riba

i'd seen riba many times driving through stillorgan, it's just up from the cinema. the front is sleek and welcoming and i kept meaning to try it out.

so i did. last friday night myself and a friend went for a late dinner. the staff were lovely, the table wasn't ready immediately so they seated us at the bar. i ordered a freshly pressed apple juice, unfortunately, from my prime seat at the bar i could see it was poured from a standard juice carton. not ideal. but the waiter did seem to have agoodknowledge of the wine list so that was great.

our table was in the front section, the place was hopping and the atmosphere was brilliant.

we ordered the nachos, chicken wings and chips to share. the portions weregoodand big. our little bucket of wings was delicious, thegoodold spicy-vinegary kind. the chips weren't as crispy as you might like but they were seasoned well. the main event, the nachos, were generous and pretty tasty but not quite as moreish as i expected. nonetheless, we polished the whole lot off without too much trouble. i must admit as well that i think there main courses were probably where they shine, i saw a few served to tables near us and they looked great.

for our dessert we both ordered the creme brulee. we had wanted to order the nutella brioche pudding but they were sold out. but thankfully the creme brulee was pretty much perfect, silky smooth and nicely vanilla-d.

all in all, despite a few minor negatives, we really enjoyed riba. it'sgoodfood at reasonable prices and the next time i'm ordering a main course.

i wanted to see what this place was all about as i'd heard nothing butgoodthings. apparently their chicken wings are amazing so i got a starter portion and they didn't disappoint. i was sharing these with friend and i have to say i really liked how they gave us two separate little warm water dishes with lemon to rinse our hands with afterwards. as well as this i noted the little side dishes they gave us were patterned and really different from your standard white crockery. nice touch

so onto the sandwiches. i love eating out with people who like me love to share food- allows you to have a bit of everything and to try more delicious foodie treats! so me and my friend decided to order two sandwiches and share both. we got a tuna sandwich which i wasn't expecting much from (it's a tuna sandwich after all) but it pleasantly surprised me. never had tuna with avocado before and i have to say i liked it a lot. the avocado was perfectly ripe and ready to eat and the sandwich was just so tasty. i'm not ashamed to say i practically inhaled my half! we got that with sweet potato fries which were more like wedges. these came with a garlic dip and we're just fab! my friend said they were possibly the nicest sweet potato wedges/fries she ever had.

i'm on a mission to find the nicest steak sandwich in dublin so we ordered a steak sandwich and asked for it to be cooked medium. unfortunately it came out well done and i had to send it back. our server couldn't have been more apologetic or attentive and made us a new steak sandwich medium as requested. it was very tasty but definitely not the best i've had. the produce was all fresh but the cut of steak was a little bit chewy & fatty. we got this with skinny fries that were piping hot andgoodbut i'd definitely choose the sweet potato fries over them!

i have to talk about the excellent customer service at riba. not only did they replace the steak sandwich without issue but when we asked for the bill they almost insisted on a dessert with tea/coffee on the house to make up for the sandwich not being cooked as ordered and the subsequent wait.

we got a nutella bread and butter pudding which was delicious. far too much for one person but perfect sharing size. i'm a big fan of bread and butter pudding although there's a lot of bad ones out there! riba's take on it was really unique and tasty and i'd definitely recommend it.

all in all a very enjoyable dining experience. the chicken wings, tuna sandwich, sweet potato fries, coffee and nutella bread and butter pudding were all winners!

i'll be back

great little spot in stillorgan! went there with a large group of 8 of us on saturday for a three course meal and was very impressed! i ordered the salt and pepper calamari for starter and it was superb- the batter was light but very fragrant with spices in it, probably the nicest calamari iv had and not at all greasy! i ordered the duck for mains which came with red cabbage and fondant potatoe, this was very tasty although i would have had the fish special but it was all gone by our 8 o'clock seating. finally i ordered the nutella brioche bread and putting pudding which was to die for! a lot of our table were very displeased that there were no chocolate brownies left by the time we ordered desert, but my first choice was there so i was happy out! the food quality is great and the service wasgoodtoo! tried the chicken wings which were lovely also!

nice cafe with agoodselection of food. they have a great early bird menu at a decent price of under €20 for two courses and €55 for two people with a bottle of wine. the brunch menu is lovely and the coffee is really great. the place lacks a bit of atmosphere and sitting outside looking over to stillorgan shopping center isn't the most ideal view as it is such a busy area but stillorgan could use more cafe's like riba. staff are lovely and very attentive.