Corinna Dunne

This appears to have honey and no sugar. My read was that the bars that contain honey and no sugar are of a superior quality. Certainly, when I looked at the branded bars, the honey only bars were more expensive. I adore turron (when I can get my hands on it). The only problem is, it is impossible to stop eating it. I keep going back for more! The only side effects I've suffered as a result have been tighter waistbands from over-indulgence!

Bails, from what I understand, the canapes are only available in the evening at the moment. Also, as far as I know, the fixed price lunch is only available Mon - Fri, so not a weekend thing.

It looks like they are just putting it up now... no euro signs in yet and a few straggly question marks. Good to see that the lunch is at the old price, €30 for two courses and €40 for three. The lunch menu looks good too.

Do you know anything about the booking policy for the canape bar? Did you just walk in?

Any mention of Corrigan... another person with that raw shoot from the hip quality that makes life so much more interesting?

I forgot to ask... is it all stools at a bar and what way does it work from a booking perspective? Did they mention that they've had a lot of cheap chips jokes (note, took direction from Hannabanna on your misuse of the word "funny")?

It's a karmic thing :biggrin: . You're very welcome. We have all benefited from the great advice elsewhere on eG, not least the Spain and Portugal forum.

So where has Jan Moir gone? I buy Saturday's Telegraph for her reviews too, and I've really missed them. It's been a hotch potch of different critics for the last number of weeks.

