If your in the market for something a little hearty for lunch you won’t go far wrong at The Pig’s Ear. They do three courses for €19.95 and the menu is available daily. Click here for a peep at the menu or phone 01 6703865 to book.You’l…

Calling all weary Christmas Shoppers! Browns Cafe by Carton House are currently offering a rather savvy afternoon tea which could prove to be the perfect pick me up for tired shoppers during the Christmas rush! Located in the rather swish environs of B…

Ever wasted an entire lunch break standing in line to buy a soggy sandwich made with too much butter, not enough fillings, with ingredients you don’t like, and then paying a bomb for it? Well, we’re avid lunch eaters too, and we certainly have!
In fact, one of the main reasons the site came into being was we were fed up with the choice and value on offer in our area, and wanted to put some time and effort into researching what really good lunch options were available out there! Hey, we all eat it every day, why not make it better?!

Well, MYO IFSC (that’s Make Your Own by the way!) had the same thoughts, and they too decided to do something about it! From an initial Australian concept (obviously those Aussies had the same problems as us!), MYO has grown into revolutionary sandwich and salad bar gives its customers the
power to create their own lunch, exactly the way they like it! Simple eh? Simple but effective! Oh, and by the way, they’ve crackin coffee too!

The M.Y.O. concept is incredibly simple but  ingenious. On entering the store (as I say, one of the perks of the job is we’re a lunch eater too!) we grabbed a tray, chose from loads of freshly baked bread and began assembling our sandwich from the 75 fresh gourmet sandwich fillings, including deli-style meats and cheeses, as we worked our way around.
It’s soooo easy, soooo simple, and takes away the effort of having to explain that you want no freakin mayo to some scowling deli maiden!

MYO promises no queues, value for money, an easy to use system and most importantly, choice!
For how many of us out there is the good old chicken fillet roll the default option? Grey lettuce, some watered down mayo, a slab of butter big enough
to give an elephant a heart attack, lukewarm chicken and perhaps a little bit
of water dripping tomato. Come on now, raise your hand.

Well, a slap on the wrists for you sir/madam, we’ve far more than that in Dublin’s dining scene, for far better value, and MYO IFSC is the epitome of
that!
Healthy food, high quality filling, detailed nutritional info if you want it, and
most of all, fast efficient service (as long as you’re a fast and efficient
person!). It’s all too easy!

Give it a go if you’re IFSC lunch centered and haven’t nipped in yet. We give it the official mylunch.ie seal of approval!

Plus, you can also get 2 for 1 on any of their delicious pies with our exclusive offer!

Related Tags: IFSC Lunch, IFSC, IFSC Restaurants, IFSC Lunch deals, Dublin 1 lunch
lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options,

Originally Posted on The Lunchbox

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One of the many perks of being part of mylunch.ie (as well as being part of the secret group that controls the world and appoints American presid..*ahem*) is that we get to try out the restaurants we feature on site quite frequently!
Now we’re no Paolo Tullio, but we’re the oracle on lunch, and generally we’ve found that we like what you like! A burrito here, a gourmet sandwich there, a few free coffees etc. It’s all good in the mylunch hood!
So, when we got the offer extended to us to try out Roast in Ballsbridge during a recent exhibition in the RDS we were delira to oblige!
It was a usual Irish Spring day, blustery, showery, 10 degrees and sporadically sunny, and we were starving from a day traipising around the convention centre! A tasty filling lunch was the order of the day…
So, we decided to nip into Roast and take them up on their kind offer!

Open since late last year, Roast is the new restaurant over the well known Crowe’s pub. Freshly re-decorated, Roast, like so many others, proclaims to be fresh, seasonal food done well. The difference between  it and many of the others is, it delivers!
We’re strong campaigners here at mylunch for the holy grail of good value + decent food, and Roast certainly performs on that front too,
Myself and my mylunch colleague were starving, and began with two seafood chowers (€6.50), which would probably be enough to fill you up on a normal day! Stuffed with chunks of seafood, it was delicious, and as a bonus it kept my colleague’s mouth shut long enough for me to enyoy it. (He had been quarreling with an over zealous salesperson all morning!) A non wine drinker, I opted for a Coke, as did my partner, but we also had a look at the wine list, which comes recommended on the Roast site,  and indeed from what we could make out, it was well formed.

For mains, being the old traditionalist that I am, I opted for the Beef Pie, (and it was needed to soak up what was to come downstairs later on, lets just say the phrase “pints of Guinness” and  “like they were going out of fashion” were involved), which was full of mouth watering meat, lots of veg. and accompanied by a creamy mash, while Steve, the European that he is, went for the Pumpkin Risotto, with shaved parmesan and sage.

