My birthday meal out this year was to Jacques in Cork City. I’ve heard lots of complimentary things about it over the years and both my sister and parents have had great meals there.It’s a little awkward to find being on a side-street of a side-street and it turned out to be much smaller than I expected and jammed full.

The room isn’t great. Very bright with spotlights on the ceiling and old pictures of the city on the walls. We both thought it lacked character and didn’t feel the place for a romantic quiet meal for two.

I loved the look of the menu and had a hard time deciding what to get. For starters I had lambs tongue which was quite tasty but nothing to go crazy about.

Catherine plumped for Asparagus and Gubbeen Salami which looked great and she really enjoyed.

Wine for the night was a decent 2005 Pouilly Fumee.

Mains were the big let down of the night. Catherine did better with some hake on greens. Nothing wrong with it, just utterly forgettable.

Mine was a bit of a disaster. I went with scallops on cauliflour puree. The scallops were ok if a bit insipid (frozen perhaps?) and the puree was good. But they burnt the potatoes in the stack and it ruined the plate. I know mistakes happen but when you burn something, you know you’ve burnt it, yet they still put it on a plate and served it to me.

I should have given it back and complained but I couldn’t be bothered. At that point we were both just disappointed with the whole experience.

Catherine wasn’t grabbed by any of the deserts and I went with dates on orange. Not too bad but a bit middle-of-the-road.

In fact I think that phrase defines the whole meal. Nothing massively wrong, just nothing to blow your socks off.

However, value was excellent, coming in cheaper than most meals we’ve eaten out in the past year.

Maybe we just got them on a bad night since I’ve only heard positive things about them but to be honest I doubt we’ll be back.