Mar, here are a few more recommendations: Cheap and casual: - The Farmers’ Market, Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, open on Saturdays. Here you can eat your way around the stands. Be sure to try the native oysters which you can have with a glass of wine. Good falafel and organic burgers, there’s some great cheese and there are plenty of cakes and pastries. Open from about 10am-4pm. There also seems to be one in the Powerscourt Townhouse on Fridays, click here, but I’ve never been to it. Click here for a thread on Farmers’ Markets in Ireland. - Gruel on Dame St, as suggested by minichef above. Really good no nonsense food at no-nonsense prices: soups, casseroles, roast-in-a-roll. Lunch and dinner. - Silk Road Café, Chester Beatty Library, in the grounds of Dublin Castle (which isn’t really a castle), off Dame St, a hidden little gem, you’ll forget you’re in a city. Mediterranean and North African food. There are some pictures of the grounds on the Taste of Dublin thread, click here. Closed after 4.30pm. - Chez Max, Palace Street (at the entrance to Dublin Castle), reasonably priced French food which is OK. Nice atmosphere. A good place to have a coffee if you want to sit outside with a Ducados! Breakfast, lunch and dinner. - Dunne & Crescenzi, South Frederick St, also good for a coffee with some outside tables and for simple reasonably priced Italian food… although you will probably flinch when you compare the price of Parma/brasaola with what you pay for jamon in Barcelona! Lunch and dinner. - Queen of Tarts, Dame St, a really cosy café and a nice spot for breakfast. Also does lunchtime savoury options, but is best for tea and cakes (the lemon meringue pie is great). Breakfast and lunch. - Toffoli, Castle St, a small side street running up from Dublin Castle, an Italian-style sandwich bar with freshly-baked piadina, filled prosciutto, cheese, roasted peppers etc. Mostly a takeaway but a few tables, closes at 6pm - Nude, Suffolk St, no fuss spot with great tasting healthy food, plenty of smoothies and juices. Lunch and dinner. - La Maison des Gourmets Castle Market (at the back of the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, a lovely little streeet) an authentic French boulangerie with a small restaurant upstairs and limited menu: confit, savoury tarts etc. There are a few tables outside too which are great for people watching. Lunch only. - Amnesty Café on Fleet St, tables in at the back. Good for stuffed sandwiches, salads, juice etc washed down with a dose of self-righteousness - Panem, Ha’penny Bridge House, Lr Ormond Quay, a tiny spot, mostly for takeaway but there are some tables. Good for filled foccacia, hand-made pasta, soups and great croissants. Lunch only. - Wagamama, Sth King St (downstairs at the side of the Stephen’s Green Centre, it’s part of a chain, but the noodles are very good and you can fill up efficiently and cheaply. Lunch and dinner. - Fayruz, Middle Abbey St, a simple little Lebanese restaurant that does great lamb shawarma (I think the chicken one has too much white pepper). You can get a simple kebab or a shawarma plate which will really fill you up. Nice hummus too. Lunch and dinner, also open Sunday. - Jack’s Chinese Restaurant, Parnell St, turn right at the end of O’Connell St and you’re into our tiny stretch of Chinatown. Northern Chinese food, so hotpots, and a Korean influence, as well as kebabs etc. Lunch and dinner, open Sunday too. Be careful up around this area, it’s much safer than it was a few years back, but don’t mark yourself out as a tourist by flashing a street map. Some of the best cheap eats in town. Mid-price: - L’Gueuleton, Fade St (off Georges St, by Hogan’s pub) as Simon and Hannabanana mentioned above, good rustic French food, great atmosphere and good prices. If you want to go for dinner, get there at 6pm, put your name down and wait in Hogan’s until your table is ready. - The Winding Stair Lr Ormond Quay, as Simon recommended, great for Irish cooking, great quality Irish produce, charcuterie, cheese etc. Prioritise this one if you want the Irish experience (which is not as easy to find as you might think). As HannaBanana mentioned, thread carefully in Temple Bar and avoid anything that professes to be Irish there. - Mint, Ranelagh Village. It's been suggested above too. It’s a little bit out of town, but the LUAS (a light rail system will take you there). As you’re from Barcelona, you will probably find the avant garde slant to the food here interesting (still quite conventional though). It’s not a mid-price restaurant, but the lunch is great value at €37, dinner is a lot more and the tasting menu will only bring on an attack of painful comparisons with Hissop, Cinc Sentits etc in Barcelona (we had the tasting menus with wine there for about €60, unbelievable!). Quite a few posts on the Mint thread, click here. - Thornton’s, Merrion Hotel, Stephen’s Green. I haven’t tried the canape bar yet, but based on Simon and Hazel’s experience recently (linked in post above), this would be well worth checking out in the evening. There is a good list on the Eating in Ireland thread, click here. What to bring home: Visit Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street to get Sally Barnes wild Irish smoked salmon. It’s outstanding and definitely worth bringing back. Wild salmon is becoming a bit of a luxury item in Ireland now that there has been a ban on drift net fishing. If you’re looking for cheese, as Hannabanana suggested, visit Sheridan’s Cheesemongers on Sth Anne St. There’s a thread on edible and portable souvenirs from Ireland, click here for loads of suggestions. Other suggestions: Don’t miss the pub experience, because it is very much part of Dublin. You can follow in the footsteps of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses (by James Joyce) and visit Davy Byrne’s for a bite to eat. I’m not sure if the Gorgonzola sandwich is available outside of Bloom’s Day (16th June), but it’s a good place to have native oysters on the half shell with a pint of Guinness (in season when there’s an ‘r’ in the month). Click here for a thread on Dublin pubs. Have a great time and let us know how you get on.

This sounds like great value for €3.50 a plate. Even though there are some tapas type places around town, this is a unique concept in Dublin. The word on the canapes end of Thornton's hasn't really filtered out it seems. Unfortunately, with all the recent furore, I think Thornton's is perceived as more elitist than ever, which is a pity. Simon, in terms of service, was there a separate team for the canape bar and how separate does the place feel from the formal restaurant? I was thinking of going in this evening, but am feeling a bit too lazy/not quite in the mood, so will probably do pints and L'Gueuleton inistead! Good to hear that the lunch is still reasonable. Maybe the €50 lunch menu I spotted a few weeks ago was a one off thing or some sort of separate option. Did you make any wise cracks about chips? RDB, yes it does seem like Thornton is trying to get publicity by adopting a bad boy image, but I actually don't think it's the case. It's just the way he is. He is very intense, very passionate and reacts intuitively without thinking. He just speaks straight out, and is very frank and honest about his opinions. He's a PR person's nightmare because he's riddled with integrity. I like this raw quality, but I don't always agree with what he says or does.

