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Food related musings

Best and worst of 2013

15/2/2014

 
We certainly have had some great meals in 2013, both in Ireland and around the world. We have also had some let downs.

The best of the Irish.
We did have some very good meals in Ireland. Ballyfin was a nice surprise - we were there for a birthday and were not expecting the food to be of such good quality. L'Ecrivain was as reliably good as usual. Restaurant 41 is still on the rise and producing some great food. Nede, which unfortunately was only open for a few months, would have been up for consideration for our favourite of the year. It demonstrated great skill with deceptively simple regional and seasonal dishes, and their chocolate and barley dessert may have been the best we had in Ireland last year.
But our favourite restaurant of 2013 is Mulberry Garden. With a seasonal market menu that changes each week it still manages to provide very consistent cooking using locally sourced produce. We visited several times in 2013 and you could see the food evolving and getting a little bit more adventurous as the chef Tom Doyle's confidence grew. Add to that great value and friendly service and you have our winner. Their venison dish, served right at the beginning of game season in August, was one of the best of the year.

The worst of the Irish.
There are two restaurants that come to mind. We had a very bizarre meal in Chapter One. We were an early sitting and they offered us the pre-theatre menu. After chewing on some plastic from a piping bag in an otherwise decent starter we each had a 'carvery' style main course. What we mean by that is a plate full - brimming in fact - of badly cooking nondescript ingredients. This was followed up with two seasonal but average deserts. Add to that the strange service - we had to point out in the wine menu what a Sauternes was and near the end of our meal they started  to vacuum around us. We left in a state of bemusement. But despite that, the most disappointing had to be Aniar. We love the 'terroir' idea of serving food - were you can taste the landscape of the area on the plate. There are some restaurants that do it well - Mulberry Garden and Nede for the short time it was open. Aniar did not deliver this. The dishes lacked any seasoning and were nearly all bland. One dish had bullet hard peas that were barely edible. Despite going for a tasting menu the dishes were so dull they were difficult to finish. 

The best and worst of our travels
We were lucky enough to eat in some great restaurants in London and New York in 2013. Eleven Madison Park in New York was a great experience. Around 20 courses of New York inspired food from Chef Daniel Humm. The highlights were carrot tartar (which is minced at the table); Duck and Lavender and clam chowder. The only bad dish was the oyster, which tasted like an ice cube. But the best on our travels had to be The Fat Duck, which had no bad dishes and you would have  to nitpick to find faults in any of them. We both agreed that Botrytis Cinerea was the best desert we ever had and the subtlety and skill of the famous Sound of the Sea dish was amazing. 
The most disappointing meal, although not a bad meal, may have been lunch in The Square in London. We had high hopes for this 2 star restaurant, but it was ended up being pretty mediocre with cold service.
Kate link
20/2/2014 04:11:50 am

Oh no, what a disappointment from Chapter One!! I've been once before and it was a fabulous experience. I cannot believe they vacuumed around you!

Am yet to try Mulberry Garden but it's on the list so hopefully I'll get there soon :-)

Fred
25/6/2015 10:58:56 am

Hey,
It seems mainly the female critics that fall for the woo around restaurants,the restaurant "groupies" are alive and well , this blog is very similar in tone to Elizabeth on food, I understand you are a couple but it has a very whimsical tone not focused entirely on flavour and taste, again similar with Elizabeth on food.,it's emotionally charged and not objective.
You may be a male chef in industry on the other hand hence the lack of courage to tell who you really are.

You have a mission statement in relation to reviewing ideals yet it is full of contraindications , I suggest you explore this.

I feel you want passive aggressive dominion over restaurants hence the anonymity, this is why most guides Michelin included will have a face to the review. It's quite neurotic your behaviour as a critic.

As for your top restaurants ,nede ? It failed because it tasted terrible not because of an implied lack of comprehension from the "Irish". This type of food is poison. Noma will follow the same way if it was not for the fortune spent on hype and PR every year.
As for Mulberry gardens being the best restaurant in Ireland, maybe if TomDoyle could stop playing the same dishes over and over again,broken record. I concur this place has potential with the concept but not with a Chef who is serving minuscule portions of the same food in the same style every week, I have seen this before with Chefs taking ideas from cookbooks and putting jaded versions on the plate, eleven Madison Avenue and Norma could sue TomDoyle for copyright .either way this is a bizarre inclusion , he has been there for a few years yet no Michelin star yet you claim it is consistent, go there at 8pm on Saturday and see if it still holds true,not the case from my experience.
Your understanding of Guilbauds is ridiculous, you even spelt the name wrong,idiocy of the highest order, once again please spend time seeing the obvious contraindications in your review.
This blog is full of Hubris and fame mongering, have the courage to show your face at least and then your opinions might get a tough more respect, there is nor has there ever been merit in a critic hiding there identity.
Thank you for your time.


TGC
25/6/2015 12:47:13 pm

Hi Fred,

Thanks for your feedback.

I am not sure what you mean by "contraindications" as our site is not medical. Maybe you meant contradictions?!
We set up this site to chronicle our experience in restaurants and we thought that being anonymous meant we could be more impartial
and restaurants wouldn't think we are doing it just to get attention. We are learning more about food and restaurants all the time.
Believe me, we have no 'dominion' over restaurants.
Our reviews are just our opinions and we write them to reflect our experience only.
Your experience when you ate in restaurants like Noma obviously just didn't match ours.

As for spelling mistakes, there are plenty on our site I'm sure - we are not professionals, something I am sure you will agree with.

We have no problem when people don't like our reviews. We don't like a lot of reviewers - we just don't read them!!

Thanks again for your feedback.

TGC


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