Up above the pub

A cosy new city centre restaurant serves Irish country house cooking – and not in the dormer bungalow sense, writes TOM DOORLEY

THE PACE OF restaurant openings may have slowed down but isn’t it interesting how the general scarcity of moolah means many of those brave souls who do open up are now giving us what we want? That is, good food and wine at prices that don’t make us wince.

The man behind Oliver’s Eatery in Terenure and La Maison in town has struck again. In his new restaurant, located above that fine old purveyor of pints, O’Brien’s in Leeson Street, he has created a kind of half-way house between the gastropub feel of Terenure and the slick French brasserie at La Maison.

He is Olivier (not, confusingly, Oliver) Quenet, who is no relation of Enda Quenet, who immolated a defenceless piece of Moy salmon on TV’s The Restaurant and, in his shame, Anglicised his name and went on to lead the Fine Gael party.

The new restaurant is cosy in an old-fashioned, clubby kind of way with sporting prints and panelled walls. In fact it’s vaguely reminiscent of Pratt’s, the most exclusive basement in London.

The food has a touch of the club, too. In a way, it’s Irish country house cooking, and not in the dormer bungalow sense. There are not many places where you can have game terrine with pickled vegetables and redcurrant jelly with melba toast and follow it with a rabbit and pigeon pie. Yes, I can imagine that a certain constituency within the readership of this newspaper will be salivating already. And they are right.

The meaty terrine was dense in texture and richly flavoured, the little onions, florets of cauliflower and slices of carrot were pleasantly sharp but not too acetic.

The pie came with Olivier’s trademark buttery, flaky pasty and a rich, mildly gamey but very meaty filling. On the side was a serving of red cabbage, perfectly textured and only slightly sharpened with vinegar, and a helping of creamy mash.

Our other starter, deep-fried Saint Killian from the Berridges of Wexford, came in four generous chunks, with red onion marmalade and a very fine little salad of lamb’s lettuce, wild rocket and baby spinach.

An individual pot roast of beef, in a little casserole which had been sealed with a gasket of pastry, was opened at the table to produce a cloud of utterly delicious vapour and to reveal a generous chunk of meltingly tender beef cheek in a dark gravy with plenty of rosemary. Beef cheek, by the way, is lovely when cooked like this (at a low temperature for three hours) and its gelatinous content gives it a certain richness you don’t get from other cuts.

We finished up with a chocolate mousse and a cherry/sherry trifle (no jelly, in proper country house style) which elevated a humble old favourite to something really rather special.

With a glass of white wine and a bottle of Côtes du Rhône which punched way above its €25.50 price point, the bill came to €97.10. The short list is all from Charles Derain of Nomad Wines, always a good omen. tdoorley@irishtimes.com

THE SMART MONEY

Pot roast, a glass of wine and coffee comes in just shy of €25.

Read Megabites, Tom Doorley’s blog at irishtimes.com/blogs/megabites