This was slightly less filling, though still tasty, but I could see him eyeing up my main with envy!
Overall, a great halftime to the day, and we didn’t want to leave to go back across the road. Roast is a simple concept, akin to the cracking pub food (grub is the wrong term) you might get across the water in London,which is what we Irish are looking for in this day and age.
It does what it does very very well from our experience. We would like to have seen a bit more options on the lunch menu, but the variety is good, and we will certainly be back for a crack at dinner, and a braised lamb shank that has my name on it. (pictured)
At least we’ve something to look forward to the next time we’re pretending to work in the RDS, plus it gave Steve the necessary chutzpah to go for round two with the salesperson in the afternoon, but that’s another story…


Click here for lunch menu

Click here for the exclusive Roast voucher on mylunch.ie

See the “About” section of the Roast page for full dinner menu

Related Tags: Roast, Roast Ballsbridge, Roast Ballsbridge lunch, Roast Ballsbridge dinner, Roast Ballsbridge offer, Roast restaurant, lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options,

Originally posted on The Lunchbox

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Burritos and Blues on the top of Wexford Street is now open 6 months (how time flies eh!) and is an arch commander in the Mexican Revolución which our Capital City seems to be in the throws of!

An obvious favourite of your lunch lovers, we though we’d asked Mr. David Stone, Chief Junior Vice President of Burrito Production at Burritos and Blues (aka Owner!) to have a chat, and grilled him (heh, see what we did there, GRILLED!) on how things were going, why Dubliners seem to love Mexican, his own cookery skills, and his strange love of criticism! Oh, and by the way, did you know that Burrito is translated as “Little Donkey” in Mexican? Now you do!




We asked David to give his thoughts on how things are going at the coalface of the New Mexican Wave (my God, we’re on fire today!)

So, 6 months in and what do I think? I reckon Dublin LOVES Burritos (and Quesadilla, Nachos etc!)
I started planning the return of Burritos & Blues back in 2008/09. I used to joke about it and I was always laughed at! As some people already know, Burritos & Blues was operating in Ranelagh up to 2007. I was not part of it, but was lucky enough to have met the guys who were at the coal face, Fahima and the other chefs.
We opened on Wexford Street in August 2010, and I knew that we needed something different! Something Mexican, but more than just burritos!  Fresh, hot, wholesome food, at a good price with top quality meats and in house made recipes. I also wanted people to see what they were getting! I also wanted the place to look casual but friendly. I realise it may look like a crèche with all the colours but I think it compliments our efforts of trying to be a young, fresh and vibrant brand.
And so it began……
We opened on the 4^th and ran out of food 2 hours in! We did not expect the crowds that came. Thankfully it opened our eyes and we haven’t ran out of food since then!

The queues running down Wexford Street to get in the door at lunch time, must mean you’ve come close a few times! Do you do much of the cooking yourself David?

I am not at the counters much. I love food and how it’s made, however my knife skills are not that great although I am learning! I do the day to day things like ensure the staff are happy, ensure the suppliers are giving us what we order and generally talking up the place. I am lucky that we have a great bunch of staff here. Fahima is the head chef, and I am sure you will know her if you have ever had lunch here.
The effort and passion Fahima and the guys put into the food is phenomenal! There is not a morning that I come in and Fahima isn’t complaining that something isn’t 100% right, and we have to fix it ASAP. We want our food to be known for being “Simple, Honest Food, 100% Fresh”.

What is your own favourite option on the menu?

My own fav is the Chicken Burrito with #1 salsa, as I am not a spice man myself! A little secret is to ask for some grilled veg in it as well! It’s delish! The Guac is also awesome!
We don’t just limit ourselves to Burritos. We have an extensive menu with options to suit everyone. From Nachos, to Quesadillas, and our Sexy Salsa Fries to Burrito Bowls, we try to cater for everyone. We also have several options for the Veggie’s out there.

From being a regular in store, it seems that Burritos and Blues’ enthusiasm knows no bounds David! Would I be right in saying that all of this really excites you?

I love the way business works. I love the problems, the highs, the lows (the robbery, the extraction system breaking down on a Friday night etc). The model we have is quite unique in Dublin. Only ourselves and Boojum (the enemy! Only Joking!) are doing Burritos using a “Subway-esque” method and I think it works. “100% Customised, 100% Fresh”

Some of our more mature users may have fond memories of the old Burritos and Blues in Ranelagh, was it difficult to get the business going again?

