Ingredients Fresh Pasta (I Use Orecchiette But Use Anything You Want) Large Chunk Of Fresh Parmesan 8 Small Tinned Anchovies 3 Cloves Of Garlic 2 Zucchinis (Corgettes) I normally do recipes here that have no more than 7 recipes and only take 20 minutes to cook but I thought I’d take things to another level […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 3 Apples 6 Carrots 1 Knob Of Ginger 1 Large Handful Of Spinach 1 Lemon It’s been a huge weekend of partying for many in Dublin with the Electric Picnic festival so I’ve come up with a little miracle juice to pick all party goes off the floor and get the shit out of […]

10 years ago

There are a few simple tests that can help you figure out if a restaurant is good or not… Is it busy? Do they have pictures of the dishes on the menu (big no no for me)? Does it look clean? The best one for me though is are there a bunch of locals in […]

10 years ago

Ingredients Dates Peanut Butter Decimated Coconut Coco Powder Cinnamon 1 Vanilla Pod Whole Almonds Flaxseed Sunflower Seeds Honey Or Maple Syrup. I’m on a major health buzz at the moment and as half the battle with getting in to shape is what you eat I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to improve my […]

10 years ago

Something that you’ll hear a lot of people say is that there is nothing to do in Dublin but drink. It does sometimes feel like that when you are trapped in the head fuck mixture of bad weather, mates drinking and wanting to escape a shit week in work. Most of us tend to get […]

10 years ago

Eating healthy is a massive pain in the hole. Doing so in the city at lunch time is the hardest because there are so few options and because that magical hour is the only thing you get to look forward to during your working day and you don’t want to end up with a serious […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 4 Sweet Potatoes 2 Onions 2 Normal Potatoes 2 Cloves Garlic Chicken Stock (Or Veg If You Are A Veggie) Coriander Creme Fraiche As much as we would like to believe that there is a small bit of summer coming back the sad reality is that it is probably all gone and we need […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 1 Packet Of Crab Meat 1 Mango 1 Baguette 1 Tub Creme Fraiche 1 Bunch Of Coriander 1 Bunch Of Asparagus 3 Limes 1 Packet Rocket There probably isn’t anything more romantic than cooking a nice meal for a partner of prospective partner. I’m not talking about lashing a frozen pizza in the oven […]

10 years ago

I tend to stick to themes like a broken record here on the blog. Like the Northside being a culinary wasteland and the serious lack of good seafood on our little island. Another theme is the fact that Portobello is without doubt the new hip area in Dublin that is about to explode in popularity. […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 1 Apple Juice 1 Packet Of Raspberries 1 Packet Of Blackberries 1 Mango 1 Tub Of Yoghurt Getting your entire fruit fix for a day before 9 o’clock seems like a good idea to me so here we have another smoothie that will deliver your daily dose in one glass. This one is on […]

10 years ago

Ingredients Matcha Powder 1 Berocca 1 Bottle Of Water 1 Lime 1 Lemon Finding something healthy to drink that isn’t water these days is pretty tough. You are bombarded by a constant garage of advertising from the various sports drinks the vast majority of which are just packed full of sugar. I’d stick to water […]

10 years ago

When it comes to eating out in Dublin there are a ton of options. I started this blog because the shitty review sites and critics were all so biased and never wrote honest reviews. Luckily though things are getting way better because many restaurants are bypassing media completely and talking directly to customers via social […]

10 years ago

I get asked a lot of question here about the tools I use within the recipes. What knife am I using? Where did I buy the blender? Where do I get the crab meat in the recipes. I’ve been answering them on an ad hoc basis but I thought I’d lash together a post a […]

10 years ago

I lived on Camden Street for about 2 years. A place called Montague Lane just above a casino. It was a dump but it was close to work and I convinced myself it was “lively”. It was in fact a complete and utter shit hole of an area especially after 10 o’clock in the evening. […]

