D7

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Rhodes D7, the Gary Rhodes restaurant on Capel Street, with Niall and Rita.

Gary Rhodes is the celebrity chef with the spiky hair, who looks like Nigel Kennedy. You'll be happy to know that bad hairstyle is not an indication of bad taste. We had a lovely evening there - it's a big place (according to reviews, it can take 250 covers!), and there was a nice buzz. There is one big square room which looked and sounded very busy. Luckily, we were seated in a slightly quieter area, which suited me fine. I find it very hard to catch what people are saying when there is too much noise - I end up smiling vaguely and nodding my head, but not really catching every bit of the conversation, and probably committing endless social faux pas.

There were some big, bold, paintings on the walls - one big pig, one big cockerel and a big picture of tomatoes. The artist is Deborah Donnelly. I wish I could paint in such big bold strokes. I particularly liked the tomatoes and the cockerel - it just looked so simple. That said, looking at the website displaying her art, it looks like she could fall in the trap of churning out too many paintings in the same style - even the cows are starting to look like pigs! But she is probably making plenty of money in the process, so I'm sure she's not complaining!

The food was very nice. Simple dishes, nicely cooked and presented. I had a tasty salmon starter, pork for main course (with a sweet baked apple - pork and apple are made for each other, as far as I'm concerned, just like black pudding and apple sauce) and yummy sticky toffee pudding. All very nice. Would I go back next week? Probably not - I would wait a while longer, as I'm not sure what dishes I would pick from the menu (though the fish and chips Brendan got looked very appetizing!). I would have liked to see a few specials of the day, to spice things up a bit and give a few extra choices.

We had taken the Luas in. Brendan and I had a drink in the Octagon in the Clarence beforehand. By the time we got home, my feet were in bits - I'm just not used to wearing heels. Next time, I'll bring flat shoes for walking!