Taco Taco, Dame Court, Dublin 2

In the run up to impending motherhood I have been trying to meet up with friends for quiet catch ups before the peace is gone forever! One place I have been dying to try is Taco Taco especially since the concept comes from the team behind the very successful San Lorenzos. Taco Taco is located on the ground floor of the Odessa building in Dame Court and describes itself as a pop up restaurant for the brunch crowd though it was dinner we were there for! 

Meat in a Bap, Bedford Street, Belfast

Let me just start this post by saying that this isn't the most vegetarian friendly review I have ever written! Meat in a Bap does exactly what it says on the tin or in this case on its very cute car. It basically stuffs lots of delicious meat into baps. The boyfriend is of the firm belief that most foods are upped a notch when stuck between two slices of bread so as you can imagine I had no trouble getting him into this particular restaurant.

Meat in a Bap can be found a short walk from Belfast City Hall on Bedford Street. It isn't too hard to find especially with windows like this. It made me giggle anyway!

The interior is very casual with long wooden communal tables and stools. On each are three large bottles of sauce to douse your food with if you want. Be warned though the Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce is hot HOT. I know it says it but we still had to try it to be sure!

There are four choices: The Pork, The Chicken, The Beef and The Vegetable and each comes with a side and sauce of your choice. When we visited in early January they also had their Christmas Venison special which made our decision much harder! After much deliberation we went for the Christmas special and The Beef. 

The Christmas special was leg of venison, braised in a sweet Guinness gravy and served with farm house cabbage and champ croquettes. The venison was tender and the bap was soft enough to soak up all the juices. The croquettes were massive but worked really well as a side for this bap.

The Beef was slow braised brisket cooked in a house rub and garnished with slow roasted tomatoes. Himself decided to go with the smokey BBQ as his sauce of choice and house slaw as his side. The slaw was my favourite kind as it was made of celeriac and cabbage which I think always gives coleslaw a nice bite. The brisket wasn't as tender as you would find in places such as Bison or Pitt Bros but it was still good and it made for a mighty and meaty sandwich. 

Seeing as we were still in full blown 'eat what you like Christmas mode', we also ordered a side of Mac & Triple Cheese and Sweet Potato Fries. The Mac & Triple Cheese was fab as the sauce was just the right consistency i.e. thick and gooey! The sweet potato fries were pretty damn good as well though I really don't think you can go too wrong with sweet potato fries. 

All this cost us just under 20 pounds and that also included two drinks. Meat in a Bap is wonderful value for money and it properly filled us up for a day of wandering around Belfast. It is fast food of the best kind! I don't know the restaurant scene that well in Belfast but I can only assume that a place like Meat in a Bap is very welcome addition to the area.

Meat in a Bap, 10 Bedford Street - Belfast, Co. Antrim - BT2 7FB

Tel: 0044 (0)28 9031 4905

Find them on their website here, on Facebook here and Twitter here. 

Pho Viet, Vietnamese Restaurant, Parnell Street

A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit Vietnam. It is a stunningly beautiful country, from the mysterious islands of Halong Bay, to the booming cosmopolitan city of Ho Chi Minh. The food was very different from what I was used to, from the Cao Lầu speciality in Hoi An, to the 24 hour noodles shops in Ho Chi Minh. On my return to Dublin I searched for authentic Vietnamese restaurants only to discover that Dublin didn't really have any. The only ones that I could find that even came close were Saba and Diep but these places tend to focus more on the Thai food. Then Neon opened up in 2012 where I could get my fix of Vietnamese Pho Soup but it was only served with beef and no other choices. Then I discovered Pho Viet which is a haven of Vietnamese food!

Pho Viet is located on Parnell Street, just a few seconds from the top of O'Connell Street. It is a lovely bright restaurant with a very clean modern look to it. The menu has a good range of options for both starters and mains. I visited Pho Viet a good few times last year but it's only now that I am getting around to sharing it with you! On our latest visit we both started with the Cha Gio which are the Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Sometimes you just want fried food and these hit the spot. Dipped in the sweet chilli sauce they were crispy bites full of flavour.

For his main the boyfriend decided to go for the Banh xeo which is a Vietnamese pancake. It is a mixture of prawn, pork, bean sprouts and onion folded in rice flour and pan fried. It is an unusual dish and the boyfriend was a bit worried that it wouldn't be enough to fill him up. As you can see from the photo though it was more than enough!