10 years ago

Ingredients Rib eye steak (bigger the better) Potatoes Garlic Butter Rocket Rosemary Balsamic vinegar This is just about as classic a dish as you’re ever likely to find. I think of this as one of the most satisfying meals you can put together. This is for those folks sitting in to watch the football or […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 1 Packet Of Pasta 1 Chorizo (Or Any Other Meat Really) Parsley Rosemary Garlic Chili Parmesan Cheese If you are like me you will often walk to the fridge and scratch your head at the weird ingredients in there that are all bits and bobs from previous recipes and that you have no fucking […]

10 years ago

Ingredients 1 Packet Of Smoked / BBQ / Roasted Salmon Long Stem Broccoli 1 Lemon 1 Large Cucumber 1 Small Tub Natural Yoghurt Crusty Bread When it comes to the weekend you are always stuck with the same old boring options. Sure you can go out and get brunch but you’ll end up paying a […]

10 years ago

The celtic tiger was generally seen as a bad thing in Ireland. Builders were having fois gras burgers for elevenses, Eddie Rockets seriously considered introducing silver service butlers and a record 6 bottles of champagne were sold on the Northside of Dublin throughout 2006. The money got to people’s heads and one place that epitomised the […]

10 years ago

You can’t patent a restaurant. Some of the best restaurants in the world are ideas that people have brought back from other countries and just replicated for a local market. As much as you might dislike Starbucks for example every coffee shop in the world copies their model now. Chefs copy dishes and get inspiration […]

10 years ago

So I got in trouble before Christmas for slamming the North side of Dublin and their shit restaurants so I decided to do the only thing that would appease people this week would be to go to a Dublin 4 Lobster restaurant. I considered it a treat since I have to navigate the North side […]

10 years ago

People who know me well know my passion for Berlin. It’s a no bullshit sort of place with a great tech scene and work friendly cafes. My ambition is to make Dublin more like Berlin one day and get rid of all the poncey bullshit like licensing laws that say no selling booze after 10.30, […]

10 years ago

Eating in fine dining restaurants at lunch time during the week is usually a bad idea. Having been a chef I know how it works…Apart from the really busy places most fancy spots are dead with a handful of customers at lunch time. What you don’t see out the back in the kitchen is the […]

10 years ago

Slight change from the normal review this week. I actually ate in two places intending to review them but they were so indescribably mundane and boring that I didn’t think they justified a full review. Take the picture above for example from Lock’s Bistro where I ate with a mate. It has a Michelin star […]

10 years ago

Picking the best coffee in Dublin is pretty tough even if in general the average standard in the city is pretty shit. Once you discount the big buckets of piss water that most of the chains serve you are left with a handful of good independent places but the really tasty stuff is as had […]

10 years ago

I wanted to treat a client who has been really good to us since we started our business to a nice long leisurely lunch and kill two birds with one stone by doing a review at the same time. Having eaten in most of the best places for this blog over the last year the […]

10 years ago

When it comes to food the recession is the best thing that ever happened this country. During the boom years we all ate fillet steak in flash city center locations while drinking champagne mojitos and comparing the sizes of our cocks (otherwise known as houses). Nothing good ever happens in a boom. Good taste goes […]

10 years ago

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 […]

10 years ago

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 […]

10 years ago

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 […]

10 years ago

I travel a lot. Its a pain in the hole and never as glam as it sounds and if there is one thing that you can be nearly certain about when it comes to business travel it is that you’ll eat shit food to try and cheer yourself up a little. That and the fact […]

10 years ago

We live on an island. A tiny little island that if you go West borders a massive and incredibly deep Ocean that is full to the brim of fish. Even taking into account the thieving Spanish bastards and their dodgy trawlers or the supertankers producing shitty Donegal catch and tins of John West tuna there […]

10 years ago

Last week I shared some of the dishes that you simply had to try in Dublin before you die and despite some stern arguments and good discussion we were mostly agreed. So given that we are a nation of piss heads, addicted to caffeine and famous all over the world for the drinks brands we […]

10 years ago

The vast majority of us work around town somewhere. Or perhaps in an industrial estate or office park where lunch options are fairly limited. Centra, Spar, Insomnia and the likes. Same old fucking deli counter day in day out. Same old pre cooked chicken that has probably come from Thailand. Because the economy is in […]