I was just thinking about this restaurant recently. I used to love their cheese souffle (years ago!!!). Very plain and last century I know, but I'd love to see it on menus again.

Are you talking about La Colombe d'Or? I haven't been for years, but lunch in the courtyard is very pleasant although I think there have been some mixed reviews on the food. Great art.

The diners came across as very reasonable on the radio but there's always two sides to a story. Naturally, we got the edited highlights from their perspective. I don't think they should have been ordering off menu, but I think that Thornton could have saved himself a load of grief by getting the waiter to explain that the chips would be late if he had to do them and suggesting that they give them a miss. This publicity can't be doing him any good.

Grr... I didn't get the end of it. I didn't realise that KT went on air. I missed the best part!!! I'd love to have been there to see the floor show. I thought the caller who phoned in to say how great it was that he got a special order of chips with his veal in 3* Arzak was hillarious... talk about missing the point! With all this publicity, Thornton should be in line for his own TV series soon!!! Dying to hear about the canapes. Perhaps to be original you could ask for chicken nuggets avec tomato ketchup, now that the chips thing has been done.

Sure why don't you invite Joe Duffy to come along with you? He seems to be completely enthralled with Thornton's. .. "yeah, yeah... Michelin star restuarant, yeah yeah... Michelin star". Did you hear the interview?

Will you be looking for chips with the canapes?

Couldn't agree more

Yes, welcome to the Forum Stephen_K, nice first post. So it looks like we've yet another Gastronome in our midst... which is just as well since Hazel has indicated that it's moratorium time for her on food talk.... mind you, I'd say it was all rugby talk and very little food talk for everyone last weekend!

I agree on the lamb, deep flavour, beautifully trimmed and cooked sous vide. There's a thread on Mint here.

So... will we see MPW take up the next obvious challenge and try and knock Ramsay off the top spot on the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" challenge on Top Gear?

I just heard that RhodesD7 was packed to the gills last Thurs, so not suffering from a location factor, or maybe just enjoying a spillover from Valentine's night. In any case, his Garyness was over for a few days (marketing... according to the owner of the pub across the road who has a perfect view into the place!), so he was working the tables until about 9.30pm and then headed off (my friends had a late table and didn't get to meet him). It will be interesting to see what press coverage he gets from his visit. Steve was in Venu last night and said it was doing nicely turning the tables from the after work crowd to a dinner crowd. So clearly the market for bistro food at the right price is alive and well in Dublin in February. Brian, regarding Oliver Dunne... I didn't think that he was doing anything way out in terms of food, I think he just had the neighbourhood restaurant formula off pat and his pricing was spot on. I'd love to hear how you get on in Mint when you go. I absolutely agree on your point about Ranelagh being a tough spot for lunch time trade. Regarding Dylan McGrath staying put till he gets a star, I'd imagine that the food should be enough to get him there. The room is small and the tables are tight, and it's certainly not textbook Michelin, but it's a pleasant space. I think the big problem is that the waiting staff have no where to go. The tiny kitchen is packed and they have to choreograph their way out of the path of diners on the way to the bathroom (which they do very nicely). I don't know how the Michelin men view this, but hopefully they will see the real picture, which is a chef who is incredibly determined and capable. Have you been to Thornton's, or have you any interest in going there?

Kerrier, if you feel so inclined, it would be good to start a thread on Town Bar and Grill. It's Italian in a sort of New York way. Pretty straightfoward menu with minimum messing about, although it doesn't pass the tiramisu test for me (too much cream on top and too bilious). But this place does, IMHO represent good value for money, which, I think we all agree, is a rare treat in Dublin. It's just very in with the movers and shakers, and you can sense the FOH people looking over your head to the door to see if there's anyone "important" coming in (not just my opinion, but the opinion of many civilians). But back to the topic, yes Simon, I agree that Thornton's is actually a much better deal relatively than many of the restaurants around, but I think that the fact that it doesn't fill to capacity has a bearing on the prices. He says he doens't care about the star thing, but I think he does deeply. Otherwise he would have changed the menu significantly and dropped the price point. He may have missed an opportunity. It's going to be very interesting to see how Troy Maguire (ex L'Gueuleton) does when he opens at Locks, just down the canal from the old Thornton's premises. I think he could be right on the money with his "bistro deluxe" concept.

