Good Food Ireland Newcomer of the Year

WINNER: Ananda Restaurant (Dublin)

Award winning fine dining Indian Restaurant

Glimpsing the kitchen, the well-turned out chefs, a room that is intriguingly designed with rich tones, large windows and plenty of dark wood there is a complex statement being made here. Ananda sets it’s stall out early. And with good reason.

The chef is Sunil Ghai, who along with owner Asheesh Dewan, is responsible for the excellent Jaipur brand (a group of establishments spread throughout the city). Here however they have managed to distil a modern sense of India, fine dining and a deep and broad understanding of Indian cuisine into one cohesive and impressive whole.

While the format is well trodden – poppadoms and pickles, first and second courses – here you quickly realise things are different. The pickles for a start, deliver subtly and excitement in equal measure. Teasers? They certainly set you up with style.

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Taste of Christmas 2011

Taste of Christmas hosts some of the capital’s best restaurants, celebrating all that’s great about eating out in Dublin. Expect menus of seasonally inspired, Irish and internationally accented cuisine in the 2011 line-up.

With a focus on flavour and the celebration of the best local and seasonal cuisine, the menus at Taste of Christmas offer an exciting snapshot of the capital’s best cooking.

Alongside the tapas-sized dishes carefully chosen to highlight the strengths of each restaurant, unique signature dishes will be created by chefs to specially reflect their philosophy and showcase seasonal and premium ingredients.

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Ananda Restaurant won The Gold Medal Award for Ethnic Restaurants @ the Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards 2011.

ANANDA, the cosmopolitan Indian restaurant in Dundrum Town Centre, has triumphed once again, winning the prestigious Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Award for Ethnic Restaurants, sponsored by Cobra, for the second successive year.

Located at Dublin’s shopping mecca, this multi-award winning eatery beat off stiff competition from peers in Ireland’s ethnic dining sector to scoop the coveted award at the 23rd Annual Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards on Monday night. Its achievement marks the third-straight win for Ananda’s parent, the Jaipur Group, which also topped the category in 2009 with its Greystones restaurant, Chakra.

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