Growing on trees

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to pluck either a can or a bottle from this intriguing tree on the way to the DART station.

I was on my way in to town to meet Carl for a meal as part of Dine in Dublin Restaurant Week. We'd decided to go somewhere we'n neither been to before, so opted for The Farm in Dawson Street. Oh dear, here comes yet another bad review!

First impression were better than expected. When I phoned last night to book a table I was told they were heavily booked and that all that was available would be a table 'down in the front section'. There was a table for two free there when we arrived, but we were led past it and up to the middle of the restaurant to a table with generous free space between it and the one beside us. A heap of menus were dumped on the table, so we had to point out that we were here for the Dine in Dublin special. The deal was 30 euro per person for three courses plus tea or coffee. We weren't prepared for The Farm being an 'organic' restaurant, and didn't really know if that would be a good or a bad thing. As it happened it really meant 'rustic', because the quality of presentation was quite poor. We both had goats-cheese tartlet, which was a disappointing blend of (mostly) onion and cheese in poor-quality pastry. Presentation consisted of sticking a sprig of coriander into the cheese. I had shank of lamb, while Carl had duck. My lamb was hugely disappointing, just slapped on the plate on a bed of mash and served with an unappealing sauce with what might have been mushrooms in it. The sauce had been over-reduced and was a bit of a disaster. We both had raspberry roulade, served with a raspberry jus. Even the description didn't seem right, and the end result was bad too. Rather than the sponge which we were expecting, the rather anemic-tasting and strangely textured raspberry stuff was rolled in meringue and served with piped 'cream' which looked straight out of a can. The place was busy when we got there, but calmed down considerably as our meal progressed. Service was over-attentive if anything to begin with, and when our main courses were cleared away we were left sitting for a very long time without anyone appearing to take the dessert order (they'd originally wanted us to order dessert at the same time as our starter and main course, which we declined to do. I actually had to call someone to the table and said something about feeling neglected. Rather than apologise for the delay, the person concerned went on the defensive and said they 'thought we'd prefer to finish the wine' before having dessert.

All in all, very poor. Including a small bottle of fruit pressé to start (for me) and a low-quality French red wine with the meal, the bill came to 88-odd euro, which we rounded uo to ninety. We had been expecting participating restaurants to use the Dine in Dublin initiative to encourage people to eat out, but we felt The Farm made no effort whatsoever to entice customers to return. The experience was not a good one.

We did a bit of a crawl afterwards, starting in Café en Seinne, going on to Ron Black's but walking out because there was only one barman on duty and there was no sign of being served, then switching to San Sara (I think it's called) a few doors further up Dawson Street which was much, much better, offering a pleasant atmosphere and efficient service. By the time we tried the Dawson Lounge they'd finished serving, so there was nothing for it but to go to that old-reliable late-night haunt, the Japanese bar on Exchequer Street. We'd popped our heads into La Cave wine bar before that but it was very quiet and unenticing at that time. After a couple of Japanese beers we went back to La Cave and finished the night there over a very pleasant bottle of Argentinian Malbec. A strange encounter with two guys who said they were triplets brought the night to a close.