Twist on a classic butty that left me feeling quite chipper...

Being the product of a rather sheltered upbringing, it was only when I went to university that I encountered the chip butty, thanks to some more worldly friends. This involved a walk up Dublin’s Dame Street to Leo Burdock’s landmark fish and chip shop where everything was, and still is to this day, cooked in beef dripping.

Having acquired the chips, we would take a piece of sliced pan – the stuff that barely qualifies as bread, to be honest – and apply liberal quantities of softened butter followed by a handful of well seasoned chips and, follow me closely here, fold the slice over on itself. My friends were purists in this respect and had no time for the alternative form, in which two slices of well-buttered bread act as a base and lid for the chips.

I can’t say that I’ve had a chip butty – at least until the other day – since my early postgraduate days at TCD, but this classic form remains, for me, the gold standard.

Now, let me say very clearly that I liked Kiely’s, the resurrection of a legendary Cork chipper that dates from 1940, but I’m still in a state of mild shock at what constitutes a chip butty there.

But first, the chips. They may not be fried in beef dripping – such a process is alas a rarity these days – but they are very good indeed. This is just as well, because chips do take centre stage at Kiely’s.

They are hand-cut on the premises – another rarity – probably from Maris Pipers and fried until splendidly crisp outside and fluffy within. And it’s not just the textures, the flavour is first rate too. Chips, as I say, take centre stage and this is underlined on the menu in which most dishes lead with chips, for example, ‘Homemade chips, 56 hour sous vide beef stew, crispy shallot’ and ‘Homemade chips, pulled chicken Thai curry, radish, chilli sesame seeds’. I am now kicking myself that I didn’t try these and I’m sorely tempted to go back for them.

Not only are the chips very good, so is the batter, as in the crisply encased haddock with tartare sauce (€11.50), perfectly cooked, the crunch of the exterior giving way to moist flakes of fish.

Seafood croquettes (€7.50 for two) were not, alas, in the same league. There’s a mixture of minced fish, rather on the dry side, encased in crisp breadcrumbs. Not bad, but not good either.

We saw rather a lot of them because, of course, we ordered them with their accompanying tartare sauce. Then they reappeared – if only I had read the menu properly – in the chip butty (€11.50). Yes, you read that correctly: in the chip butty, with chips on the side.

True, the Cuthbert’s white sliced pan is very superior sliced pan. The coleslaw was fine, the wedge of lime was as good as any, but this was not a chip butty within the meaning of the act. Or is this a Cork thing? Another example of the great divide between Cork and Dublin?

I asked a handful of Corkonians most of whom said ‘I wouldn’t know’. I suppose they may have

THE CHIPS ARE HAND-CUT ON THE PREMISES AND THE FLAVOUR IS FIRST RATE

been from the wrong part of town. Anyway, it was a tasty sandwich, notwithstanding the dryness of the croquettes which was somewhat compensated for by an abundance of mayonnaise.

The fine tempura batter makes another appearance in the form of ‘prawn scampi’ accompanied by a drizzling of togarashi mayonnaise flavoured with various Japanese spices. Strictly speaking, scampi are Dublin Bay prawns (Nephrops norvegicus to be precise) and these were not; unsurprisingly, given the €15.50 price tag. Dublin Bay prawns are very expensive. Nevertheless, this was a decent dish.

I watched a YouTube video of the old Kiely’s, where the eponymous Mattie reigned, as it closed in 2007. The people of Cork were loud in the praise of his chips, but there was precious little mention of fish. In Ireland we have perhaps the best seafood in the world, but we’re not terribly keen on eating it. The only fish, as such, on offer in the new Kiely’s is the haddock.

I wonder if there’s scope for more? Perhaps Kiely’s knows the market it is serving and goes easy on the creatures of the deep. Perhaps it’s the long hangover from compulsory fish on Fridays, something that the Spanish don’t suffer from. Pope Pius V thanked them for their help at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 by letting them off Friday abstinence in perpetuity. Hence the Spanish have never regarded fish as penance (and trawl happily off the Irish coast for it).

Kiely’s has a good chef in Meeran Manzoor and a progressive owner in The Blue Haven of Kinsale, so maybe the menu will develop.

Surely most people like salt and chilli squid, for example? And maybe a little crab salad? Not everything needs to be fried, even in a chipper. Well, a superior chipper, as Kiely’s certainly is.