I don’t think there’s a dog on the street who hasn’t heard about The White Moose Cafe. The owner, Paul Stenson, has had social media buzzing with his war on vegans, breastfeeding mothers and the gluten intolerant. Even news channels across the Atlantic have been talking about him. He’s the guy everyone loves to hate. Why do people hate him? Ask one of them. They probably won’t be able to give you a decent answer or else they’ll make one up. What most people don’t know is that it was the vegans who started the war, Paul just won it. He’s right about people claiming to be gluten intolerant. If you don’t want to eat bread, don’t eat bread. Don’t claim you’ve got a serious illness unless you’ve been diagnosed by a doctor and not just an allergy test from Boots. Like them or loathe them, The White Moose Cafe are good at what they do and that’s getting people talking about it.
There’s a lot of negative reviews of the cafe on their Facebook page. A lot of these negative reviews come from people who’ve never been to his cafe and are just outraged by him. On the flip side, there are positive reviews of his cafe by people who’ve never been there either but love him. I was interested in finding out if the food was any good.
I’m happy to say that he is in fact, not all talk and his cafe lives up to the positive reviews on Facebook. If you’re new to my blog by the way and don’t know who LP is – he’s my other half. He’s the taller, calmer version of me who’s grown to love eating his food cold because he has to wait until I’ve finished taking pictures of it before he can touch it. LP and I went to The White Moose to try out four of their dishes.
The first dish we tried was Steak and Eggs. An 8oz sirloin steak cooked medium rare with 2 poached eggs served on English muffins with tarragon hollandaise. The dish costs €8.25 which is incredible value for what you’re getting.
I can’t fault this dish. The steak was cooked perfectly, the eggs were runny and there was plenty of hollandaise.
Next LP had the homemade beef burger with gem lettuce, beef tomato, cornichons and homemade relish on a brioche bun.
The burger was delicious and the brioche bun was perfect. It’s served with a side and LP opted for the sweet potato fries. ‘Cause you know, low gi and all that.
Another egg dish next which is new to the menu. Mexican Moose Eggs. Their take on the classic Huevos Rancheros. Baked eggs in a rich, spicy tomato sauce with chorizo, kidney beans and peppers.
Unfortunately, through nobodies fault but my own (because I was busy taking pictures), I didn’t notice how hot the skillet the eggs were served in was. By the time I got to the eggs (which were runny when they came out) they had cooked more. This meant that I didn’t get the oozing of an egg yolk to mix through with the chorizo and tomato. Don’t get me wrong, there was still lashings of flavour in the dish and nice decent sized chunks of chorizo. It just would have been nicer if I wasn’t messing around with the camera and had started eating it sooner.
The baked eggs are served with a small shopping basket of tortilla chips. Yes, I said a small shopping basket. The “We Want Plates” Crusaders are getting their pitchforks ready.
Last but not least, pancakes. Silver dollar pancakes with caramelised bananas & Nutella.
Both myself and LP were pleasantly surprised by these pancakes. Neither of us are die hard fans of banana but the caramelised banana was unreal. At only €6.50 these pancakes are a steal.
Would I go back to The White Moose Cafe? Yes. There’s no denying that the food here is good. The service was great and for what they are charging, it’s a bargain.
What did I not like? The smell of vegan ashes was a bit too strong for me.
P.S. For those wondering how Louis is doing he is much better.
