Corfu

Tonight was Chew & Chat night. Carl and our mate Tom had been otherwise engaged beforehand (on a walking tour of Temple Bar with headphones on and covered in a cowled coat while listening to Samuel Beckett's Cascando. An initiative of the Project Arts Centre. They said it was good.

We met in the Octagon Bar in the Clarence Hotel for an aperitif. We hadn't been there in a good while. It's changed a lot (and not for the better in our opinion). The bar used be in the centre of the octagonal room, which led to interaction between customers. That's gone now, with the bar over to the side and serving this bar and the residents' one – which I'm sure makes things easier for the staff, but doesn't do any favours to the space.

The bar tenders were pretty pathetic, to be honest. Their command of English was poor and I had great difficulty getting them to understand what I would think is a fairly normal order: gin and tonic with a dash of lime. I asked for a tall glass rather than the now-usual goblet that's all the rotten rage and that too got rather lost in translation. The dash of lime was beyond them. I clarified and explained that what I wanted for lime cordial. Still the message didn't get through. I re-named the cordial and described it as lime juice. That's very different, but that's what I got — freshly squeezed lime juice. Actually, it was nice. I might have it again.

We went round the corner to Corfu restaurant on Parliament Street. What a great spot! It's mainly Greek food, of course (though they have a pasta section on the menu which I thought strange). Everything was delicious, perfectly cooked. The staff were wonderful, the atmosphere was terrific. We ended up having the best Chew & Chat night in ages. Definitely recommended.

Despite staring our meal at 6:45, by the time we left and tried to return to the Octagon Bar the door we'd earlier exited from was locked and when we went round to the main hotel entrance and approached the bar that way the same bar tenders were unpersuadable. So we went to the Bison bar instead. It's a pretty weird place. Last time we were there the bar stools were actually saddles (there's a bit of a Wild West things going on). Mind you, the Guinness was terrific.