Reviving Burritos & Blues was a big challenge! I am a baby faced 28 year old, and whenever I explained what I was doing, the older business people around would often sneer and immediately try to deflate me with some sort of negative statement like “The Recession” etc. In fact I think the recession has had a positive impact on us starting up! I think that people now are more savvy and do not expect to be paying top dollar for sub standard product and more importantly “scabby portions”.  Our prices range from €2.50 for our cheesy cubes to 8 euro for our Big Ass Nachos. Burritos range from €5.95 for the Silver Bullet to €7 for a huge Steak Burrito.
I do believe and hope that we serve a great product, at a very good price with a substantial amount of top quality food in it, with a smile.

You guys also open late to tickle the tastebuds of the, eh, late night lunchers, shall we say!

We are open till 4 am on Friday & Saturday nights and this takes its toll on everyone, however we are slowly carving out a niche night time market on a very vibrant and loud Wexford Street!

With burritos being a relatively new thing to the generally rich tapestry of food in Dublin, you must get a lot of people asking questions about what to have?

Yes, and I love people asking questions about the food! I love people saying positive things about the place and I REALLY love the critics! People and business cannot be at their best at all times.
Criticism and feedback is key in trying to be the best at what we do! I love feedback, as long as it’s constructive! There is no place for vicious criticism in Dublin. It’s too small and vicious feedback can actually close places down! I think that review sites, and other forums like that should allow the customer actively express their views, be it positive or negative, BUT allow the business owners have an opinion and react to the feedback.
At Burritos & Blues we try to be as interactive with our customers as possible. Be it in the ordering process, where you are in constant contact with the server, or through our online and social media presence. We have a very active Twitter account (due to me being addicted to the bloody thing!), @burritosblues and a Facebook page that we are working on. Our website www.burritos.ie is quite well used, and allows customers recommend any funky Blues Music that they want to hear on the speakers in Wexford Street.
We also spread a viral video in March. You can see it on YouTube under TNT Salsa. It is just another way we try to communicate with our customers and prospective customers!
All in all it has been a great 6-7 months. The food has been flying out the door and I pray that it continues!

Sounds good! What are the plans for the future then? A full scale Burrito Revolution?

Well, in May we will hopefully start to introduce our Salsas and marinade rub into the public domain. These will be available through the Wexford Street unit and hopefully in a few stores around Dublin.
We plan on opening a smaller location on Stephen Street in April and are talking to a few guys about another possible location near Grafton Street. I don’t want to rush things however. We have to be brilliant at what we do in Wexford Street first. Viva La BURRITO!!

Viva the “Little Donkey” indeed! Some very interesting thoughts there, from a very interesting eatery! Do drop in and give David a smile, (or some feedback) if you’re around Wexford St!

You can view Burritos + Blues mylunch page here
Click here for the Burritos and Blues Menu
View their exclusive mylunch offer here
Or interact with David directly via their Twitter account (Yes, he really is addicted!)

Related Tags: Burritos and Blues, Burritos and Blues Menu, Burritos Blues, Burritos Dublin, Burritos and Blues Wexford Street, Burritos and Blues Camden Street, Mexican Food Dublin, Burritos and Blues offers, Burritos and Blues lunch, lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options,

Originally Posted on The Lunchbox

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Ah the Irish! Since the olden times, when we went around only eating spuds, wearing sheep skins and generally being converted to Christianity, we’ve been a nosy bunch! Theres even a rumour that hedge schools were only invented so a next door neighbour could look over the hedge!
But hey, that’s no bad thing, and as you can see from our sites popularity, word of mouth is fantastic when it comes to spreading news!
Anyway, we decided that since there were loads of cool people talking on the internet about things which you lunchies would love, so why not bring them to you, ask them a bit about their lunch habits, and what they do! This will be a regular spot on The Lunchbox, and we’re consistently looking for peeps to come and talk to us (we’re the nosiest of them all!), so do get in touch if you want to!
For the first of these pieces, we’ve brought in the coolest of the cool, the man with all the insider knowledge, and the best moustache this side of Tom Selleck, Johnny Cool! If you haven’t heard, Johnny is a man with his finger on the pulse, and his main objective in life is to find + recommend cool things (music, books, games, websites, presents deals etc) before anyone else. Let’s let him take over, and we firstly asked him to tell us a bit about what he does…
“Well, I’m fairly new to blogging, currently concentrating on recommending cool new products, places, café’s, restaurants, websites through my Facebook and Twitter page. I’m planning to launch the blog soon, so do follow me on facebook and twitter to stay updated!”

I’m a food fan, and depending on what I’m up to, lunch can be from cooking for one at home to meeting some friends for a catchup, and a debate over what new to recommend. This changes daily.

When out I mainly go to Food Room or Bay in Clontarf and the odd trip to Espresso off Baggot St if i’m in the area. With my line of work, I also like to try somewhere new every week.  If you’ve missed breakfast and need a something filling I’d recommend going to Bay and asking for a porridge, it’s the best porridge in town and it’ll get you through the afternoon, do ask nicely though!”
Johnny says he’s also a mean cook, so any ladies out there, pay attention! “I love cooking, I feel I’ve taken Jamie Oliver’s 30 mins meals to the next level, 15 mins meals! You’d be amazed what can be done in 15 minutes.” Having tried Jamie’s meals out, we’re a bit skeptical, but our momma’s always told us to never doubt a man with a moustache!
He’s also a fan of tech sites on the web, and of course being the first to break cool new things takes a lot of research. Johnny mentions that he spends a good bit of time checking mylunch.ie to get good value for lunch, and interestingly, he’d like to see us “grow our listings and offers even bigger, especially outside the main city centre, as there are a lot  of restaurants out there with great lunch specials”. Good timing Johnny, cos we’re looking to do that as we speak, and we’ve hit him up for some recommendations, so stay tuned for those newbies on site soon!
However, it’s not always coffee in town and meals out with friends for our JC, oh no! We asked him what his food vice/hangover cure was, and though he generally only drinks crystal clear mountain spring water which Nepalese goats have bathed in, he said he occasionaly likes to “devour a Marks and Sparks pepperoni pizza with a cadburys dairymilk and a cornetto”, hopefully not all in the one go!
So there you have it, even the coolest of us have our off days, but hey, we forgive you Johnny!
All you lunch lovers out there, we’ve got you sorted for the latest lunch news, why not join Johnny, and let him sort you out for his recommendations on the rest of the coolest things around!
As we say, we’ll have regular contributors to The Lunchbox in the next while,  foodies, value hunters, general carachters, some of our on site venues, and the occasional user or two, so if there’s anyone you’d like to see talk to us, of if you yourself have an interesting lunch story to tell, do get in touch!

Related Tags:
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Originally posted on The Lunchbox

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What with it being Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, we thought we’d give fill you in on the best pancake related news we’ve heard today!

 

What is Shrove Tuesday?
Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the last day before the period which Christians call Lent. It is traditional on this day to eat pancakes, as Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. Shrove Tuesday was traditionally the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren’t allowed in Lent. We eat Pancakes on this day because they contain fat, butter and eggs which were forbidden during Lent.

Free Pancakes you say?
To help get your Shrove Tuesday off to a good start, Aviva Stadium chefs will be setting up a pancake station outside the stadium on tomorrow, Tuesday, 8th March.  People passing by will be treated to some delicious pancakes, cooked fresh on site and served with a choice of fillings, including chocolate, syrup, and lemon zest. The chefs will be there from 7.30-9.30am. All the Info here! Spread the word, e’ryone loves free pancakes!
Forgive us if we say NYOM NYOM NYOM!
 
How to?
If you’re a bit of a novice in the kitchen, but don’t want the day to pass you by, for an easy quick guide to delicious pancakes from Board Bia, do see here!
Want to try something different?
Well, what about glow in the dark pancakes?

Related Tags:
Free Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options,

Originally posted on The Lunchbox

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The second of our posts on the best of the lunch related news we’ve found on the web this week!
When we’re not securing lunch deals, we tend to surf around quite a lot and always find interesting tidbits, so we’re passing them on to you!

Breast Milk Ice Cream goes on sale in London
Picture the scene, it’s a hot Spring day, you’re having a long lazy lunch in the tourist paradise that is London’s Covent Garden, and suddenly, you get a craving for something sweet, yet cooling. Ah, a perfect time for an ice cream eh?
Well, just be careful…
The fact a serving cost 14 quid, and is called “Baby Gaga”, makes it even more weird!
I wonder does it vary from person to person?

Cupcakes rampage in Cardiff
As we posted on the old Facebook, a woman with a serious sweet tooth has gone on the rampage in Cardiff, and caused around £400 worth of damage to a cupcake shop, after they sold out of her favourite. Sugarswirlz Cake Shop is relatively new to the dangerous Cardiff cupcake scene, and the woman, who was looking for a “Sweet Toothfairy Cupcake” is still on the loose, presumed armed and ravenous. Watch out Lolly and Cooks!
Now we know some of us like something sweet post lunch, but that’s a bit far!

Sweet site!
Speaking of Lolly and Cooks, have you seen their new site? It’s a beauty! If only that mother had used their delivery option eh?

Pizza and books- A great combo?
In Madrid, a new store has opened combining the two! Called La Pizzateca, the store offers a wide range of artisanal pizzas and calzones, but is also a book store! Offers available include a slice of pizza and a book for just a fiver, a bargain for all you hungry book worms out there. I wonder do they sell cheesy novels? (Oh, that was awful!)
If you have any recommendations for stories we should feature, other than our own random web finds, then do get in touch!

Related Tags:
lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options,

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French Flair and flash restaurantsFrench Flair and flash restaurants (Date:01 February 2011) Hello lunchies, and welcome to the first “Lunchbox” post of Spring!As we posted on Twitter this morning, we love Spring! Daffodils will be blooming, lambs…

Something (healthy) for the weekend?

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Something (healty) for the weekend seems to have taken on cult status amongst all you health mongers, recipe lovers and general foodies out there, so we’re going to be continuing it for the forseeable future! If there are any recipes you’d like to see, then please get in touch through hungry@mylunch.ie!

This week, we’ve got an online exclusive, and a delicious easy and healthy dish to round off January, from the lovely Domini Kemp’s recent cookbook.

An Itsa co-founder with her sister Peaches, (check their new offer if you want more healthy goodness!), Domini is a respected food writer and chef, and through all that, still finds time to appear each week on RTE’s Four Live!

Now, you may be thinking that there’s something fishy about this blog post, and there is, cos this week, we’re doing super-healthy salmon and tuna fishcakes! Perfect for a main (serves two) or starter (serves four), this recipe is sure to be a hit if you’re entertaining this weekend, or even if you’ve someone special to impress. Ah heck , who are we kidding, why not just make a batch for yourself!


Anyway, here goes, I’ll let Domini take over from here!

“Don’t stress out if you cant get lime leaves or anything else off the list.  Just add more of everything else.  Also, if you ever do come across lime leaves, buy a bunch of them, wrap them up well in cling film and freeze them.  The same goes for the lemongrass – its not idea, but it works OK as they can be hard to find when you need them.

You wil need
2 red onions, diced, 2 red chillies, deseeded and diced, 2 lime leaves, 1 stalk lemongrass, Juice of 2 limes, 1 small bunch coriander, 1 small bunch basil, a knob of ginger, peeled, 2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce, 1 tsp fish sauce, a splash of sesame oil, 200g fresh salmon fillet, skin removed and roughly chopped, 200g fresh tuna fillet, skin removed and roughly chopped, a handful of sesame seeds, sweet chilli sauce to serve

How to prepare:

Sounds very tasty and zesty eh? Have fun making them, and be sure to let us know on Twitter or Facebook how you got on!

Related Tags:
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Eat Magazine

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There’s a new kid on the blog! EatMagazine, an Irish based food focused new zine has been launched, and 20,000 print copies are currently available around Dublin! The mag focuses on all things foodie, with restaurant reviews, guest columnists, recipes and lots lots more!

Eat concentrates on local restaurants, chefs, food producers and designers, a positive look at eating and dining out, and also celebrates the good things to be found in our wonderful Dublin city. Founded in response to both consumer and industry demand for a reliable local publication that focuses on the local culinary scene, readers can expect a features section that gives home to some of Irelands most passionate food and wine writers, and regular columns to keep you informed about new products, as well as info on food and drink events!

Produced by Phonic (so you know it’s good!) there’s also an online version if you want to have a look.
See here for stockists if you prefer the smell of ink and having a print version in your hand!

You can also follow Eat on Twitter here, for food related tweets!

Oh, and by the way, mylunch (and mygoodself specifically) will be featured in February’s issue two, along with loads and loads of other cool stuff, so it’s even more of a reason to pick up a copy!

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch Dublin, lunch menus, restaurant deals, restaurant offers, lunch options Dublin, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch offers Dublin, cheap lunch, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch Cork, lunch in Cork, lunch deals Cork, lunch offers Cork, coeliac lunch, coeliac lunch options, Eat Magazine

Clonakilty by Candlelight

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Here at mylunch, we love anything different, cool or unusual! I guess you could say we’re hipster lunch lovers!

Some of you may remember the mylunch supported Tefal Greaseless Spoon project, which brought free healthy lunch, to Dublin last November, or the again mylunch supported Streetfeast project which held a flash feast in front of City Hall last Summer.

Well, flash dining is back in Dublin with a bang this February! Clonakilty Blackpudding, Ireland’s famous leading pudding purveyor (which is presumeably being sent all over the world currently to homesick es-pats!) is about to launch Ireland’s first ever “flash restaurant”, “Clonakilty by Candlelight” in Dublin city centre from 3rd-12th Feb.

Around since 1800, the Clonakilty brand is one which is steeped in Irish heritage, (check the full story here) and now they are giving you a chance to get together with your pals for an evening of chats, delish food and something a little bit different, but intriguingly, like the Clonakilty recipe, the location is a secret!

