Red Torch Ginger

Thai food, don't you just love it? Myself and Mrs Irishbeersnob certainly do. 

Red Torch Ginger (www.redtorchginger.ie / @Redtorchginger) is located in Dublin City Centre, opposite Trocadero on Sth Andrew St. Easy to find, and very central whether you're going out on the town, or heading the Gaiety or Olympia to catch a show its very central to everything.

First impressions walking through the door, a nice bar area with high stools, and tables which would suit people who are looking to eat and run, and then the main dining room. The decor itself is striking, and very contemporary. The full wall print is particularly impressive.

We were welcomed in by Gary and shown to our table. As we there after work, we decided to go with the Early Bird Menu. For nearly a full week Gary had been tormenting me on a daily basis with their daily special cocktails, well at last we were able to sample these for ourselves. Today's special, a Mai Tai. 

The early bird menu is a very reasonable €19.95 for 2 courses with tea/coffee. 3 courses for €23.95. There was small uplifts if you were having duck or seafood. We ordered our mai tai's while we looked at the menu.

Unlike some places, you have carte blanche on the menu for your choice of course. So we decided and placed our order.

I decided on the Chicken Wings, and for main Chu Chee Gung, described on the menu as a fried prawn red curry, and 3 chillis pictured above, not for the faint hearted. Mrs Irishbeersnob went with the Pork Ribs, and for main Chicken and Cashew Nuts Stir Fry. 

The starters arrived shortly after, the wings were lovely, cripy skin, with a nice little salad, and Sweet Chilli based dipping sauce. Though once I saw the ribs, I was wishing I got those. They were fantastic. Meat falling off the bone, and very very tasty. Next time!

At this stage, we were nearly finished the mai tais, Gary recommended a lovely red wine, Cotes de Ventoux, a fantastic French red from the Rhone region. It complimented our main courses fantastically. Very smooth, and not as powerful as some reds can be. 

The main courses were presented on lovely rectangular plates, with a generous bowl of steamed rice. My main firstly, was amazing. The prawns were cooked perfectly, and the sauce was so full of flavour from the chilli, but also the citrus elements. There were a few beads of sweat on my brow. Fantastic. The Cashew Nut Stirfry was equally as well executed. The oyster sauce was delicious. Some of the best thai we've had in a long time.

Empty Plates, always a good sign

So to dessert, or not to dessert? I'm not usually a man for desserts, but being so impressed with the cocktails. We decided to pick from the "Dessert in a glass" section of the cocktail menu. The cocktails on the night were expertly made from scratch, by Chris. Bravo sir. 

I opted for the Cappuccino Martini, and Mrs Irishbeersnob went for the Snickers. Fantastic. The perfect choice for after dinner.

Once again we walk away from a restaurant having been extremely well looked after. Gary and his team run a great ship, they obviously take a great deal of pride in their work. This shows from the moment you walk in. But its also great to see a bit of a sense of humour at play 

"Everybody was kung fu fighting!"

The future is very bright, and hopefully in that future there is a way for the guys to highlight their spectacular cocktails. The bar area would be fantastic for this, however as I understand it, they have to serve food with alcohol, I am sure though the team will embrace this challenge and design a menu of suitable nibbles for those who want a cocktail more than a great meal. This choice will not only make Red Torch Ginger a great restaurant, but potentially a great place to start the night with a light bite and truly spectacular cocktails.

Also, I know Gary is currently augmenting the drinks menu to include more craft beer alongside the mainstays, this is part of a growing and most welcome trend in the Irish hospitality industry and is great to see. Gary any time you want to run anything by, give me a shout. We will see you again soon.

Pay Day Splurge @ O'Briens Wines in Navan

So payday comes around, and you say to yourself, i must resist the urge to splurge.Usually its easy to restrain myself. However this time, I had a One4All voucher which was accepted in O'Briens (www.obrienswine.ie / @obrienswine) 

Kaching!

