Neighbourhood nosh

IN the future, the not too distant future, every neighbourhood will have a restaurant like Popjoys, the new collaboration between manager John Coleman and chef Warren Massey, which sits a few doors up from the crossroads at Terenure, in Dublin 6W.

This will mean that every neighbourhood will have a smart room where you will nevertheless feel comfortable in jeans and a jumper, and where you can also feel comfortable with your big hair and your gadabout friends on a Saturday night.

You will feel comfortable bringing the kids in for lunch, even dinner, and you will feel comfortable entertaining clients over a lazy lunch. And, of course, when it's that anniversary/a birthday/family celebration, this is the place you will book.

All this in one place? Surely that's a bit much to be asking?

Well, not really. A good, professional restaurant should be someplace you feel comfortable in, whatever your objective, and Popjoy's is a good restaurant. It's a good restaurant not just because the cooking is good and the staff know their stuff, but because it feels right. You walk in the door, and straightaway it feels right.

It has no pretentions other than to be a good restaurant in a neighbourhood where it will be appreciated, where its owners can do their job well and earn a good crust. It doesn't want to change the world, and it isn't powered by theatrical egos or star chasing vain glory. It's just a good, professional restaurant, and like the other good neighbourhood restaurants which cater expertly for their customers, it is destined for considerable success.

That success will be built on the foundations of good food and good service.

Warren Massey knows how to cook: he was the youngest finalist in the Bord Bia competition earlier this year (giving every one else in the competition a couple of decades or more) and his style might be described as modern conservative.

If that sounds like a contradiction, in practice it makes for good food. His menu is composed almost exclusively of classic dishes - potato and watercress soup; scallops with lemon and garlic; Caesar salad; rack of lamb with confit of onion and garlic; rabbit with prunes in a pie; chicken with cabbage and bacon; skate with black butter and capers; beef with mushroom puree and fried potatoes.

These combinations are tried and trusted, and Mr Massey then makes sure he gets them right. The Caesar salad was spot on, the dressing perfectly unctuous, and another starter of fried goat's cheese with a roasted red pepper dressing was equally precise, with the red pepper sublimely sweet.

The beef, likewise, was a definition of what the dish should be about - punchy flavours which coalesce to make something amiably comforting - and only the rabbit and prune pie showed the shortcomings of a kitchen which is still in the business of perfecting its act. The ingredients of the pie hadn't acquired that meld and mix of flavours it needed, and the celery used was too dominant.

DESSERTS were absolutely knockout, a creme brulee with a compote of fruit was magically good, and a warm apricot and almond tart was crumbly and beautifully balanced. The prices won't hurt anyone, with starters between £2.75 and £4.50, main courses just above and below a tenner, and deserts around four quid. The wine list is well priced, and I look forward to when it becomes a little more funky and modern.

While all this is going on the plate, John Coleman applies similar expertise to the front of house. He will be well known to many as the man who manned upstairs in Roly's, in Ballsbridge, where Mr Massey worked in the kitchen. Like his former employer, he can manage to pour you a glass of wine on the way to clearing a table, just before he shakes hands with a punter and takes a booking over the phone for 17 for Thursday week.

Like Roly Saul, his secret appears to be that he loves his job, and knowing that he is very good at it fills him with confidence. Greeting, meeting, orchestrating; all these acts are subsumed into a meticulous ballet which you immediately take for granted.

On a Tuesday night, there were many taking it for granted. The big family party upstairs with the young boys anxious to know the score of the Man Utd match. The anniversary couple with the bubbly in the bucket. The couple at the next table who didn't even need to look at the menu before ordering their dinner. The quartets and quintets of families.

Local folk, in the local place, all of them comfortable as could be. Every neighbourhood needs a place like this, and every neighbourhood should have one. In the meantime, however, Popjoys is likely to be adopted by every neighbourhood from Terenure to Rathfarnham, from Rathgar to Tallaght.