Welcome to the Forum Bails... great to have a leveller. If you knew what crap we talk, you'd be glad to have us get back on the subject of food What did you think of your meal in Mint? And Gastronomes... you are not allowed to give up eating! If you are looking to balance your top end experiences, you should get in for a shawarma in Fayruz

Wow... that's a bit scary for Thornton's, considering the publicity should at least have aroused a curiousity factor. Chapter One is a phenomenon, for all the reasons you say. In terms of what works in Ireland, they really have the whole package: it's a nice, but not overwhelming room, the service (I have found) is very friendly, and Martin Corbett the co-owner who works front of house brings a very personal touch to the restaurant, and the food, which makes strong use of seasonal ingredients and local produce is good... though certainly not beyond 1*. Mind you, I have heard reports that it even "feels" a bit busy now, so the additional popularity is perhaps not doing it any favours (it was always booked up for at least 6 weeks on Saturdays). I think though, I have found equal measures of conservativeness and price sensitivity (wait until your pals have kids and have to pay babysitters etc), and on this basis, Chapter One wins hands down for a large swathe of diners over the small portions in L'Ecrivain (unless you fill up on the plain boiled spuds which are served in a bowl!) and the more expense accounty atmosphere its had in the past few years (this place used to be much more like Chapter One in food and feel quite a while back). Thornton's and Guilbaud's were always seen to be more formal, and as you say Irish people just don't like this... and in many cases it's not because they find it overwhelming, it just feels like a work dinner, and not as you say... craic. A crowd of Chapter One fans that I know well dined in Mint last weekend (on my advice... you must go there), and for them, their loyalties have not been swayed. They liked the food, but felt that there was too much of it and the service seemed to be uncharacteristically off that night, and for that money (which is about the same as a meal at Chapter One, not forgetting that Mint has a "discretionary" service charge of 12.5%), they felt the room should be more comfortable. I find this worrying, because they are exactly the type of diner that Mint needs and it they're not buying in, I know of plenty more conservative palates that won't even give it a shot. But to balance that, I have met others who just go "Wow", so probably a very polarising experience. I think the thing with Fire and Roly's is that they are great places for a crowd, and Diep, yep, in fashion (undeservedly) and costing quite a bit if you have a cocktail. Places like Town Bar (good food but a bit snotty to civilians), Peploes (comfort food) and Bang (young and trendy) are hugely in fashion too and do a roaring trade... and maybe this is just where the guts of the market spend is. I would expect that Ramsay's new place in Wicklow sees itself as being supported primarily by guests and beefed up with destination diners. Simon, maybe you're right, Dublin/Ireland just isn't traditional "Michelin" territory.

Hi Brian B - Good to have more comment from the Irish side of the Forum. As Hazel and Simon said, comparing Dublin prices with the rest of Europe, particularly Spain, is enough to make you weep. But I think this very uncompetitive pricing for lunch is a big mistake for Thornton's. I'm also not sure that his desserts are 2*, but the balance of everything else being up to scratch - and it sounds like the room is a much better space since the refurb - should see him reunited with the second star. There has been some interesting discussion on the Critics and Food Writers thread about price positioning and I think whatever about Thornton's, the advice applies in a huge way to Dylan McGrath in Mint who is certainly charging 1* prices for dinner (the lunch is a steal). The more I think about what he's trying to do in that small room, the more I worry that he is going to leave the place on a stretcher some day. I agree that he's the most exciting chef in Dublin at the moment, but space is so tight not only in the kitchen, but also in the room, that for him to get a star, it's going to be all about the food... which is definitely at 1* level. It would be great to see him move to a better room like One Pico... and change the name of course because it carries too much baggage.