Phi is an exciting new food delivery service in Galway, bringing the restaurant dining experience to our homes. With a more sustainable approach to dining, the menu changes every few weeks in order to focus on seasonal plant based food, but not exclusively as it aims to 'bridge the gap between carnivores and vegans'.
Chef Damien Martin packs his delivery boxes with colourful, tasty, modern and healthy dishes, with bold flavours. Plant based dishes are at the heart of each menu with ethically-sourced meat and dairy produce serving to enhance the fresh local vegetables.
From cheffing for Michelin Star Resturants to ready-to-heat meal delivery
Owner and chef Damien Martin came up with the concept during lockdown. Originally from Trim in Meath, Damien has trained in some of Dublin's finest kitchens. He later moved to Australia for three years where he worked in the three hatted restaurant Star Anise in Perth. Returning to Ireland, he took a break from the kitchens to study maths in UCD. After college, he worked in the Michelin star restaurant Nahm in Bangkok (regarded as 26th Best Restaurant in the World 2016 ). Returning home, he worked in Loam here in Galway, under the very talented chef Enda McEvoy. He was sous-chef in Loam up until the pandemic forced all restaurants to close.
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Dishes 90% finished, ready-to-heat at home.
“Before lockdown was even a thing, I had wanted to do something myself. Lockdown gave me the push to do it. When the first lockdown hit, like half the country, I dug up the back garden and planted everything. By the second lockdown, I had run out of patches to dig up. I wanted to do something that made a difference. I realised the food had to be fresh; so serving hot food wasn’t an option. I decided to bring the food to the point where it only requires heat for a small amount of time before serving up. I thought the time heating it up was going to be one of downsides; however, it seems it's the complete opposite: people love being involved in the preparation. They feel a bit of ownership without any of the hard work or washing up. Yes, no washing up! So far I've created six different three course menus and you had to use a pan for only one of them."
"Yes, no washing up!"
Sustainability on your Plate
While creating delicious food is a strong focal point of Phi, sustainability and a responsible practice are at the forefront of Phi.
"While I was thinking about developing this food delivery service, I was thinking about what was going to make it stand out. I decided to go with something that I believe in and where I am with food at the minute. I'm not vegan, nor vegetarian but I seldom buy meat. We all know we need to eat less meat as the strain we are putting on the industry is not sustainable. I honestly used to chuckle a bit to myself when flexitarians came into the restaurant but it looks like that’s where I'm at now.
"You don’t have to be vegetarian to enjoy vegetables"
"My aim with Phi is to change what people's perception of what a meal is."
There will be some meat on the dish but it won't be the menu's focus. I suppose Phi is completely new in this regard as I'm not aware of any other restaurant trying to bridge this gap between carnivores and vegans. At Phi, we also make sure all meat and animal products are ethically sourced."
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All Phi boxes and packaging are either compostable, biodegradable or recyclable.
"Creating a product to send out into the world packaging was very important to me. I didn’t want to send something out that was going to sit in a dump somewhere or worse, in our oceans that are already under great stress. Now the Phibox's cardboard is recyclable, the paper is recycled, the bags are biodegradable and I'm currently working on compostable labels." says Damien Martin.
Seasonal fine dining menu with bold flavours!
"The style of food is focused on seasonality and I use very little produce outside of Ireland. My love of Thai food will come through on some dishes. Some of the best meals I have had were at food stalls in Thailand sitting on a plastic stool in sweltering heat. I like complexity of flavours of fermentation while I do like some bold strong flavours that feel like a 'slap in the face'.
"I couldn’t tell you exactly what style Phi is because I think its evolving, but it tastes good, has strong ethos and is a bit of fun."
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There has been some amazing feedback so far and the Valentine's menu sold out in January, before the menu was even announced!!! It really shows the support of the customers and their confidence in Phi to deliver".
“We will definitely reorder soon” ...
”You can tell a lot of love went into this”
“Thanks to phigalway for a cracking meal hard to choose what our favourite course was”.
The Phibox is 65 euro for 2 and 35 euro for 1. There is also the option of a vegan box.
You can book up until 4 pm the day before at www.phigalway.com.
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Your house, your rules!
'From listening to current customers, they like the fact once you have booked it, you come pick it up or it gets delivered to your house (currently delivering around the city and out as far as Spiddal on the Coast road ). You can take your time over it. Have it tomorrow have the starter and mains then leave the dessert until later on. It's your house your rules. It's not deteriorating by the minute, and not a situation where you have to eat it while it's still hot. Since you heated it yourself, you will get that same freshness you get in a restaurant. It's like bringing a restaurant into your own home.
Phi is also the solution to stressful dinner parties, which hopefully we will be having again soon. Or maybe you want to impress that special someone? Just remember to hide the box! We are all busy these days even at home. It's hard sometimes to organize yourself to be ready for dinner at 7.30, taxi booked, babysitter organised. It's nice to know that you can have your fancy dinner when you have time for it. Either way my hope for Phi is to last long after these lockdowns are a “do you remember when....” story.'
Visit Phi Galway website and give them a follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates!
COMPETITION
To give you the chance to discover the taste of Galway's new eatery, we have teamed up with Phi to run a wee competition on our social media.
Follow the instruction below to enter the competition. Entries deadline: March 11th 2021
ENTER THE COMPETITION FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PHI LUXURY MEAL FOR TWO ON INSTAGRAM
ENTER THE COMPETITION FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PHI LUXURY MEAL FOR TWO ON FACEBOOK
