Trattoria Sostanza

Before coming to Florence, I had asked an acquaintance through the twittersphere if he could recommend any places for trying bistecca all fiorentina and he suggested Trattoria Sostanza. Reservations were recommended for this resto at all times so yet again, we enlisted the help of our hotel to secure us a table and they didn't disappoint :)

The decor resto is "rustic" and feels like nothing has changed in the last 50 years or so (at least!). Even though we had made a reservation, we still had to share a table with other customers (which just goes to show just how popular this place is!). Again, another wonderful evening of great food and service - if only, all restos were like this :)

Love the old school fridges!!

The artisanal beer and proscuitto fiend strikes again!!

Bistecca to share.......

.....with sides of fagioli in olive oil 

and spinach :)

One (make that two!) happy bistecca diner(s)!!

My pudding of wild strawberries with sugar and cream - much nicer than French fraises de bois!

JD's meringue cake :)

Note. If anyone plans on visiting Trattoria Sostanza, remember to bring cash are they do not accept cards! Buon appetito :)  

Il Santo Bevitore

JD and I are off on a sneaky "field trip" to Italy for a few days starting off in Florence. Finding a resto for dinner on Sunday can be tricky which is why we asked our hotel to ring ahead to see if they could secure us a table at Il Santo Bevitore (we had passed by it on a Saturday evening the last time we were in town and had wanted to eat there but sadly, they were fully booked. Luckily, for us this time we got a table AND they were open on a Sunday, yay!) 

Had a yummy and relaxing dinner - simple food deliciously cooked with friendly and attentive staff, perfect :)
(Its times like this when I wish we could live in Italy, sigh!)

Love the motif on the napkin, the saintly wine glass :)

Italian artisanal beer and charcuterie to die for to start :)

I had ordered pasta with N'duja sausage as a starter. The waiter had warned me that it would be very spicy but I thought I would be OK. The Italians are not renowned for their spicy food so I figured I had nothing to worry about......boy, was I in for a rude awakening - this dish was MEGA-spicy!!!

In the end, JD kindly swapped his ribollita for my fiery pasta :)

More mellow main of beef cheeks with mushrooms and polenta 

Deconstructed Mont Blanc for dessert

  

Jamies Italian, Dundrum

JD and I have been to various Jamies Italian restos during our time in the big smoke and we have never been disappointed by them. Food is usually of a high standard and service friendly, efficient and relaxed. Because of this, we thought we would take Ma and Ba Chan to the Dublin outpost of this hugely popular chain for dinner the one night they were in town. Despite being a Monday night, the resto was heaving with people. We were seated in a booth near the back of the resto (and unfortunately, right opposite the toilets) - luckily for us, none of our party were particularly "chunky" in stature otherwise it would've been a tight squeeze as the seating was pretty tight!

Dinner started off well; we ordered a selection of starters to share which were all pretty tasty. Mains arrived and all 4 were either overseasoned or unbearably spicy. A real disappointment after all our experiences in Blighty :(

  

Share starters of bread basket, arancini, deep fried squid and meat plank - well executed and generally, pretty yummy

Ma Chan's main of seafood risotto - overpowered by so much chilli that she could not finish her dish

My main of baked hake - made the cardinal mistake of ordering fish on a Monday!!! Also overpowered by a whopping dollop of chilli sauce underneath the fish!

La Maison

I have walked past La Maison many times whilst in town and have never thought of having dinner until now (arm got twisted after perusing their menu). We were able to bag a table for Saturday night and luckily, were seated in the (relative comfort) of the main dining room (it was a cold night and did not fancy sitting in their "conservatory" area). The resto was already quite busy when we arrived. However, it was still early for dinner (7pm) so it was little strange to hear that the rib of beef for 2 was already sold out?! A shame as our neighbours were eating it and it did look very tempting!

This was to be the beginning of many things being sold out.....to the point that when our new neighbours arrived to have dinner at 9pm, they were being told that 90% of the entire menu was sold out.....not to mention the various wine options they were picking as well??!! If I thought Ouzos last week was bad being in the weeds with my main course, La Maison really took the biscuit this week - how can someone get the stock ordering so badly wrong??!! In the end, I got off quite lightly as the glass of wine I ordered (which was not on the menu and actually suggested by the staff) and dessert wine were.........you guessed it,  sold out!!! Despite the food being moderate, the grosse merde that was service that evening was enough to put us off not returning again!!

Our poor neighbours who were left with a bottle of wine which was maybe their 4th/5th choice, the last remaining portions of starters (possibly 2 choices?) and a handful of mains - shocking!!

