Marie Louise Tea Rooms

Marie Louise Tea Rooms

Howth, Co. Dublin

On Thursday, sensing some nice weather, Ali and I took a spin to Howth for some fish and chips and a walk along the pier. After doing both and with the rain beginning to fall the want of a coffee and cake came upon us.

Marie Louise Tea Rooms are beautiful, with a vintage feel and friendly staff. The tea and coffee are both excellent but it's the carrot cake that forced me to write this! It was magnificent. The moist cake was topped with a thin layer of butter icing and a scattering of walnuts that complimented the flavour perfectly. It wasn't too sweet, as carrot cake's can often be and the portion size was generous. The perfect cake? Possibly so. 

I was delighted to see some training in action also. Our waiter was clearly quite new and the other staff guided him well while explaining everything as they went along. Great to see.

Highs and Lows 4

This Week's

High and Low

28/8/2014

It's a day late due to work commitments but here's the high and low for the past week:

High: Carrot Cake from Tasty Treats by Andrea at Naas Farmers Market

Carrot Cake can be a tricky one. The temptation to add a mountain of sugar to the mix entices alot of people but this is a mistake. I much prefer the less sweet, more carroty cakes. This is one such cake. The mix of carrot and sugar is spot on for me and the moistness of the cake makes this the most perfect version I have tasted. Flawless.

Low: Bridge Bakery Jam Bakewells

I'm a big fan of Lidl. I find that they generally do good quality produce at unbeatable prices and I have been known to do a lot of my shopping in their Newbridge store. For all of their good products there is also quite a bit of rubbish. These are one of the latter. Dry, tasteless and containing so little jam that I'm unsure of the relevance of it being mentioned in the name. With no fewer than 30 ingredients contained in these little tarts, it's a wonder they manage to be so bland.

Review: The Candied Walnut

The Candied Walnut

Portarlington, Co. Laois

Today, Ali and I found ourselves in Portarlington for  lunch. We'd been visiting Lisa Nic Eoin's Cats Without Homes sanctuary who we foster kittens with. I did a quick search on TripAdvisor to see what the town had to offer and we settled on The Candied Walnut, a not so visible restaurant on the Monasterevin side of town.

The Candied Walnut is a beautiful restaurant located at Kilnacourt. Upon arrival, the restaurant was busy and we had to wait ten minutes for a table, surely a good sign. We were seated and received a welcome from one of the chef's through the kitchen hatch. The breakfast and lunch menu is well laid out with plenty of options to choose from. The breakfast options looked reasonably priced while lunch had the usual sandwiches and wraps along with some main courses and desserts. The specials board hangs on the wall and we both decided on the fish special; cod and prawn penne with a white wine and cream sauce.

The food arrived quickly and was delicious. Both the fish and sauce were tasty and seasoned well. The pasta was a little overdone for my liking and would have benefited from being a little more al dente. The portion was generous and was topped with a good sprinkling of grated parmesan. My only issue with the service was that we were left waiting 20 minutes with empty plates in front of us before having to ask for the Dessert menu. After ordering desserts (again we ordered the same; carrot cake with candied walnuts and anglaise cream) they arrived promptly and were generous portions. The carrot cake was excellent. I sometimes find it can be too sweet but this one was just right. My only issue with the dessert was the addition of a couple of mint leaves. To me, the flavours didn't work and if they're purely for presentation then I'd leave them off. After scoffing the dessert, my double espresso arrived. It was good if a little unspectacular.

We found The Candied Walnut to be very good value. Two main courses, two desserts, a glass of red wine, a tea and a double espresso came to an impressive €42.30 with the wine making up €5.50 of that. We really enjoyed our lunch and will certainly return for dinner in the not too distant future.

Lunch Ratings:

Food: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Selection: 8/10
Value for Money: 8/10

Overall: 8/10 Highly Recommended