Tag Archives: Steak

An opening of a fancy restaurant… and a quick tale of identity theft

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Thursday, 25-Sept-2025


Dublin had a new restaurant! A new branch of the famous steak and fries spot called Entrecote, and one that Andrea and I were excited to check out. She’d heard about it’s grand opening, and we got in line early to make sure we were some of the first to test it out – since it was one of those cool restaurants that doesn’t take reservations.

We waited for an age or two, then got seated. Lovely interior, friendly staff (if a bit harried), and excited looking patrons.

Then the food… Very pretty! And the fries were absolutely excellent! The steak… well, I like cooking steak, and I tend to find steakhouses don’t quite match up to my ability to cook it exactly as I like. Entrecote Dublin was no exception, unfortunately. The sauce was interesting too – brown, similar to my own flambe sauce, instead of the traditional entrecote green… but still, not a bad fare. Especially for the reasonable price.

We ate, we had wine, and we headed home full. Simple and normal, nothing else to be said, right?

Wrong.

A few days later, we learned an interesting fact – Entrecote Dublin, marketed as a new branch of the famous Entrecote brand, wasn’t associated with said brand. They hadn’t even heard of this new restaurant, in fact, and were actively pursuing information. All the news agencies that had advocated for this new restaurant were, unsurprisingly, silent.

One group dug a bit deeper, finding out that the Dublin restaurant was effectively just a rip-off. They published a story… but not before the new restaurant had “closed for remodeling”.

Exploring Dublin – the start of a new life

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Saturday, 03-Aug-2024, through… Well, at least a year.


I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock here, dear readers.

I arrived in Dublin on 03-Aug. I stepped off the plane, got a cab, stepped into an AirBnB, and… felt… something. A sense of calm? Of pending tumult? Excitement and optimism and… it was like standing at the crest of a huge mountain pass – pride at making it through the pass and to the crest, awe at the vast world ahead, and a bit of apprehension at the path still yet to walk.

The first few days in Dublin were amazing, overwhelming, and exciting. I had the entire country ahead of me, and really only one goal in mind – finding an apartment. Before I started into that, though, I took some time to relax a bit. I wandered, revisited some of the spots that I’d last seen when I toured Dublin in March of 2023, and found a few interesting spots for a few interesting meals.

I edited photos, blogged a bit, read a bit, and even reached out to people a bit. I found shops, and started making up a list of the various places I’d want to visit in town – gyms, etc…

In short – I planted myself, and started to prepare to grow some roots.