Archive for March, 2013

Just a few for later

No eatingforafiver today. But if you’re a bit short and looking for somewhere to nibbleforthatfiver, here’s a few suggestions:

Mama’s Revenge, 12 South Leinster Street (which is what Nassau Street turns in to when it gets closer to Lincoln Place). It’s ‘Tex-Mex’ and you can get a Value Burrito (no meat) for €4, Chili Con Carne with rice or nacho chips for €5 and, if you’re a student, a Basic Burrito for the same price.

The older lad told me about the next two:

Pablo Picanté (Clarendon Market). A bean and cheese burrito will set you back €4.50 and, if you’re a student, you can have a choice of burritos for a fiver. The student offer doesn’t seem to be available in their Baggot Street branch.

The bar in the Plaza Hotel, Tallaght, just beside the Square, is called McClafferty’s. Their online menu has a range of starters for €4.50 including chicken wings or coriander and seafood broth with pan fried prawns and string noodles.

I haven’t tried any of these yet but if you have, please feel free to post a comment. (I moderate the comments just to make sure that no spam gets through, so there’ll be a bit of a delay before any contributions appear.)

 

Share

Tara Street Fiver Friday Feast

The older lad is over on a short visit. It’s been nice to have him around. He’s a fit lad and it’s always a pleasure to see him stuff his face with food (see below).

McThurkels or McTurcaill’s pub was the target for today. As I mentioned last time, they do a Friday Fiver Special which had, unfortunately, run out the last time I went there. This time, despite battling through pretty nasty weather, we arrived at just after 1pm. It’s on the corner of Tara Street and Townsend Street, just opposite the new Irish Times offices.

out

There’s a carvery set-up in the pub with a choice of joints, fish, chicken curry, vegetables and the Friday Fiver deal which, yesterday, was Italian Meatballs with Tagliatelle. Most of the other dishes seemed to be about or just under a tenner and I saw some very handsome and generous slices of meat being dished out so, overall, this is somewhere you might put on your list for a cheap but plentiful lunch in town.

The place was busy when we arrived so we joined the queue. McTurcaill’s is quite a big pub but it’s on different levels with several nooks and crannies so it would seem to be suitable both for a quiet pint and a session. There was at least one large television in evidence but the volume wasn’t excessive. Staff were helpful and empties were cleared away quickly.

interior

We ordered. Food was served in pasta bowls. Generous helpings of tagliatelle and a good spoonful of meatballs and sauce each. We were offered some chips and, in the interests of research, we accepted the offer gratefully. We handed over our fivers and found a table.

These were generous portions indeed …

mine

This was mine. Underneath all that tomato sauce lurked two and a bit BIG meatballs.

So, how did it taste? Good. The sauce was well flavoured and nicely seasoned with evidence of herbs, peppers and onion. It had none of that nasty aftertaste that one associates with cheap tinned tomatoes. The meatballs were lovely: again, nicely seasoned and flavoured. I’ve eaten plenty of meatballs in the past and I know that these ones were not just rolled up lumps of mince thrown into a sauce. There was some thought put into them.

The older lad stuffing his face

The older lad stuffing his face

This was an eatforafiver experience that I’d put close to the top of the list. It’s limited to Fridays and you’d want to get there by 1 or so to make sure there’s some left. On other days, however, the food they put on for the Friday Specials is €7.50 and, even at that price, this is very good value. You can follow them on Twitter, by the way, at @McTurcaills.

The evidence

The evidence

So, we left (full) and we were just investigating Yan’s Deli, a sushi place on Townsend Street that seems to have some interesting sub-fiver deals, when we both got soaked by a passing taxi driving through a puddle. Now, I’m not a suspicious person and I generally think well of people but I felt that this soaking could have been avoided by the driver without too much difficulty. The older lad evidently felt the same and he showed quite an extraordinary turn of pace (fuelled in part by the protein/carb combination just consumed) to try to catch up with the driver in question to convey this feeling to him. Unfortunately, or fortunately (maybe), he didn’t succeed.

 

 

Share

Under the Tree for €2.70

This’ll be a short one. I was planning to go to McThurkels on Tara Street, suggested on the Twitter machine by the most useful @publinie (worth a follow – it lists discount drinks/food offers and special events in Dublin pubs. Also to be found on the web, here.)

In fact I did go to McThurkels but, by the time I got there, the Friday Fiver deal was sold out. I’ll try it again in a few weeks. Nice looking pub, though. Just opposite the Irish Times building.

So, I was hungry and a tad disappointed. I spotted a Spar across the road, popped in, checked that they had food and a seating area and had a look at what was on offer.

Now, do bear in mind that Spar is a convenience store and not a restaurant. So apart from rolls and sandwiches and the overpriced offers from the Insomnia concession, it’s pretty much all fried or otherwise carbo-fat food. I’m not condemning or being sniffy about this. It’s just a fact.

For your fiver, there’s quite a choice: sausage rolls, wings, vegetarian lasagne, chips and chicken drumsticks. I chose the latter with chips. For my €2.70 I got two drumsticks, a shovel load of ‘chips’ (fried potato cubes), a big squirt of garlic mayo and a smaller squirt of sweet chili sauce.

spar01

 

spar02

 

The drumsticks were quite moist (I love that word) and coated in that salty crunchy substance that fried chicken tends to be coated in. Someone had put chili powder in it which was a nice surprise. They were quite meaty too. The spud cubes weren’t great: lukewarm and a bit soft. But there were lots of them and I polished them off.

Nothing much more to be said. Fuelled. For €2.70. Job done.

spar

 

 

 

Share
Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers: