Stitch and Bear

A long-running Irish blog with reviews of the best restaurants in Dublin and throughout Ireland. Some wine and cocktails thrown in for good measure!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Noshington, South Circular Road, Dublin 8

I love waking up on Saturday morning in Dublin. Firstly, it means that I'm at home and secondly, that I'm not working. I enjoy shuffling bleary-eyed into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee in our Nespresso machine. I love getting to sit on my sofa with said cup of coffee, with gorgeous views from our apartment's bay windows out over the Victorian park across the way.

And then there's the pleasure of planning the day's activities. On one recent Saturday, we had tickets for the evening session of Taste of Dublin. The only problem was that the tickets were across Dublin, in Himself's brother's apartment. And the brother had to leave at midday to attend a wedding. This was the kind of pressure that I don't need on Saturdays.

Anyway, with the tickets secured, we turned our attention to breakfast. As we were on the South Circular Road, we decided to try the weirdly English-sounding Noshington. It's situated on the junction of Washington Street and South Circular Road and doesn't seem very big from the outside. Indoors, it's bright and open, with a fantastic salvaged counter. Our initial good vibes faded though as we continued to wait to be seated. We eventually took a table next to the door and forcibly got the attention of a waitress for menus.

We received two breakfast menus, a regular weekday menu and a weekend brunch menu. The selection on the brunch menu read well with prices ranging from €8.50 to €11.50. There's a full Irish on offer, but disappointingly tea/coffee didn't seem to be included in the price. We ordered from the one waitress who seemed able to see us, but that wasn't the end of the erratic service.  The wrong dish arrived twice for Himself, delivered by one of the blinkered servers. First time, the server blamed Himself, insisting it was his order, while the second time she blamed her colleague. 
Homemade beans on toast with chorizo and smoked cheese
Sausage & black pudding roll
Service issues aside, the food itself was pretty good. My homemade beans on toast was suitably comforting, enhanced by pieces of chorizo and a snowdrift of grated cheese (€8.50). His sausage and black pudding roll with mustard mayo was tasty although the meat had an over-processed texture (€4.50).  Both plates were served with a side salad with a pesto dressing. Coffees were good, properly sized (i.e. not soup bowls) and accompanied by a milk jug with enough milk for two people.

In a breach of restaurant etiquette, I was tweeting while waiting about the poor service. I received back several responses, all labeling Noshington as a resort of the pram pushing yummy mummy. But this does indeed seem to be the case. Noshington does seems to be popular with a wide range of customers, from OAPs to yummy mummies. A chalkboard offers daily specials and that fabulous old-shop counter is stuffed full of baked goodies. It's a pity about the scatty service. No customer needs to deal with servers who are overdue a trip to Specsavers. 

Noshington, 186 South Circular Road, Dublin 8
Tel: +353 (0)1 410 0414
URL: noshington.wordpress.com
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3 comments

Unknown said...

Noshington - love the name!

Catherine said...

'Forcibly' is a strong choice of word! I do hope for the waitress's sake that no actual force was involved.

Out of curiosity, did you mention the service issues to the staff at the time, before taking to Twitter? It doesn't seem fair to me to take to a public forum to air a grievance without first raising it with the other party.

(Not involved with Noshington in any way, btw!)

dudara said...

Hi Catherine - let's put it this way. Getting the server's attention involved doing my best impression of those people who signal and direct aircraft on the runway.

My reviews are not about airing grievances, they are observations upon the treatment we receive in restaurants. Good service will get as much mention as bad (which thankfully hasn't happened to me too often lately).

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