Meathead Eats is for the foodie community, such that I hope to share what y'all
are eating as much as what I'm eating. So, when I received a review from my
buddy Geraint, I was pleased as punch.
For many of us, Geraint’s name is hard to pronounce with the Welsh
twang it demands, and so he is better known in some circles as ‘G’. It was hardly surprising, then, that he moved
to Ireland to start a lovely family of his own, all with equally unpronounceable
names. Seriously, I couldn't type his daughters name on this keyboard if I tried.
It is simply not equipped to do so.
He lives near a small village which I visited once for his
wedding. If memory serves me, it had 2 streets, 3 churches and 5 pubs. More
relevantly, it turns out he is a great writer. So, when he offered his perspective from the rural
Irish countryside he calls home, I couldn't have been more thrilled. On that
note, over to you, G…
Átha Cliath Borgaire
Mairteola
When my good friend Meathead decided that he was launching a
food blog, I was excited. The man knows
his meat, and he knows how to write about it so it was always going to be a
winning formula. But unfortunately, Meathead
is but one man. He can’t possibly eat and review every burger out there, so I
made a vow to myself that every burger, barbeque, steakhouse and meat inspired
restaurant I visit from now on, I’ll write a little review for the site.
My decision to contribute was helped by the fact I live in
Ireland, and Meathead doesn't, so there’s little chance of our reviews
overlapping. Specifically I live in a
very rural, sparsely populated, highly stereotypical part of Ireland. The part of Ireland where dining out looks a
bit like this:
But last weekend, with Mrs. G wanting to spend lots of money
in shops and the kids wanting to see Santa, we decided to head for the big
smoke, the capital, Dublin Town, Átha Cliath. We thought that this might be an opportunity
to eat in a decent restaurant for a change.
The kids, however, had slightly different ideas and after three hours of
traipsing around the Liffey Valley shopping centre drew the line, pointed at
Burger King and politely informed me that they weren't moving any further
without a helping of chicken nuggets and chips.
Three hours of shopping left me in no mood to have a “discussion” with
a five year old and two year old, so we succumbed to the garish blue, white,
red and yellow of Burger King – Liffey
Valley.
My vow to the site
still stands though, so here we go with my first review.
The ambiance of the
restaurant doesn't really relax you before your meal. It’s bright, it’s loud, but on the plus side
it’s got those seats that you can strap a two year old into to stop them
running around the place like crazed little hyperactive balloon chasing zombies
protect them, so that’s a good thing.
However, they don’t serve beer which is a huge downside.
The choice was
quite wide; I decided to go for the XL
Bacon Double Cheeseburger meal, which coincidentally is the exact same meal
that I’ve had every time I’ve been to Burger King for the past 15 years or
so. Burger King’s literature tells me
that this is what I’d be getting:
This is what mine
looked like:
In fairness, it’s not a bad approximation of their
picture. I've seen far worse fast food
burgers than that.
I've probably eaten hundreds of these things over the years,
and never really paused to consider what they actually taste like. Surprisingly, I thought the burger itself
needed more salt. It was a bit bland and
underwhelming. Almost like it was there
to take the part of the burger, but its heart wasn't really in it (maybe it
was, you never know with mass produced fast food). The cheese was gooey and tasteless, and the
bacon was dry but probably the most flavourful part of the meal. The bun held together well. I added ketchup to it would be dry as f’ck
without it, and I ate it all, with fries and a large drink.
Scoring the burger is difficult. It gave me exactly what I expected from
it. It’s not there to be a gourmet
burger, it’s there to give you the same meal you've had hundreds of times
before in exactly the same way. That
said, if I mark it with anything other than a terrible score, it means there’s
not much chance of Ireland impressing the readers of Meathead Eats, so it’s
getting 2/10, and it’s only getting that because I ate it all and I’ll probably
eat one again at some point in the future.
Back home to the west now where I hope we’ll see an
improvement on our Dublin adventure. The
only way is up from here Ireland.
-G-
No comments:
Post a Comment