What you get at Ouzos is good, decent seafood that has not been ‘cheffed’ about, and at down-to-earth prices
WHEN WE ARE recording RTÉ's The Restaurantat the Wineport Lodge near Athlone, my friend and colleague Paolo Tullio and I enjoy, if that's the word, security that would do justice to President Obama. This is not for our benefit but because every effort is made to avoid us getting even the slightest clue as to the guest chef's identity. Hence, we have to get clearance from the powers-that-be before we are driven speedily to a back door and rushed into an isolated room where we share a bottle or two of mineral water before we are summoned, with much checking and double-checking on walkie-talkies, into the restaurant itself.
As we have often commented to each other, we are so cheerfully out of touch with popular culture that should we stroll past the guest chef, perhaps as he or she has a quick smoke outside, we would merely wish them a good evening and assume that they were an unfamiliar member of the huge team that puts this programme together. (When our pastry chef, Lulu Lennox, compared me to Simon Cowell, I thought she meant Simon Callow).
Anyway, before we get down to doing our good cop/bad cop act, we pause for a chat, not surprisingly about restaurants. Paolo has been urging me for years to visit Ouzos and it’s a measure of my prevarication that it changed location twice before I ran it to earth in its latest incarnation in Dalkey. He’s right. It was well worth the trip.
What you get at Ouzos is good, decent seafood that has not been “cheffed” about, and at down to earth prices – and, if you’re so inclined, a range of similarly straightforward steaks. I used to wonder why we don’t have more seafood restaurants in this country, especially as we catch some of the best marine food in the world off our coasts. But the sad fact is that it’s quite hard to source good fish in Ireland and a lot of what you will find on the fishmonger’s slab (should you be so lucky as to have a fishmonger) is far from local. If fish smells or tastes fishy, it’s not fresh and it’s not fit to be eaten.
So seafood restaurants that are worthy of the name have to work very hard to find proper raw materials. The team at Ouzos get a lot of their fish from Kilkeel in Co Down, which will give you some idea of what is involved.
Anyway, it was a pleasure to eat proper crab claws, simply fried lightly in a citrus and chilli butter, the flesh so sweet and fresh that it all but banished bitter memories of dessicated, frozen ones that crop up all over the place these days and hail from God knows where. In order to avoid physical violence, it was agreed that we both eat the same starter. Dull of us, I know.
I don’t know enough about the production of seafood to be able to tell you why the average scallop is a big, sweaty, white lump of water and protein with all the charm of an overgrown verruca, but I suspect it has something to do with the marvels of food technology whereby we are persuaded to pay good money for H20. The boffins can now inject chicken breasts with water and – this is the devilish bit – a chemical cocktail which keeps the water from leaking out when you cook them. Doubtless the same happens to many a scallop.
Anyway, not the ones at Ouzos which were simply fried on the pan, were firm and meaty and . . . well, scallop-flavoured, amazing as it may seem. They were served with some buttery spinach and baby roast potatoes.
Haddock and chips with tartare sauce was a fine dish. The batter was feather-light and as thin as skin, just enough to add a pleasing crunch. The fish was not overcooked, the chips were vast and, if you can imagine this in a chip, meaty. With a bottle of superb Pinot Gris, mineral water and one cappuccino, the bill for this delightfully simple and rather lovely meal came to €106.50, service included.
THE SMART MONEY
You can have the crab claws and the fish and chips for a total of €21.95 if you eat before 7pm.
WINE CHOICE
I’m not generally a fan of wine lists from a single supplier as this one is, but there was plenty to keep me happy. The lovely Schlumberger Pinot Gris Les Princes Abbés (€38) was a bit of an extravagance but worth it if only to show how this grape, better known as Pinot Grigio, can sometimes make utterly seductive white wines. Swallow’s Tail Sauvignon/Chenin Blanc (€19.95) is delicate and not too pungent, while La Bascula Monastrell/Syrah is a spicy, Spanish whopper. Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico (€36) is full yet elegant, while Domaine Chante Cigale Châteauneuf-du-Pape (€58) is even fuller and wonderfully complex. Chilean varietals from Emiliana are sound value at €23 but €180 for Château Lynch Bages 2003 is a relic of the Celtic Tiger era.