The Restaurant Recommendation Thread

richiepurgas

Slim Charles wrote: »

Places we go for Sunday breakfast include Serendipity and the Viaduct - much later opening times than 7 am though I'd imagine.

Serendipity, is that the place near the River Lee hotel ? If so, it closed down a few months ago.

Slim Charles

richiepurgas wrote: »

Serendipity, is that the place near the River Lee hotel ? If so, it closed down a few months ago.

Is it closed down now?? That's a shame :mad: we were there as recently as May I think ?

opus

Slim Charles wrote: »

Is it closed down now?? That's a shame :mad: we were there as recently as May I think ?

Yup it's closed, I work fairly close to there so walk past a fair bit.

Mardyke

Question... how much of a cafe closure is down to bad luck and how much is down to insufficient management and general business skills?

Maybe this is unfair, but I never got the vibe from Serendipity that they were serious operators in a tough market.

The fact that their website is still active without any message of closure tends to back up the above for me. It may be a small thing but I think if any sort of business that relies on customers these days does not have the online and social media thing down, then they are going to struggle.

northgirl

Mardyke wrote: »

Question... how much of a cafe closure is down to bad luck and how much is down to insufficient management and general business skills?

Maybe this is unfair, but I never got the vibe from Serendipity that they were serious operators in a tough market.

The fact that their website is still active without any message of closure tends to back up the above for me. It may be a small thing but I think if any sort of business that relies on customers these days does not have the online and social media thing down, then they are going to struggle.

Never a fan of the place personally although lots of my colleagues were.

leahyl

I liked Serendipity originally as we went there a good few times with work but then their portions started getting cheeky and expensive for what you got so I kind of went off it. They did evening meals from a Thursday to Sunday I think and initially, again, the food was lovely (my friend had a meal there in the early stages and was raving about it) but then I went with a group of friends last year and they had changed all the menu and it was only ok.

I think it's bad form not to even say you are closing. I agree with the poster who said that it seemed like it was almost a hobby for them, not a serious business. Their opening hours were strange.

richiepurgas

Mardyke wrote: »

Question... how much of a cafe closure is down to bad luck and how much is down to insufficient management and general business skills?

Maybe this is unfair, but I never got the vibe from Serendipity that they were serious operators in a tough market.

The fact that their website is still active without any message of closure tends to back up the above for me. It may be a small thing but I think if any sort of business that relies on customers these days does not have the online and social media thing down, then they are going to struggle.

Saw stats many years ago about the huge failure rate in cafés/restaurant. Usually down to poor business skills. Food enthusiasts often lack the expertise needed to run a business.

Icsics

Where would he nice for lunch tomorrow in town, casual but not fast food ish, 2 kids in tow. Thanks

richiepurgas

Icsics wrote: »

Where would he nice for lunch tomorrow in town, casual but not fast food ish, 2 kids in tow. Thanks

Market Lane is always good, but also very busy and I don't think it takes bookings except for large numbers.

Toto Wolfcastle

Michelin stars for Ichigo Ichie, Chestnut in Ballydehob and Mews Baltimore.

whatever76

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

Michelin stars for Ichigo Ichie, Chestnut in Ballydehob and Mews Baltimore.

Woohoo great news for Cork !!

Was at mews during the summer and loved it
Must try the place in Ballydehob next year.

pwurple

Oh well deserved, all of them. Delighted for Takashi Miyazaki in particular.

limnam

Zayn Colossal Stance wrote: »

Was at mews during the summer and loved it
Must try the place in Ballydehob next year.

Raging the few times I tried mews it was booked out.


The price will probably double now :pac:

Markcheese

limnam wrote: »

Raging the few times I tried mews it was booked out.


The price will probably double now :pac:

You'll have to keep going all the way to ballydehob so...

byronbay2

Zayn Colossal Stance wrote: »

Was at mews during the summer and loved it
Must try the place in Ballydehob next year.

Going to be hard to get a booking there (Chestnut) from now on! Only 6 tables in the whole place, 18 covers per night.

Just so you know, a booking at Mews requires a credit card and if you cancel within 48 hours of your booking time (or don't show up), you will be charged full whack (cost of tasting menu) for everyone on your booking! Ouch!

who_me

Ate at Spitjack's for the first time last weekend. Not sure what I expected, had it in my head it was more akin to a gourmet burger spot.

It actually was very good, chicken croquettes for starters, hake main and sorbet dessert. The service was ridiculously quick - one waitress would ask me if I wanted a dessert menu and before she'd even returned to the counter another would have brought it over. (Not, necessarily a good thing. I HATE being rushed while eating; but I didn't get that sense here. They were just really efficient).

It's definitely being added to the regular roster!

richiepurgas

who_me wrote: »

Ate at Spitjack's for the first time last weekend. Not sure what I expected, had it in my head it was more akin to a gourmet burger spot.

It actually was very good, chicken croquettes for starters, hake main and sorbet dessert. The service was ridiculously quick - one waitress would ask me if I wanted a dessert menu and before she'd even returned to the counter another would have brought it over. (Not, necessarily a good thing. I HATE being rushed while eating; but I didn't get that sense here. They were just really efficient).

It's definitely being added to the regular roster!

Agreed, they are a class act, have a really good value offer at lunchtime, 2 courses for, I think, €14.

byronbay2

Went to Camile at the weekend and have to say that I was not very impressed at all. The menu is almost identical to Ramen (which I don't like) up to and including the "make your own" icecream cone, and the food tastes the same; sweet and gloopy with the various main courses indistinguishable from each other. The chicken skewers starter was cold and tasted like it had been cooked a looong time before.

The service was awful as well, with staff basically walking around asking people if they had ordered the particular item(s) they held in their hands.

If you like Ramen, you will definitely like Camile but I will not be returning.

sporina

byronbay2 wrote: »

Went to Camile at the weekend and have to say that I was not very impressed at all. The menu is almost identical to Ramen (which I don't like) up to and including the "make your own" icecream cone, and the food tastes the same; sweet and gloopy with the various main courses indistinguishable from each other. The chicken skewers starter was cold and tasted like it had been cooked a looong time before.

The service was awful as well, with staff basically walking around asking people if they had ordered the particular item(s) they held in their hands.

If you like Ramen, you will definitely like Camile but I will not be returning.

wow

hard to beat Sago Asian Bistro - its my go to for Asian/Thai

rob316

sporina wrote: »

wow

hard to beat Sago Asian Bistro - its my go to for Asian/Thai

Find soba in Blackpool the best.

Cedrus

byronbay2 wrote: »

.......The menu is almost identical to Ramen (which I don't like) up to and including the "make your own" icecream cone, and the food tastes the same; sweet and gloopy ...........................

If you like Ramen, you will definitely like Camile but I will not be returning.

I finally made it to Ramen yesterday. My culinary guardian angel must have been steering me away. Sweet and gloopy is a compliment.

Q. How could it be possible to mess up Singapore Noodles?
A. Use a sweet sauce instead of curry powder, use thread noodles better suited to soup, fire in a load of sweet jammy sauce, serve it in a "cool container like in the movies" but is too small to eat out of, charge 1.5 times what the nearest Chinese restaurant charges.

The sheer number of school uniforms in the ""restaurant"" is the only possible explanation for this abominations survival.

leahyl

Cedrus wrote: »

I finally made it to Ramen yesterday. My culinary guardian angel must have been steering me away. Sweet and gloopy is a compliment.

Q. How could it be possible to mess up Singapore Noodles?
A. Use a sweet sauce instead of curry powder, use thread noodles better suited to soup, fire in a load of sweet jammy sauce, serve it in a "cool container like in the movies" but is too small to eat out of, charge 1.5 times what the nearest Chinese restaurant charges.

The sheer number of school uniforms in the ""restaurant"" is the only possible explanation for this abominations survival.

The one time I ate there certainly didn't encourage me to go back; I thought it was awful but was thinking maybe it was just bad luck the first time....from reading your post, maybe I'll think again...

northgirl

Ate in Palmento at the weekend. The pizza and wine were very nice. Lovely spot for a cosy chat.

nlrkjos

northgirl wrote: »

Ate in Palmento at the weekend. The pizza and wine were very nice. Lovely spot for a cosy chat.

Nice pizza there, we go fairly regular, but they seem to be slow to serve, I wonder is the take-away service a bigger earner for them, to the detriment of the "sit downs"?

run_Forrest_run

nlrkjos wrote: »

Nice pizza there, we go fairly regular, but they seem to be slow to serve, I wonder is the take-away service a bigger earner for them, to the detriment of the "sit downs"?

maybe they take their time knowing that the sit-down customers might have another drink etc while waiting. How many seats are in there?

mccard

nlrkjos wrote: »

Nice pizza there, we go fairly regular, but they seem to be slow to serve, I wonder is the take-away service a bigger earner for them, to the detriment of the "sit downs"?

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

maybe they take their time knowing that the sit-down customers might have another drink etc while waiting. How many seats are in there?

Maybe they take their time because the pizza is made as it should be, fresh from scratch.

northgirl

Didn't find it slow at all. I'd say our pizzas were served up within 10 minutes.

the beer revolu

mccard wrote: »

Maybe they take their time because the pizza is made as it should be, fresh from scratch.

