L
Lala70w
New member
We ate at Iru last Thursday - well we had to didn't we? We were staying in their apartments which were not only excellent but their situation right above the restaurant gave us a birds eye view of the smells and beautiful presentation of the food below. 
We had hoped that the quality of the apartments would be indicative of the quality of the food ... sadly was not to be.
I am fully aware that after having slated Stay I am at risk of sounding like a grump here but it is most unfortunate that our 2 most expensive meals this holiday turned out to be the 2 most disappointing. We had great meals at Manduca, Neptune, Mistral, Little Italy and Bisas Bar - and of course O'Lume and all were much more reasonably priced - it seems that these 2 restaurants pay more attention to their pretentions than their food...:rolleyes If you are a great Iru fan - turn away now. :lol
Service and setting fine (except one snappy comment from a young waiter when I asked for butter for my roll - "yes it's coming" he snipped - but alas I'm still waiting :lol )
Anyway - the food. Presentation very good. Hubby soup - "lovely" - so far so good. I skipped starter and made do with hard cold roll and fishy tasting tumbet like appetiser. (what is is with yesterday's rolls? Why can't they give you some fresh bread or a little warm part-bake like at Hibiscus?) Mains - here is where it gets VERY disappointing.
Hubby doesn't really 'do' red meat and so had the "organic chicken filled with mustard and sun dried tomatoes" - the whole thing was like to have been sun-dried. It was dried out, without any kind of sauce and needed salt! His vegetables (a spoonful of grated carrot and courgette) were so al dente as to be raw and practically inedible.
I went for the sucking pig. Now those experts of this dish (of which I am not) can tell me if this is typical and if so I will avoid in future but I was presented with 2 square lumps of crackling with the tiniest amount of meat underneath. It reminded me - seriously - of the flank of mutton my mother used to make her soup with - except it had no flavour - again I hit the salt. Should suckling pig be grey in colour? One of the squares had crispy crackling but the other was soggy. I could have sworn I was eating an animal other then pig as it had no detectable pork like flavour whatsoever :rolleyes The small portion of vegetables hiding underneath were also tasteless - I just couldn't understand it.
Wine - ah - what a menu! With some bottles at 565 euros. We were not feeling that flush and so after much searching for a bottle under 20 euros we asked for a house red (had the distinct feeling that I had somehow let the waiter down :lol ) It cost 18 euros and was average drinkable rioja.
No pudding or free liqueres etc (O'Lume and Stay had spoiled us in this regard) - bill 90 euros.
Mistake with the bill - they returned to us someone else's change. We didn't notcie this as we had already included the tip but spotted it the next day when I looked at the bill. Some other poor person may have been done out of their rightful change - or who knows? If they were as disappointed as us maybe they took our change and didn't leave a tip :lol Somehow that thought makes me happy! :lol
I have eaten at Iru once before and had a completely different meal (although still a small portioned expensive one) so again perhaps an off-night - but an expensive off-night at that. Again we were disappointed we hadn't returned to O'Lume or tried Il Posito instead... next year.
Lala :\
We had hoped that the quality of the apartments would be indicative of the quality of the food ... sadly was not to be.
I am fully aware that after having slated Stay I am at risk of sounding like a grump here but it is most unfortunate that our 2 most expensive meals this holiday turned out to be the 2 most disappointing. We had great meals at Manduca, Neptune, Mistral, Little Italy and Bisas Bar - and of course O'Lume and all were much more reasonably priced - it seems that these 2 restaurants pay more attention to their pretentions than their food...:rolleyes If you are a great Iru fan - turn away now. :lol
Service and setting fine (except one snappy comment from a young waiter when I asked for butter for my roll - "yes it's coming" he snipped - but alas I'm still waiting :lol )
Anyway - the food. Presentation very good. Hubby soup - "lovely" - so far so good. I skipped starter and made do with hard cold roll and fishy tasting tumbet like appetiser. (what is is with yesterday's rolls? Why can't they give you some fresh bread or a little warm part-bake like at Hibiscus?) Mains - here is where it gets VERY disappointing.
Hubby doesn't really 'do' red meat and so had the "organic chicken filled with mustard and sun dried tomatoes" - the whole thing was like to have been sun-dried. It was dried out, without any kind of sauce and needed salt! His vegetables (a spoonful of grated carrot and courgette) were so al dente as to be raw and practically inedible.I went for the sucking pig. Now those experts of this dish (of which I am not) can tell me if this is typical and if so I will avoid in future but I was presented with 2 square lumps of crackling with the tiniest amount of meat underneath. It reminded me - seriously - of the flank of mutton my mother used to make her soup with - except it had no flavour - again I hit the salt. Should suckling pig be grey in colour? One of the squares had crispy crackling but the other was soggy. I could have sworn I was eating an animal other then pig as it had no detectable pork like flavour whatsoever :rolleyes The small portion of vegetables hiding underneath were also tasteless - I just couldn't understand it.
Wine - ah - what a menu! With some bottles at 565 euros. We were not feeling that flush and so after much searching for a bottle under 20 euros we asked for a house red (had the distinct feeling that I had somehow let the waiter down :lol ) It cost 18 euros and was average drinkable rioja.
No pudding or free liqueres etc (O'Lume and Stay had spoiled us in this regard) - bill 90 euros.
Mistake with the bill - they returned to us someone else's change. We didn't notcie this as we had already included the tip but spotted it the next day when I looked at the bill. Some other poor person may have been done out of their rightful change - or who knows? If they were as disappointed as us maybe they took our change and didn't leave a tip :lol Somehow that thought makes me happy! :lol
I have eaten at Iru once before and had a completely different meal (although still a small portioned expensive one) so again perhaps an off-night - but an expensive off-night at that.
Again we were disappointed we hadn't returned to O'Lume or tried Il Posito instead... next year.Lala :\
