Mary Anne’s Tea Rooms
Denny Street
SOMETIMES, as natives, we really underappreciate the beauty of Denny Street.
Walking up the grand old street on Friday, I tried to imagine myself as a tourist seeing it for the first time and admiring the Georgian buildings with the imposing Ashe Memorial Hall looking over it.
I decided to pop into one of said buildings which has retained some of the old world charm. Mary Anne’s Tea Rooms is a pretty place to have a bite of lunch and – having eaten there on a few occasions – I remembered it offered great value for tasty food.
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Normally when I pass by the place is busy, but it was unusually quiet on Friday when I visited so I took my seat and waited for the menu.
As I said, Mary Anne’s has a vintage look with its quaint teapots and crockery and decor from about 60 years ago.
The menu is extensive with salads, paninis, sandwiches (gourmet and toasted), soup, chowder, an extensive breakfast menu and even afternoon tea. They’re famous for the beautiful cakes which are on display near the till and they looked amazing.
There were mains specials of roast chicken €9.95, beef burger and fries (€8.95) but I fancied something lighter so I went for one of the many salads on the menu.
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It was the morning after the Nice atrocity and the country was on my mind. I’ve been to that great French city twice and enjoyed more than one of the area’s signature salads in pretty restaurants near the Cours Saleya in the Old Town, so when I saw Salad Nicoise on the menu I decided to order it.
The salad arrived and it was a large portion of lettuce, tomatoes, tuna, olives, red onion, feta cheese and vinaigrette. Seasoned salad Nicoise fans may have noticed a couple of additions and omissions from the traditional recipe here – the sliced hard boiled egg and anchovies (although the anchovy ingredient has been left out of many I’ve had in the past).
The salad was really good, the vinaigrette was especially tangy and went well with the tuna and feta cheese which was a welcome addition, complemented with a delicious slice of brown bread. At €7.95 it offered good value too.
I ordered an Americano to finish and went off happy, despite not indulging in one of the mouthwatering cakes.
4/5