I am meeting up with a gang of friends to have a catch up over dinner later this month, but finances are tight and January pay day is still a long way away. Are there any restaurants you can recommend that offer a reasonable rate for BYO?
I can understand your dilemma as mark ups on wine in restaurants can be fairly stiff and most restaurants will charge you €20-€30 a bottle to bring your own wine. This won’t actually save you much money if your wine costs €10 or more. However, remember that this is the quietest time of year for many restaurants and they might be open to deals on corkage, especially for a group of 10 or more people. Be prepared to negotiate.
One possibility you mivght like to consider is wine bars or restaurants that double as wine shops. The Wine Pair in Dublin 8, Green Man Wines in Terenure, 64 Wine in Glasthule, and others too, encourage you to pick a bottle off their shelves to enjoy and charge less, usually €10-€15, but again the real savings only kick in when you buy more expensive wines.
Many Irish wine lovers have fallen for the recently opened Hawksmoor Steakhouse on College Green in Dublin 2, which has a very tempting offer of €5 corkage on Monday nights, which includes magnums. However the food, while excellent, is not cheap, so it might not fit into your budget night out, unless you opt for the early evening Express Menu (€29 for two courses/€33 for three).
Even better is The Wine Cellar in Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street in Dublin 2. During the week, there is a €10 corkage charge from their wine shop, which stocks more than 400 wines. But on Sunday-Tuesday this drops to an unbeatable €1 a bottle. Fallon & Byrne also offers a group sharing menu for 10 guests or more, serving a range of nibbles, starters, main courses and mini-desserts for €50 per person – perfect for a large group.
Possibly the best idea is to ring around your local or city-centre ethnic restaurants. Many of the more modestly priced Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, African and Middle-Eastern restaurants do not have a wine list and are quite happy for you BYOB for free, or a modest €5-€10.
