Category: Eating out

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Allta – my standout meal of 2025

When reflecting on 2025 there was one meal I knew deserved its own post. I have long followed Allta’s story and been really keen to visit. I am glad that I was able to make it happen in 2025. Allta has moved around Dublin in the last few years and is now settled in the docks area. what hasn’t changed is Allta’s focus on time and place and championing Irish produce. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left we experienced the very best in hospitality from front of house to numerous chefs visiting our table, making us feel so welcome and taking us on a journey celebrating the very best of Irish produce. We even had the opportunity to see the raw ingredients as the meal began.

Allta offers a 12 course seasonal tasting menu with a range of snacks followed by bread, fish, meat and sweet courses. The food was exciting, clever and most of all delicious; so much skill and creativity poured in to every dish. What made it even more special was being able to engage with the very chefs who made the dishes. This is a meal that will live long in the memory.

The menu:

Monally’s heritage carrot, smoked velvet cloud sheep’s yoghurt, sunflower seed and squid, guanciale and shiso doughnut

bbq red shrimp, peanut and green chilli koji butter

wicklow venison tataki, cacao and coffee miso, damson

polpetta di sarde and parker house bread, truffle and toasted yeast jersey butter

hand dived scallop, smoked malone’s raspberry hot sauce, green tomato nam pla, bbq corn

salt baked beetroot, glenidan farm cobnut, blackcurrant, tarragon 

bbq ray wing, native shrimp sabayon, pumpkin seed, black garlic, january king, padron

dermot’s oxford sandy and black pork, clam xo, smoked bone marrow, pear, merguez

glenidan farm sea buckthorn, buttermilk icecream, ginger

apple and canelé bread and butter pudding

petits fours – hazelnut and coriander bonbon, juniper and sloe berry tart

We finished our meal with an incredible dessert wine – 2015, ‘anam üll’, apple icewine, slane valley, Ireland

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My 10 Stand out dishes of 2025

Every year I like to reflect on my favourite dishes of the year. Here are the top 10 of 2025

Stand out dish 1 – the oxtail giouvetsi, bone marrow, beef fat pangrattato at Oma

Stand out dish 2 – char siu pork, spice roast pineapple, sesame & ginger at Skosh

Stand out dish 3 – pork belly with gochujang miso tahini and cured egg yolk at Babushka evenings

Stand out dish 4 – ash baked sweet potato, wildflower vinegar & wild lemon labneh at the Fodder Lughnasadh feast

Stand out dish 5 – wood roast half chicken with Café de Paris butter, morels and baby leeks with a side of duck fat fries at Dove

Stand out dish 6 – Phuket style soy braised pork with hom mali rice at Kolae

Stand out dish 7 – purple heritage carrots at Black Wheat Club evenings

Stand out dish 8 – kale borani with flat bread at Capparelli at the Mill

Stand out dish 9 The rotisserie chicken and gravy at Capparelli at the Mill. this year was definitely the year of the roast chicken!

Stand out dish 10 – brussel sprout pakoras with salted mango, lime and cumin at Skosh

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2025 Food Memories

2025 was a much quieter year for me in terms of food adventures but it still brought new places and some old favourites.  We’ve continued to explore London and at the beginning of the year we finally got to Oma in London just before their Michelin star was announced.  We also had the chance to visit Darjeeling, Luna, Kolae, Dove, Kricket and have dim sum in Chinatown.

We’ve been back to Donegal a couple of times and managed to tick Bar Fisk off the list.  As always we included a visit to Scarpellos on the way home.

We’ve tried a few new places in Belfast including Frankys Lasagneria, Margot, Pica, Seoul Food Studio and the much anticipated Capparelli’s at the Mill.  We also made sure we snuck in a couple of visits to one of our favourites – Yugo.

We had a few visits to Dublin, went on a pizza trawl and had the meal of the year at Allta. We even managed 3 visits for Wine and cheese at Loose Canon = 🎉

I’ve continued to seek out bakeries wherever I go and the highlight was getting my hands on a Roundhouse Bakery Panettone just in time for Christmas.

As in other years there were the constants:

Numerous visits to Middletown coffee which always includes a hash brown stack.

Brunch at Fodder as part of our days out to the coast and forest walks.

Hot sandwiches at Lightfoot. The highlights of Lightfoot this year being the moulin rouge with cafe de Paris butter, the Po Boys, the lobster rolls and the Christmas sandwich!

Pizza at Flout

Curry at the Viceroy

Coffee at coffee rustler, Copeland distillery, babushka, Fidela and Kiosk

A Dishoom breakfast when in London

And when in York goats cheese poached eggs at Black Wheat Club and making sure we visit Skosh when we can!

All in all its been another good year. Here is to more good eating in 2026.

