EATING OUT: This Dublin restaurant shows promise, writes Tom Doorley.
Lots of interesting facts have been emerging from the avalanche of readers' e-mails comparing the cost of eating here to prices on the Continent. It seems that it's substantially cheaper to eat out in Nice than in Dublin, for example, and the going rate for an espresso in Europe is 85 cent. Having encountered my first €5 espresso doppio in Swords, of all places, a couple of years ago, words fail me. As they do at the news of a single slice of toasted bread (a.k.a. bruschetta) for €8.95 in a so-called Italian restaurant in Dublin 2.
Meanwhile, several readers have kindly pointed me in the direction of The Montague restaurant in Dublin as a source of reasonably priced grub, and I have to agree that it shows some promise. The Montague does a roaring trade at lunchtime, but the evenings seem to be a different matter. When I arrived for dinner recently, the only other diners were a group of just-landed Australian backpackers who were trying to come to terms with the shock of no-smoking pubs and restaurants.
The Montague certainly seems to avoid the worst excesses of Irish restaurant pricing, and the food - that mix of styles that we now expect when eating out - isn't bad. Indeed, a tomato and basil soup was very good indeed, fortified and thickened with a touch of carrot purée I think, and topped with a swirl of emerald green olive oil infused with the herb. What appealed here was that this was a thoughtful soup and not an afterthought. It had a wholesome sweetness and a degree of body.
Bread was no great shakes, however. While it wasn't the usual pap that passes for baguette in this part of the world, it was rather too airy and lacking in substance. Being generously flavoured with dried mixed herbs didn't help. When will we learn that good bread - the sort of stuff that takes effort to pull apart - is the staff of life and doesn't need tarting up.
A slice of the same stuff, toasted, provided the platform for a decent mushroom bruschetta: expensive yellow chanterelles bulked up with less expensive, but nevertheless tasty oyster mushrooms and shittake, all fairly liberally doused with garlicky butter. The topping took the harm out of the bread.
Main courses were, essentially, good bistro cooking. A perfectly à point piece of cod, pan-fried, was set amid a shallow pool of Puy lentils bathed in a creamy sauce, liberally spiked with fresh coriander. Had it been a little sharper it would have hit the spot. Some diced potato, nicely crisp, provided a good counterpoint, suggesting that this dish had been thought through. Well, almost.
Thick slices of smoked Gubbeen bacon are always welcome. Pairing them with French mustard and buttery cabbage is a sound plan and, indeed, admirably simple. However, the devil is in the detail. This theoretically excellent dish was let down in several respects. For a start, the white Dutch cabbage was coarse, stalky and underdone. The problem with this sort of cabbage is that it's virtually impossible to do well. It's either uncomfortably chewy or stinkingly mushy. Much better to use prettier, more delicate Savoy cabbage, finely sliced, or even spring greens which, despite the name, are available year round.
I love Meaux mustard (often as one part mustard to one part sausage) but it seemed that a whole potful had been slightly thinned and poured on to the plate as sauce. Bacon is salty enough without this assault on the tastebuds. Why not use it more sparingly and more subtly? Decent mash came as a side dish.
A warm chocolate sponge pudding was dark, quite intense and moist, with ground almonds, served with outstanding hazelnut ice cream. One espresso and a bottle of wine brought the bill to €75.90. A sharper wine list and a little more thought in the kitchen could turn this little restaurant, just down the lane opposite the old National Children's Hospital, into something quite special. u tdoorley@irish-times.ie
The Montague, 4b Montague Street, Dublin 2 (01-4781600)
WINE CHOICE
The 15-bottle list is due for revision shortly and not before time. I love short selections - provided they are carefully constructed, but this one looks as if it was chosen at random from one supplier. Our Torres Santa Digna Cabernet (€19.95) was as dependable as ever. House wine, Cepage d'Or, is €17.50. Torres Sangre de Toro and Viña Sol are both €19.50, while the dearest wine, Chablis Durup, is €32.75. Some daft tasting notes: the house red has "great depth of sombre flavours" while the white has an "alert style", no less, "with vibrant fruit and finely tuned acidity".