A dear friend I used to work with years ago had the innate art of trotting out well-seasoned nuggets with aplomb. “Don’t buy a dog and bark yourself,” the harsh but fair translation from the school of Karen Brady on The Apprentice being: experts know better than you do, sunshine. Listen up.
So when Mark Moriarty, the chef who was crowned Best Young Chef in the World in 2015, rattled off the places he most likes to eat on his Instagram account, I took note, and promptly booked Oliveto in Dún Laoghaire, which had been on my must-visit list for quite some time.
It is an Italian restaurant, in a hotel, with no Italian chef, which are not the elements I’d be putting together for a photofit of my dream Italian meal, but the Best Young Chef must have a reason.
The menu takes a classic Italian route – small plates, pasta and main courses, as well as a choice of seven pizzas. Similarly, the wine list is predominantly Italian and classic. There are no low intervention bottles but there is a good showing of well-respected names that don’t attract extortionate prices. Crowd pleasers come by the glass, carafe and bottle, and there is plenty to love below the €40 mark. The Saladini Pilastro Falerio (€34), a crisp white, fits the bill for the evening.
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We have ordered focaccia (€6.50), along with two other small plates, which we soon discover is a splendid idea as it allows us to mop up the delicious sauces on the starters and main courses. The squid (€13) is lightly seared, just enough to ensure that it is beautifully tender, and comes with quite a few sauces – dabs of slate coloured squid ink which has just the right amount of power, a green puree of three-cornered leek, and a lemon and garlic aioli that brings beautiful acidity to the dish. Nothing is strident, it all works together.
The Hegarty’s cheese risotto (€12) is not the most technically brilliant example I’ve ever had – there is no extended wait, so I don’t imagine that it’s been cooked to order – but it is certainly one of the tastiest. Roast butternut squash, frazzled sage and toasted hazelnuts bring texture, crunch and layers of flavour to the creamy cheese flavours in the sump of rice.
For main course, pan fried lemon sole (€28) arrives with sides of the most divine roast potatoes, jagged, crunchy, and too many to finish; and a very fresh Castelfranco salad, radicchio in a citrus dressing. The sole is spectacular. It’s on the bone, the frill has been trimmed, so there’s no potential small bone danger. It turns out to be exactly the dish that I feel like eating. Fresh, clean fish flavours with the richness of a generous amount of butter balanced nicely with a snap of acidity from the capers. A few clams and mussels are on the plate are probably not necessary, but they too are good, as long as you get to them immediately before they cool.
The agnolotti (€22) is the least successful dish of the evening. It may have been that the stuffed pasta has been sitting out on the bench for too long, and has dried out a bit too much, so the seams are quite hard. But the sauce is good and the focaccia is once again called upon to do its thing.
For dessert we keep it simple, as there’s little room left. We have a clementine sorbet (€5), so lip puckeringly citrus that at this temperature, it invites brain freeze, and an affogato (€6), which comes with the coffee served separately so that you can manage the speed at which it merges with the home-made vanilla ice-cream and becomes something to be drunk rather than eaten. A very fine Ricciarelli biscuit on the side is a nice touch.
Oliveto is the sort of restaurant where you muse at the end, think of all of your mates who would love it, and decide we must come back again with them. The food is beautifully cooked, and the kitchen, led by Barry O’Neill who spent time in L’Autre Pied in London, then Bastible and Clanbrassil House, certainly knows how to manage flavours, and everything feels generous and welcoming. It is, I would imagine, the sort of relaxing place that an off-duty chef might enjoy. Just as well that some of them are happy to share their secrets.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine and an inclusive 10 per cent service charge was €139.70
- Verdict 8.5/10 – the ideal neighbourhood restaurant
- Facilities Smart and spacious
- Music 1980s disco
- Food provenance Higgins Butchers, Sustainable Seafood, Glenmar, McNally's, Artisan Foods
- Vegetarian options Eight of the 12 small plates are vegetarian, 10 are meat free. For mains, vegetarian pasta could be agnolotti or similar and there are vegetarian pizzas. Dishes can be adapted for vegan diets
- Wheelchair access Room is accessible and there is an accessible toilet
