Dublin Restaurant Review – Darwins

Link: Darwins

Ahh, what can I say about tonight’s dinner and the restaurant. We both still have smiles on our faces…Let me try a summary – the staff, every one of them, work like a well-oiled machine. Every member of the staff waited on any one that needed it, including the Manager. The food, the highest quality and well plated and served. The facility is well-appointed and clean but not extravagant, just nice. Now wouldn’t you want to eat in an establishment like that? Well yeah! Let us go on a bit more.

A couple of things we like and take note of in restaurants is the size of the menu and the size of the wine list. To us these are a sign of focusing on what you do well and do right, or, that the restaurant doesn’t have a clue what they are about and are looking at quantity and not quality. In both cases this menu and wine list were a pleasure. They specialize in steaks with a little other variety so that everyone should find something pleasing but not so much that you can get lost figuring out what you want. The menu, we think, was no more than four pages. The first page of the menu explains some about them and about the meat. You can’t ask for better than dry aged beef for 21 days. The wine list is similar, a good selection of white, red, sparkling, etc., but just a few pages. The staff also is well versed in making excellent recommendations if, as in our case, they were out of what we ordered.

They put recipes up on their site occasionally too – that is worth a look also.

Downside; this is a very busy restaurant it is best to have reservations. You might be able to walk in, if you are lucky, and not have a long wait, but I wouldn’t count on it. It is worth the wait though if you can get in. The other downside is we live to far away to enjoy it often.

Irish Liqueur – Boozeberries

Link: Boozeberries

When at Darwins in Dublin we had an after dinner drink. I ordered mine and as soon as I tasted it I told Patrice she should try it also, and she did.

There are whole berries in this Liqueur, so if you are lucky you will get a couple in your drink. After looking into it, there are three kinds that they make, Black Current, wild Blueberry, and Cranberry. We had the wild blueberry and it reminded me of the wild blueberries we picked in Alaska.

We heard a rumor that they will be distributing to other countries soon and I sure hope they do. We hope to pick some up before we leave.

Check out their site – good information, although, they need some work on navigation. We would be glad to help them out for a wee bit of liqueur.

Getting directions in Ireland…

When we were in Ireland this time we asked several times,(Patrice did, not me, I was being polite using “we”), for directions. It never failed that whomever we asked gave us directions. It was amazing how fast and firm the directions were given, and in simple terms we could follow too. It seems like the best way for an Irishman to give directions is from a Pub. A typical question for directions might be answered something like this when you get Pub directions…

You know where Foley’s Pub is? Well go there and turn right can go on down to Murphy’s pub and Turn left. Look to the right and there it will be.

Now if you are new to the town of say Dublin, like we were, you don’t know where Foley’s Pub is… Now that is were things can get interesting. Then the directional question might go something like this…

Oh you don’t know Foley’s Pub. Ok then, go down this way until you cross St. George St. You know you are going the right way when you see it. Keep on going one or two streets after that and then turn right. You will know when to turn because it will be a busier street than the others. Now, keep on going four or five streets and turn left. You know when to turn when you pass the stop light. It is the only stop light down there. Once you turn look on the right it should be right in there.

I asked an Irishman why any Irishman will give you directions even if they don’t know the place you want to go. He told me there is an old Irish joke about that. The joke goes like this…

Sure I can tell ya how to get there. But ya know, I wouldn’t start from here.

That kind of summed it up for me. The moral of that story is if you start asking for directions you better keep asking all along the way.

I saw a lady with a written address ask an Irishman in front of me for directions to the address. He said, “sure, just go up that way, (pointing), and you’ll see it”, as he turned and walked a different direction.

The alternative to asking for directions is the way that guys do anywhere in the world… Use pure gut instinct, which is statistically proven to be correct 97.3% of the time. The other way guys find things is reading a Map. When using both “pure gut instinct” and “Map reading”, Males are correct 99.9999999999999969% of the time. Just remember not to have her read the map to you. If you do have her read the map, statistically your correct percentage drops to 67.8%. So just keep that in mind.

