
Photo: Yamamori Izakaya, Facebook
I’ve put off writing about the Izakaya for a long time. It is, and has long been, one of my favourite places to eat and drink in Dublin. And I really don’t want you going there.
During a rather intoxicating dream last year, where I spent a month falling in love with everything about Japan, I drank sake and ate nearly-still-alive sashimi from beautiful baskets in the izakayas – basically, Japanese pubs that are easily identified by the pretty red lanterns inside.
The Yamamori Izakaya is just across the road from the Yamamori restaurant on George’s Street. The downstairs section, which quite faithfully recreates a Japanese drinking house, is really special; I haven’t even been bothered setting foot upstairs.
The Yamamori Izakaya serves what we’ve come to call “tapas-style” food as a lazy shorthand (even more irksome is that they’re calling them “Japas”). Spain doesn’t have a monopoly on small courses served with drink; Japanese izakayas have always served a succession of small or medium sized courses, which are enjoyed with beers over the course of an evening. Read the rest of this entry »

The raw tasting menu at Rustic Stone. Photo from: www.facebook.com/RusticStone.ie
We got a query via Twitter recently about tasting menus in Dublin – do we know any websites that list them? We didn’t know of any websites, but as helpful chaps who jump on any chance to think and talk about food, we decided to get a list together ourselves. Many helpful Twitterers gave their tips, so here’s a list along with prices where we could find them. We can discuss whether they’re a good idea or a huuuuuge rip-off at the end!
30 Apr, 2013
Posted by: jean in: Food News | Miscellaneous / Insane | Product Reviews
The evil geniuses at Tayto recently pulled off a PR masterstroke while simultaneously going into bold new flavour combination territory, with their Tayto chocolate bar. This bar is milk chocolate with shards of cheese and onion crisps throughout it.
The combination of salty and sweet is long established; and works beautifully with things like salted caramel. The combination of chocolate, cheese and onion is slightly less delicate than salt and caramel, however, and isn’t often seen outside birthday parties with over excited five year olds.
We were sent a few bars to try, and our reactions ranged from ‘OFFENSIVE!’ to ‘meh?’ Peter absolutely hated it. I was a little surprised at how mild tasting it is; the chocolate is just slightly below bog standard milk chocolate and the crisps don’t even register until the aftertaste. Then I experienced a minor but persistent onrush of stale crisps. I ate one square and had no desire to try any more.
I brought one of the bars into work so I could taste test and get as many reactions as possible. Here’s a selection:
24 Apr, 2013
Posted by: rebecca in: Food Events | Restaurants | Reviews

Rachel with teacher, Dreamboat Jacob
Friday night. Milano very kindly brought us in to their Haddington Road branch recently to try out their Pizza Making class. I headed along with my sister Rachel. For €19.95 per person you get a choice of any small wine/beer or soft drink, an “Intro”, which includes the always delicious Marcona almonds and gorgeous Sicilian green olives. You then choose any pizza from the Classic Pizza list and are taught how to make it yourself. It’s a pretty good deal considering that these items, without the class, would normally cost €23.75 (based on the most expensive items available with the offer).
We relaxed and enjoyed our Intros and drinks while mulling over what pizzas to make. In the end, we plumped for an American Hot (pepperoni with jalapenos) and a Fiorentina (spinach, black olives and a free range egg). Our teacher, Jacob, joined us to instruct on how to make the pizzas. It wasn’t quite from scratch, the dough was pre-made but we got to roll them out ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
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