Having lunch at Johnnie Fox's

I'm sure almost all of you have heard about Johnnie Fox's: being expats, like us, you must take quite a few planes during the year.... well if you've ever taken an Aer Lingus flight and gone through their CARA magazine, then at least you've seen Johnnie Fox's ad there.

That's how we got to know this place: through the Aer Lingus CARA magazine. But we had always thought: it looks nice, and the food certainly looks good, but... it must be one of those places which are sooo focused on attracting tourists that they really look "fake". So we had never tried it before.

One Saturday morning, a couple of weekends ago I saw another Johnnie Fox's ad in a travel magazine and, well, we didn''t have any plans for lunch so after sharing the idea with my family, we decided to give it a try.

And I'm happy we did!

The location is fantastic: it's in Glencullen on the way to the Wicklow Mountains, but very close to Dublin. The place is very special, already from the outside

there's an old telephone booth

a big pot used to feed people back in the famine times...

Inside... well, I have to say that the inside decoration is shocking. Some may think it's too much, others may love it, but one thing is for sure: it's a place that you don't easily forget! From old riffles to road signs, famous people bed frames and old sewing machine structures reused as tables... a little bit of everything.

The food was really good. I'm not a big fan of kids menus, because normally they are really small and the price is ridiculously high (because they include dessert and fruit juice that my kids never have). But I have to admit that this time I was surprised: one of my kids asked for pasta with smoked salmon and the other one wanted chicken goujons with vegetables and fries... they ate everything!! The food was fresh and the dishes were well proportioned. 

For the adults: fantastic fish dishes and also other very good looking options.

There is something I always like to check when I go to a restaurant: the toilets. In Johnnie Fox's the toilets were very clean and the ladies'  had a baby changing table.

As a summary: we loved it there during lunch time. I know there is a typical Irish show in the evening and don't know if it's good, but if you want to have a very nice lunch in a very nice place listening to very nice music for not too much money, Johnnie Fox's could be the place.

And  you could go for a walk to Powerscourt Gardens afterwards, as it's only 5 mins drive from the pub!