Elite Christmas Event @ Ely Gastro Bar

I enjoyed myself very much at the Unilocal Xmas party.
Some nice nibbles, excellent drinks and great company in a nice location.
A bit pricey for the drinks I guess, but there were free drinks there as well so all even’s out.
The cards were great! The Band was pretty good even though they were mostly ignored. The hotel was very nice.
Thanks Emily!

Another great event organised by Emily. It was wonderfully relaxed and full of good cheer. I loved her personalised cards and the fun photo shoot.
I was sad to leave early due to having to traverse Europe the next morning. If not I would have happily drank much more mulled wine and craft beer!

Thank you Emily for an excellent evening.
I loved the colour of all the jumpers and clothes. People really made an effort. Especially Ross, Santa Clause himself!
The Christmas Crackers was a lovely touch, although I was a bit keen and pulled mine with Santa — who, to be fair, I thought I didn’t know. But it turned out I did :)
The feel good factor was multiplied by ten due to the excellent SVP present donations. All warm and yummy inside because of that.
Finally the personalised Christmas cards, Emily you knocked this event out of the park with this. You’re a star!
The venue is rather nice and decadent with the comfy soft furnishings. The music at the start of the evening set a perfect tone. Even if we were all chatting, I know I was taking the smooth tones in.
Not being a fan of mulled wine, I skipped that and got my own round in early on. Two drinks from the bar cost 13.45 EUR for a pint of Aspalls cider and a bottle of IPA. Craft beer is becoming a spendy choice in this fair city of ours.
Also like some people, I too didn’t get to try all food samples because of the scrum for it at the bar, but the bits I did try were very nice. My partner was nice to share the bits he managed to get his hands on. I agree with Liat, the layout for the food could have been better planned and executed.

Have to say I was impressed. Not only by the lovely location, the class live band but also by the effort everybody made with dressing up and most importantly the attention to details that Emily put in! This ranged from Mulled Wine as Apéritif over Chrismtas props for photo shoots, Unilocal themed paper wrappers for the Fish&Chips and the lovely handwritten Christmas cards that we received.
The food was delicious, my favorite being the Organic Angus Burgers (who on their own deserve a 5 star rating). Unfortunately I could only test two of the offered craft beers since I was driving, but they were fittingly paired with the offered food.
I had a blast, my +1 just as much, and met a lot of virtual friends in real life. Great stuff and let’s do it again, next year!
Thanks for having us!

This was a great event at a great restaurant. I have been to the other Ely locations, but not yet had the pleasure of visiting this one. It is just as amazing as the other locations, even better in some aspects because I must say I love Grand Canal Square. The food pairing was brilliant, I am a fan of O’Hara beer as I have had it a few times now since first trying it at the Doolin Craft Beer festival a couple years ago. It was wonderfully presented, the music was spot on, and Emily did a great job all around. Looking forward to Unilocaling in 2014!

Thanx Emily for a great evening.
Despite it being on my doorstep for nearly a year now I have never been inside Ely before, although I did have a drink outsiede during the summer.
I didn’t realise they had such a selection of craft beer, the Wine Bar tag seems to have put me off exploring.
Anyway, the bites were quite tasty, and the O’Hara’s went down very well.
We do the VDP gifts in work every year so great to see that spreading it’s a really worthy cause.
High point of the evening: the personalised Christmas cards, they were great and have pride of place on our sideboard.
Low point: The service was a bit disorganised, sloping sstuff out on one corner of the bar was never oing to work very well with a large group, which is a pity as it woudl have been nice to manage some real beer & food matching.
All in all though, we realy enjoyed the evening.

My first Unilocal event! It was a great night at Ely. The venue is really nice inside. Its also bigger than I expected. The mulled wine was delish as was the OHara’s stout and wheat ale. Of all the bites we were given, I liked the burger and the leek and gruyère tartlet the best.
The present for SVP were a fantastic idea, and I got to pull my first Christmas cracker ever! You can tell Emily put a lot of effort into this event, and it was great!

Another great event and a fantastic way to end out my first year on Unilocal!I was a really big fan of the place and the beer, I’m not usually a huge O’Hara fan but I loved the double IPA from the bottle. We also had some lovely bites although we didn’t manage to get our hands on a dessert due to the not so great serving tactic and the crowd of campers at the bar but I really loved and devoured everything I got my hands on!
Loved my Christmas card and I’ve had a really fun year Unilocaling, here’s to 2014!

Terrific Christmas event with a lovely atmosphere and a Santa who kept insisting his beard was real. Ely is swanktacular, a very nice location indeed, and the staff are just lovely. Emily’s idea of a Christmas gift for a St Vincent de Paul child was a very cool touch and I loved the personalised card she had made for each of us. Equally impressive is that she knows all of our names!
I arrived late and things were in full swing. As I was jetlagged, I didn’t have the energy to socialise but liked Emily’s planned ice-​breaker of pulling crackers only with someone you didn’t already know. The O’Hara ale was lovely and while for the most part I avoided the scrum at the bar for food, I still got to sample lots of little bits. It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season and I will certainly back to Ely Gastro, it’s gorgeous.

