Siobhan and I headed to the beautiful village of Howth on Saturday evening with the kids and ate at The House. I would have to describe the experience as mixed - while the menu was interesting, the service and ambience was good and the prices reasonable (in the context of general Dublin food prices); they badly let themselves down with one of the dishes.
I ordered Mussels with Smoked Pork which was a nice variation on Surf n'Turf and was served with really nice chunky fries. It was both tasty and filling. Daragh, our 4-year old terror had a salmon fishcake which was good and meaty - if just a tad too much pepper. Grace had some very tasty trout.
It was Siobhan's meal that brought the tone down considerably - she opted for a beef and guinness casserole in which the meat was just awful - full of grissle and largely inedible. The owner and/or chef needs to realise that although they can save money buying and serving poor cuts of meat that they will pay with their reputation and failure to attract repeat business. 3 meals out of 4 is just not good enough at these prices.
