Another quick restaurant note: Hophouse/Kimchi Restaurant, Dublin, Ireland.

I visited the Hophouse/Kimchi as part of my continuing attempt to visit Asian neighborhoods in world cities. Dublin's Asian community is small, but the neighborhood along Parnell Street was mere blocks from where I was staying, so it was an easy walk. Hop House/Kimchi Restaurant turned out to be a reasonable choice for dinner.


Hophouse/Kimchi
160-161 Parnell Street
Dublin 1, Ireland
Tel: +353.01.872.8318 / +353.01.872.8536
http://www.hophouse.ie/

Mo-Th: 12:00 - 23:00
Fr, Sa: 12:00 - 23:30
Su: 12:00 - 22:30

Dublin Bus 40b, 40d, 120: Parnell Street, Gate Hotel (Stop 6004)
Dublin Bus 40b, 40d: Parnell Street, Marlborough Street (Stop 6071)
Dublin Bus 4, 7, 7d, 8, 40b, 40d, 120: O'Connell St, Parnell Street (Stop 4725)
Dublin Bus 1, 38, 38a, 38b, 44: Parnell Square, Gate Theatre (Stop 265)

It's really not hard for me to work out the exact day I last ate at the Kimchi restaurant. The Hop House was full of cheering fans watching a football game. To be precise, it was full of fans watching the Brazil-South Korea Olympic semifinal. That means I was there on 7 August 2012, starting sometime after 19:45, as the game was already on when I sat down.

Service was as a result more distracted than usual, both from the game itself, which could be heard from the adjoining Hop House pub, and because the staff were busy keeping up with all the orders from the fans. The Hop House and Kimchi Restaurant are really one big room with a wall partially dividing them. Normally, I'm pretty sure the place isn't particularly noisy but this night was special. I think a good chunk of the Korean community in Dublin was watching the game here.

South Korea went on to lose 0-3 to Brazil, which in many ways constitutes a kind of victory. They later beat Japan in the consolation round to win the Olympic bronze medal.


Aside from the distraction the service was actually quite good. As was the food. I had bulgogi (€12.90), which the menu says is their signature dish. There wasn't a grille at the table but it was fine nonetheless. It came with the usual pickled side dishes and rice. I also had a half from the bar but I can't remember which beer except that it was Irish, not Korean.

All in all, a fine choice if you're in Dublin and you want Korean food. It's not Seoul, or even Koreatown, but for where it is it's an entirely credible choice.

What do United Express flights 4245 and 8080 have in common?

The operators of the flights seem to miss sleeping passengers when they do post-flight checks.

May 24, 2010, United Express 8080, IAD-PHL:

Ginger McGuire, 36, spent nearly four hours on the plane after United Express Flight 8080 landed before she was discovered by a cleaning crew, according to the complaint filed in Wayne County Circuit Court.

December 6, 2013, United Express 4245, LFT-IAH:

Wagner says he was left all alone on a United Express flight Friday night. He was fast asleep in a window seat near the back of the airplane. Somehow, everyone deplaned, and no one noticed he was still on board.

He woke up to a cold and pitch-black cabin, and the aircraft doors were locked shut.

United Express is a brand name United uses. Flights are actually operated by a number of different carriers. Flight 8080 was operated by Trans States Airlines, while flight 4245 was an ExpressJet Airlines flight. I suspect United will have a conversation with its regional carriers about being a bit more careful about sweeping the planes. It's probably just luck that they're both United Express branded flights.

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While searching for information on those incidents, I found sort of the opposite mistake. On October 5, 2013, easyJet 6056 (AGP-BRS) took off with 29 of its passengers still in a stairwell at the boarding gate:

They had already shown their boarding passes and were past the departure gate, ready to board.

But according to passengers, a member of the ground crew appeared and pulled a security ribbon across their path, blocking their entrance to the gangway leading onto the aircraft.

Minutes later passengers looked through a window and watched as their half-empty plane pulled away from the stand.

Flight number 6056 taxied out and took off on time at 9.15pm on Saturday without them - but with all their bags on board.

The angry passengers tried to get back into the airport departure area but found themselves trapped, locked out by security doors.

They were stuck for around 20 minutes until they managed to raise the alarm by shouting and banging on the doors.

Oops.