Gotham South - Restaurant Review
Tuesday 06 July 2010
“A smile wouldn’t go amiss” I commented of the Meeter Greeter at the new Gotham South Restaurant & Café in Stillorgan, the request for a table for which was being handled as though it were the hottest ticket in town. “Yes”, agreed my Batman, “but the waiter who is serving us is very pleasant.” Gotham Café is a longstanding venue set up in Dublin’s South Anne Street in 1993, which was around the time of Planet Hollywood, and Gotham proved instantly successful with its range of pizzas, pastas, burgers, chicken wings, brunch dishes, and casual food.
Now, many years later, they have taken on the ‘burbs’ and expanded with Gotham South, located in a strip of shops near the Mill House pub in Stillorgan in what was formerly the Sichuan Chinese Restaurant. Its all very cool, the walls are lined with big images of ‘Gotham City’ New York style and Rolling Stone magazine covers, and there is a woodstone pizza oven in the corner. However, pizzas apart, we thought what was on offer very limited and somewhat stuck in a time warp. Opposition at this level is very stiff with a massive variety of posh burger joints, new Mexican spots, and multivarious Italian restaurants and pizzarias at all levels – and there are also terrific value menus abounding out there. Subarban custom too depends more on impressing the Desperate Housewives and repeat business, as opposed to city centre passing trade.
Starters included Mexican Guacamole, Oriental Chicken wings, Caesar Salad, and a smoked salmon mini pizza. Batman Brendan opted for a goat’s cheese crostini (€6.95) which was like a ‘cheese melt’ smathered with a combination of diced peppers, set on three lettuce leaves with a drizzle of basil pesto. Hot and cheesy it may be but it reminded me a tad of the supermarket frozen variety. I had chargrilled prawns (€6.95) – five King prawns with tails sitting in a bowl of garlic and olive oil with two diagonally cut pieces of ciabatta to the side - very average. Would I drive to Stillorgan for them – no!
Apart from a wide selection of pizzas €10.45/€16.50, there were Cobb and Chicken Caesar salads, or Louisiana crab cakes at €13.25/€14.95. Mains €14.50/€19.95 included sausages and mash, whole baked seabass, chargrilled chicken with piri piri sauce, rib-eye steak. Batman went for the Burger (€12.50) chunky and filling, but dull and uninteresting, sitting between two big baps with a slice of lettuce and some onion. It was served on a board with a little ramekin of coleslaw and another little square dish of horrible tasting dark brown and soggy “chunky (not!) handcut fries” - the variety with the skin on like wedges, which he left. I had ribeye steak (€19.95), topped with a big fluff of undressed dry rocket, a challenge in itself so easily rectified, a section of chargrilled onion, and a little bit of tomato. The steak itself, whilst compact and not a bargain, was very nice, juicy and tender, and cooked medium rare as requested. My fries were the same abysmal offerings.
Puds included Cheesecake, Chocolate and Walnut Brownie, and Honey Crème Brulee. I had Eton Mess (€5.75) – “fresh strawberries and cream with a mixed berry compote and toasted almonds.” Eton Mess is a simple joyous summer explosion of bashed up mereingues, folded with whipped cream and chopped strawberries, and probably best constructed by your kids with a hammer! This version in a sundae glass was parsimonious with the sum total of one strawberry sliced on the top and one sliver down the side, the rest of the fruity element being a commercial like mixed berry compote. The fruit and veg portion control seemed to tie in with the quarter slice sliver of lemon in my “complimentary water”.
With two glasses of Cono Sur Pinot Noir at €4.75 each, to enable Batman’s flight to the Batcave, and a glass of Organic Cola – spare me - at €1.75 for me, our bill, taking into account an “opening 10% discount”, with optional service came to €64.02.
Nothing really rocked save the music.
Gotham South,
4 Kilmacud Road Lower,
Stillorgan,
Co. Dublin.
Tel: (01) 212-2505
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON 27TH JUNE 2010.