Urchin at the Cliff Townhouse is like a white and pastel coloured Summer hangout. Serving seafood and cocktails to a backdrop of cool tunes. I had missed the opening night but the lovely PR team behind it sent me a voucher to try out some cocktails and small plates as a guest. Continue reading
Afternoon tea is a popular choice of many. Pastries, scones and finger sandwiches served with tea and coffee is the norm. Hotels continually try to outdo each other with variations on the theme; gentleman’s afternoon tea, peculiar afternoon tea, chocolate afternoon tea and art afternoon tea to name but a few. I’ve tried most and like them all. Continue reading
On Sundays I’m usually too hungover to get out of bed. Following a fairly dry Saturday night I woke up early, refreshed and eager to do something. Bored of the usual fry up for breakfast I opted to take advantage of a Dining Room voucher I had bought a few weeks back. For a mere €20 Havana on Georges Street were offering Sunday brunch for two with a choice of Mimosa or Pink Mojito to wash it down. I booked a table for 1 o’clock and made my way in.
It was fairly quiet when we arrived, but then again I suppose 1 is early enough for kicking off brunch. First things first we were offered a choice of Mimosa or Pink Mojito. Two Pink Mojitos were ordered and promptly delivered while we browsed the menu. The Pink Mojitos were very refershing and just screamed Summer is not gone yet. As you can see they were pimped out in cocktail brollies and slices of lime. Delicious.
Pink Mojitos
The brunch menu was split into five differant sections. Eggs & Tortilla, On Ciabatta, Salads, Steak & Wings and Paella. I opted for the striploin steak sandwich on a warm ciabatta with sundried tomato pesto, mixed leaves and hand cut fries.
Striploin Steak on Ciabatta
It looked great and was served on a wooden chopping board. While it was very tasty I would have liked the steak to be a little more on the rare side to really bring the flavour out. In saying that I ate everything.
H went for the Eggs Benedict with hollandaise, crisped serrano ham, pequilo sauce and hand cut fries. His was certainly the better dish of the two. The pequilo sauce had a pleasant sweet taste without being too spicy. The poached eggs themselves were cooked perfectly and made me declare that I was going to start poaching eggs. That hasn’t happened of course.
Eggs Benedict
Delicious
The restaurant has a very nice relaxed feel about it with lots of nice interior touches and has been around since 2000. It originally was housed in Camden Market but moved to Georges Street in 2005.
Interior Detail
Interior Detail
For the bargain price of €20 we were both stuffed after our meals so didn’t opt for anything resembling dessert and satisfied we made our exit. I probably would return to Havana and try a few of the other brunch items, so thats a good sign.
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Havana Tapas Bar Georges Street Dublin 2 Tel: (0)1 400 5990 Twitter: @Havanatapasbar
Located along the harbour in Skerries The Brick House is a tapas bar and restaurant with stunning views of the harbour. I recently seen it advertised on GrabOne with an offer of four tapas and two glasses of wine for €19. Seeing as I live in the town I figured it was the perfect excuse to try it out.
The restaurant is split over two floors of what was once a residential building. Downstairs there is a small bar to the left as you walk in and to the right is an bright open dining space. There is also an open fire which I can only imagine is the perfect place to sit on a cold day looking out to the sea. As it turned out it was a fairly mild day when I visited but they had the fire roaring anyway. Upstairs is split into three sections. A large dining space to the front by the windows and two smaller sections either side of the stairs towards the back.
Downstairs with Open Fire
Bar Area Downstairs
Myself and himself were promptly seated by a friendly waitress at a table by the window. To be honest I don’t know a lot about tapas (despite owning a still in its wrapper tapas cookbook for about 3 years) but I do know they are of Spanish origin. You can find out a bit more about tapas here. The tapas menu was quite extensive and dishes ranged from €4 for the simplest such as Sundried Tomatoes up to €11 for Pil Pil Prawns.
We ordered four of the dishes to share. The Pil Pil Prawns, Steak Bites with Pepper Sauce, Chips N’ Dips ( Jalapeno, Ranchero, Tomato Salsa and Cheese Sauce) and Spicy Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dip. Although the voucher didn’t specify it, it turned out that some of the dishes had a supplement charge on them. Typically it included two of the dishes I chose. A supplement of €1 on the Steak Bites and €3 on The Pil Pil Prawns. We also went for a side order of bread with garlic mayo and a glass of house white (sav blanc) and house red (merlot).
The bread was light and tasty and obviously freshly baked and the accompanying dip was probably one of the best garlic mayos I ever tried.
Bread with Garlic Mayo
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the Chips N’ Dips being a tapas novice but it was of course Tortilla chips with dips and a sizeable portion at that too.
Chips ‘n’ Dips
The Steak Bites were tender and cooked to a light pink. The pepper sauce however which came with it lacked flavour and was actually quite bland. The portion size again was quite good.
Steak Bites
The Pil Pil Prawns were served with garlic and chili and cooked to perfection.
Pil Pil Prawns
The Spicy Chicken Wings were heavy on a taste of vinegar but light on the taste of spice. They were the only disappointment of the meal.
Chicken Wings
The two inclusive glasses of wine washed everything down nicely. The white crisp and fruity and the red smooth and full bodied. Including the supplements on two dishes and the cost of the voucher the overall bill came to €24 which to my mind was great value.
On a sunny day this is one great spot!
The Brick House 24 Harbour Road Skerries Ph: (01) 849 4122 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brick-House/190839821090360?fref=ts