“Clonakilty By Candlelight”, will open for six special nights only, and deliver a fabulous food feast with an intimate dinner party vibe. Guests will be served culinary delights made from the full Clonakilty Blackpudding Co.’s range of delicious products, with Bridgestone recommended Ted Berner of Wildside catering in the kitchen.

If you want to attend, you can check out all the info on the Facebook page here, and spaces are filling up very fast, so get in this evening or tomorrow if you’d like to go!
Dinner will be served on Feb 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th and 12th, and there will be a distinct theatrical theme, so a fun night is guaranteed! How often are you guaranteed a fun, free dinner out??

Related Tags: lunch, lunch deals, lunch vouchers, lunch offers, lunch deals Dublin, lunch deals Cork, lunch value Dublin, lunch value Cork, lunch offers, flash dining, flash restaurant, Clonakilty by Candlelight,

Itsa…kind of magic

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Itsa is the bagel store with more! Since 1999 when they established their first bagel bar in Dublin City centre they’ve  been serving freshly made bagels, coffees & goodies everyday to our customers for lunch!

But Itsa’s menu is not your ordinary! If you’ve ever been in, or indeed been to any of the numerous Itsa eateries around Dublin, you’ll have seen it’s perfectly tailored to give our customers healthier choices including low fat, vegetarian & coeliac friendly options.   

The stated mission to help customers enjoy their food but also enable them to make healthier choices is most welcome, and when choosing any of the signature bagels you can opt to ask for no butter, lighter sauce or substitute for low fat cream cheese. Itsa also have a huge coeliac offering, with a selectionn of bagels, treats and ingredients, all gluten friendly, and all prepared seperately.

One of the directors is well know cookbook author & chef, Domini Kemp, who is 100% behind the campaign to get people eating more healthily. In fact, she is currently appearing on 4Live (RTE 1 4pm) each Wednesday afternoon in the coming weeks to share her tips on how to include 3 portions out of your daily 5 veg & fruit requirements each week, so watch out for that!

If you’re looking to continue your January health boost, Itsa’s smoothies contain yoghurt, honey & plenty of fruit to go towards your 5 a day, while you can ncrease your intake of vegetables by trying one of their deliciously wholesome soups.  All are made in house by Itsa’s own chefswith top quality Marigold Vegan stock and no un-necessary additives, and you can add a low GI bagel for a really healthy tasty lunch.

Even their goodies are better for you and baked daily in Itsa’s own production kitchen!

You can enter our competition this week for a “Power Lunch” for two here, or simply drop into the Fitz Lane store to get your Power Lunch pack for only €8, or a delicious healthy bagel!
Thnk about it, greasy mayo full chicken roll for a fiver, or a tasty, healthy bagel and a hot drink for only €6?!

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Savvy Lunch Spending

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mylunch is becoming quite the celeb in recent days, and we’ve also got a lovely mention from Sale Savvy!
Sale Savvy is a deadly value blog for the savvy spender, and has news on deals from fashion to beauty to entertainment and everything in between, including lunch.

They seem to have taken a shine to our Salon Des Saveurs blog, and why not, it’s quite a deal!
To have a look at what they had to say about us, click here.

Oh, and Happy Friday!!

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch in Cork, lunch value, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch specials, lunch deals Dublin, lunch deals Cork, mylunch.ie Sale Savvy

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What fantastic timing!
The gang at Lolly + Cooks have gone and made Healthy Eating Month a lot, lot easier for you lunch lovers!
Famed for their delicious cupcakes and gourmet stews, as well as a merry band of cheery staff, the stall, located at the back of George’s Street Arcade, is now home to a lovely new gourmet salad bar since yesterday! 

With the whole site (and the whole office!) in healthy eating mode, this is a very welcome turn of events!
The new delicious range is made fresh each day, and can be purchased as salad boxes or as part of new meal deals.

For a medium poriton (16oz) you pay only €4.50, while if you really want to catch up on your greens, go for the large, which is €6 and will really satisfy any salad lover!

Oh, and by the way, don’t tell em that we told you, but we’ve heard on the grapevine that if you become a member of the Lolly + Cooks group on Facebook, and mention that you are a member when ordering, you can and get a medium salad box for only €3 until Special offer for until 22nd Jan!
And of course eating salad for your main course means that you can devour one of their cupcakes for dessert guilt free! (Not that the healthy eating regieme in the mylunch office allows for that

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch in Cork, lunch value, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch specials, lunch deals Dublin, lunch deals Cork, mylunch.ie

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Feck that dinner for two malarky!
We know what you want and we’ve listened to your feedback, which is why, from this week on, Ireland’s best (and only!) lunch offers website is givivng you the chance to win FREE LUNCH (it needs caps lock!) every freakin day!

You can enter every day, and as many times as you want (just not too many, our servers are overworked as it is!) and each evening, the mylunch random number machine will choose one of the days entrants at random to be our winner.

So set your alarm, stick a post-it on your computer screen, get your secretary to remind you daily, or even hire a secretary to remind you daily, but for God’s sake, remember to enter that comp!

This weeks competition is sponsored by Urban Picnic, and you have the chance to win a three course (soup, main and one of there patented desserts) for two people. So that’s two FREE LUNCHES you can win! (did I mention it deserves caps lock?)

Oh, and if you want to, you can go here to bookmark the competition page.

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch in Cork, lunch value, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch specials, lunch deals Dublin, lunch deals Cork, mylunch.ie

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The maestro of money in Ireland has given us his seal of approval!

Check out this link on Eddie Hobbs’ “You and Your Money” site, giving Ireland’s best lunch site the seal of approval!

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, lunch in Cork, lunch value, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch specials, lunch deals Dublin, lunch deals Cork, mylunch.ie

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On Monday, our first ever weekly deals email was sent to you lovely users! We reckon that you by using the site every say, you can save on average €5.13 on your daily lunch spend, and we’d like to prove that! So here’s your lunch week sorted!
If you’re not yet reg’d, then what you waitin for? Click here, and simply wait for four lunch bulletin to arrive in your inbox…
Here’s a shneaky peak at the newsletter as a taster!

Feck Blue Monday…

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The third Monday in January is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, but as a great man once said: Don’t worry, be happy!
There’s lots of good news emanating from the mylunch camp, and it’s a beautiful crisp January day, so what’s to be blue about?

Firstly, we’ve changed our competition format. Instead of having one winner per week, we’re now going to give away 5 FREE LUNCHES every week on the site! That’s a chance for you to win FREE LUNCH every day! (Oh, by the way did we mention FREE LUNCH?!)

Be sure to enter daily on the comp page, and check our Facebook every eve for details of the winner. As the saying goes, It could be you!

This week’s comp is kindly sponsored by Urban Picnic, who have given us an amazing daily prize of a three course lunch for two people!

Having been mentioned in the Irish Times before Christmas as one of the best desert  purveyors in the city, we thought we’d let you off the Healthy Eating leash a little bit, but remember, their lunch menu is also choc full of healthy eating choices too! If you haven’t sampled yet, do pop in to Vinny and the team and their lovely premises, just inside the George’s Street entrance of the George’s Street Arcade.

We also launched our weekly deals email this morning, which is kept short and sweet, and gives you a day by day rundown of all best deals!

We’ve got your full week sorted, so check your inbox now, and if you haven’t signed up, well, are you mad?! It may save you over €5.13 per day, and we’ve done the maths…

Oh and by the way, Watercooler Moments will return next week, our regular nosy newsperson had a busy morning, so forgive us if you got stuck for conversation this lunchtime!
Stand by for another week of fun, frolics and feckin’ great lunch deals!

Related Tags: lunch, lunch deals, Watercooler Moments, lunch offers, lunch value, Urban Picnic, FREE LUNCH, , lunch competition, lunch in Cork, lunch in Dublin, lunch deals Dublin, lunch in Cork.

There was a time when this was acceptable. When people were eating foie gras for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and nothing was thought of it when a diner dropped €1,000 on a bottle of wine.
There was a time when we expected to be paying what’s now seen as stratospheric prices for a good meal, and when city centre landlords knew their tenants were raking it in, and shur, weren’t all renters almost expecting their rent to go up in these times?

Those times are long gone.


With the closure of the much loved “Mermaid” restaurant on Dame Street, and the almost cult cafe “Gruel”, which adjoined it (it’s said their roast rolls were a thing of beauty!) came both a public outcry, but also a gushing of anger and almost resigned frustration that one has become accustomed to with modern Ireland.
You see, it has since came to light that these two premises, on the periphery of Dublin city centre’s shopping district, much loved small Irish businesses, had been situated in a building whose rent was valued at €190,000 per annum.

As the Irish Times states, “The award-winning Mermaid and its more casual sister restaurant Gruel ceased trading on December 23rd, having managed to secure only a “tiny” reduction in rent from its landlady. The company behind them is now in liquidation, with the loss of 30 jobs. Mr Harrell (a former owner) said “part of the fabric of Temple Bar” was now gone.”

This corner of Dublin, the axis of South George’s Street and Dame Street, which should be one of the chicest jewels in the urban crown of our fair city, is now home to, by my estimation, at least 10 unmanned stores.