Anyway, after doing the grocerys we decided to hit up our local O'Briens. Dean will know i've been pining for Kona, especially Longboard since we got home from our holidays, alas, there was no kona in O'briens Navan, maybe next time. But there was plenty of other stuff.

Special Offers that stood out, 4 x Crew IPA for €10 and 4 x Rogue American Amber Ale for €10. The Crew Special Offer was mentioned on a previous blog post.

Again it was disappointing none of the Irish stuff was on Special, the 8 Degrees Knockmealdown was including in a 5 for 11 or 6 for 11 quid promotion, but lets face it, the current balmy weather isn't really stout/porter weather. Come on O'Briens, promote the home grown stuff too!!!

Anyway, here's the stash this time round.

Well excuse me! Nice Stash 

Well thats most of it, this is the craft stuff, there was other stuff in there, but this is a collection of stuff i've not had before, or in a while. I know I reviewed Crew IPA, but at that price I couldn't refuse.

Anyway, here's the line up.

Front Row (L-R)
Crew IPA (Germany)
Porterhouse Red (Ireland)
Porterhouse Hop Head (Ireland)
Flying Dog Doggy Style (USA)
Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale (USA)
Bellerose (Belgium)
Flying Dog Snake Dog (USA)
Rogue American Amber Ale (USA)
Crew Pale Ale (Germany)

Back Row (L-R)
Fullers London Pride (UK)
Dungarvan Brewing Helvick Gold Irish Blonde Ale (Ireland)
Dungarvan Copper Coast Red Ale (Ireland)

So i'm looking forward to sampling these, and sharing my thoughts over the next few weeks. 

If a major chain like O'Briens is beginning to carry a wider range like this. This is only a good thing for the Craft Beer afficionados in Ireland. 

Thanks for reading.

Crew AleWerkstatt - IPA

A German IPA. I must thank Paddy from ATG for pointing me in the direction of this when he was running the Brewdock. Thanks Paddy! 

Considering some of the costs of IPA Beers in our Craft Pubs it was a pleasant surprise to see this one coming in comfortably under the €6 barrier. Versus say O'Dells IPA which i've seen selling for above €7. This represents a really good value option.

So the humble IPA, was developed  as a way of ensuring beer could be sent to far flung corners of the British Empire in the days of yore. High hop and alcohol content to survive the perilous journey.

Infact, the powerful hop flavour isn't for everyone. But i suppose those colonial soldiers didn't really care about that did they, they just wanted the booze.

The first thing that comes to mind when you pop open the bottle is the unmistakable aroma, hops, but really fresh smelling. With citrus smelling notes. It pours a deep orange colour into a nice glass, and a nice head. I take a big breath and take my first mouthful. I'll be honest, I loved it. Despite the large amount of hops, it didn't really take your breath away like some IPA's can.

The vital statistics:
ABV 6.4%
Hop Varieties: Herkules, Cascade, Citra & Simcoe
Bitterness Units: 58 IBU

I was really impressed by this beer, which is brewed under the well known purity law "Reinheitsgebot" so there is no rubbish in here. 

I've not seen it in too many places, mainly in Brewdock & Against the Grain and other craft pubs, but its improving in availability as it's currently on special offer in your local O'Briens Off License, 4 x 330 ml bottles for €10.00 which is a cracking good deal in my opinion.

We all know Germany is famous for its beers, and it seems this would go nicely with a nice Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and mustard! Mmm.

Anyway, onto the scoring. The quality of the product is a 5/5 for me. Though availability is quite low but i'm sure this will improve as it gets better known, you can pick it up in most good independent off licenses, I know the lads @ Drinkstore have it in, and with nationwide in O'Briens I hope more and more people try this fantastic beer. However availability wise it only scores 2.5/5.

Now fly out and get some!

That Friday Feeling - A Visit to the Harbourmaster

So Friday comes around last week, and since it was the end of our first week back after our holidays, myself and Mrs Irish Beer Snob decided some after work libation was in order.

