Eat Your Way Around Ireland

Social Fabric Cafe, Stoneybatter.

This is a nice little cafe that offers a menu mainly composed of cooked to order hot sandwiches and wraps. The one or two outliers on the menu are egg dishes that come in a box.

Prices are 7.50 and upwards but these sandwiches arey hefty blue-collar yokes, substantial to say the least. The cooking has some signs of the fancy new wave toastie thing that other places are championing, but it's overall fairly humble cooking.

I had a cuban toastie today... Chicken, ham, pork, pickles, mustard etc. 9.50. Sizeable.

I've also enjoyed their breakfast burrito and if you want a real gut-buster in terms of portion size the chicken cutlet sandwich is huge.

If compare it to Griolladh, which receives rave reviews, I think the cooking is on a par (TBH not sure Griolladh lives up to the hype). Somewhere like Meltdown probably is a bit more innovative in terms of its offerings.

We recently had dinner at Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen, which is fair to say must be the hottest fine dining ticket in town, and is likely to remain so for the next several years.

The Michelin Guide has already visited and considering Chapter One has a long history as a one star, and Viljanen had two stars at The Green House, it seems highly likely to me that it will be announced as receiving two stars. I say that based on the pedigree Viljanen had, but also based on how the food, service and ambience were (It's about all three after the first star).

We had the tasting menu at 150 per head, and I had the matching wines at 105. Of course it's expensive, but realistically I won't eat there again for a couple of years (Unless they reintroduce their excellent value pre-theatre menu). Personally I also feel it is "worth" it, and could even be considered "good value", but honestly this is subjective and depends on the person and their disposable income. It is a luxury expenditure for sure, either way.

I won't go into great detail but make a few general comments:-

• Chapter One's front dining room and the dinner service has been 'refreshed' and is very elegant and understated. The service is excellent, which is interesting considering that one of our servers told us she had only been working in the job for 6 weeks, having changed careers to become involved in fine dining and hospitality. As usual, it comes down to the restaurant likely investing in training and having very high standards and a culture of excellence.
• The cooking will be familiar to those who visited Viljanen at The Greenhouse, some trademarks are here and there, like his use of smoked eel and sika deer. There are a couple of new elements too. I hear from a specialist fish producer he is putting pike on the menu, but it did not feature for us.
• Instead of a single bread service they serve bread separately with a few of the early courses, with the bread matched to what you are eating.
• The wine pairing was largely traditional and well-chosen, bar the misstep at the end in offering an aged Irish cider that is not the worst I've had but (for me) fell short of what could have been achieved by offering a more traditional choice of desert wine. Even the server, who was not the sommelier, seemed slightly dubious himself. He was a French waiter who passed on the tasting notes, which were that it was "a little bit sweet, a little bit dry", and he gave a gaulic shrug and commented that they "must not have known what they were making".

Undoubtedly worth two stars and in my view depending on your tastes this could be the best restaurant in Ireland, it is in the top three along with Aimsir and Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud.

If you like your cooking a little more new-fangled and conceptual I believe Aimsir might be at the top of the heap, followed by Chapter One and then Guilbaud's. If you prefer quite traditional fine dining then the order would be reversed. Chapter One is perhaps a bit of an accommodation between the two, Viljanen is innovative but this has strong old-school elements that will please everyone.

[quote]Side note on Michelin places, non Irish. Casamia in Bristol is one of the best meals I've ever had. Top notch from start to finish, including a tour of the kitchens.[/quote]

I never ate there but I’ve had the tasting menu in their next door sister restaurant Paco Tapas three times! Always visit it when in Bristol. I believe it also has a star, bit of a funny one.

There’s a Sherry pairing option that is very boozy.

Did the tasting menu at Liath in Blackrock last night.

I went in with no clear expectations. During one of the COVID lockdowns I did a Liath dine-at-home package and, if I'm honest, it wasn't my favourite of the various options we tried. I'm not sure why that was, but at any event, it mean that I went to Liath looking forward to it but not particularly expecting greatness.

Happy to report that I was taking notice after the first couple of courses, and as I got deeper into the tasting menu I was sitting up in my seat and starting to feel like I might be eating one of my best dinners of the year...

The restaurant is a compact, slightly eccentric space that is over what would have been three market stalls in Blackrock Market, in the old days. They've retained an original stone wall, against which the mere 12 patrons are sat in separate booths, but the rest of the restaurant feels very contemporary and cool. The booths are separated by Art Deco partitions of glass and gold frame, a nod to the COVID era. The kitchen is open to view, with Chef Damien Grey at the pass, assisted by two juniors, from what I saw. Staffing is lean, there was a sommelier and a front of house / manager, and everyone pitched in to serve various courses.

So, the food...

Firstly, I like a tasting menu that's cohesive, and this one went beyond that and actually had a really strong concept beyond it, it took us on a thematic taste journey. They have designed the menu so that the amuse bouches / pre-starters are little morsels that capture the five major tastes that Damien Grey is interested in: Bitter, sour, salt, savoury and sweet. Several courses then focus in on these, and then it's brought back together at the conclusion with petit fours that mirror the amuse bouches by covering the same five tastes again.

Cleverness and a bit of a narrative are one thing, though, but they only really impress if the food underpinning them are of a Michelin standard.

And yes, this is good stuff. Some modern elements but drawing on pretty classic French approaches to sauces at key points like the pigeon meat course and a truly exceptional desert red wine reduction.

I won't go into the whole menu, but there were a few stand-out dishes for me. A smoky, chipotle bowl of shrimp and sweetcorn, and a really attractive cheese course of thin rolled swiss cheese served with tall crackers that looked like a ship's sails.

The wine pairings were sound. A couple of very heavy hitting whites along the way. The tendency with the reds was to go lighter, and although I understood the rationale I still feel a little sad when I get a light bodied pinot noir with a meat course.

My partner wasn't drinking and got non-alcoholic pairings with each course. We were impressed that the sommelier seemed to have put a tremendous amount of thought into the various infusions and mixed drinks involved. Some worked better than others, but I'd certainly say that this is the best range of non-alcoholic drink pairs I've seen in a restaurant of this sort, and may be of interest to non-drinkers and the pregnant among you.

The service: Friendly, gregarious... I hadn't realised Damien Grey is an Australian, for some reason. I never watched Liath's RTE show when it was on. He reminded me a little of an Australian strength coach I had years ago... High energy, brash, heart on his sleeve but very much at the top of his game and delivering the goods.

Thanks, that's very kind. I enjoy writing, even if I have to keep going back to edit out my typos.