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Scarpello and Co

Za'tar flatbread and burrata small plates

It has become a bit of a Frivolitea tradition that any trip to Donegal begins or ends with a trip to Scarpello and Co. A place where, to quote my husband, ‘the world feels a little bit better’ when you enter.

Tucked behind a service station on the Buncrana road, Scarpello has a small but perfectly formed seasonal menu of coffee and pastries in the morning and a range of lunch choices including toasties, small plates and sourdough pizzas. Kemal and Rachel are part of the Real Bread Ireland network and their care for food and its provenance shines through the menu. We always include a pizza in our order as I’m married to a man for whom life begins and ends at pizza!

Our favourites on the menu are the Za’atar & sesame flatbread, the red pizza with local smoked sausage and the white pizza with wood roast fennel sausage. The pizza base is a classic Napoli style base that is wonderfully puffed up around the edges and packed full of flavour because of the sourdough.

Za'tar and burrata dishes
Smoked sausage, spinach, potato and chilli pizza with a side of Compania fries
White pizza with wood roast fennel sausage and broccoli rabe, chilli, garlic and oregano

However what makes this place extra special is the people. Every time we visit their love of serving people shines through. Rachel has always served us, she is the very definition of hospitality and I always look forward to a conversation. It is so clear to see how much love Rachel and Kemal put in to this place.

This is definitely a place to put on your list if you are anywhere near Derry or to be honest even if you’re not. Take a drive and go – and make sure you buy a cinnamon bun for the journey home!

Cinnamon bun in a box
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Clam and Cork

If you suggested to me that my love of food would take me on a culinary adventure by way of a train to Doncaster and a walk to Doncaster markets I would have thought you had gone mad. BUT there I was, at Doncaster Fish Market having the time of my life. Turns out Jay Rayner knows what he is talking about 😉 Clam and Cork is everything I hoped it would be. Full on northern charm and hospitality that extends from staff to the plates of food. It sits on the edge of the market, allowing the sunshine to tease you, right next to the fish stalls. I’m a fan of food traceability and you can literally see where your fish has come from in this place. 

Clam and Cork offers a short but hugely inviting menu, I was on the edge of saying ‘all of it please’ when we were asked for our order. We went for a main of monkfish burger with chips and two small plates – calamari with chipotle mayo and roasted peppers, and pan seared scallops with lime, coriander and anchovy dressing. It was exceptional. No faff, no ponce, just damn good seafood treated with love and care. The scallops were cooked to perfection and the dressing perfectly balanced. The coating on the calamari and the monkfish in the burger had a delightful kick, beautifully accompanied by the chipotle mayo. The chips were just how my mum makes them.  The finest kind of chip. All if which was garnished with pea shoots. The queen of garnish. I can’t think of a better way to spend a lunchtime. We chatted away to the fishmonger from the next door stall and the chef about our love of food (and our love of Doncaster Sheffield airport) as we ate our lunch and, as if the afternoon wasn’t already going swimmingly, our visit coincided with the slow cooked pork coming out of the oven so we got a sample of the most stunning pork flavoured with star anise, ginger and chilli. Anyone visiting tomorrow is in for a treat!

I can imagine we will visit this place often! I mean, it’s only a 20-minute train journey from York and less than five minute walk from the station.  Why wouldn’t you?

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Aizle, Edinburgh

Wow. To be honest I could stop the review there. Aizle was wow, from beginning to end and it’s been a while since I have had a meal that blew my socks off. Not one dish disappointed. Each was creative and interesting and left me asking ‘so how did they do that’.  I had high hopes when we first entered the restaurant and I spied chopsticks.  I love eating with chopsticks and I really wasn’t expecting that of a neighbourhood restaurant that serves a tasting menu.  

A few things really stood out about Aizle.  Firstly the joy of a blackboard of ingredients and no menu.  It might frustrate some but I really enjoyed playing a game of guess which ingredients are in this dish and what’s still to come.  Secondly the nods to Asian, particularly Japanese, flavours and ingredients through the menu.  This wasn’t fusion cooking but it was wonderfully played dishes using seasonal ingredients alongside Asian influences to create a brilliantly balanced and interesting menu.  I loved everything, the relaxed atmosphere, the down to earth service, the mix of dishes coming from the kitchen and the little prep room near our table. 

Dinner started with three snacks, a cheddar cornetto, using a hard cows cheese from Aberdeenshire with mounreyac pear, the most incredible duck dumpling with a five year aged soy dipping sauce and finally a mushroom flavoured Japanese savoury custard (Chawanmushi) with Jerusalem artichoke and Parmesan.  All were delicious teasers of what else would come over the evening.  The dumpling in particular was a favourite of mine, rich duck flavour and silky smooth dumpling, I’d very happily have eaten a bowl of them.

