the best Spanish food in Dublin: Viva

Happy Thursday! You’re nearing the end of the week! How are you feeling? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe your thing is yoga, meditation, running, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, paddle boarding, bringing old furniture back to life, woodworking, tooling around with some new tools, or even playing animal crossing with family and friends, but whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post - “my Irish love, Cork: Live at the Marquee with Daryl Hall and John Oates” - you can click here to read my 300th unique blog post to date while singing along to the musical stylings of the most successful musical duo of all time. Otherwise, if you’re all caught up, let’s head back to Dublin! I admit, I’m absolutely dying (dramatic) to write about my trip to Venice, Italy, but as I was going through my travel journal, I realized that I needed to pop back in to Dublin first as there’s an amazinggg restaurant I need to note!

When I lived in Rathmines, I didn’t have any sort of transportation besides my two feet. Everywhere I went was either by walking, the LUAS**, or an occasional taxi (and for bigger trips, the train or the bus). When I would make the trek to Trinity’s main campus from my flat on Mondays and Fridays, I would pass by this amazingly cute little Spanish tapas restaurant called Viva that sat on an alleyway corner just over the canal bridge in Portobello. A couple friends from Trinity and I had all agreed to see Avengers: Endgame together when it came out at the Rathmines Omniplex just down the street from my flat, so as a pre-Endgame celebratory dinner, we all met up at Viva for some tapas!

The restaurant itself was cozy inside (with a few small tables setup outside on the sidewalk), and the service was phenomenal. I ordered the Pan Catalán (like bruschetta), the Champiñones Pil pil (pan-fried mushroom caps with garlic and chili oil), and the Berenjena Gratinada (baked aubergine/eggplant, chestnut mushrooms, garlic, and onion covered with melted cheese and a balsamic glaze - truly the highlight of the meal). My friends also got some tapas and some paella, and we all made a point of sharing (though there, admittedly, were times I did not want to share it was so delicious).

Have you ever felt territorial over your food because it was so good? I wish I could say I was a total saint who always wanted to share with others and never second-guessed her altruistic instincts, but I am a human being, so although my instinct is altruism, sometimes I just do not want to share when there is a mouthwateringly delicious dish set before me. If you can think of a dish like that - one where you hate sharing - please let me know. I love to cook and am looking for new things to try out in the kitchen! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been receiving a lot of really incredible stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe! Other people’s stories that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about whatever stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have any restaurants/eateries/pubs/coffee shops/ice cream joints/theatres/lookout spots you would recommend in other countries or even in your current home town or city, I'm absolutely 100% all ears!! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

Sincerely,

Johny

** the LUAS is the tram/light rail system in Dublin that you can pop on and pop off to get where you're going a bit more quickly.

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of travel adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):