Remember the Big in bigfoodiemama !

So there we were, myself, the FA and the blonde, celebrating the blonde's birthday with a Food and Wine Readers evening in One Pico. The Tattinger Brut Reserve reception was at 6.45 ( do bear in mind we had polished off a bottle of Bollinger in our hotel room beforehand !)We were "on form" and really looking forward to our 7 course meal in the Dublin Restaurant of the Year. We were seated next to the couple who have attended the most F+W evenings and things started off well with an Amuse Bouche of Saute Langoustine, sorrel risotto, summer truffle and peas.....tiny but divine ! The blonde agreed but we both agreed that a big bowl of it would have been great. By this stage the foodie beside the FA was advertising her two single sons and we were offering her the FA on a plate. The blonde was listening to the first of many stories from her husband whose nationality I will not divulge (but he had thrown a towel over his seat earlier in the day !)The starter of Fois Gras parfait, lime jam, pear and vanilla puree with crisp pain d'epice was sublime. It was accompanies by a Pinot Gris from Alsace. A looooong time later we hit the fish course as the blonde was listening to another no-punchline story. The very small piece of red mullet with red pepper escabeche and saffron was unfortunately overpowered by the black olive tapanade but we happily swilled the white Bordeaux, as the blonde started to yawn. A tiny green apple jelly with blackberry sorbet, failed to hit the spot and was unable to fill the extraordinarily long wait to the meat course. We had consumed the glass of Valpolicella and requested a second before it finally hit the table and although the fillet beef, braised short rib,white onion puree, baby leek and pomme Anna was delicious but half the size it should have been.I was still hungry. By now we had married off the FA to one of the foodie's sons and the blonde tried to drown herself in a glass of Pelegrino to avoid another story from the foodie's husband. A beautiful glass of Rose Prosecco was welcomed and accompanied the Assiette of summer fruits ie. what looked like a flat rice krispie bun with raspberries on top, some miniature strawberries on a a basil spun sugar biscuit and a Kilner jar with a very bland vanilla mousse with a ginger granita.It had potential but had failed to meet it. At this point ( 4 hours after we had sat down! )out came the chefs, all five who looked about 12 years old to receive the applause dished out by the inebriated diners.By now the blonde was yawning, the FA giving her card to her future mother in law and I was still HUNGRY !We exited before the tea/coffee as we reckoned we would have aged before its arrival and headed back to our hotel, where I promptly ordered a club sandwich and chips which the blonde helped me to eat. It's all very well being a great restaurant but if you have to wait hours between tiny portions, you will not make alot of people happy. God bless the Neven Maguire's of this world who deliver the best food you can eat until you are too full to move !