It was a glorious Friday evening and we settled upon revisiting an old favourite, The Harbourmaster Bar, in the IFSC (www.harbourmaster.ie / Twitter @HarbourMBar) it had been many moons since I was a regular patron, back in the good old days when I worked on Lwr Abbey St. The last time I was in there I think was a Friday night after a Prodigy gig at the o2 in 2009. My wife was a more recent visitor with her work Christmas Party in 2012. Open Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays except for Private Functions.

As a hardened commuter, its convenient location to BusAras, is very appealing (not too far to stumble for that last bus home) however its also very convenient for those folks who use Connolly, and indeed as a Pitstop to the o2, given its proximity to the Luas Line.

There is no doubt, the building is a wonderfully restored historical building, one of many dotted around the IFSC in among all the modern office structures. Other examples would include the CHQ Building in close proximity. Anyway, i'm nowhere near qualified enough to talk about the architecture etc, but I will say its a nice building. 

The Harbour Master Bar, IFSC, Dublin 1. The blue sky is not photoshopped.

In these austere times, patrons are looking for value for money, no more so than in the hospitality game. But can you still get value without sacrificing quality or standards, that is the question. 

We arrived in an the bar was very busy, good to see, and it was a nice mix of workers from the local area, and there were a few tourists in aswell. Initially there wasn't any space in the bar area, and we sat in the restaurant section. Only for Mrs IrishBeerSnob to see a lovely little table available on her way back from the ladies room. We let the waitress know we were moving and settled in.

Thursday and Fridays have a special offer, all mainstream pints, bottles, and spirits were €4.20. In D1? Surely not? In context, thats only 20c more expensive than my local at home for a pint of G, and 30c cheaper for a pint of Heineken et al. Fantastic! So we got a food menu, and Jasmine took our drinks order.

So we order a Guinness, and Coors. While we mulled over the menu. There really wasn't any mulling except, what size portion of wings, or do we want fries? So in the end we plumped for the Wings & Fries Special for €11.00. I don't know about you, if i'm having a few drinks I don't want a massive feed to fill me, so this fit the bill perfectly.

As we nattered away people watching we discussed our impressions, and first impressions are good. High Ceilings allow plenty of air flow and not a claustrophobic feeling, and plenty of windows allow you to watch the world go by. A very pleasant and clearly has recently been given a facelift. At the time of writing there was only one set of toilets, but we were told new ones were nearing completion upstairs at the function rooms.

Our food arrived, a nice size portion. May be a bit much for one, but more than enough to share and not be full to burst. Or if you were greedy. :)

So we were coming to the end of our drinks, this time I opted for Smithwicks Pale Ale (Its been out a while, not had it yet, not overly terrible for a large brewer, but defo not the best i've ever had) and Mrs IrishBeerSnob, her Smithwicks with a Guinness. 

The wings were very tasty, the sauce had a really nice flavour, that is really familiar nowadays with the wider availability of Franks Sauce. The only slight niggle was maybe they just weren't crispy enough, the could maybe have done with another minute or two. But they were wolfed down, and that is always a good sign. The chips were lovely and crispy in that thin French Fry style we know well from McDonalds, and overall we enjoyed our bite to eat. The dips were ketchup and garlic mayo. A choice between blue cheese dip and garlic would have been nice, needless to say there wasn't any left!

Now to the recommended beer lists, pictured below. Choice is a great thing and it gives you an opportunity to try something you've not tried before. I was very happy to see some  beers there i'd not heard much about or had before on the list. I appreciate for publicans when they carry so many lines its impossible to stock everything, cos lets face it its a business and they stock what sells, but it was a little disappointing to not see any Irish Craft there. I think its very important to support the growing Irish Craft beer scene, as by and large these small companies are ran by enterprising individuals and the more local produce we buy, the more we help our economy directly.

Page 1 of the Beer Recommendations

Page 2 of the Beer Recommendations

Worthington's White Knight IPA

All the same, I tried the Worthingtons IPA and Mrs IrishBeersnob had the Doombar by Sharps. I enjoyed mine, if a little underwhelmed. I expected more hoppy profile. Mrs IrishBeersnob loved hers and has tasked me to find a supply for her. She continually surprises me with her appetite for ales, especially English Ale. 