For my main I ordered the Pho Ga or Chicken noodle soup which was a big bowl of warming chickeny goodness. The waiter also pointed out two sauces on the table which were hoisin and sweet chilli and said that I could mix them into the broth to give it a stronger flavour. I added some hoisin sauce to my broth and it did help to intensify the flavour. The soup also came with beansprouts and chillis which you can add or leave out as you wish. There is something very comforting about a big bowl of warm steamy soup and it is a joy to eat as you slurp your way through it!

If Pho or pancakes aren't your thing then there are lots of other choices with  Bun - rice vermicelli dishes, Com - rice plates and Ca Ri which are curries. The other great thing about Pho Viet is the price. Our two starters and two mains came to an even €25. It's also BYOB so even in this lean month of January there is no need to stop eating out!

Pho Viet, 162 Parnell Street, Dublin 1
Tel: 01-8783165
Find them on Facebook 

Pitt Bros BBQ

Restaurants seem to be a bit like buses to me. You wait and wait and wait and then suddenly two turn up together! Take burritos for example, Dublin was devoid of food fare like this for ages, then one place opened up, followed by another until you can't walk down a Dublin street without coming across a burrito joint. Another example is BBQ food. We have never had a BBQ restaurant in Dublin as far as I can remember but now we have two! The first being the always amazing Bison Bar & BBQ on Wellington quay. Now we also have Pitt Bros BBQ on George's Street. 

You can't miss Pitt Bros BBQ on George's Street with the cute little piggie symbol above the door. The interior is in the same vein as a lot of Dublin restaurant these days - all pallet ceilings, lights made out of barrels and hung with meat hooks. It is a quite a bright restaurant though thanks to the big window at the front and which makes it perfect for some people watching too.

 

If you have been to Bison you will be well used to what is on the menu as it is fairly similar. There is pulled pork, brisket, ribs, sausage and chicken and they all come with two sides for €12.95. I really really wanted some brisket and himself wanted some ribs but they had run out due to the lunchtime rush!! So we went for the sausage and pulled pork instead. These were accompanied by onion rings, slaw, fries and bone marrow mash.

The sausage was lovely with a nice smokey flavour off it while the pulled pork was melt in the mouth though on this occasion was not as warm as it could have been. I think that was to do with the metal trays it arrives on as they are cold so the meat cools down on them quite quickly.

 

The fries still had their skins and were wonderfully crispy as were the onion rings while the bone marrow mash was something I could have eaten a vat of. Yes it may not have been totally lump free but it was delicious. The boyfriend scoffed down the coleslaw though I have to admit I did miss a bowl of potato salad as a side. The sauces were good though the BBQ sauce was a little runny for me. I preferred the Carolina sauce which had a good bang of garlic off it and the boyfriend took a fancy to the hot sauce which wasn't too hot at all.

 

 

This was all washed down with a shared BrewDog 5am Saint picked from a very quirky old sink.

One thing Pitt Bros. does not offer is a combo meal where you can have two meats of your choice which is something the boyfriend and all the men I know would order without hesitation. The boyfriend was still a little hungry on leaving though the icecream was a nice touch. It was the proper good stuff too all creamy, milky deliciousness.

Ok so it worth going to? Yes if you like BBQ and you like meat you will love it. If you have vegetarian friends they will disown you for life if you bring them here!! The boyfriend also went back the next day without me (I know!!) and had the combo bun meal which he said was great. Yes you will notice a lot of similarities between here and Bison right on down to the paper towels on the table. You may also feel like you have seen the icecream thing before (Neon) but as they say isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery. It seems that Dubliners can't get enough of BBQ and I would say, like me, are very happy to see that this trend is taking off here too. For good, tasty food at a great price BBQ seems to be the way to go.

Find them on Facebook here and Twitter here.

Ambleside & Grasmere: Our Summer Holiday, Part 2

Well I am finally getting around to posting the next part of my holiday blog. Our trip to the Lake District seems like a distant memory now that the warm summer days are gone and autumn has arrived with cold intent. It is nice to relive the memories though so here goes!

For our two week holiday we stayed in a beautiful cottage in Ambleside. It was an old gate lodge which used to be part of Rydal Estate and was at the beginning of a beautiful walk up to the old house.  

Park Gates Lodge, a Victorian gate keepers cottage, adj the footpath to Fairfield & Rydal Hall on Holiday Lettings.

The only thing missing from the cottage was wifi so we would find ourselves every few days at the Apple Pie Cafe and Bakery. I was in love the moment I saw the name!!

