Ranelagh at Christmas

 One of my favorite parts of Dublin all year round is Ranelagh.  However, at Christmas time, this is when Ranelagh comes even more alive.  Great pubs, great restaurants, just perfect for cozy nights warm in a pub, chatting and whiling a few hours away with friends.  The village looks beautiful all lit up with their christmas decorations and lights and even their Spar looks great - with a christmas tree on it's terrace roof, it was featured in one of their ads a few years back.

And! It is a great place for shopping for lovely special gifts. I like going into Redmonds to buy a nice bottle of wine or champagne for Christmas day and they are always helpful in there...

This year there is going to be a great little pop up event/store in Ranelagh Arts.  Ranelagh Arts is conveniently located right at the luas station - which is just two stops away from the Stephens Green stop.  They will have a group of artists who are presenting a selection of their curated artwork,  Perfect for a gift for a beloved, or heck why not buy yourself the gift of Art (which lasts forever) and get yourself something amazing.

Featured amongst these artists will be local man: PIGSY

Throughout the duration off the "Art Deli" pop up (8th of Dec to 22nd Dec) there will be Christmas cheer with canapes and cocktails, so call in to Ranelagh Arts to view the artworks, chat with the artists and find that Perfect Gift.  Why not have some mulled wine and enjoy a mince pie or two!

Breakfast recommendations - Dublin

Okay so here are two of my top recommendations for breakfast in Dublin.

If you want a fantastically flavoured greasy humongous breakfast then get yourself into Hobarts in Ranelagh.  See top left and bottom right pics above.

They do good coffee too! 

But if you want a fantastically flavoured full of feelgood type of breakfast you need to try out the Fumbally Cafe. They don't have a huge menu but my god what they have on it is great.  

They do good coffee too!

But be warned, they don't open on Sunday's :-(

Dillingers again

Enid & I popped into Dillingers again on Saturday. 

 

It was 4pm so it was after an after lunch, and before dinner little snack for us.

 

We got a small bowl of chili each and a portion of chips between us.  Enid had a diet coke, I had a vodka and diet coke.

 

It was as good as ever.  I seriously looooooove this place. 

 

Dillingers, Ranelagh

I looooove this place.

 

 

It has recently been renovated - it was cool before and it is even cooler now. Staff were extremely friendly extremely efficient. Really good vibe in the place.

 

And most importantly great food!

Because it was a Tuesday evening Enid and I just ordered a small plate each:

 

 

Enid got the chili and cornbread - the chili had a mix of minced beef and shredded beef with a nice kicky flavour. The cornbread was amazing. I've never actually had cornbread outside the States and I would consider Dillingers cornbread even better than the American kind. 

 

 

I ordered the mac and cheese. It arrived with a big dollop of brightly coloured pesto. This pesto had to be the best pesto I've ever eaten in my whole life. It had a fantastic fresh and garlic flavour. The mac and cheese was very good - good parmesan flavour and nice consistency to both the pasta and sauce. But full of calories I'd imagine.

 

I will be back. Hopefully very soon.

  

An excellent blog to follow...

This morning I went to visit a house that my twin sister and her husband have bought and are renovating.

It needed to be renovated from top to bottom, and from inside to out, so it is a huge project. But happily for Enid and Ciaran they are coming near to the end and hopefully it will be ready to move into the house in May.

Here is a blog Enid has been writing since they started the build: http://renovatinglpa.blogspot.com/
It's got some great pics and is a fantastic record for them to have in years to come.