With economic turmoil, adverse weather, water shortages, unseasonably poor trading conditions, margin cuts and threat from large multinational chains, this is by no means an isolated incident. In fact, respected RAI chief Adrian Cummins said last year that one restaurant per day is closing in this country.
Due to high input costs, high excise costs, high wages and of course high rent, are we looking at the generification of our restaurant  industry, which employs 64,000 people (1 in 4 in the tourism industry) and contributes €2 billion to the economy each year?

Granted, some might say that the industry is behind the times, and some within it running out dated Celtic Tiger business models, with old fashioned ideals, but there is no doubt that indies like Gruel and Mermaid deserve to be applauded for their attempts to be forward thinking, and be aided in this battle to keep jobs, tax revenue and above all creativity alive.

One thing’s for sure, if restaurants continue to be bombarded with tax and rent hikes, that one closure per day will soon be higher, until, akin to Grafton St. and it’s countless mobile phone shops and convenience stores, all that’s left is the faceless big guy.

The following poignant line from the Times piece about the closure is sure to stick in the craw of many within the industry, and indeed anyone who has ever enjoyed a meal in either of the two premises in question:

“The combined rent on the two restaurants at 68 and 69 Dame Street was €190,000. When Mr Harrell and Mr Gorman opened the Mermaid, at number 69, in 1996, the rent was £15,000.”

Note: Neither Gruel or Mermaid were or have ever been listed on, or involved with mylunch.ie.

Related Tags: lunch, lunch deals, lunch offers, lunch value, Urban Picnic, FREE LUNCH, lunch competition, lunch in Cork, lunch in Dublin, lunch deals Dublin, lunch in Cork.

Sharing is Caring….

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You good people of mylunch, being the upstanding citizens that you are, you’re probably asking, what can you do for us in return for the great offers on site?

Well it goes without saying that the more of you there are visiting the site daily, the bigger and better deals, comps and exclusive freebies we can get you. So today, we’re asking you to spread the mylunch gospel!
We’d be much obliged if you could help take us to the masses, and in the process win some brownie points with your friends, because after all, sharing is caring!

Since we’ve grown up in 2010, there are loads and loads of ways to be social with the site. You’ve got share buttons on every retailer page, invite a friend to lunch options, and even the opportunity to pass on vouchers to your Facebook friends if you want!
In fact, if we the new mylunch.ie were a type of Care Bear, we’d be Share Bear!
So if you’re a regular user of the site, like our deals and plan to use us to save a few bob this year, you’ve won a free lunch with us, or you simply fancy one of our crew members (David is a hottie alright, swit swoo!), then why not

• Send a brief mail to your friends and colleagues and tell them about us
• Use the share buttons on the top right of this page
• Forward our most recent newsletter
  
• Be really social and talk to your Facebook friends about us
• Or simply use good old Word of Mouth to talk to the person that sits beside you in work (God Forbid!) and tell them about this quaint lil lunch site!

Related Tags: lunch, lunch in Dublin, sharing is caring, lunch offers, lunch deals, lunch in Cork, special offers, food deals, restaurant deals, Share,

Originally Posted: http://www.mylunch.ie/layout/Content_Details.cfm/ck/58/ctk/35/k/1582

And so the time has come!

We’ve had begging, cajoling and even threatening. There’s been tears, drama, sob stories and tugging at heart strings, and we’ve been overloaded with emails asking for information.

But enough about the mylunch Xmas party, we’ve also had hundreds of entries in a bid to win a bundle of four tickets to 7UP Christmas on Ice this week!

There’s been Blades of Glory jokes, bad puns, descriptions of special ice skating moves and no shortage of memories of childhood skates, and Dad trying to fit into that spandex suit one last time (these ones have been passed on the our resident psychologist!)

For the past 2-3 weeks, you’ve been practising and practising, skating around on the natural ice, and now that the thaw has hit us, all of that practice is about to come to fruition on artificial ice!

The winners of bundles of four tickets for 7UP Christmas on Ice are…

RDS : Hilary Weldon, Karen Hill, Laura Elliot, Ciaran O Farrell, Sheenagh Rogers

Arnotts: Aaron Chalke, Andrew Comerford, Claire Young, Denise Moakler, Belinda Meaghan

The tickets can be used any time from now unitl 9th of January, and the winners will be contacted by email early on Monday.

Congrats to all who were lucky enough to come out of the hat!

For those who were unlucky enough not to be picked by the resident office database monkey, don’t worry, we’ve a brand new competition every week, and some of our lunch deals feel like you’ve won the lotto anyway, so console yourself with those!

Oh and if you had you’re heart set on doing an old 180 twist on the ice, well you can still book on the 7UP site, for both the RDS and Arnotts (and it is a magical experience!)

Happy weekend and check back on Monday for even more lunch deals!