Blog Atha Cliath

I’ve been living in Phibsborough now for a year-and-a-half so I thought it was about time I checked out the Woodstock Café for my breakfast.

The Woodstock is right there in the heart of Phibsborough, beside Abrakebabra and opposite the shopping centre. I have walked past it hundreds of times at this stage and not gone in. In fact many times I walked past it to go to McDonalds to get a couple of breakfast muffins. What a fool I was.

On those trips to McDonalds it has been a common enough sight to see a police van or a couple of cars outside this place. Often there would be so many police vehicles parked outside it that you would get the impression that a mass murder had just occurred. In fact, all that would have happened would be that the police night shift would have finished for the night and had descended on the Woodstock for their breakfast.

Apart from the police vehicles the next most common sight outside the Woodstock is the taxis. This is a popular spot for taxi drivers finishing work for the night too. In fact this is probably why I avoided the place for so long; since I used to work as a base controller in a taxi company until the start of this year and I couldn’t be sure who I’d bump into here. There was always the chance that I would meet the guy who felt I should have given him the job to the airport.

This morning I finally decided to give it a go. It was 11am when I went in so the early morning crowd of police and taxi drivers had dispersed peacefully. The place was still packed though. I had a quick look around and I spotted a couple of vacant tables in good locations so I went ahead to the counter to make my order.

The furnishings are nice and simple; varnished wooden tables and chairs. You bring your tray up to the counter where you can design your own breakfast. The price-list is based on the number of portions you order, but what you order is up to you. I selected two portions of rashers and a portion each of sausages, pudding and scrambled egg. This came to 2 rashers, 2 sausages, 2 pudding and a good serving of scrambled egg. Along with the coffee and toast it came to €6.75. Beans, hash browns, mushrooms, etc were also available.

There were only two tables left when I got my food. I selected the one just inside the door facing the window, which was almost the best table in the house. There were a couple of others directly beside the window which I would have preferred but they were taken.

The food itself went down beautifully. The rasher and sausages were both nicely done. The sausages were of a good quality and the rasher was almost crispy. With the scrambled egg it was a bit of a race to eat it before it got cold but that’s usually the way.

I don’t usually notice the toast when I’m having my breakfast because there isn’t often much to say about it. However the toast in the Woodstock was beautiful! Lovely thick slices of bread, lightly toasted and nice and warm.

It was good, simple food which did the job wonderfully. It would say it was almost my ideal of what a breakfast should be like. Apart from a couple of how-are-ye-luvs with a crying baby at the table beside me the atmosphere was fine and even they didn’t intrude too much.

The place was still packed as I was leaving. I got the impression that this is usually the way.

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