Could this be the best steakhouse in Dublin?
DAWSON STREET in Dublin has an unhappy history as far as celebrity cheffing is concerned. Remember Jean-Christophe Novelli’s ill-fated and very tangential relationship with La Stampa? Celebrity chefs are busy people, so just because the name is above the door, it doesn’t mean they spend much time there. Gordon Ramsay, for example, pays less than regular visits to the eponymous establishment at Powerscourt.
I don’t know how much time Marco Pierre White is going to put in to Fitzers’ newly-rebranded and reinvigorated restaurant in Dawson Street, but he has fewer commitments than his former friend, Ramsay. Mind you, his new TV series, The Chopping Block, is getting rave reviews in the US, where they seem to be relishing an alternative to the ubiquitous Ramsay. The New York Times has described White as “the Chuck Berry of swashbuckling cuisine”. And of course he will be back soon in a new series of Hell’s Kitchen.
So I was sceptical, but as soon as I was handed the menu, printed on one big card, and saw that everything is very simple – steaks, pies, roasts, potted shrimps, oysters, kipper pate, that sort of thing – I detected the first green shoots of optimism.
On the other hand, I couldn’t help wondering why Fitzers couldn’t just do a menu like this off its own bat, rather than paying what I imagine is a lot of money to the smouldering Mr White.
By the time I had eaten, I had worked it out. Very few Irish restaurants would – to employ the kind of phrase that is part of the celebrity chef’s argot – have the balls to offer a menu like this.
We shared a rather mingy portion of potted brown shrimps. Potted shrimps, for me, should be cold, with a layer of clarified butter on top. The cold shrimps then melt on hot toast and, well, it’s gorgeous. MPW does not agree and serves them warm. On this occasion I had to wonder why they had not just been stir-fried in butter. Anyway, I really think they should switch from sliced pan to batch loaf with this; better bread while retaining the down-to-earth note.
Enthusiasm somewhat dented, we pushed on. In how many places can you get a perfectly cooked rib-eye steak with immaculate flavour, crisp shoestring frites and proper Béarnaise? Note the words “perfectly” and “immaculate”. Do you see what I’m getting at? The 10oz version I had weighed in at €22, chips and sauce included. I have paid more for what appeared to be the slowly steamed soles of Wellington boots.
Spatchcock chicken was as good as the steak: grilled until just done, crisp outside and still moist within, heavily scented with thyme and lemon. It came with exceptionally meaty little chipolata sausages and added up to something that could have satisfied two hungry people. At €18.95, I thought it offered very sound value, even though side dishes, if you could manage them, are extra. Our salad of baby spinach leaves was fresh and properly dressed.
And then, strange to relate, a creme brulee that was just that. No raspberries, no pistachios, no chocolate, just proper, old-fashioned creme brulee, with a crisp top and a perfect, just firm enough, texture inside. And equally proper and equally old-fashioned rice pudding, served rather incongruously in a cocktail glass, with real raspberry jam. Pure comfort. And a considerable degree of joy.
No, there are not many restaurants with the courage to deliver a menu based on the very sound theory that less is more; that a good kitchen is much better off cooking that steak of mine rather than mucking about with all manner of fashionable, cheffy malarkey. So, I take my hat off to the Smouldering One, for bringing something like this to Dawson Street.
This is a big restaurant and on the evening of our visit it had been open for only a fortnight. There was no record of our booking, dirty glasses lingered on the bar for a little longer than they should, service involved the occasional conversation-severing interruption, but the whole operation will doubtless become slicker. But I’m sure the rather irritating upselling will go on (“would you like caviar with that?” Sorry, I exaggerate).
Leaving aside service and including two glasses of white wine and a bottle of red, the cost of our meal came to €107.10.
WINE CHOICE
The list kicks off at €24 for the crisp Château Haut-Rian from Bordeaux and the fragrant Domaine de Terre Mégère from Languedoc. Favourites include Basa Rueda (€31), Plozner Pinot Grigio (€34), Château Haut- Rian Rosé (€26), and Rioja La Montessa Crianza (€32).
THE SMART MONEY
A lunch special of smoked haddock and poached egg with a glass of white Bordeaux would come to €18.95. At dinner, calves’ liver and bacon with a glass of Merlot weighs in at €22.95.
Tom Doorleys new blog on all things foodie, at www.irishtimes.com/blogs/megabites/