Dine Online - the UK Restaurant guide
Dublin's brilliant restaurant scene!
Dine Online takes a trip to the Capital of the Emerald
Isle and finds a wealth of choice for the serious diner
Recent years have seen the Irish economy expand more rapidly than those of
its European Union partners. There is a bright air of confidence abroad
that is quite palpable. Restaurants seem to be a pretty good barometer of how
good a place and its people feel about life. Eight years ago, when I was
last in Dublin, I was fascinated by its bars, its theatre and above all its
people, but with very few exceptions it was a bit of a culinary desert.
Nowadays I'd need about a month to do justice to the rich variety
of restaurants that have sprung up. But it would be grossly unfair to the
rest of the country not to point out that this vibrant culture of eating out is
by no means a wholly metropolitan phenomenon. There are many wonderful
hotels and restaurants out in the country, with Kinsale in County Cork
leading the pack, particulary when it comes to seafood.
But a review of
the epicurean possibilities outside Dublin will have to wait a little
longer.
Not all Dublin's eating establishments are Johnnies come lately,
however. The Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud,
illustrated above, has
been here for seventeen years, acting both as oyster and grain of sand. In
terms of purveying a very high standard of French Haute Cuisine in
a luxurious and somewhat exclusive setting, it is undoubtedly Dublin's oyster.
It has also been the grain of sand that has stimulated emulators as
well as detractors who've reacted against the copy book Michelin approach and
who are striving to provide innovative and exciting alternatives. Meanwhile
Guilbaud himself, recently removed to the stunning new Merrion Hotel
(lobby pictured left)
built around four of Dublin's best Georgian townhouses, has his eyes
firmly fixed on that third star which could certainly be within his grasp.
The Hotel has its own very pleasant restaurant, named after
Lord Mornington, the first resident of 24 Merrion Street.
Candle Power
Walking round Dublin just after dark on a fine October evening, I was
struck by a particular feature of nearly all the restaurants, whose decor
and style in most other respects are distinctly individual. The glow of
candles was everywhere: reflected in mirrors, casting pools of light on sparkling cutlery
and glassware, shadows flickering and flirting, but above all painting the
the faces of the diners with their soft warmth.
Hang on! You'd think I'd never been in a candlelit dining room
before! The truth is, I haven't - lately. I suddenly realised how used
I've become to the hard edged, minimalist, spotlit interiors of London's
newer restaurants, a city where candles are seen only in old fashioned
Trattorie, or in Hotel Restaurants of a distintly old fashioned kind.
But retro chic is now in, so it looks as though Dublin is well in the lead.
Many of her dining rooms are located in beautiful Georgian surroundings, and in some
cases, the effect is a bit like a Merchant Ivory film, set in Bath. Except
for the clientele, who are bright, modern, buzzy, and often rather beautiful young
Dubliners.
Irish Provender
Ireland is a wonderfully unspoilt country, its fields and pastures
supporting an abundance of crops and cattle, its woods and rivers
providing fish and game and with miles and miles of remote coastline
famous for crab, oysters and prawns. Cheesemaking is undergoing a
renaissance, and specialist cheesemongers are popping up all over the
place. I was lucky enough to be there virtually on day one of the new Dublin
branch of a cheesemonger from Galway.
Seamus Sheridan and his brother
Kevin are tremendous enthusiasts who will shave off tasting samples
for you most willingly - but beware, their cheeses were so well
conditioned and irresistable that I went out of the shop with a piece of
just about everything I tried. There are huge rounds of a marvellous hard
cheese called Gabriel, and there are lots of cheeses from unpasteurised
sheep's and goat's milk. I brought home a very enjoyable crotin of goat's
cheese called St Tola. Seamus also has a stall on Saturdays at
Dublin's Temple Bar Food Market. The shop is called Sheridan's
Cheesemongers, 11 South Ann Street, Dublin 2, only a few minutes walk
from Temple Bar. Tel: (0)1 679 3143.
Short breaks in Dublin by Cityjet
I flew to Dublin from London City Airport in Docklands in one of
Cityjet's short runway BAe 146 jets. It's a stubby little plane
with a generous number of engines, four actually, which works out
at one for every 25 passengers, very reassuring. The flight takes about an
hour and you need check in only about 20 minutes before departure. The
first seven or eight rows are reserved for Executive class passengers,
but the seats are just the same throughout the aircraft. Apart from
enjoying better wines and rather elegant canapés and smoked salmon, the
main advantage is the flexibility of departure and last minute changes of schedule.
Speaking of wines, we of the Executive
fraternity drank some very nice white 1995 Burgundy from Jaffelin, and one
of my favourite Riojas - from Martinez Bujanda - the 1994 Conde de Valdemar.
Both were poured from standard 75cl bottles, a move that I am glad to see
more airlines are adopting at last.
If you travel between Monday and Thursday, you can pick up a bargain
return fare of Stg 68.00, which must be about the cheapest way to get to
Dublin. By the way, watch out for the fact that London City Airport is not
on the Docklands Light Railway. I didn't look carefully enough at the tube
map
in the back of my diary, so I got out at Canary Wharf where there is a
shuttle bus to the airport, but I got a taxi, which took a little less
than ten minutes. On the way back, the taxi fare to Waterloo was Stg
15.00, worth it at half past nine in the evening. The taxi to and from the
centre of Dublin costs about IRPounds 12.00.
Cityjet Dublin tel: 01 8445566 Fax 01 8444566
London Tel:0345 445588
Reviews of Central Dublin restaurants
The picture of the table at the Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud appears by kind
permission of The Food and Wine Magazine, a super new magazine for the
gourmet, published in Dublin bi-monthly, price IRpounds 2.50.
If you have eaten out well in Dublin please let us have your comments:
dine@dine-online.co.uk
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