Dublin in the early 80's

murpho999

Faith+1 wrote: »

Christ the 80's sound miserable.

May have been on some fronts but the music was a hell of a lot better.

Four Phucs Ache

The 80's were deadly being a kid....for me eating out was from a Chinese van perfectly parked at the gate of Saturday night mass ...it was yellow and spicy and if you were'nt at the van you had smash on a Sat night with 2 sausages and a litre of candy red sauce.....

I think my first restaurant was Joel's on naas Rd...magical it was ....only went there coz we got our first car !

The flying mouse

Everybody went into the city centre then ,there were no big shopping centres, they had one in cornelscourt but that could have being in Syria it was so far away. There was a shopping centre in donaghmeade if I recall, but that was as far.

So you either went into the city and got the last bus home, which were like cattle trucks, or you tried to get one of very seldom seen Taxis which was a whole new ballgame.

After a few years I just stayed out in the suberbs where I lived , which was and probably still is a bit of a wild area.

But its nice looking back on memories and smiling :-)

HensVassal

JupiterKid wrote: »

Yes of course there were restaurants in the early 80s. I was only a small child back then but Nicos on Dame St was going since the 1950s, quite a few French restaurants were in Dublin in the early 1960s and Guilbauds opened in 1981.

Captain Americas opened back in 1971. McDonalds on Grafton St opened in 1977. KFC has been here since 1972. Italian owned chippers have been here since the 30s. The first Chinese eateries opened in the 1960s. The first posh Indian restaurant, the Radjoot Tandoori, was established in 1971.

Your mother is wrong. There were much, much fewer restaurants back in the 80s, the country was much poorer, people ate out far less, the choice of food was a lot more limited but the well heeled did eat out in restaurants - it's just that it was much less common than today.

Things were indeed bleak in the 80s but if your family were middle class, as mine was, it wasn't a bad time to be a child.

If you leave out junk food joints like McDonalds and chippers (tell me one damn chipper where you can go in, sit down, be served and eat there), his mother could be excused for saying there were no restaurants if Gillbauds was the only place in the whole of the city and she didn't know about it.

HensVassal

Mena Mitty wrote: »

I wouldn't have been familiar with dining out in the 80's but the few I do remember are Woolworths, a place called Sabrina's in a basement on Mary Street, Solomen Grundy's pizza house and the '51' on South King Street which was short lived. Burgerland on Baggot Street. Wendy's on the Quays and Bewleys.

Yeah but Bewley's and Woolworths greasy spoon were self service places. You lined up with your tray to get your burger floating in gravy, peas and mash.

Proper restaurants with table cloths and a waitress were as rare as hens teeth.

HensVassal

Peregrinus wrote: »

Thinking back, there were plenty of restaurants back then in Dublin city centre. What has changed since the '80s is the large number and variety of restaurants in the suburbs.

The business lunch was a much bigger thing in the 80s than it is now, and a lot of the restaurants were geared towards that market.

Outside of junk food places, what "plenty of restaurants" were there? Where were the plenty of eateries with table service?

Butters1979

Zaph wrote: »

Opened as Swiss Chalet and later became Blake's

Then became a dodgy nightclub called Bondai beach, then an even dodgier night club called Tribe.

A lot of history on that corner. A lot of dark, terrible history.

Peregrinus

There were lots of them, in the city centre. As I say, they catered to the business lunch market.

Families didn't go out to eat together in they way that they do now. That makes it difficult for those of us who were young in the 80s to remember the restaurants that were around; we never went to them, and they didn't market themselves to us our our families. But they were there, certainly.

Butters1979

HensVassal wrote: »

If you leave out junk food joints like McDonalds and chippers (tell me one damn chipper where you can go in, sit down, be served and eat there), his mother could be excused for saying there were no restaurants if Gillbauds was the only place in the whole of the city and she didn't know about it.