Following the snacks came the first dish, a tartare of beetroot with venison charcuterie cleverly mixed in with the beetroot and topped off with crispy noodle and yuzukosho, a fermented chilli mayonnaise.  The dish looked simple but every mouthful introduced a new flavour.

Next came our bread course, but this was no ordinary bread! This was a sourdough brioche bun filled with confit chicken and topped with truffle and an onion mayonnaise . Wow, wow, wow.

On to dish three and it was time for fish.  Cod, celeriac and grapes.  Classic cooking at first glance but again a twist with the cod being cooked in dashi butter and the sauce smoked over mussel shells.  Simple, elegant, delicious. 

Dish four moved us into the main event and the meat dish.  We revisited duck, this time Goosnargh duck crusted in buckwheat served with heirloom heritage carrots all brought alive with the edition of Japanese sansho berries.  Yet again expert cooking making it a joy to eat. 

We don’t often opt for the cheese course in a tasting menu but we were having such a good run we thought what the heck and had Vacherin Mont D’or with focaccia and the most wonderful little quince salad. 

And so we were on to our last two dishes, the desserts.  First up was a wonderfully light Granny Smith Apple with white chocolate and wasabi and then to finish it was yorkshire rhubarb with hibiscus and Scottish oats.  Both desserts were wonderfully balanced with hints of savoury as well as sweet and the perfect way to round of a wonderful meal. 

For our finale we had coffee and petit fours. Often something that disappoints me in restaurants is coffee not being given the same attention as the rest of the meal.  Many times I’ve groaned when I’ve read the word nespresso, but not here.  When the waitress uttered the words ‘our coffee is from steampunk coffee’ I nearly let out a squeal of joy.  This is a place that cares even about the coffee at the end.  An utter joy! And a cracking cup of coffee with my muscadet pumpkin and maple petit four. 

We left three hours after we arrived with a spring in our step at a fabulous evening and knowing we would be visiting again!

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The Little Chartroom

They say all good things come in little packages and they, whoever they are, would be right because what The Little Chartroom lacks in size it certainly makes up for in personality and culinary flare.   We ventured to the Little Chartroom for brunch on our last morning in Edinburgh and it certainly gave us a fantastic farewell to this beautiful city.  Situated on Leith Walk, with its mix of faded grandeur, quirky shops and hints of regeneration, this elegant and bijou restaurant has only room for 15 covers and like everything else it has a small but perfectly formed brunch menu. 

I’ve never been so excited by a brunch menu before.  This is a place that has a creative confidence in what it offers.  I struggled to choose as I wanted to try everything but opted for braised beef shin, smoked celeriac remoulade, potato scones and fried egg. It was an absolute stunner. Rich and delicious.  The smoked celeriac remoulade a stroke of genius and bringing the whole dish together.  Mr F had mushrooms, garlic, bacon jam and poached eggs on sourdough toast.  The sourdough coming from twelve triangles bakery just around the corner.  Another winning dish. 

We finished off our brunch with doughnuts.  I mean its impossible to refuse a homemade doughnut on a brunch menu, right?  Made and filled with wonderfully zingy rhubarb jam right in front of us. 

The Little Chartroom may be small but it is bold, confident in its style and food.  It’s my kind of place and I am most definitely planning a return visit for dinner. 

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Noble Holywood

I just happen to be sitting opposite Jay Rayner at Monmouth coffee company’s Borough Market cafe. Not long ago I spent a day with him in London learning more about the craft of writing (with several other people I hasten to add) his simple presence this morning reminded me that I’ve not written in a while and I should,  in fact the place I want to write about is a place he visited in Northern Ireland a while ago and was on my list for some time. Now living part time in Northern Ireland makes getting through my list of places I want to eat a bit easier. And so I finally make it to Noble; it was worth the wait. 

Noble seems a rather unassuming little place on Church Street, Holywood but walk through the door and up the stairs and you need to be prepared for anything but.  Noble might be a physically small space but it is big and bold and beautiful in its offering.   Noble is a place that believes in itself and its ingredients; no flashy touches, no foams or faff just delightfully perfect cooking.

You can go for the lunch / early doors menu, or at least you can plan to, but rest assured you will look at the specials and the fuller menu and be swayed. 

We started our afternoon off with a glass of wine (our Austrian waiter was delighted with the choice of Grüner Veltliner) and some padron peppers before settling on starters of Parmesan arancini with an addition of truffle and Portavogie prawns with garlic butter and lemon. Classic dishes beautifully executed.

For mains Mr F chose the suckling pig and I surprised myself by going vegetarian but boy am I glad I did.  The roast cauliflower, spiced couscous and onion Bhaji dish was exceptional. The flavours were perfectly balanced and it was an absolute joy to eat. We finished the meal off with a pear and bramble tart and a Parkin and burnt apple dish and the only comment would be that it was more a cake than Parkin.  It didn’t have the chewy texture Parkin should have. The danger of a Yorkshire man ordering Parkin outside of Yorkshire!

