Summer Tasting Menu at Copper and Spices

Discovering that I had an amazing Indian on my doorstep has to be one of the highlights of moving to Meath. I was leaving behind Ananda, Megha and the local byo, the Royal, and moving to the countryside where I thought I would never manage to find an Indian to rival my favourites.  How wrong I was!

Copper and Spices is a South East Asian restaurant on Ludlow Street in Navan, owned and run by Carmel and Nitin Gautam. It is an inviting looking restaurant, from the black and gold entrance to the cosy and well presented interior. The food they serve here is a cut above the rest and is up there, in my opinion, with some of my Dublin favourites. They do the best samosas and curries a girl could wish for. They also do the best value early bird take away I have ever come across! It’s amazing value for money. Anyway I am being sidetracked by my love for all of their food and need to talk about their wonderful Summer Tasting Menu which I recently got to sample.

OCHA Teppanyaki & Sushi Bar

 

It was a busy bank holiday weekend this year with hens, outings and family dinners. It also meant a few chances to eat out ranging from McDonalds on the go (yes I freely admit to this!) to top notch dining in the Rustic Stone to a casual catch up in a newly discovered sushi bar. This new sushi bar was a discovery on my friend Maya's part who has the world's oddest hangover cravings claiming that only sushi would help!

OCHA Teppanyaki & Sushi Bar is a Japanese and Thai restaurant offering Sushi and Teppanyaki grill. It is is only a few minutes walk from Dundrum Shopping Centre and can be found on the main street opposite the Dundrum House Pub. The exterior is all dark wood while the interior is minimalist with low stools and soft lighting. A teppanyaki grill takes pride of place in one corner. Apparently this can seat up to 7/8 people and it would make a fantastic night out as I can imagine it is quite theatrical. It is something I will definitely be trying out in the future.

What I love most about restaurants such as Ocha, is that food like this can all be brought to the table at the one time or at various intervals whenever it ready. It is also perfect sharing food. Miso soup and Agedashi Tofu were the first dishes to arrive at the table. I love miso soup as a way to begin a meal such as this, as it is light but warming and gets you ready for the flavours that are going to happen. 

Miso Soup

The Agedashi Tofu was deep fried tofu steak lightly battered and served with soy sauce. The tofu was melt in the mouth and the batter was lovely and light. I grew up thinking tofu was awful but have since been converted thanks to restaurants such as Ocha and Musashi.

Agedashi Tofu

Next to arrive was the Sashimitake.This was a ten piece platter of raw fish which included Tuna, Salmon, Seabass, Crabstick and Prawn. The fish was fresh and the seabass was a revelation as I have never had it raw before.

Sashimitake

Up next was the Norimaki choice - a California Roll which was made with crab stick, avocado, cucumber & sweet vinegar rice. It had a vivid orange coating of what I assume was fish roe which made it visually appealing.

California Roll

California Roll up close and personal!

After all this Maya's sushi cravings hadn't been sated so we shared another Sashimitake and some Sake Nigiri - Salmon Sushi which did the trick. At this point you would think I was nearing the end of the review but in fact I ate in this restaurant twice on the one day. I met the boyfriend soon after and was raving about the food I had just eaten. He was already hungry and now he was hungry for Asian food so we went back!! I got a few funny looks from the waiters but sure they probably just thought I just really liked sushi. For this next meal we ordered a Chicken Pad Thai which was made with flat rice noodles, stir fried mixed vegetables and fish-tamarind sauce. This was different to the usually Thai ones I have had as it had a more sweet and sour style feel to it but it was still a good, filling Pad Thai.

Chicken Pad Thai

We also ordered some more Norimaki of California Rolls and some Tuna Rolls which consisted of raw tuna fish & sweet vinegar rice. 

Tuna Roll

Now I don't proclaim to be a sushi expert having only really gotten into it in the last few years but I know what I like and I really enjoyed my two meals here! Ocha offers filling, fresh and healthy food at an affordable price. The service was friendly and efficient and it was a very comfortable place to spend a rainy Sunday. The only thing I was disappointed about was the drink menu which just offered red and white wine. There wasn't a hint of sake or plum wine on it. I really hope this place does well and that people visit here even though it is a little outside the main centre. Walk that extra two minutes and give it a go!

The first meal with Maya cost €42.50 while the second meal cost €27. Check out their website here and find them on Facebook here.

Damson Diner

One of my best mates recently announced she was coming back to Dublin for a few months, which resulted in lots of bouncing around the house and excitedly clapping my hands. She is a great one for eating out with and since she left a few years ago an amazing amount of restaurants have opened up in Dublin. A lot of these places are quirky, creative and are catering for customers who want to eat good food but at reasonable prices. One such place is the Damson Diner which has opened where The South William used to be located and which seemed a good place to start in reintroducing her to the Dublin dining scene. 

Set over three floors, the space has been totally transformed with diner style seating downstairs and a large open mezzanine upstairs. We wandered in just after six on what happened to be their opening night and were seated immediately in one of the little nooks.  The decor is simple but eclectic and the whole thing has a 1940s feel to it. It is spacious yet were we were seated felt quite private and allowed us to have a good catch up without feeling like the people next to us were eavesdropping! 