Sharp's DoomBar

Have I found my new Friday watering hole? I think we may have. Whilst i love the absolutely barnstorming choice in the nearby Brewdock, which I have been a very regular customer of since they opened in 2012, the place has changed. The creeping prices of their product, the change in personnel, and perhaps most importantly its not as comfortable. With no air flow it can get very warm, i'd imagine today would be like an oven in there.

If CAMRA says so, scepticism removed

So all in all, Harbourmaster, we will see you again. I am happy to report that on this visit there was no signs of a trade off between a value  offering and a good customer experience. Keep it up. I suppose this is subjective, but we both felt it was good value, Great service accompanied with a good choice of beers (sadly no Irish Craft) and a vast menu, that does offer more than wings, but those who know me, know I love my wings. Couple of tweaks as mentioned earlier, and I won't be looking at anything else on the menu.


We thoroughly enjoyed your hospitality, and we must give a special mention to our waitress, Jasmine from Derry. You were brilliant, and hope you continue to settle in. Oh and definitely bring the younger siblings to see Monsters University when it hits these shores in the very near future.




Thank you for reading, as always feel free to leave comments below, or contact me on twitter @irishbeersnob

So holidays are over. But the voyage continues

Those of you know who me personally will no doubt have been driven demented by my buildup to my holiday with Mrs IrishBeerSnob to the USA this past few weeks. So now we are home, and the jet lag wearing off I am making this post.

A view of the new building under construction at the site of the World Trade Centre, Downtown Manhattan.
Taken from Battery Park which is undergoing works after Hurricane Sandy.

This whole concept of a blog about beer without the BS was just I suppose my way of sharing my opinions on beers, especially the craft beer, and harder to find stuff, without all the jargon and stuff you some times find in other places. That isn't to say I don't enjoy reading that stuff, but I suppose i'm looking for something a bit more concise and to the point.

Over the next few weeks, months, years, who knows, i hope to evolve this blog to encompass some of my other passions, mainly food, whether its looking at places to eat, or even recipes etc, pubs themselves, both the mainstream places, and the not so mainstream places.  So watch out I am making a list and i could be in your premises soon. 

One thing that amazes me is the growth in the Irish market for Craft Beer, www.beoir.org has published some amazing statistics and is a fantastic point of reference. Plus its a really friendly community (though i'm only a lurker at the moment) but i'm definitely interested in the homebrew side. But it staggers me when I visit friends/family in the UK the vibrancy of their market - local pubs serving locally made (within 10 miles) ales, and beers. Its fantastic. 

But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with the USA, in Ireland we are the closest geographically to the USA and their beers have been steadily making their way here; Sierra Nevada, Rogue, Widmer Brothers etc. I was blown away again, both in New York where one bar had 12 lines of Sierra products, half of which i'd never even heard of, to a pub in the middle of the main tourist drive of Orlando with beers made in Tampa. Fantastic. It truly is amazing and as a result no surprise that some of the bigger brewers are looking to acquire the micro and craft brewers to add to their stables. 

The sunset at Clearwater Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida

Anyway, thats a lot of waffle, trying some beauties like Kona Longboard on Draft, as well as Widmer Bros Alchemy was a pleasure, and very reasonably priced at $5.99 a pint ($4.99 during happy hour) at the Bloodhound Brew IDrive, at the WhirleyDome bowl. To those who are asking What the F*** is Whirleyball, its a crazy cross between Lacross, Dodgems, and Basketball. Its good for team building to slam your car into your boss apparently. Anyway, they'd the usual suspects Bud etc on draft but they had the above standouts plus Mrs Beer Snobs new favour Orange Blossom Pilsner. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in such a touristy area. But it seemed every place had at least one or two on draft and plenty of bottles to choose from. 



So what now from here. Well this friday we're going to check out the Harbourmaster in the IFSC and assess their claim to the best wings in Dublin, now those who know me, know I know my wings. So I promise to check in regularly from now on.