Lets compare these to methods of arriving at the same destination.

Using the method of “asking for directions”, you end up walking around a lot and talking to a lot of people you have never met before. Sure you might find some new friends along the way but… Are you going someplace or are you looking for new friends?

Now what happens using gut instinct and or map reading. Odds are you will go directly to where you want to go and in a worse case scenario, you might walk a little more than you had to. But you don’t have to talk to strangers that usually don’t have a clue and the friends you have are good enough, you don’t need more friends.

One more thing, well myth really to bust here relates to Pub directions that I talked about above. When an Irish-person, man or woman, comes up and asks you were a bar is by name, and it is 10 am in the morning, it doesn’t mean he/she wants a drink. It means he/she was given Pub directions by another Irish-person and where she is really going is nearby.

So there you go…aren’t you glad we had this little chat.

When in Ireland

Irish Roads
We have been here for over a week now … and its been a fabulous time

Driving in Ireland 101 …. don’t do long trips (the roads here are skinny, no shoulders, there are rock walls and of course you are on the wrong side). Make sure you get an automatic. The GPS is not overly helpful but it can be an asset. Driving takes lots of concentration. So we recommend – short trips of 1/2 an hour or easy drives (on the main freeways). For the longer trips … hire a driver so you can relax and enjoy! We hired a fabulous driver while we were there for long trips, Tim. He is a great guy with a great sense of humor and we used him last time we were here. Check him out at www.irelanddaytours.com .

Taking the train somewhere? It seems that if you just walk up and by a ticket – its expensive. Just a little planning can save you lots of Euros! For instance we took the bus from Shannon this time (last time it was a taxi 40 euros) 13 euros for the two of us. It stops at the train station perfect! I bought our train tickets a few days earlier for a specific time and saved even more. 25 euro 80 for the two of us, right into downtown. From there with the help of some wonderful locals we quickly found our hotel. The hotel was right downtown and within walking distance of everything we wanted to do in Dublin. Even if you stay out of the main part of town the bus system is very inexpensive and everyone is very helpful with what bus to take where. Just be careful of asking for specific directions.

We had reservations for dinner and wine tasting one night at a FABULOUS restaurant called La Cuvee and asked the Hotel desk for directions. Once when we arrived and then again when we started to leave for the restaurant. Both times they told us the same directions. Just go down the street and turn left at the second set of street lights and it will be right there on the left.

Well first off it looked like it was going to rain so we brought an umbrella, just so we would be prepared. We walked out of the hotel dressed on our fancy go to eatin’ clothes and before we crossed the first intersection we pulled the umbrella out and crossed the street. Now mind you it wasn’t a very big umbrella. We stopped and huddled under the Umbrella trying to stay dry but couldn’t so…back to the hotel and I went to the room and got a rain poncho for Patrice. and off we went again.

To help condense this story let me summarize what we did;
Walked following directions.
Walked an extra four blocks past where we were told and then five the other direction.
Asked a Taxi driver – he didn’t have a clue other than we should be in the right area.
Asked two ladies huddling under a buildings awning and they called the restaurant on their cell phone.
Flagged a cab and gave him directions but he wasn’t sure so we gave him the phone number and he called for directions.

As it turned out the restaurant was in the heart of the financial district and no where near where we were originally were told. But it was so worth it when we got there. We posted a review of it look in places tab to see the review. There are some great restaurants in Dublin and we tried a few. The main ones we tried are in the places tab and we did a review of them. We do recommend them next time you are in Dublin.

Truffle Popcorn

Truffled PopCorn

Truffle Popcorn

Truffle Popcorn

I know this seems over the top to have truffled popcorn, but we did it for some friends. I know they will relate to the south of France

Live Music!!!


As we drove around today, (all the way to Tipperary), we stopped at an off license store to pick up a bottle of wine in Oola. When I came out I noticed this sign next to van. It made me wonder…Wouldn’t it make you wonder too?

Is this really Irish music or is it a form of Irish entertainment? To bad we won’t be here Saturday night to find out. Curious minds want to know.