We decided to clean up for our afternoon tea.  I put on a dress, some jewelry, makeup, and a silk shawl.  Below is a reversed photo of my face, which didn’t look as good as the unreversed picture looked.

Someday, I’ll retire my black modal dress from Novica.  Not anytime soon, though.

 

Initially, we went to the Garden Room, which is not where tea is served.  Art Tea at the Merrion Hotel is served in the Drawing Rooms.

This was how our table looked when we sat down.

Bill checks out the literature.

Forks turned into stands showing the art pieces the pastries are modeled after.  These pieces are on display in the hotel.

 We opted for Champagne at fourteen euros a glass.  Champagne is totally optional and I noticed the server’s eyes danced when we ordered a second round.  Yes, sometimes we get carried away…  

Four kinds of sandwiches: Shanagarry Smoked Salmon with Lemon Glenilen Butter on Brown Bread, O’Donovan’s loin of Ham with Tarragon and Dalkey Mustard on White Bread, Cornfed Chicken with Truffle Mayonnaise on Sunflower Bread, Organic Cucumber, Smoked Paprika, Mint with Glenilen Yogurt on White bread, Duck Egg Mayonnaise in a Brioche Bun.  We skipped the truffle mayonnaise because I don’t eat truffles.  We also had plain and fruit scones, lemon bread, Portercake, Battenberg Cake, modeled after paintings in the hotel, and lemon curd, clotted cream, and raspberry jam.

Teas!  I had Irish Malt and Moroccan Mint.  You’re allowed to try as many as you want.  Bill had Pu Erh and Red Chilli Chai.

Very civilized!

These pastries are modeled after the paintings depicted on the cards below.

My favorite part!  We did have another glass of Champagne each, which bumped up the bill a bit.  All told, this set us back 170 euros, but we didn’t have dinner on Friday night, so we figured it evened out.  

You don’t have to dress up for tea, but I felt it was appropriate given how nice the drawing rooms are.

 

We figured we’d be really full after tea, and we did feel pretty full at first.  We even had leftover scones, which our server kindly packed up for us.  However, I did get a little hungry later, probably because a lot of what we had at tea was liquid.  So we went searching for dinner.  On my main blog, I wrote about an incident that occurred before we found dinner at F.X. Buckley’s.

F.X. Buckley is apparently a chain restaurant.  We stopped in because they were offering a Sunday roast, although we both ended up having steaks.  We didn’t have reservations, but they were able to accommodate us.

Interesting sign from days past.

Bill had a ten ounce sirloin with pepper sauce and fries.

I had a fourteen ounce rib eye with bearnaise and a side of mashed potatoes with spring onions.  We paired it with a dry red from Portugal.  I needed Bill’s help with the steak.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach, which seems pretty hard to believe…  

It was a great dinner!  I’d go back!

 

And… just so I could say I’d done it, I suggested a trip to Bar No. 23 at the Merrion Hotel for a nightcap.  It’s a beautiful bar.

The Chocolate Martini is an expensive winner…  

Bill had a Japanese whiskey.

And for me, he ordered a Chocolate Martini, which was as delicious as it looks.

Lots of nice art on the walls.

This bird was hanging out in the garden.  I think we caught her sleeping.

We turned in fairly early for our trip back to Germany on Monday.  I was sorry to be leaving Dublin, though I was looking forward to seeing our dogs.  And now I have reasons to come back, since there are still things we haven’t done or seen.  I would count our trip to Dublin as one of our best!