Restaurant Name: Patrick Guilbaud
Location: Merrion Hotel, D2
Price Range: €€€€€
Review:
I remember when I was heading to London to Heston’s place last year thinking that the flights, hotel, and dinner were likely to come in at a cheaper clip than Guilbaud’s would, which makes it a hard place to justify visiting.
We got there at 7:00, a little early for our 7:30 reservation with plans to have a drink before eating. Got a G&T and browsed the menu, but had already decided we’d be doing the tasting menu. Before I had even got a chance to take a sip of my drink they were ushering us to our table at about 7:10.
Bread came out fairly sharpish which was lovely, along with those cheese-puff things you get sometimes which are pointless.
First course was some kind of tortellini thing that was nice, with a random cup of pea soup on the side. Not sure what they were trying to do here.
Before I had made it through half of the accompanying wine, the next glass arrived swiftly followed by the next course which was crab meat rolled in cucumber, kind of like a sushi thing. I don’t know…cold fish dishes to nothing for me. The best I’ll ever say is that it tasted fresh. Cold things by their nature don’t stimulate the taste buds as much, which is why macro-brewed beers are so geared to get you to drink it as cold as possible.
Again found myself choking down the wine when the next glass arrived along with an onion tartlet topped with a crispy parmesan flake. This was lovely.
At this point they brought out the port for what was a cheese board course and I had to tell them to slow down because I couldn’t drink any faster. My mrs. doesn’t love cheese so she asked for a substitution. A full 35 minutes later the cheese cart arrived which was very impressive and stinky. She got a fairly pathetic sorbet and I was disappointed they couldn’t come up with something a bit better, especially after 35 minutes.
Main fish course was lobster in some sort of apple sauce and it was exceptional. Probably would force its way on to my list of top 10 dishes of all time.
The pacing had improved by this stage, and the pigeon that came out next was really nice. A simple dish that let the quality of the produce speak for itself. The place was busy by this stage, and the service really looked chaotic, more so than I’ve seen in any top restaurant. The two desert courses aren’t really worth remarking on. They were very nice but nothing more.
The bill came to €580 and that didn’t include service. For what we received it was absolutely exorbitant. The tasting menu is double the price of the chef’s table at Chapter One, and to be honest I’m not even sure that’s any better, never mind twice as good. The wine pairing was €120 which was hefty compared to €45 at Ch1, but I have to admit there was a really nice mix of wines but again I’m not sure if it was 2.5x as good.
In the end I had to ask for the bill twice which was probably the 3rd-4th mistake of the night. I’m laid back enough but you really should expect completely flawless service for that money.
I’ve visited 3 two-star restaurants now and Guilbaud’s doesn’t hold a candle to the other ones. I won’t be in a rush back.
TLDR: Go to Chapter One twice instead.
Location: Merrion Hotel, D2
Price Range: €€€€€
Review:
I remember when I was heading to London to Heston’s place last year thinking that the flights, hotel, and dinner were likely to come in at a cheaper clip than Guilbaud’s would, which makes it a hard place to justify visiting.
We got there at 7:00, a little early for our 7:30 reservation with plans to have a drink before eating. Got a G&T and browsed the menu, but had already decided we’d be doing the tasting menu. Before I had even got a chance to take a sip of my drink they were ushering us to our table at about 7:10.
Bread came out fairly sharpish which was lovely, along with those cheese-puff things you get sometimes which are pointless.
First course was some kind of tortellini thing that was nice, with a random cup of pea soup on the side. Not sure what they were trying to do here.
Before I had made it through half of the accompanying wine, the next glass arrived swiftly followed by the next course which was crab meat rolled in cucumber, kind of like a sushi thing. I don’t know…cold fish dishes to nothing for me. The best I’ll ever say is that it tasted fresh. Cold things by their nature don’t stimulate the taste buds as much, which is why macro-brewed beers are so geared to get you to drink it as cold as possible.
Again found myself choking down the wine when the next glass arrived along with an onion tartlet topped with a crispy parmesan flake. This was lovely.
At this point they brought out the port for what was a cheese board course and I had to tell them to slow down because I couldn’t drink any faster. My mrs. doesn’t love cheese so she asked for a substitution. A full 35 minutes later the cheese cart arrived which was very impressive and stinky. She got a fairly pathetic sorbet and I was disappointed they couldn’t come up with something a bit better, especially after 35 minutes.
Main fish course was lobster in some sort of apple sauce and it was exceptional. Probably would force its way on to my list of top 10 dishes of all time.
The pacing had improved by this stage, and the pigeon that came out next was really nice. A simple dish that let the quality of the produce speak for itself. The place was busy by this stage, and the service really looked chaotic, more so than I’ve seen in any top restaurant. The two desert courses aren’t really worth remarking on. They were very nice but nothing more.
The bill came to €580 and that didn’t include service. For what we received it was absolutely exorbitant. The tasting menu is double the price of the chef’s table at Chapter One, and to be honest I’m not even sure that’s any better, never mind twice as good. The wine pairing was €120 which was hefty compared to €45 at Ch1, but I have to admit there was a really nice mix of wines but again I’m not sure if it was 2.5x as good.
In the end I had to ask for the bill twice which was probably the 3rd-4th mistake of the night. I’m laid back enough but you really should expect completely flawless service for that money.
I’ve visited 3 two-star restaurants now and Guilbaud’s doesn’t hold a candle to the other ones. I won’t be in a rush back.
TLDR: Go to Chapter One twice instead.
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