Believe it or not, the Magic Chef is Stillorgan used to have that. It was weird. And if you ordered in the takeout place and tried to sit down in there they gave you the boot.

mariaalice

Lots of chippies had cafes attatched where you sat down, but that changed although you do still see the occasional one. The is one in Inchicore that still has a sit down place. All sorts of social mores have changed when was the last time anyone saw someone taking a flask to work, yet that use to be extremely common or was at a wedding in a golf club or a rugby club both common then.

Dr Crayfish

Weren't any fat people either. Weird coincidence! Food is just constantly all up in your grill (lol) these days it's no wonder there's an obesity crisis. Back then if your shopping wasn't done you had to starve till the supermarkets opened again. Probably better for us but there's no going back now

beauf

Zaph wrote: »

I think the Berni Inn was where the Porterhouse is on Nassau Street now.

Yup I remember eating there as a kid.

I don't remember many other places though, and we would almost never had eaten in a restaurant or a hotel. Perhaps in local pub that did dinner, there were a few that did that, not many. I remember MacDonalds opening in Grafton street, (39yrs ago now!) and I can't remember what else was around like that at that time. Just chippers I think. Apart from money, which I'm sure was an issue, it was more common to have food in someone else house. I can remember dong that more often than these days.

I think people should remember that few drank coffee back then, even eating a Chinese or Italian food wasn't that common. At least we didn't.

chakotha

Can't speak for Dublin but I was a smallie in Cork and there were Murphs, Oyster, Lovetts, Arbutus, Tung Sing, Burgerland, Pizzaland, Pavillion, Rockys, Halpins apart from the hotels to name a few.

jimgoose

I don't know much about Dublin in the 1980s, but I remember when it was quite possible to starve to death in any provincial town, especially on a Sunday, when all you had was a car and a wallet full of money. :pac:

Dyr

Mike Litoris wrote: »

As a kid the 80's were fcukin' awesome! I do remember being mad scared of adulthood though. It seemed like everyone was struggling.

Yeah as a I kid reckoned I was going to be homeless when I grew up. It was funny in primary school being asked what we wanted to be when we grew up..we might as well have said Wizards for all we knew

JupiterKid

Ireland went through an economic and social revolution after the mid 1990s, and as people got jobs, or better paid and more highly skilled jobs, eating out became a lot more common. There were plenty of restaurants in the 1980s but the number and choice compared to today was far fewer. Eating out was a very rare treat and only the middle class could really afford to eat in restaurants - a much smaller middle class when compared to today.

As a kid back in the 80s, my parents ate out a few times a year but my sisters and I hardly ever went out with them. People didnt bring their children to restaurants like today - the exception was McDonalds or the chipper. I was fortunate to grow up in a relatively well off home but even then things were pretty tight at times. Relative to incomes, groceries, toys, appliances etc were much more expensive. Income tax was through the roof. Infrastructure was crap, unemployment and emigration was rife and the country was very badly governed.

The generation born in the 90s and later have no idea what it was like in the 1980s and I for one don't begrudge them that. Times were hard for most. But we managed. My childhood in the 80s was largely a happy one.

People eat out often once/twice a week now - that was unheard of in the 80s. It was home cooking with meat and 2 veg all the way. Chinese, pizza and even salads were exotic.

Gyalist

Peregrinus wrote: »

Thinking back, there were plenty of restaurants back then in Dublin city centre. What has changed since the '80s is the large number and variety of restaurants in the suburbs.

The business lunch was a much bigger thing in the 80s than it is now, and a lot of the restaurants were geared towards that market.

I used to treat myself to the "businesman's lunch" at the Rajdoot once a week even though I was a student. I think it was about £5.50 for a high quality two-course Indian meal plus tea or coffee.

humberklog

Larry Gogan- Where's the Taj Mahal?

Caller- Nassau Street!

