Restaurant Review - Gruel

I've never done one of these before and since we like to eat out, I figured I would start talking about the places we go. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures this time, but I won't make that same mistake again!

Wes needed to pick up his registration pack for the marathon, so we decided to walk to the RDS since it was such a nice day and we would get brunch on the way. I suggested we stop at Gruel because it was recommended to me when I was complaining about the quality of brunch in Ireland and I've heard from others it's pretty good.

The inside of the restaurant looks kind of like a 1950s dive diner in the US. It's very cute and kind of made me feel like I was eating in my great grandmother's kitchen with hip music playing and funky posters hanging around. There was only one other person eating in there at the time and he was reading a book called, 'Physics for Future Presidents'. Riiiiight....moving along.....They had a brunch menu which was nice and varied. I almost got a Mediterranean BLT which was an open faced BLT on foccacia bread with parmesean cheese. Instead, Wes got his old standby of eggs benedict, I had eggs florentine, and we each got a cup of coffee. Obviously, the coffee came out first. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. It was the smallest cup of coffee ever. It tasted good, but 1950s dive diners would have had bottomless cups of coffee with refill after refill. So at 2.40 for the cup, we weren't too happy about that. Then our food came out. I'm am seriously kicking myself for not taking a picture. It was the biggest plate of food I have seen in a long time. Both dishes were two HUGE poached eggs each placed on a very thick piece of bread. Wes' had huge slabs of ham under the eggs (of which I was totally jealous) and mine had spinach, all slathered in hollandaise sauce. But, the kicker was they had a side of roasted potatoes. POTATOES!!! For a country that loves potatoes in all forms, they don't really seem to eat them for breakfast. This is a crying shame. There was also a bit of salad on the side, but whatever. At 8.95 for each of our breakfasts this was a great deal. It was so much food that I could only eat one of my eggs. Normally, Wes would have eaten the rest of my food, but he was stuffed from his own plate. Thankfully we had a long walk ahead of us so we could work some of this off!

All in all it was a GREAT place to go for brunch. My only recommendation would be that they would offer free refills on coffee. In addition to brunch, they also offer a supper menu in the evenings and I think we may have to try it out one night. The food was delicious!

Gruel
68 Dame Street
Dublin 2