This family owned  restaurant is set in the heart of Ambleside and does a roaring trade in pies, pasties, cakes, and sandwiches. If you weren't early enough there was no chance of getting your hands on their lovely doughnuts or bath buns!

Bath Buns

There was also an extensive lunch menu with a wide range of options such as the chicken tikka roll and a brie toastie pictured below. All the food here is freshly made and everything we ate was really filling and full of flavour. 

Chicken Tikka Roll

Brie and Veggie Toastie

On one of the evenings we walked from our lodge up past the old Rydal Hall and into the outskirts of Ambleside. Here we decided to have dinner in the Badger Bar.

Now I just thought that the restaurant had a quirky name like so many other places in England but I was delighted when the owners came over to tell us that they had thrown out the evening's veggies for the local badgers. Turns out that visiting badgers gave the place its name!! Don't think I have ever been that close to them.

Besides the badger novelty the bar did great English style food - pork scratchings, Cumberland sausage with mash and game stew.

Pork Scratchings

The main reason we travelled to the Lake District this year was for a friend's wedding. She and her fiance got married in a beautiful old church in Grasmere which dated back to the 14th century. While we were only there for a short time that day the village was definitely worth a trip back. The village is the final resting place for William Wordsworth and you can wander through the garden and visit his grave. You can also see how much you remember from the poem 'Daffodil'. I could only remember the first two lines unlike my friend who remembered the whole thing!!

Grasmere

Grasmere is also home to the world famous Sarah Nelson’s Gingerbread. The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop is tucked away at the corner of the churchyard of St. Oswald’s Church and you may have to queue to get in! It's a tiny little store and walking over the threshold is like taking a step back in time. The gingerbread itself was quite unlike any gingerbread I have had before. It was thin and crunchy but had a lovely gingery topping. 

 Grasmere Gingerbread Shop

Gingerbread

We also ate lunch one afternoon in the nearby Swan Hotel which sits at the edge of the village. This was after the boyfriend had decided we were going to climb a mountain but then picked the most vertical climb I have ever had to do! Safe to say we were starving by the time we got back.

Himself went for the venison suet pudding while I decided on the John Ross Junior smoked salmon sandwich. You would definitely know that they cater for hungry hikers as my sandwich was more a sandwich and a half. It was a great sandwich but I think the winning dish of the two was definitely the pudding. We had never come across food like that in Ireland where we tend to have more pies but this was delicious. It was rich and gamey but the casing it was in was spongy and light and helped soak up all the juices. The meal here cost us £20 so it was perhaps a little on the more expensive side for lunch but it kept us going for the whole day.

Smoked Salmon Sandwich

Venison Suet Pudding, veggies and the obligatory glass of ale

Both Ambleside and Grasmere are well worth a visit. They are both beautiful villages with lots of history and plenty of things to see, eat and do. Most places in the villages, as you would expect, are well used to muddy hikers, children, dogs and buggies so there is no excuse to get out and about and then reward yourself with a lovely meal!

Ambleside at sunset

Check out Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1 here.
Nolita Cantina - A day trip to Liverpool here

Bunsen - Serving Straight up Burgers

If asked to choose somewhere for dinner in town the boyfriend will always, unsurprisingly, pick somewhere that offers a lot of meat. Bear, Bison BBQ and Zaytoon feature prominently on his list of choices. So when I told him about a new burger restaurant called Bunsen, that just did straight up burgers without any fuss, it didn't take much convincing to get him there!

Bunsen is located on Wexford Street and can be found by the glowing neon B sign that sits above its door. The interior is minimalist with wooden tables along the walls and exposed copper lighting throughout the room. The menu is short to say the least and it all fits on a business card. There are four burger choices: hamburger, cheeseburger, double hamburger and double cheeseburger. Then there are three choices for the chips: shoestring, handcut and sweet potato. It's short and sweet but it does exactly what it says on the card - straight up burgers.

                                           

On our most recent visit we both went for double cheeseburgers served medium rare. Everything about these burgers was just right. The Amish roll that soaked up the juices, the Black Angus Aberdeen beef which was moist and full of flavour, the great quality lettuce, tomatoes and onion, the cheese which had melted into a wonderful goo and the umami pickle together formed the perfect burger. That might sound like a big statement but it's just true. The boyfriend proclaimed it a 'savage burger' and he is well qualified to make this statement having eaten in a lot of Dublin's burger joints!

 

Double Cheeseburger

 

We also tried out the three varieties of chips with the hand cut and sweet potato ones being deemed the favourites. The shoestring ones were just a little too reminiscent of a certain fast food joint for us but I know other people will love them.