The menu is short and you can choose from Bites, In a Bowl or From the Grill. It is a mix of both Asian and American food but it isn't fusion, instead it is a choice of dishes from either area.  We both love fish so decided to share a starter of Louisiana Crab Cakes. These were fresh white crab meat mixed with peppers, onions & celery and served with Louisiana hot sauce. They were lovely with a slight kick of heat off them but nothing that was too intense.

 

For our mains we both went for the Seared Tuna which was yellow-fin tuna, flash grilled and served with pickled radish, pickled ginger and fresh fennel. Now I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this, I think I had tuna steak in my head as that is the only way I have ever eaten tuna in a restaurant. This was a very pleasant surprise. It was fresh, tangy and it let the tuna be the star of the dish.

For our sides we choose chips and Breaded courgettes. The chips were grand, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside just like they should be but it was the breaded courgettes that had us talking. They were delicious chunks of breaded goodness and we probably could have eaten another bowl of them!

Breaded Courgettes

Crispy Chips

Damson Diner have a short menu of desserts but as we were fairly full we opted for one of their many delicious sounding cocktails. Damson Diner's cocktails are extra special as they are made with Irish fruit infusions that are done in house, think sloes, cranberries and raspberries left to infuse for a few months. These infusions are seasonal and once they are gone that's it until next year!! I had a strawberry blondie which was finished off with a sherbert covered strawberry while Maya had a Gin Tom Collins. Amazing!! 

Infusions

The staff were lovely on the night and took time to explain the food, cocktails and what the plan was for the rest of the restaurant. They showed us the private dining room which can seat about ten people and has a privacy window so that you can see out but no one can see you!! There is an adjoining smoking area just past this room and there are also plans to add a late night bar in the basement from early December which sounds like a perfect place to enjoy some pre Christmas cocktails!!

Private Dining Area

All together our meal cost us €63 which was for one starter, 2 mains, 2 sides and 2 cocktails. Damson Diner is located at 52 South William Street, Dublin 2 and there is more info on their Facebook page here.

Neon - Asian Street Food

Neon, a new Asian Street Food restaurant, opened its door a few weeks ago and as soon as I saw the menu online and saw the phrase 'Vietnamese Pho Soup', I was hooked and knew I had to get myself down there as fast as I could. So last Friday with only a few hours to spare before heading off to a gig I decided that a visit to Neon on Camden Street had to be fitted in.

One of the first things I noticed was how inviting the restaurant looked from the outside with its green exterior and dark wooden panelling. Then all it took was one look through the window to fall head over heels in love with the place. The long wooden tables and the lovely graphics of street traders in Vietnam brought back wonderful memories of travelling with friends. I was looking forward to relieving the food experience.

So myself and the boyfriend grabbed a table and a menu and sat ourselves down to confer. Deciding what to get always takes us an age and it never helps when everything on the menu sounds delicious! There was a good variety of soups, salads, curries and noodle, rice and wok dishes on offer.  Favourites such as Pad Thai and Massaman Curry also make an appearance. Finally we made our decision and so up I went to order. Ordering in Neon is the same as ordering in any fast food restaurant, you go up to the staff, they dont come to you, but that is where the similarity ends. The staff were very attentive the whole time we were there, asking us whether we were enjoying the food and if we needed anything. I also noticed that they were very efficent at keeping the place clean as the majority of the seating is communal and does tend to get messy quite fast.

Now on to the food! First off, and to my delight, we received some prawn crackers which we hadn't ordered but which come with the meal. They were the good kind, not the greasy, flimsy, white ones, but the crunchy, slighty spicy ones and teamed with a sweet chilli sauce they started the meal off on a good foot.

As we couldn't decide on a starter each we got a Starter Box to share so we could try a bit of everthing. There were prawn rolls, chicken satay skewers, vegetable spring rolls, duck spring rolls and a selection of sauces. The duck spring rolls were the standout for me. They were just really tasty and moreish but everything in the box tasted very fresh.

Then it was on to the main feast. Since the main reason I was there was for the Vietnamese Pho Soup I had to order that but we also ordered some Mekong Duck and stir fried egg noodles. All the food comes to the table in paper cartons but there are bowls available on the tables which you can put your food into yourself.

Vietnamese Pho Soup

Mekong Duck

Mekong Duck and Noodles

The soup was delicious but I think if I was to eat it just by myself I would be a bit overwhelmed as the portion size was huge. There was also quite a strong aniseed flavour off it which I liked but might not be to everyone's taste.  The Mekong Duck was succulent and melted in the mouth and it was accompanied by crisp, crunchy vegetables. Then to top the whole meal off one of the staff gave us two cones and told us to help ourselves to icecream!! Icecream that we could pull ourselves, well it was like a childhood dream had just come true!  One little girl nearly fell over herself when she saw what we were doing.

This is fast food at its best. You can't beat Asian street food for sheer quickness, taste and flavour and Neon delivers that by the cartonfull! I can see this place becoming a firm favourite on the Camden Street trail and that is just going by the fact that by the time we left at 7 the place was packed with lot of happy looking chopsticks clicking clients. Our whole bill came to 26 euro and at that we couldn't even finish it all!

For more info on Neon click here. They will be offering a home delivery service from the 12th March. This is also a family friendly restaurant with a special children's selection and an icecream machine so how could it not be!!