in the place was buzzing. They barely had a seat for us even at 6 o’clock. A lot of nosy folk in seeing if they’d improved or destroyed a Dublin institution. They’ve not only improved it but absolutely completely and utterly smashed it out of the fucking park. Design wise this place is perfect. The staff are super friendly but most of all the food has gone to another level. I always liked the food but it was slightly stodgy with huge portions. Hangover food. They’ve clearly focused on a new level of refinement with this relaunch. The tuna and avocado tacos above are one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in Dublin. The rib eye steak was succulent and juicy. The John Dory special with scallops perfectly fresh and light. The absolute home run for me and the reason I will keep coming back was the mac and cheese side order. A whole dinner as a side order? One of my favorite dishes ever as a bonus little thing on the side? Yes please!!! All day fucking long!

The only dish that didn’t really live up to expectations was a langoustine cerviche. I always think cerviche should be a huge bowl of fish with pungent zesty flavors but this was a small expensive portion that was way too fruity. It was only a special on the night so they’ll hopefully ditch that one.

What they really rely on here are the ingredients and the buzz. Throw in a few hipster beers and some amazing cocktails and I can safely say this is going to be the most popular new restaurant in Dublin for a few months to come. Good places constantly refine themselves and I walked out of Dillingers thinking “fuck me that was an experience”.

During a recession the tendency is to bunker down and cut costs and try and ride it out. Very few people have the balls to invest more cash to get bigger and better but that is exactly what has happened here. It isn’t cheap coming in at 113 Euros for 2 of us but don’t let that stop you. You’ll be very lucky to get a table or even a funky bar stool but make sure you fight to get in. You’ll probably see me in there as this is straight in to my top 3 restaurants and places to chill out in Dublin. Not only is the new place one of the best places in Dublin but it could easily grace London, Sydney or New York and go toe to toe with their best eateries. An iconic new Dublin venue has just been born.

The Specials

They haven’t started serving them yet as the place literally only opened a couple of days ago but just how amazing do these specials sound? Mouth wateringly good.

Pizza is the simplest thing in the world. Dough, Tomato sauce and a bit of cheese. How can you fuck that up? It’s a question I’d love to ask pretty much every restaurant in Dublin that serves it. Most “authentic” pizzas range somewhere between “completely shite” and just “plain old regular shite”. For the purposes of this review I’ve been trying places all around the capital including chains, takeaways, Italian restaurants and pretty much anywhere else I could find a slice. To really understand what a good Pizza is you need to have eaten one in Napoli. Preferably just a plain old Margherita with a bit of torn up basil on top. It will typically be ginormous and cost you between €3-5. Somewhere along the line that concept got exported to a point where we now pay up to €20 around the world and toppings range from BBQ chicken right through to cheeseburgers. Everybody has their own opinion but having lived on Pizza in Italy for so long I tried to track down the most authentic spot in Dublin for a good old fashioned Pizza.

There are a few clues when looking for a good pizza. The first is a wood fired oven. Great pizza and especially a great crust can’t be achieved without one of these. The older the oven the better. The second is a group of greasy Italians eating in the place and shouting loudly at each other. The third is amazing strong expresso coffee because the two go hand in hand. Paulies Pizza in Ballsbridge has them all. It also has by far and away the best pizza in Dublin. The place is tiny with tables wedged in beside each other. Very buzzy with hardly any Irish folk and plenty of tech heads spilling out from the local Google and Facebook offices. You could walk in here and easily think you were in Madrid, Rome or Cannes. Until you walk outside in to the pissing rain that is.

There are actually a bunch of different pizzas that are broken in to either Italian or New York style. The toppings are simple enough without having to go over the top to entice you in. Standard stuff like artichokes, parma ham, rocket etc. They have nice starters but I always find that having a starter with a pizza makes you way too full and the portions here are more than generous. The other wow factor is that you can see your pizza being made and because the oven is so hot it can be ready in a couple of minutes depending on how busy the place is. They also have a bunch of good wines and some craft beers which work well for the slightly hipster crowd who would turn their nose up these days at a Carlsberg or Heineken. The best thing is that dinner for a couple of people including a good few drinks and a dessert and there was still plenty of change out of 50 Euros. The brownie with nuts was simply out of this world.

I know plenty of people will have their own opinion (I do like Credo as well) on the best Pizza in Dublin (make sure to share your own suggestions below) but Paulies wins it hands down for me. Well worth the visit and as close to a proper Italian classic as you’ll find in Ireland. The only real difference is the price and the weather outside. Apart from that this is very much the real deal.

The View From Others

I am only one person eating there on one night. To give balance to the review here are some other blogs and traditional reviews from people who have eaten there…
Independent
Google Reviews