Who’s the pick of the year? I’d put a couple of squid on Uno Mas!
IT struck me the other day that I’ve been doing this job since 1994. I realise, with a certain amount of shock, that this makes next year my jubilee or whatever you call a quarter of a century in harness. And you know what?
I reckon this has been the best year to date; the year in which I’ve eaten better than ever before, and, I should stress, not only at the posh end of the spectrum.
There was the staggeringly affordable €14.95 three-course menu at Romano’s on Capel Street in January. February saw me visit Bang Café on Merrion Row, a restaurant still surprisingly below the radar but where I had one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten; not surprising as it was from Peter Hannan, the Archbishop of Beef.
March was marked by an outstanding dinner at Lock’s in Portobello, always one of the city’s loveliest dining rooms and now with superb cooking. ‘This is immensely skilled and disciplined cooking based on exceptional raw materials,’ I wrote. ‘And it’s done and served with no fuss, no bells and whistles. All the talking, if you like, is done on the plate.’
April was the month I revisited Etto on Merrion Row, having decided that restaurant critics are too obsessed with the new. This is the restaurant where the city’s best chefs go on their night off, and I can see why. The cooking is simple and brilliant and the wine list sensational.
Simple is the keynote at the restaurant that was the highlight of May, Klaw Seafood Café in Temple Bar. As is the enthusiasm of the young staff who are veritable missionaries. Tumblers of Albariño and messy fingers. Heaven.
JUNE saw me lunching at Glover’s Alley, pictured, and all I can say is that Michelin is now beyond a joke having failed to award Andy McFadden a star. I described his food as ‘having small explosions of startlingly pure and assertive flavours forming a kind of minefield of delight with all of the other elements on the plate.’
I also had the cheapest and one of the most impressive meals of the year at 3 Leaves in Blackrock where a stunning Indian lunch yielded a bill of precisely €20.
In July, I returned to Luna, now with its new chef, Vish Sumputh, from Chapter One. I was glad to see he had kept the spaghetti with truffle that costs €30. ‘Was it worth €30?,’ I wrote. ‘Look, I’ve spent more than €30 on boring steaks and tarted up fish. Of course, it was worth it.’ In July, too, I enjoyed crazily cheap and good seafood with remarkably affordable Chablis at L’Escale in Schull in the company of Trish Deseine. Then back to Dublin for the seriously upgraded food that Graeme Dodrill has brought to Peploe’s on St Stephen’s Green.
‘Everett’s is a gem,’ I wrote of the newly opened restaurant in Waterford in July. ‘Everett’s is about… the transformation of good raw materials into something that lives on in memory long after the last forkful has been swallowed.’ Yes, that good.
August was a fairly fallow month, but I ate well on the terrace of The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford. In September I had one of those simply perfect lunches that occasionally just seem to happen, this time at Pichet. Simply and perfect being the operative words. I could also add ‘great value’.
The following month saw a visit to Campagne in Kilkenny for Sunday lunch that was, frankly, sublime. And, again, great value. It’s a restaurant that constantly innovates and wears its Michelin star very lightly and informally.
Speaking of Michelin stars, October’s highlight was lunch at One Pico in Dublin. I mean how can Michelin possibly justify not giving the gong to this venerable institution where ‘the quiet, calmly efficient, ultra-professional dining room is somewhere to which you can retreat, and imagine yourself miles away from the bustle of the Dublin streets that are only metres away.’ Ciaran McGill’s cooking, too, is ace.
October also saw me causing controversy by suggesting that the pizza at Woodfire Café on Blessington Street just shaded the excellent ones at Pi on George’s Street. November, meanwhile, brought me, once more, to Dublin 7 and the generous, American-inspired cooking at Loretta’s, and also to Dalkey where the eponymous Duck is doing good things and being very generous in terms of wine pricing.
December saw one of the most joyful dining experiences of the year with the opening of Uno Mas on Aungier Street, from the people who brought us Etto. Suffice it to say that this outing featured the best squid I have ever tasted anywhere.
So what was the best eating of the year? The contenders have to Etto, Pichet, Campagne, Everett’s and Uno Mas. It’s impossible to choose but that squid is calling to me as I write…