Which takes about 3 minutes.

Water John

So you can bake a pizza in 3 minutes???

JohnK

Water John wrote: »

So you can bake a pizza in 3 minutes???

Well, they used to have a video on their Facebook page showing a pizza get cooked in something like 40 or 50 seconds

beer enigma

JohnK wrote: »

Well, they used to have a video on their Facebook page showing a pizza get cooked in something like 40 or 50 seconds

They use a MerryChef pizza oven, 50 seconds for a standard pizza

bizz213

Palmento use a hand built wood fired oven. It was built in Naples and shipped here and installed.

Footoo

Palmento pizza is very hit or miss imo - mainly miss. I like a bit of structure to my pizzas but theirs, for the most part, disintegrated when you try and pick up a slice, with zero crunch on the crust.

Also I generally like a plain cheese and tomato pizza so when the only extra topping I ask for is extra mozzarella, it means I want a lot of cheese. They’re unbelievably scanty with cheese in general.

rob316

Footoo wrote: »

Palmento pizza is very hit or miss imo - mainly miss. I like a bit of structure to my pizzas but theirs, for the most part, disintegrated when you try and pick up a slice, with zero crunch on the crust.

Also I generally like a plain cheese and tomato pizza so when the only extra topping I ask for is extra mozzarella, it means I want a lot of cheese. They’re unbelievably scanty with cheese in general.

It's neopolitan pizza it's meant to be eaten with a knife and fork. They are generally very light on toppings too.
I've been to Naples it's a very authentic pizza they are serving in palmento. The owner is a 3rd generation pizza maker he knows his stuff.

I know it's not for everybody I brought a friend there once and he was digusted he couldn't pick it up.

I laugh when people call it soggy, it's meant to be!

Mardyke

If you are able to pick up a slice of pizza and it keeps it's triangular shape then you don't have a decent pizza!


I haven't been in a while....are Novecento still very good?

rob316

Mardyke wrote: »

If you are able to pick up a slice of pizza and it keeps it's triangular shape then you don't have a decent pizza!


I haven't been in a while....are Novecento still very good?

Novecento is still probably the best around different style pizza to Palmento though, La Tana can be as good but very hit and miss.

Markcheese

Hoping to go to brunos in kinsale for pizza at the weekend... Really, really really good... (really)

sporina

rob316 wrote: »

Novecento is still probably the best around different style pizza to Palmento though, La Tana can be as good but very hit and miss.

had pizza from La Tana delivered to The Sextant recently and it was good - not as good as Novecento though..

JohnK

Had lunch in The Bookshelf at The Elysian yesterday, have to say the burger was very tasty

northgirl

Sorry if this is a duplicate but anyone eaten in Kubo, Douglas? Looks quite nice from what I see online.

tailgunner

northgirl wrote: »

Sorry if this is a duplicate but anyone eaten in Kubo, Douglas? Looks quite nice from what I see online.

Yep, get takeaway from there the odd time. It's good, I really like their Prik Haeng.

Ludo

northgirl wrote: »

Sorry if this is a duplicate but anyone eaten in Kubo, Douglas? Looks quite nice from what I see online.

Yeah been a few times. I MUCH prefer it to Ramen (really don't ike Ramen). Seems to be way more meat in the portions and much tastier.

northgirl

Ludo wrote: »

Yeah been a few times. I MUCH prefer it to Ramen (really don't ike Ramen). Seems to be way more meat in the portions and much tastier.

It looks alot more like Wagamama which I really liked. I arranged to meet a friend to eat in Ramen once but once I saw the food I asked her if we could eat elsewhere. Just looked as though everything was covered in the same sauce. I like to be able to see the ingredients I'm eating..

Cherry_Cola

Ate in the Oyster tavern for the first time last night. Had an amazing fillet steak, staff were very friendly. Dessert was banana and rum cake which was only okay but I'd definitely go back.

Water John

Tailgunner, I see your earlier post ' I really like their Prik Haeng.'
Really can't get the phoenetics of it out of my head.

sporina

The Iberian Way is closed for the foreseeable future - they just announced it on FB - i wonder whats happening?

richiepurgas

sporina wrote: »

The Iberian Way is closed for the foreseeable future - they just announced it on FB - i wonder whats happening?

Where's that ?

snotboogie

northgirl wrote: »

Sorry if this is a duplicate but anyone eaten in Kubo, Douglas? Looks quite nice from what I see online.

Best Asian Street food in the city in my opinion. Miles ahead of Ramen. The Thai chef in there is sound out too

nlrkjos

Daughter has just booked Amicus for me and the auld doll...never been there, looks OK and menus seems OK... is it good or not ? I know preferences are different!!! I'm just looking for a comment or two