My starter of mixed salad of duck and foie gras - I am not the biggest foie gras fan in the world but I did enjoy it a lot :)

Pan fried skate wing with brown butter and potatoes - one of my favourite dishes to eat and this one was pretty well executed

Cheeseboard for dessert

Ouzos

   

I came across Ouzos through a re-tweet from a food writer who was a fan of the resto's blog (http://ouzosdublin.blogspot.ie/). I also found myself checking the blog whenever it had new entries and thought what was being written made a lot of sense, hence the decision to make the trek to the coast to try out the resto :)

We dropped in for dinner on Saturday night and first impressions were good. Service initially was friendly, warm and efficient. After our starters were served, everything went a little downhill. It definitely felt like the kitchen was in the weeds as it took an eternity for our main courses to arrive and at no point, did anyone approach out table to offer an apology for the wait. A shame as I had high hopes for the resto.....

Things got off to nice start - steamed pot of mussels with white, garlic and shallot (moules marinières, essentially). Mussels were fresh, plump and juicy :)

  Ouzos surf 'n'turf - the menu claims this is a legendary signature dish but there was nothing very special about it (bar the eternity it took to arrive!). To add insult to injury, my crab claws tasted more boiled than pan fried - if you are going to state the method of cooking on the menu, then at least cook it the right way!

Asador

Asador is a recent addition to the Dublin dining scene having opened their doors to the public just before Chrimbo. The name of the resto refers to the name of the grill which is used to cook meat, most commonly associated with Argentinian steak restos. Sadly, Asador is not an Argentinian steak resto but just a resto which happens to use an asador to cook its meats. Nevertheless, the prospect of well-cooked meat was too good to pass up, which is how JD and I ended up having a midweek dinner there. No signs of the recession in Asador as the place was already buzzing with diners when we arrived and full shortly after we were seated! I don't usually comment much about the dining room on my blog entries but Asador really reminded me of a hotel dining room (ie. pretty dull) so I was hoping to be impressed a bit more by the food.

Bread (sourdough and house) - the former very nice, the latter not so much. 4 slices of bread just looks mean in any setting.

The food overall was quite good. My starter of grilled calamari was delicious but I failed to identify any physical chorizo or red pepper on the plate despite it being stated on the menu. I did taste a hint of paprika and red pepper in the sauce so am guessing the ingredients were used in that. I don't have a problem with this but surely, the menu should state "chorizo and red pepper sauce" rather than "chorizo and red pepper"? 

Sauces of smoked bearnaise, roasted garlic and cafe de Paris - all pretty insipid and forgettable

JD and I then shared the BBQ Meat Platter for 2, a feast that we were looking forward to. It was a generous platter but any enjoyment of it arriving at our table was immediately sucked away by our waiter. Firstly, he made a grand announcement telling us not to touch our plates as they were very hot (the centres of the plates were warm and the edges stone cold)  and when the platter finally arrived, he then spent several minutes dividing up the platter to ensure we got equal servings of everything. Maybe its an Irish thing that platters for 2 people always need to be served individually but it goes against the very idea of a platter which is to share. My definition of sharing in this context would be for the guests to share amongst themselves in a leisurely way rather than a waiter dictating what you can and can't eat. Restos should be one or the other; divvying up platters just highlights the fact that Irish people like the "idea" of sharing but in reality, want their own plate of food. Why bother really?

Delicious banoffee pie - caramelised bananas were a bit of a red herring as only the cut sides of a raw banana were sprinkled with sugar and then presumably blowtorched....

 

Excellent chocolate fondant with perfect runny centre

Desserts were a pleasant surprise and were to a much higher standard than others restos in the city with a higher price bracket.

Overall, dinner was good but service was patchy. Our drinks were left to sit at the bar whilst 10 waiters/servers were working the floor. At one point, a waitress approached the drinks but then walked away after she realised they were not for one of her tables. Between the waiting and being able to see our drinks, we probably would've been quicker serving ourselves. I had highlighted in my blog entries of Bite and Hatch & Sons that it was highly irritating for diners to see owner/proprietors lurking around and not actually helping out with service. Well, there was definitely a bit of this happening in Asador but what was more annoying was waiting staff using the space between our table and the bar area as a common area on discussing tables/customers/gossip and therefore forcing us to listen to their conversations. Completely unprofessional and responsibility of this (and the drinks incident) lies with the management. I'm not holding out for much since one of the managers (female) did not acknowledge me when she was taking our dessert orders (I wasn't wearing a suit and did not exude macho banker so didn't deserve to be acknowledged, perhaps?) and we faced the same old problem of not being able to get the bill promptly (despite another managerial head being close by, he did not make eye contact and ignored us 2-3 times whilst passing our table). Asador should do well with its D4 location but there are other restos I would choose to dine again at in the city before I consider a return visit.

A parting gift - one of the "manager types" plonked this down on our table after our main courses were cleared.....why??