Sweet Potato Chips

Handcut Chips

Shoestring Chips

On our first visit we got two hamburgers and some sweet potato chips and were still a little hungry when we left. Next time we got two double cheeseburgers and shoestring and handcut chips. This was too much for us. Next time I think it will be a double cheeseburger for him, a cheeseburger for me and two handcut chips. We will eventually work out the perfect amount of food for us there but it's definitely fun trying! Two double cheeseburgers, and two fries cost us €24.80 which we thought was very reasonable for the amount of food we got.

Bunsen offer simple tasty burgers and if you want yours topped with fried eggs, onion rings or marinated artichokes then this is not the place to go. If though you want to try what is probably Dublin's best burger then you know where to go now.

Have you been to Bunsen yet? Let me know what you think I'd love to know.

Find them on Facebook here and Twitter here. 

Nolita Cantina - American Style Dining in Liverpool

One of the great advantages of going on holidays to the Lake District this year with the car was that it left us with the opportunity to go anywhere we wanted to. So we decided to pay Liverpool a visit. We had been to Liverpool once before and it struck a cord with us. It is a lively, culture filled city with a beautiful shopping area and a thriving food culture. It is also only an hour and a half away from the Lake District and a 40 minute flight from Ireland. If you have never been and are looking for a easy weekend away I would say check it out you will be pleasantly surprised. 

So early one drizzly morning we hopped in the car and drove down. We spent a wonderful morning trawling through the shopping district in Liverpool One and then down to the vintage stores on Bold Street. This was all part of a well executed plan because the one place we really wanted to eat at was on that street too! Before I went away I had asked Liverpool Food and Drink Festival on Twitter if they had any places they could recommend. They very kindly came back to me with a whole list of different options including Mexican, Indian, Bistro and American. After much deliberation with the boyfriend we settled on Nolita Cantina having been very much swayed by the inclusion of baby corn dogs on the menu! 

Nolita Cantina is a relaxed, informal restaurant which serves American style food and I knew immediately it was my sort of place when I heard them play HAIM as part of their playlist! We started off our meal by choosing a pitcher of iced tea. It was properly homemade and very refreshing. 

 

Then for starters we decided on a sharing platter as we just wanted to try everything. This came with a selection of chilli cob, baby corn dogs, onion rings and spicy chicken wings. It also came with frickles, which are deep fried dill pickles and which I had never come across before. They also had hush puppies which are small savoury doughnuts made from corn meal, beer & cheese and which I can't find anymore in Ireland. It was a great choice and really covered quite a lot of the choices on the starter menu. 

The boyfriend also decided at the last minute that he wanted to try a plate of burnt ends so that also arrived at our table. The burnt ends are those pieces of meat that are probably a bit too charred to put into the main meals but which are delicious as a snack.

Then it was onto the main course and we had absolutely no idea what was in store for us! We had gone for Nolita Cantina's lunch deal where you can get any sandwich and bottomless fries for six pounds. We just assumed that they would be normal sized sandwiches. We were very very wrong!! What arrived at the table were sandwiches packed full of layers and spilling out from under the bread. My deli sandwich was the hand carved beef rump pastrami with lightly grilled swiss cheese, chipotle mayonnaise & pickle. The boyfriend went for the  pulled pork with lightly grilled monterey jack cheese and chipotle mayonnaise. I have never been to NYC but I can imagine this is exactly what people mean when they talk about the proper deli sandwiches! Both of the sandwiches were just packed full of flavour and the cheese had been slightly melted which brought all the ingredients together. 

Hand carved beef rump pastrami

Pulled Pork Sandwich

The sandwiches were accompanied by a basket full of sweet potato and normal fries which I thought was a nice touch as it provided a bit of colour and a variety of flavours. I actually prefer sweet potato fries as well so it was nice not having to order them separately. 

So could we eat it all?? In short no and I think it was actually the first time I have ever seen the boyfriend beaten by food!! In hindsight we ordered too much but that would be nothing new for us especially when it is our first visit to a place. We also weren't expecting the sheer size of the sandwich as I have never really come across food like that in Dublin. In fairness though if we went back we would probably do it all over again as food like this is hard to come by! As it says on their website Nolita Cantina was born out of the mutual passion of two chefs looking to satisfy their appreciation and longing for traditional, homemade American style food. Well I definitely think they have succeeded in that and also with introducing what real American food should be like to people who visit here 

You can find them on Facebook here and Twitter here.