A US couple on their honeymoon in Ireland was left pleasantly surprised after accidentally visiting a Michelin star restaurant.
A user on Reddit has gained a lot of attention after posting about their meal at the restaurant in Cork which they described as an "incredible" experience, even though they did not mean to go there.
One of the city's finest restaurants, Bastion in Kinsale, proved to be quite the hit with the couple.
Read more: Three NI spots ranked in list of most popular restaurants according to TikTok
The US tourist said: "Wife and I got married and had a wonderful honeymoon doing a tour of the entire perimeter of Ireland. When we had an afternoon in Kinsale on the south side, we got to the end of the day without dinner plans.
"Naturally I opened up google maps and looked at highest rated since on this trip we were “treating ourselves” and going to nice places, especially outside of the bigger cities. In such a small town, we did NOT expect such a high end restaurant to say the least and I didn’t check the price range.
"We walk over to where this nice place is, have no idea and no expectations. It was right at 5pm when we walked in, not knowing they would have JUST opened. The hostess walks up and asks if we had a reservation….erm, no, we just walked in. Place is completely empty because, again, they had just opened.
"I ask for a table for two and she said she would check. (I look around, and am like….. they obviously have a table for two.) She comes back and asks us if we think we could be done before 7:30pm… now, I’m a proud South Dakotan with the appetite of a 12 year old boy still and inevitably get hiccups from eating muffins too fast. Left to my own devices, eating anything takes me 5 minutes even on a Thanksgiving spread. “Yeah we can be done by then” I said.
"She sits us down, and doesn’t hand out menus, instead asks us if we will have the 5 course or 7 course meal tonight?
"Hol’ up. ….the wat?
"My wife looks at me, I look at her, do some quick calculations on just how much those wedding reception dances made, and I sheepishly reply, “we will have two 5 course meals please, it’s our honeymoon.
"Congratulations were wished, I’ll let the pictures show you the look of the food but nothing can describe the taste of truly well made meals at this level. It surprises me how filling so “little” can be as well. The place and atmosphere was incredible.
"The ONLY reason we found out it was a Michelin star (and I wish I had a picture of this) was that in their bathroom they have/had a framed tweet from the Michelin Twitter account congratulating them on being awarded a Michelin star.
"It was fun explaining to the wife how Michelin ingeniously came up with this award that took off especially in Europe…. to essentially sell more tires because people would travel to other cities to go to these places and it’s since morphed into its own thing.
"Price was around $200 for all of it, drinks etc, so more than I had anticipated spending but well worth it for the story to add around a campfire of the time we (heavy sarcastic ‘fancy’ voice) 'accidentally went to a Michelin star restaurant in Ireland.'"
Have you ever accidentally ended up in a fancy restaurant?
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