There is always a risk when you’ve been looking forward to visiting somewhere for sometime, and twitter friends have frequently said it’s excellent, that it will not live up to expectation. Well Noble did and more.  We will certainly visit again and be telling others about it.

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The Hideaway Kitchen

I guess the clue is in the name of the place but ‘Hideaway Kitchen’ really is tucked away in North Yorkshire’s in rolling countryside. Only a short trip by car from York or Harrogate down a single lane road and you find yourself in the most beautiful village of Lower Dunsforth where Georgina and Amelia are working their magic. 

This is no village pub or cafe or restaurant it’s a wonderful mix of all three and more. Over the last few months it has been transformed in to a light and bright all day eatery with Mediterranean influences running through the menu. I was invited by The Harrogate Girl (@THarrogateGirl) to join a group of bloggers for the evening and I am very glad I took up the invite as this place is a hidden gem. Our menu, featuring a range of dishes from the regular evening offering, was fresh and light, making the most of summer produce.

We kicked off with a range of sharing plates including jamon, a sheeps milk cheese that was beautifully salty and rich, crackling strips that had a wonderfully loud crunch, houmous spiced with dukkah and then, the highlight for me, pickled cockle popcorn that popped with flavour.

Next arrived a perfect summer evening dish of crab, pea shoot and nasturtium salad that was expertly seasoned with mojama, a dried and salt cured tuna. Another example of the spanish influences in the cooking here.

The cashew chicken with mango, chilli and Thai basil salsa and a satay dipping sauce was full of colour and summer flavours

The tuna carpaccio brought us back to mediterranean influences with a seasoning of parmesan and spanish olive oil. Simple and delicious.

Then lamb rump with harissa sweet potato, pea and mint salad and chimichurri dressing was definitely a spice hit. 

The evening was rounded off with a fresh and light dessert of strawberry parfait with pistachios and basil.

The Hideaway Kitchen call themselves ‘your home away from home’ and the description is spot on. Part way through the evening, a couple walked through with a pint and a slice of cake confirming to me this is my kind of place. A relaxed and varied offering appealing to a great range of people. It offers something a little different; an opportunity to go for as little or as much food as you want in a relaxed countryside setting but with flavours and influences that stems from a partnership of culinary and travel expertise. I would certainly recommend it and will be returning for more.

Note: I attended Hideaway Kitchen as part of a bloggers event and no charge was made for the evening.

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Wreckfish

There is something rather exciting about the group of restaurants that make up ‘Elite Bistro’s of the World’. Gary Usher has this wonderful way of inviting you into the family, warts and all and taking you on an emotional roller coaster.  You desperately want him and the restaurant dreams to succeed. And so, nearly a year after our little investment in that dream, we arrived at Wreckfish, voucher in hand.

I have to admit on the train over there was lot of excitement and a bit of trepidation. It had been a great adventure from afar and I wanted reality to live up to expectation. I also made the mistake of looking at the sample menu online. I know the rules. You can’t and shouldn’t expect a sample menu to fully reflect what you might be offered on a given day BUT I spotted the cauliflower risotto on the menu. I have a slight obsession with cauliflower and I wanted it. To my huge relief it was there.

Lunch at Wreckfish is amazing value and the menu perfectly crafted meaning that choosing one starter and one main is hard. You’ve no doubt established by now that for starter I chose the cauliflower risotto and it did not let me down.  The vadouvan spice perfectly balanced bringing the whole thing to life. It was good. Really really good. Mr F went for the ox tongue salad with artichoke and beef croquette. It was beautiful, delicate and a great choice for a summers day.

And so, on to our mains. Oh my, the mains. I had whole plaice perfectly cooked with butter and salty capers and Mr Fs feather blade of beef… well just look at it. Melt in the mouth, rich, beefiness accompanied by silky smooth caramelised cauliflower purée and a side order of gloriously crisp and fluffy parmesan and truffle chips. Mr F didn’t speak for a whole five minutes as he was so immersed in his food! He reluctantly let me try a little and boy did it taste good.

For dessert I had mango sorbet, passion fruit mousse, caramelised white chocolate and pineapple. A brilliantly light and tangy to finish my meal.  Mr F had the strawberry semifreddo, marinated strawberries and fresh honeycomb. Simple and delicious.  We were now officially stuffed full and very happy indeed.

I can’t praise Wreckfish enough.  It was everything I hoped it would be and more.  The food was fantastic value and of the highest quality, the staff clearly proud of what they’ve achieved.  It makes you want to visit again and again. We’ve already talked about a return visit and I can’t wait to see what Gary Usher does next.