Fill Your Boat Race

at

MacKenzie’s Ground Floor Unit, Opus Building, 6 Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2

Hungry?

Enjoy the first restaurant review by The Fussy Eater – a new blog series from Ronan Leonard (aka the Tec Dr) – tucking into the the newly-opened Mackenzie’s in Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2.

‘The restaurant scene in Dublin is being dominated by the Press Up Entertainment Group and the chances are that you will end up in one of their restaurants.

Having eaten in 7 of their restaurants, I was looking forward to visiting their latest restaurant, Mackenzie’s based near me in Hanover Quay.

As this is my first restaurant review, I was looking forward to seeing how MacKenzie’s compared to the other Press Up Entertainment Group restaurants that I have visited recently.

The restaurant that MacKenzie’s most compares with is Angelina’s, which has a similar décor and a woodfired oven, which is used to cook their fish, pizzas, steaks and some chicken dishes.

Recognising that the Grand Canal Docks area is popular with rowers, a wooden single sculling rowboat can be seen on the ceiling.

The first thing that hit me as I walked into the restaurant is how big it is, and I then noticed that I had come at an usually busy lunchtime.

My lunch companion who had arrived before me had been given the last 2 seat table, which had nice panoramic views of the Grand Canal riverside, and the unfortunate glare of the sun aimed at my face. This was the only low point of our visit. Our waitress apologised and mentioned that blinds would be installed in the restaurant soon.

The menu at Mackenzie’s is wide, varied focusing on modern American cuisine, and as there is an all-day menu means you won’t get any lunch specials.

The pizza’s and burgers looked tempting but in the end, we both chose the Barbecue St Louis Pork Ribs, with Spicy Apple Slaw, which was bizarrely listed under Entrees in the menu and cost €21.95.

If you are on a budget, salads start at €8.50, sandwiches start at €12.95 pizzas start at €13.95 and burgers start at €15.50.

As you can see being a fussy eater, my ribs did not come with the spicy apple slaw and both our meals came with fries. The one thing you can expect to get with pork ribs is a sticky experience as you try to stop some of the barbecue sauce dripping onto your clothes.

Thankfully the ribs had just the right amount of sweet barbecue sauce and the fries that came with them were nice, crunchy and not too thick.

Drinks are reasonably priced and my lunch colleague was surprised to get a glass of house white wine for €6 especially as most restaurants charge at least €7, soft drinks come in at €3, and beers start of at €4.80 for a non-alcohol- free beer right up to €8.00 for a Paulaner. My friend and I did not have any desserts which start at €7.95.

So, what’s my final verdict? I would definitely come here again and being a big pizza lover especially of Neapolitan ones, I would have to order one. The service was excellent and we were both well looked after, which is not always the case when a restaurant is very busy.

Mackenzie’s is a welcome addition to the Grand Canal Docks area, and with tech companies, law firms and the Bord Gais theatre nearby, getting customers won’t be a problem.’

Mackenzie’s (The Fussy Eater)

Mackenzie’s

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20 thoughts on “Fill Your Boat Race

    1. The Old Boy

      They exemplify the worst of the atrocious value that prevails in Dublin’s mid-market restaurants.

  1. Kieran

    The link to the fussy eater gives a scary “Your connection is not private” error. :(

    Loving the new content BS

      1. Kieran

        Same, on chrome for both mac and android. It doesn’t look like a BS thing, it looks like a problem with thefussyeater’s hosting service, using proxy avoidance and anonymizers.

        NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

    1. Ronan Leonard

      Hi The Old Boy, I am the creator of the Fussy Eater Blog and I have not seen any “Your connection is not private” errors. I have tested it on Mac Safari, Mac Chrome and iPhone Safari too.

  2. Sean

    I love a good non-alcohol-free beer myself…. just sometimes have problems driving after I’ve had a few.

  3. Tea And Brexits

    But what of the clientele? For example

    1) More Googler vvankers putting you off your grub?

    2) And is there background music drowning out the conversation?

    Not a great way to review a dining experience if those two areas are not covered, at least.

    1. Ronan Leonard

      I did not see any Google vvankers but there was a nearby law firm in, hence why it was so busy.

      There was no loud background music because if there was I would have mentioned it as it’s one of my pet hates.

  4. Custo

    The canoe on the ceiling looks absolutely fupping daft. Hopefully this is a shark jumping moment for this type of corporate-hipster Instagram nonsense.

  5. Fluffybiscuits

    Angling for a job with thejournal.ie

    Christ I found this prose stilted.

    “This is the resttaurant. The food was ok. I like forks”

  6. Jusiph

    Jeepers this is a very bland and repetitive piece of writing (first 4 paras could be condensed into a single sentence) that really doesn’t match the quality of some of the other regular contributors (see: Dan Boyle, Bryan Wall, Johnny Green amongst others).. Restaurant reviews should be compelling, like music reviews / gig reviews, etc. Try reading Jay Rayner in the Guardian and see how he entertains as well as informs (his knowledge of cuisines and food prep is often referred to). At very least, the writer’s companion should be ordering something different and both should be having as wide of a selection of the menu as is feasible, including desserts. This really reads more like “I met a buddy for a quick bite and so I might as well document it”. Being a “fussy eater” is not really a great angle for a food reviewer.
    Anything on the menu for veggies / vegans? Was there complimentary bread or anything else of note? Wine selection?
    p.s. the writer’s confusion of the ribs being under the entrees… could it be due to the fact that “entrees” in American cuisine are main courses not starters, and this restaurant is apparently serving up “modern american cuisine”?

    1. bisted

      …”fussy eater” is a term most frequently applied to truculent teenagers who refuse to eat anything other than US junk food…this ‘review’ ticks all those boxes…30€ for one course and not even tykes jumping from the roof to distract from this dreadful rip off…

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