Emily you never fail to throw a fantastic party and this was no different… a brilliant Christmas Party (hopefully not my last hint hint)
Ely was always on my «to do» list but have never gotten around to it, it lived up to my expectations. The décor is stylish and cosy. The food was delicious and left me wanting more :) The burger was the best, would definitely recommend a visit to one of the three locations. This venue would be a great haunt for a pre or post theatre meal as it is only steps away for the Bord Gais Theatre.
The staff were friendly and enthusiastic about their food and beer which is always a good sign, shows quality!
The pull the cracker with a stranger was an excellent way for Unilocalers to meet other Unilocalers and with Santa Ross thown in to the mash… made for a cracking party xx

Great party! The gifts for Saint Vincent De Paul were a nice touch and the pile of gifts looked impressive. It was great to have Seamus O’Hara there talking about beer.
The only downside was that Ely decided to keep it informal and just bring out dishes and leave the beer available as a free for all with Seamus available for questions to be asked. Unfortunately this means a little bit of chaos as beer is taken before the suggested dish and It’s so busy that no one really made their way over to Seamus to ask about the beer. A little bit of formality would have worked better.
The choice of Leann Folláin (the extra stout), one of my favourite beers as a match for the chocolate cake was spot on. Few drinks can complement a chocolate cake but a rich chocolatey extra stout does it wonderfully.
The personalised Christmas cards were a brilliant idea.
Looking forward to 2014 now.

Last night was so much fun! It was so nice to have a fun evening while supporting a great charity at the same time! There was mulled wine, O’hara’s AWESOME chocolate and coffee stout (I’m not even going to attempt the spell the name of it because I will fail miserably), finger foods, live music, AND a DJ! It was also so great seeing everyone so festive. If I wasn’t in the Christmas spirit, I definitely am now!
Like Reuben said, the downside was the Ely has us get the food from the bar. It left everyone having hand food back to other people, and it was quite packed when the food came out. Also, there was chocolate cake?! I think I missed it because of th crowds. But that’s okay, I made up for it with Santa’s chocolates :)
Being that the restaurant was not super full (since it was Monday). And there was only one table in the entire downstairs, it would have been nice if our group had been accommodated downstairs. That being said, the space we were in was nice for socialising, it just made the eating part difficult.
Oh, and the bit strip cards… hilarious! Loved them! Can’t wait for all the amazing 2014 events!

Great party, great ambiance, friendly guests to share this unforgettable Unilocal Christmas Event. Thanks Emily ;-)
Starting from the location, it was amazing. I knew Ely Gastro Bar before, but I have never had the chance to go in there, so this was a good occasion for me to test this place: Amazing.
The live band and then the DJ helped to create the right vibe. We got also the visit from Santa who gave us Christmas crackers and then Cadbury chocolates. I liked the idea of pulling the Christmas crackers with somebody you don’t know. Funny enough, I won 3 times :-) Yeah! :-D
Foods and drinks were excellent. Mulled wine on arrival (the best one I have ever had in Ireland), than Chorizo Arancini, mini Organic Beef Burger and the mini leek & Gruyère tart, supreme! The mini fish and chips were a great idea, but I found the chips rather too oily and not crispy so I just ate the fish. I couldn’t taste the Duo Chocolate Tart due to its quick disappearance :-D but I am happy enough with the rest of the food.
Beers from O’Hara’s Brewery were like the cherry on top of the cake. The beer I liked the most was the Pale Ale as it was refreshing, easy to drink, with that little bit of bitter hint. Thanks Seamus!
We also helped Saint Vincent De Paul donating gifts for children, so went home with a smile and happy to have contributed to a local charity.

First of all, thank you for organising yet another event — Unilocal and Emily must be extremely busy!!!
I think I was too late to get all the fun… just arrived at 8.45 and the first thing I saw was people jumping across each other to get food and drinks…
The area itself nice, but the right location for a standing and chatty event? I don’t know, no space for dancing to the band too (which was by the way really good).
Christmas Spirit? Maybe… but not quite there yet, we got little cards which where an amazing idea — really loved it! Especially the personal approach and names on it :)
I would haves liked a kinda speech or someone there from the foundation as we all brought gifts for kids.
Ely is an amazing place, beautiful and different — people should definitely try all the wines here :)

What a great way to celebrate the festive season with fellow Unilocalers. Ely’s did a fantastic job catering to all of us with their delicious food as well as o’ Hara’s craft beers.
The musical entertainment was a nice touch to create a festive ambience and I have to say I had the nicest mulled wine I’ve ever tasted!
The toy donation to St Vincent de Paul was a great idea too. Once again Emily did a super job organising this event. :)

Wahey — Christmas came 3 weeks early at the Grand Canal Docks!
Amazing food in bite-​sized portions, fantastic craft beer and mulled wine, together with silly dress-​up fun at the photo-​taking spot and X’mas crackers summed up the lovely evening.
Thank you Emily for the personalised cards and looking forward to seeing you all at more Unilocal Elite events next year! (Em — oh well, I guess you have to make me a 2014 elite now! ;-))

I thought I was late when I arrived at 20.03. The place was full! With plenty of festive cheer. Lots of Christmas jumpers — Hazel M I meant to say how nice your puddings looked ;)
The band was fantastic and I also really liked the choice of music that was played after the band.
Emily did a great job, and the personalized cards were fantastic! The food was really really tasty! The fantastic too!
I will defiantly be back to Ely Gastro Bar for some craft beer. The staff there were really helpful and friendly.
Great night.