Sorry to the blood-thirsty among you. Here’s another good review – this time for a bistro in Drogheda
MORE GOOD NEWS, I’m afraid. I realise, from some readers’ e-mails, that there is a certain hunger out there for scathing comments on the establishment under scrutiny in any given week. And I know, too, that some people find relentlessly positive restaurant reviews a bit like the Atkins diet – fine for a while, but it just gets too cloying in the end.
Oh yes, and the word “grub”. There are some readers who are deeply offended by my use of such slang, but it just keeps slipping out. I have been told that this word displays a lack of reverence for food. Really? Listen, if you want to see real irreverence for food, go into your average restaurant or cafe where it’s just a commodity, where there’s no soul, no enthusiasm and, presumably, a whole lot of customers who could be eating styrofoam for all the interest they have in the pleasures of the table.
Okay, I’ll do my best. But if the occasional “grub” intrudes I can assure you it’s not meant disrespectfully. And I’ll do my damnedest not to say “pudding” for dessert, because this causes some people to stick pins in a wax effigy of me.
Anyway, more good news. And in Drogheda to boot. Now, don’t run away with the idea that d’Vine is Louth’s epicentre of haute cuisine. Thank heaven it’s not. This is a little restaurant that does proper, chunky food and plenty of characterful wines. It may have a naff name, but don’t let that worry you. It’s a little gem. When every town in Ireland has a place like this we will be well on our way.
The way it works is this: the menu has salads, platters and various forms of bruschetta; the blackboard shows the cooked dishes, which vary from day to day.
We merged a couple of platters and so ended up with a remarkable collection: Parma ham, salami, mortadella, grilled peppers, Parmesan, mozzarella, grilled aubergine and artichokes, a lovely form of Italian dressed beans (can’t remember the word), olives and duck pâté. Wow! And we had three dips: tapenade, pesto and something red peppery. My only whinge is that the bread was pretty ordinary. Really crusty, unbleached pain de campagne would really lift the experience. Restaurants can buy excellent par-baked frozen bread these days. But they can also, of course, buy complete pap.
Not having realised that this would be quite enough for two normal humans, we moved on to main courses. One of the things I like about the food here is that it is straightforward. Most of it can easily be done at home – but the fun is that you don’t have to.
A Lyonnaise salad is a case in point: a combination of good salad leaves, lardons of bacon, croutons, baby tomatoes, a tangy dressing and – the perfect finishing touch – an impeccably poached egg, which bathes the whole affair in its rich, slightly sticky yolk. Very simple, very good.
Cod baked in a sauce of tomato and red pepper was essentially good home cooking of the Thursday supper kind – and there are an awful lot of restaurants of which we can’t say that.
D’Vine is run by Sonia Micallef, whose ancestry is French, Italian and Maltese – which, when you think about it, is a good start in this business. No wonder the food here works. There’s no showing off and it seems to be the food that she herself likes to eat.
The baking, by Julie-Ann Aspel, is quite exceptional. There’s a brilliant orange cake, which, very properly, the staff don’t tell you is gluten-free and dairy-free until you’ve eaten it. Since they have stopped advertising the peculiar virtues of this confectionery, sales have soared. I would never have guessed.
The bill – and they forgot to add the orange cake and an espresso – came to €68, including four generous glasses of wine.
tdoorley@irishtimes.com
THE SMART MONEY
Mixed antipasti, two glasses of wine, two coffees, and the pair of you will get out for under €25.
Read Megabites, Tom Doorley’s blog on all things foodie, at irishtimes.com/blogs/megabites
