I was staying in a fairly central part of Dublin centre, but I decided to roam around a bit to explore my surroundings. I ended up walking into a fairly residential and cute part of town, Ranelagh Village. It had a little strip of shops and restaurants and in general, life! I had read about Diep Le Shaker and saw that it had sister restaurants Diep Noodle Bar and Diep At Home so I decided to stop into the noodle version after all that walking. It’s a thai place. They bill themselves as Thai and Vietnamese, but I’m sorry, there’s nothing Vietnamese about this place. It’s straight up thai.
I started with some spring rolls. These were nice and hot, but they were pretty boring. The dipping sauce was straight out of a bottle, and you didn’t quite get enough of it. And for how little the rolls were, even though you got so many, these are expensive. But that’s Dublin for ya, and that’s the Euro.
For my entree I got the bangkok noodles, which was basically thai basil chicken with rice noodles. There was nothing extraordinary about this dish, but it was perfectly fine. It was certainly on par with other ok thai food I’ve had in the past. I haven’t actually eaten that much thai food in my life, so I can’t call myself any kind of connoisseur, but this was just ok. All the ingredients were fresh though, which is really fine by me. Again, this was expensive, if you think about it in dollars. You certainly couldn’t charge $22 for something like this back home.
The service was good and the place itself is very nice. Attractively decorated, just the right amount of mood, and they play amazing music. Again, no problem with the credit card here as well.

When I travel, whether it’s for business or pleasure, you know my ass is going to plan eating at certain places. I always do some amount of food research! When in North Carolina you have to eat bbq. So I decided to go to Little Richard’s. Lo and behold, they’re closed on Sundays. Not just closed early, but closed all day long. I guess this is what I get when I cross the mason dixon on a Sunday. Suffice it to say, my growling belly was severely disappointed. So then in a starvation panic, I decided to just go to mcdonald’s. As I turned into the driveway, I saw a little strip mall behind it and spotted a thai restaurant. So I just went there and ordered some food.

For me, I stayed away from traditional brunch fare and went with their steak & egg fried rice. This was a giant heaping of fried rice, which had beef and egg in it, along with some thai basil. And then there was an additional helping of steak. The menu said there was bean sprouts in it, but it did not have it. And I love me some bean sprouts. But that’s ok, because this thing was beyond tasty. We both loved it.