OP your mother is wrong. There were restaurants in Dublin and as some previous poster has linked they're easily researched on the internet.

chakotha

chakotha wrote: »

Can't speak for Dublin but I was a smallie in Cork and there were Murphs, Oyster, Lovetts, Arbutus, Tung Sing, Burgerland, Pizzaland, Pavillion, Rockys, Halpins apart from the hotels to name a few.

I'd say in the late 80s you'd have had all those Café Mexicanas, Scoozis, Ginos and Paddy Garibaldis opening up in Cork, there were certainly there in 91/92 anyway.

Boom_Bap

Kays Kitchen in the Donaghmede shopping centre

There wasn't any money to be spent on going out for dinner. I do remember that we went to that big hotel at Sutton Cross for my brothers Communion, I think that was just because a wealthy relative was footing the bill.

riclad

you don,t miss what you don,t have .The music in the 80s was good, there was no isis ,no global warming ,.Now we have coffee shops and restaurants all over the city, also we have non nationals making up 10 per cent of the population.So theres a wide range of restaurants from many different countrys .
We are a much richer county .

Ciaran_B

I grew up in Dublin in the 80's (I was 13 in 1990) and I can never remember eating out. It just wasn't ever a thing in my house. We'd go to Rosslare for two weeks holidays every summer and we'd have lunch in a cafe down there once over those two weeks - that would be the eating out for the year.

We weren't poor or anything but going out for family lunch or dinner wasn't ever a done thing.

riclad

riclad wrote: »

The music in the 80s was good, there was no isis ,no global warming

There was acid rain, which was bad.

But acid house made up for it.

Dyr

Deleted User wrote: »

There was acid rain, which was bad.

But acid house made up for it.

there was Acid Reign too, who were good but not great

ohnonotgmail

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Kays Kitchen in the Donaghmede shopping centre

There wasn't any money to be spent on going out for dinner. I do remember that we went to that big hotel at Sutton Cross for my brothers Communion, I think that was just because a wealthy relative was footing the bill.

Bit of a stretch calling Kays Kitchen a restaurant

I think the OP is getting a bit of a battering but they're not totally wrong. While it is not correct to say that there were no restaurants back there were certainly a lot less than there are now. The like of mcdonalds and burgerland are not restaurants.

Grandeeod

Poor OP. I think his Mum is generally wrong, but I can see her point. I came from a working class background. Both parents worked, but eating out was usually restricted to a saturday afternoon in either BHS or Woolworths. Clearys rooftop restaurant was known to be very expensive. BHS was self service, but Woolies originally had table service. The alternative was an Italian style chipper.

I think there was a huge price gap between the above and "restaurants".

Dr Crayfish

I forgot about the Taj Mahal at Lincoln Place. The signs remained there for years when I was a kid but was never opened. My Ma used to tell me they were eating dead bodies in there, lol.

The flying mouse

I remember on the nass rd there was Jo wongs, at the now gone old junction of Killeen rd,They be q out the door to get in and they even served wine after 11 at night..also where joels is now, That was a truck stop, mixed grill specials. Also a few food vans parked along the Naas rd,then came the pubs with there Calvary ;-) more stuffing extra gravy.... jaysus its gas thinking about it.

mariaalice

There is another point to this as well, when any of us graduated whole family didn't turn up and while I am sure parents were happy and proud of their children that they had got a good education and were graduating it was much more low key and there were two reason for that, large family's were still common enough and by the age of 21 or 22 individuals were seen as adults with a much less dependant relationship with parents it would be taken for granted that by that stage they were getting on with their lives and making their way in the world. It is hard to explain.

Reminds me of overhearing a woman who had 9 children, a neighbour asked how one of her children was getting on she answered he is grand going to UCD a few minuets later she corrected herself and said no he is in the college of Art its his brother that's in UCD!

With family resources and time are spread around 9 children instead o 2 or 3 it make for a different relationship between parents and children.

the evasion_kid

Bambi wrote: »

there was Acid Reign too, who were good but not great

They're still on the go..