Pre-recessionary prices and unresponsive service don't sit easily together, writes Tom Doorley
NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Restaurant La Bohème,
2 George's Street,
Waterford, tel:
051-875645,
www.labohemerestaurant.ie
I SUPPOSE a lot of us were inclined to giggle when we heard that there is going to be an investigation into why it's so expensive to eat out in Ireland. Regardless of all the hard evidence that it's all down to wages and insurance and what have you, we are still inclined to think: Ask a silly question.
This is Ireland, for heaven's sake! Whatever about the real impediments to value-for-money food in
this dear little island of ours, there's no doubt that Brass Neck Syndrome has its own, perhaps small, role to play.
In a nutshell, it is this. People making a moderate, perhaps even lacklustre, job of what they do and then - follow me closely here - charging top whack, demanding the kind of money that only the top performers come within an ass's roar of justifying.
There is much of this in the restaurant trade, and the telltale signs include the presence of what we might call pre-recessionary prices on the menu. Take, for example, La Bohème, which is in a Waterford basement. Your typical starter costs around €14 to €15. Main courses of lamb and monkfish cost €32.
Take, by contrast, Chapter One, which is in a Dublin basement but has a well-earned Michelin star. Their starters typically cost €16 to €17; a main of halibut is €36, of suckling pig €35. It strikes me that La Bohème has the pre-recessionary prices, while Chapter One is trying hard to keep what they charge in tune with the times in which we live.
At La Bohème we didn't, however, have the a la carte menu. Five of us had the table d'hote - three courses for €29 - and it was quite a mixed bag. A pleasant creme brulee of crab, infused with tarragon, was served with rather too thickly-cut gravad lax and pickled fennel. Fennel featured, too, in a soup, the only outstanding feature of which was its blandness.
In the main courses, there was one redeeming feature: a decent, if rather thin, steak with a proper old-fashioned pepper sauce, for which a supplement of €3 was charged. Why put it on the table d'hote if you're going to do this? And chicken with wild mushrooms was fine, if not exactly finger-licking good.
But, dear God in heaven, what did they do to the haddock? And not just to one example of the
dish, but to all three? I can't be sure, but if I wanted to replicate the texture and the complete absence of flavour, I would start by steaming it for about 30 minutes.
I tend not to complain when reviewing restaurants (on the basis that few of my compatriots are inclined to stick heads over parapets) but I always try to answer direct questions. Such as "was everything alright?" On this occasion, I mentioned that the fish was woefully overcooked. And when I was asked the same question when settling the bill, I said the same. There was absolutely no response on
either occasion. So why ask?
Desserts were pleasant if not particularly memorable. The cheese selection, which some of us had in lieu, was very good, and in very good condition, but was presented in the form of what looked like small forensic samples. I don't doubt that there is talent in the kitchen at La Bohème. But what bamboozles me is how any chef worth his salt can (a) overcook fish to the point of obliteration and (b) then let it
leave the pass.
And how the restaurant team can learn, not once but twice, that a dish (three in this case) was unsatisfactory and neither say nor do anything about it. But what truly beats Banagher is that this happened in a restaurant that is in the habit of charging prices that can only be justified by really expert cooking and solicitous and responsive service.
The bill, which included aperitifs, a lot of water and two bottles of wine, came to €257.70 before service.
THE SMART MONEY
If two of you had the table d'hote, say the crab, the steak and the cheese, plus a bottle of basic
wine and coffee, your bill would break the €100 barrier by the time you add service.
WINE CHOICE"La Boheme's wine list is idiosyncratic and sophisticated". Their words, not mine. And if you feel you have to say that . . . well, it makes one wonder. Pleasant stuff includes Soto Verde
Verdejo (€23 a bottle or €6.50 a glass) and good, old-fashioned Les Amis Chanteuses Côtes du Rhône (€25/€6.75). Domaine de Bel Air Pouilly-Fumé is very fairly priced at €35, as is the very full and almost off-dry Meyer-Fonné Pinot Blanc Vieilles Vignes from Alsace at €30. Whatever about idiosyncratic or sophisticated, it's a very sound list and prices are fair.