Dillinger's: Fresh Mint takes root
Dillinger's, 47 Ranelagh Road, Dublin
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This has been a more gastronomic week than usual for me. It began in The Ritz-Carlton with a meal at the chef's table. I'm on record as saying that I would be surprised if this establishment survived 2009, but it looks as though I was wrong.
Earlier this year, I felt that if Gordon Ramsay needed another candidate for his Kitchen Nightmares then he might have done well to start in Enniskerry with the restaurant that bears his name. Well, it seems that he has turned his attention to it -- about time, he didn't even show up for the opening -- and things are definitely looking up.
There's a new head chef at the helm, Jonathan MacIver, and, at his invitation, some of Dublin's best chefs and a couple of restaurant reviewers were gathered to taste his new menu. Derry Clarke, Ed Cooney and Ross Lewis were the chefs; Ross Golden Bannon and I were the reviewers, and some of the hotel's suppliers of luxury foods were there as well. Hand on heart, it was a very fine meal and quite changed my mind about the place.
Also, the new sommelier really did her job very well, choosing wines that complemented the food. Let's be clear, this place ain't cheap: the four-course chef's surprise menu is €85, the menu 'Prestige' is €95 and a seven-course chef's surprise is €130. These are Michelin-star prices and this place doesn't have one, but if they can keep up the standard of the food we got this week, they could well get one. I'll go back again to check it out.
My next foodie outing was to be a mushroom hunt with Antonio Carluccio down in Wicklow. On the day, he got held up doing TV stuff and he arrived in Annamoe for dinner instead. It's not often that a restaurant reviewer gets to cook for a chef, but I had some good ingredients to play with. Pancetta from Italy, some really good aged pecorino Romano and fresh eggs from my own hens meant I could make him a proper carbonara. Did he like it? Well, he went for seconds, so I think he must have. When he left, we promised to exchange our respective books on mushrooms.
Now, did you wonder what happened to Mint after it closed amid the melt-down earlier this year? Well, wonder no more: it's reopened as Dillinger's, and Temple Garner -- who was executive chef for Town, South and The Bridge Bar -- is cheffing and John Farrell from Il Primo is doing front of house. That's a formidable amount of expertise, so I was expecting good things when I went to eat there. They only accept reservations for large groups, so I decided I'd just turn up with Gill Hall and see what happened. Last time we tried that in Ranelagh we ended up waiting for ages to get a table in Eatery 120. As luck would have it, there was one empty table when we arrived, so we got that.
What was surprising about finding it so full was not just the fact it was mid-week, but the fact it had only been open for just over a week. Does word of mouth really spread so fast? We sat down and looked around. The first thing you notice is that the seating arrangement has changed to fit in more tables. As Mint, this room sat about 36, which is generally accepted as being not enough seats to be viable. It now seats about 50, obviously with less space between the tables, but commercially more sensible.
It has a new look, too. If I were to use shorthand to describe it, I'd say it has a New York eatery feel about it -- some white 'metro' tiles on the walls, brushed steel tables and seats that are comfortable for about an hour. All of these hard edges make it noisy -- my Decibel Meter app gave me an average reading of just under 90 decibels, noisy enough to make it necessary to shout at Gill across the table. The menu and wine list use 'Courier', the mono-spaced typewriter font, and they're printed on lined paper to look as though it had been done on a Gestetner copier. For the historians among you, that was how multiple copies were made before the photocopier was invented. It had the effect of being retro, while at the same time being very cutting-edge design.
Appealing as that was, it was the content that was more interesting. Temple Garner's menu has echoes of Town, with dishes that are modern and quite robust. There's more than a touch of America on the menu -- New England crab cakes, Manhattan clam chowder and Tex-Mex chilli. Maybe it's just that, after a year of special offers in restaurants, my idea of pricing has changed, but at first glance the menu looked more expensive than I would have expected. For example, a pork belly starter is €7 and calves' liver and mash is €19. On the other hand, the half-pound burger for €14.50 and the whole roast sea bream for €19 looked like better value.
The wine list is short enough, but it does have one novel twist. There are six house wines that Dillinger's imports directly -- three reds and three whites -- and they are labelled in big integers, 1, 2 and 3. One is cheap, two is decent and three is good, and they're priced accordingly, from €20 to €26. The wine snob in me wouldn't let me order a wine by a number, so we had a Grüner Veltliner from Austria, listed at €26. Three bottles of mineral water at €10.50 completed our drinks.
Gill doesn't eat meat, but there was plenty on the menu that she could enjoy. We started with the whipped goats' cheese for Gill and the devilled eggs for me, and we followed with sea bream for Gill and the fish of the day, hake, for me. The starters came and I noticed that you don't get given bread here. I didn't see it on the menu as an extra either, so maybe they've decided to dispense with the stuff. Pity, I rather like bread with my meals.
Gill's whipped goats' cheese was really very good, a soft consistency and a great taste. My devilled eggs were okay -- that's the dish when you take out the yolk of boiled eggs, mash it up with flavourings and then put it back in the hollow -- but not remarkable. I really preferred Gill's choice.
We both got very well-presented fish dishes for our main courses, and I liked how both of them were prepared.
For dessert we had a well-made pannacotta for Gill and a lemon sorbet for me, both of which we liked. Two good espressos finished up a good meal with very quick and attentive service. Our bill came to €105.50 without service charge.
Food 8/10
Ambience 7/10
Value for money 8/10
TOTAL 23/30
25-30 = Excellent
20-25 = Good
15-20 = Fair
0-15 = Poor
Dillinger's, 47 Ranelagh Road, Dublin.
Tel. 01-497 8010
Read Paolo at www.tasteofireland.ie
email: paolo@independent.ie
- Paolo Tullio
Irish Independent