10 years ago

The whole country is fucking broke at the moment. We’ve a cloud of depression hanging over us all but the only silver lining is that the restaurant scene is getting seriously cool in Dublin. Something pretty special is happening in this city and it’s happening because of the recession. Restauranteurs are being forced to get […]

10 years ago

I wanted to make a list of the absolute must have things to eat in the city. Before people get all arsey I’d like to point out firstly that these are my own personal preferences and that I’ve included some from twitter below the post and you should include your own in the comments for balance. […]

10 years ago

So the competition was only open for 2 weeks but I was blown away by over 200 entries. I couldn’t have possibly guessed just how many people would enter and how much thought and imagination would be put in by the people competing. I had originally said that I would be announcing the 2 winners […]

10 years ago

A new restaurant in Ranelagh is about as common as a rainy day in an Irish summer with the strip filled with all sorts of culinary delights. I starting trying to count how many proper restaurants were in this little village but stopped at 20. Counting never was my strong point. People always say it […]

10 years ago

I’d heard nothing but great things about Greenhouse. Various people told me it was “the” place to eat in Dublin and would likely be getting rewarded by the Michelin Guide pretty soon. So when a wonderful client invited me there for a spot of lunch it’s safe to say I jumped at the chance. The […]

10 years ago

After announcing the first competition winner this morning I had the even harder job of picking the 2nd winner and after much deliberation I have gone for carve cases.So what really won me over was this little piece here on the website where the following questions was asked…Is everything really made in Ireland? Yip!!! I […]

10 years ago

So I was meant to annonce the first winner last night but to be honest I was so torn between a couple of entries that I wanted to sleep on it. The quality of entries was absolutely amazing and narrowing it down to one single winner was extremely tough. So with a big drum roll […]

10 years ago

So after a small delay for my trip over to Silicon Valley for my Entrepreneur of the year nomination I have finally had some free time to sit down and go through the couple of hundred applications. I’ve been blown away by the effort, time and imagination that people went to in an effort to […]

10 years ago

So the competition only has 2 full days to go before the deadline on Monday at 5 for all entries to be submitted. I’ve been getting some brilliant entries via emails, comments, videos and other cool ways. The one thing I would say is that there is still lots of room to stand out from […]

10 years ago

I love Ireland and hate the tough times we are going through at the moment. Add in the fact that I sold my business recently and that I have been looking for an opportunity to help some people share the same good fortune and that is how I came up with the idea of giving […]

10 years ago

As you know I review restaurants here on the blog but today I’ve gone for a shop. I hadn’t planned to but when I walked out of Donnybrook fair with ingredients for a meal for 3 and a bill for 56 Euros I thought it was about time the place was judged with the same […]

10 years ago

You should never really shit on your own doorstep. Or so I’ve been told. So given that I eat about 7-8 meals a week in this place and that it is 50 meters from where I live I really do have to be careful with this review. People always ask me do I go back […]

10 years ago

Lets not beat around the bush…Sushi in Dublin is shit. I’d say it’s about as good as a pint of Guinness in downtown Osaka. It’s not that long ago that we thought the humble potato was the world’s best delicacy so the transition to raw fish is unsurprisingly taking a couple of decades. The worst […]

10 years ago

When I was training as a chef Jamie Oliver had just burst on the scene. All my peers and most chefs I’ve ever talked to hate him. “He’s not a real chef” is the most common phrase I’ve heard over the years but I disagree. My own inspiration at the time was Marco Pierre White […]

10 years ago

About a month ago I lay awake one evening and came up with the idea of giving away a bit of money to help a couple of Irish businesses get started. Financing for most small businesses was non existent while the Irish economy was crying out for more jobs. When I launched it I had […]

10 years ago

Regular foodie readers here don’t worry this is the last non food post. Back to the reviews from tomorrow onwards! So after my gas bill and electricity was cut off for about the 10th time in my life and with my car tax constantly out of date I finally decided it was worth getting somebody […]

10 years ago

So for those of you who are new to the blog I ran a competition a couple of months ago to give away €10k in start up money to a couple of Irish businesses to try and help create a few jobs on our little Island. Carve cases launched a couple of months ago (And […]

10 years ago