Various restaurants in Cork and Dublin
Cork and Dublin, Ireland
Tasted March 7, 2011 - March 12, 2011 by honest bob with 387 views
Introduction
The times when eating out in Ireland was more a necessity than a pleasure are long gone. People became choosy and knowledgeable during the economic boom, at least in the larger conurbations, and all the restaurants (and coffee shops and tea rooms) we visited during our trip offered a professional standard of service and cooking. Admittedly, we went to some trouble to ask locally for recommendations. Despite the recession, there still seems to be plenty of custom and prices are high by German, let alone by USA standards: think London and you may be pleasantly surprised when the bill comes. All the restaurants named below required reservations for the 7:00-7:30pm slot even during the week; although we did get tables on two occasions as walk-in customers after 8:30pm, this would have been hopeless at Greene's or Dax at the weekend.
Flight 1 - Isaacs Restaurant, Cork (1 note)
Bustling bistro-style restaurant with friendly, professional service. Limited choice of well-prepared simple dishes; huge portions at moderate prices. Don't expect gourmet cuisine, the style is more like home cooking. Poor wine list, basically a collection of odd bottles at off-licence level with a 150% markup; perhaps put together for the restaurant by a local wholesaler?
Flight 2 - Isaacs Restaurant, Cork (1 note)
We went back a second evening, having failed to get into Greene's next door without a reservation.
Flight 3 - Greene's Restaurant, Cork (1 note)
Definitely a cut above Isaacs in quality and price. Superb fresh scallops, but - alas - a distincly mediocre, pasty vanilla crème brulée reminiscent of Irish food in the bad old days. On the other side of the table, however, the "Death by Chocolate" went down in two minutes flat and evidently caused great pleasure. Unexiting wine list with a hefty markup, not made any better by the poor advice from our waitress. Caveat emptor!
Flight 4 - Imperial Hotel, Cork (1 note)
Once past the stunningly beautiful coffee room, bar and reception area, the restaurant itself is a bit of a let down - late 80s glitz-chic almost worthy of an Austin Powers movie. Our fresh fish was competently prepared, no more. Another wine list that looks as if it was put together by the local liquor wholesaler.
Flight 5 - Dax Restaurant, Dublin (2 notes)
This expensive restaurant was booked out the whole evening, evidently by regular customers. Our generous hosts had booked well in advance, but the earliest reservation available was 8:30pm. The style is stealth wealth: small portions of simple and rather bland food for a well-heeled local clientele who don't have to prove anything, know what they like, and have no desire to be surprised. All our dishes were pure but distinctly underflavoured. The amuse geule set the scene: bland butternut squash soup, nothing more, nothing less. My crab mousse tasted of fresh brine, yes, but lacked natural sweetness and an authentic texture (from the mouth feel it could have been tuna mousse). The scallops were professionally seared, but too small to be really sexy, again lacking their natural sweetness and served with two very spartan twigs of broccolli and some turnip in cream sauce... Desserts included what looked like a model professional soufflé, a bland chocolate cake... all seemed to lack the wow factor as did the cheese board (€16, and a thousand miles away from the glories of la belle France). Fittingly, my double espresso was almost an americano and the petits fours were so delicately flavoured (marshmallow...) they practically vanished.
The wine list is lovingly put together and shows a real intelligence at work. No trophy wines, unless you could Yquem 1996 (€288/37,5cl); some wonderful classic bottles at a price - like Lynch Bages 1996 (€345!); a fine selection of Burgundy, especially whites in the €60-€150 range; a very interesting collection of minor regional French bottles starting at under €40, which is where I would have started had I been choosing myself.