Very Lovely Stuff: Dinner at Taste Restaurant

2/18/2012

Dinner at Taste Restaurant

Hi!

Last night I went out for dinner with my boyfriend. We decided to just give each other a present under €10 for Valentine's, & go out together instead. Obviously most people who read this won't be near this restaurant, as it's in Wexford. But if you're around the area - I definitely recommend it.

We went to Taste, which serves 'Modern Irish Cuisine'. I'm a fan of foreign foods, but my boyfriend refuses to try anything more exotic than Chinese or Italian, so it was perfect. It's also quite inexpensive - A three course meal, or two courses and a glass of house wine, for €25. During February, they also provide a complimentary bottle of wine on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday nights. While menus are subject to change, we were faced with a choice of the following:

I chose the crisp roll of chicken with brie & thyme, cracked pepper aioli & chilli oil as my starter, followed by penne pasta tossed with spinach, roasted vegetables and black olives in tomato & ginger sauce, parmesan & herb oil, and for dessert, I had the chocolate brownie, chocolate caramel & vanilla ice-cream. The house wine was a Spanish Pinot Grigio, which neither of us had.

My starter wasn't what I was expecting. It was basically chicken with a mixture of sauces, etc, in pastry. For whatever reasons, I was thinking of something like chicken nuggets (never say I'm not cultured!). But, it was lovely. I'm not the biggest fan of cheese, so as I came to the end of it, I scraped some off, but the chicken was melt-in-my-mouth and the pastry was nice and crispy.

My starter

(Once again, using Blackberry in low lighting.)

I'm a big fan of pasta, so had a little mental argument about whether to opt for the pasta without meat, or another main course, with meat. But it was definitely a brilliant choice. The roasted vegetables were so juicy, and the sauce was a little bit spicy. Although, like I said, I'm not a cheese fan, the melting cheese in this was much nicer than I expected. There's no way I could finish it, my dress was too tight to risk any explosions of my stomach!

My main course.

I'm a major chocolate lover, so I didn't really even look at the other desserts. The brownie had almonds and actually wasn't too heavy and chocolately, which was nice after a heavy meal. What more can I say? It was a nice end to the night!

Dessert.

Overall, I definitely recommend it. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend would too - He said the soup (potato & leek) was amazing, and his lamb (cooked to medium) was some of the nicest he's ever had. I didn't get pictures, because he thought I was an absolute freak for taking photos of my own food. Also, service was impeccable - discreet, but constantly helpful. Fair play!

Since it was a special night out, I dressed up (hence the tight dress & fear of bursting). I wore this Asos dress (on sale for €15.09) with the shoe boots from this post. I pretty much did usual make up: