My weekend in Galway

Went to Galway last Friday with a bunch of girls to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Lorraine (yeap, you could call it a hen party but we done it with style). We stayed in the Park House Hotel near Eyre Square and it was a lovely hotel. On our first night we enjoyed a dinner at the hotel restaurant. I started off with a Greek salad, main course was baked cod with a herb crust - as with most hotel restaurants, the fish was prepared in advance and re-heated which, of course, dried it out but the cider-cream sauce rescued the dish. But the highlight of the meal were the desserts.....they are really to die for....I chose a banoffi pie.....the caramel was thick and sticky and the pastry was lovely and light...it was presented so beautifully that I had to take a photo (haven't uploaded them yet but I will of course share it with you later)..

The next day we booked Pierre's at Quay Street. It is a French restaurant that got very good critics on Menupages.ie. They tried to re-create a French country style which worked fine on the walls - the tables looked like they have been taken out of a 70s canteen with wicker chairs that could have come out of the same canteen. I prepare table linen. It always gives the whole lot a bit of elegance and flair....I think. Anyway, I started off with a mushroom vol-au-vent which was rich and lovely mushroomy. The option for vegetarian wasn't great (2 dishes to be precise) and I went for the paste penne with roasted pepper in a Boursin sauce. It was a lovely dish - nothing to write home about tho - and it came covered in Parmesan cheese. Don't get me wrong, I love Parmesan but I wasn't ask if I like it or not and one of the girls didn't. For dessert i chose Creme Brulee....and it was just like a Creme Brulee should be. The caramel was crunchy and the creme was set. Vanilla seeds proved that they actually used proper vanilla rather than essence.

For the wine we chose a nice Riesling which went well with the food. All in all a nice experience.