Boeuf and Frites Blanchardstown — Restaurant in Fingal

I visited this restaurant before and gave it a positive review. However that wasn’t our experience tonight. This is a steak restaurant with a very simple menu (two meat choices) so you’d expect that they’d be able to cook the steak correctly. Not so! It’s my son’s birthday today so we treated him to dinner here. He ordered a fillet steak cooked medium. It arrived out rare and he sent it back. The second fillet steak arrived out also rare. So he changed his order to the striploin steak in the hope that they might cook that correctly! Nope! So he ate the outside of the steak but left over half of it. When the bill came I was shocked to see that they had charged us for his meal so I popped up to the counter and asked to speak to the manager. I explained what had happened and said I was not willing to pay for his steak. This is a set menu with a starter of garlic bread and “complimentary” dessert. However they still charged me €12 for his meal. When I told the “manager” that I was shocked they were still charging me, I was told that she wasn’t the owner. It’s the first time I’ve ever come across a restaurant manager who in their capacity as an agent acting on behalf of the owner of the restaurant didn’t feel compelled to deal with the customer issue and do their best to resolve the issue, without ripping off the customer. The “manager”also didn’t bother to check in on how our meal was for the entire of the meal despite us clearly sitting there with one member of our party without a meal in front of them for most of the duration of our visit (the restaurant was not that busy). It completely ruined what should have been a great birthday night out, without as much as an apology. This local restaurant needs to do better, both in terms of management and definitely in hiring some chefs who know how to cook steak given it’s their signature dish. Very, very...

Firstly waitress was rude about the dress code, I was in slacks + gilet and my wife in jumper + leggings. Every other guest was dressed similarly and we didn't see other guests getting the same talking to.

Garlic bread down before we even ordered, nice. But then the waitress unset the table next to us and started spraying the table cleaner which then got into the bread and our water. Having worked hospitality for many years I know this is a big no no. Also I know there was no reason for the impromptu cleaning as that table was already set when we arrived. There were a total of 6-8 tables filled at the time. Not busy at all. It felt personal.

Food ordered, one fillet and striploin, and came quick but did not look 7 or 10 oz as advertised. More like 3 and 5 oz. Photos make them look bigger but even compared to other reviews it looks small. Also M.Rare came Rare and Rare came essentially blue. Bernaise sauce tasted kinda fishy, maybe it's meant to but in a FX Buckley establishment it doesn't, peppercorn sauce was extremely sweet but still nice.

At no point did any staff offer us refills of the bread or fries. I expected them to when they removed the empty bread basket as I heard them offering this to other guests but that never happened for us. They never even asked us how the food was. You could argue that I could have asked but I don't think it's unreasonable to feel left out when all other tables around you are seeming to get better service.

Maybe we caught our waitress on a bad day. Maybe we're being a little extra critical as a result but she soured our entire experience. Floor staff could do with training for sure. They're closer to hotel wedding staff rather than upmarket...

We had our dinner here last night. The place was busy - in a great way. Nice atmosphere and nice to see a busy restaurant.

The good. Genuinely the best steak I have had in years. Chips tasty, garlic bread tasty, salad and sauces all tasty.

Quick service - little to know decision making. Before I even ordered I had a fresh hot garlic bread places in front of me. Just what you want when you are hungry. Food came out hot and quick. Servers friendly and nice.

Price. 30 euro for a delicious steak would be a good price , never mind bottomless garlic bread and chips, side salad and a decent sweet treat to finish. Unbelievable. AND the quality was still good.

The Niggles - because for the price and the quality it's actually hard to complain.

Seasoning. Everything is seasoned really well. Bit it's all EVERYTHING just slightly too salty. It didn't ruin it but it was too much. Probably by design to encourage drinks sales but again hard to complain.

Furniture. Crap chairs that are uncomfortable and tables are too small to be comfortable. Again all probably by design to encourage a quick service and get you out and the next customer in. But again hard to complain for the price and it helps keep that price I would assume.

Cleaning. Chips on the floor of our table so could have had a quick sweep before seating us. But on general nice and clean.

Crockery. The plates slide all over the table while eating a steak so very frustrating.

Overall. Unbeatable. Like genuinely value is outstanding here and great quality. Just keep in mind the price you are paying and at the end of the meal you will be very happy.

Thanks for having us lads. Great concept...