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RESTAURANT REVIEW - CODA

RESTAURANT REVIEW - CODA

Wednesday 18 May 2011

The Gibson Hotel at the Point Village is perhaps one of the last great vestiges of the Celtic Tiger. With stunning views out over the Liffey, it is convenient for attending concerts at the Point.

Arriving for dinner with Houston based Paul, who spends his life flying from New York to Naples, Peking to Paris, Seoul to Sydney, he felt quite at home striding through the vast Hemidemisemiquaver Bar and on to the section that is Coda Eatery. “Good Airport”, he quipped. The Gibson website states “Coda combines stylish yet informal dining with simple good food…locally sourced ingredients….daring flavours and exquisite presentation.” Enhancing its rock pedigree it also proclaims ‘Coda’ was the final studio album of Led Zeppelin. Although, at 6.30pm, with half the restaurant set up for breakfast, we were definitely in a hotelly world!

It may have an Italian name but the menu is Modern Oirish…with pretentions to fine dining for an ‘Eatery’… but I was initially pleased to see that the a la carte menu also offered 2-courses at €25 or 4-courses at €29.

Starters were not cheap at €10 a pop; soup €5 and oysters €13. Brendan had “Black Pudding Toastie (€10) - apple chutney dressed black pudding in a toasted sandwich with honey mustard dressing” – which, had it come at €3 from a road side van doing the ‘All Day Full Irish’, would still have been rubbish. A flat circular ‘buttie’ sitting on coleslaw contained a couple of half crown size rings of black pudding with onion marmalade. Paul’s “Baked ‘Annagassan’ Smokies” (€10) of haddock with cream and cheese in a white cup sported a copious ‘overflow’ which should have been tidied up. I had “Grilled Goats Cheese St. Patrick” (€10) – what St. Patrick has to do with it I don’t know but it was another lazy dish! A tranch of luke warm untrimmed ‘end of log’ goat’s cheese, complete with thick ‘furry’ base, sat on mixed leaves with a sprinkle of pine nuts. A dog with a hammer could do it and it looked like he had!

Mains were €17 plus two “specialities”– rib eye steak €20 or Skate Meuniere €22 - however Skate was “off”. Paul’s Beef Stroganoff (€17) – “thin slices of fillet tails, quickly fried with mushrooms and flamed with Brandy, creamy jus and a spoon of sour cream” – was deep ‘Goulash’ in colour, with red and green peppers, mushrooms, onions, and strips of meat like a navvy’s rope, so dark brown, chewy and dried out, they could have tied up one of the boats on the Liffey. Brendan’s Fillet of Pork (€17) proved four miniscule thin medallions sitting in a pool of “Cashel Blue cheese and port wine sauce” criss crossed with chives. “Hake Kenure House” (€17) “… horseradish and a tomato base gives the hake’s natural sweetness a slight cut… then stuffed with scallions and shallots.” Napped with a diced tomato and chive sauce it looked fine but lacked firmness and bite. I sent it back to be reheated – it returned still cool in the middle and still tasteless. Strangely dry asparagus, broccoli, mashed turnip and two cubes of ‘gratin Dauphinoise’ accompanied. We ploughed on with a crème brulee and a fruit tart at €7 a pop. Three other diners had materialised by 8.20pm as the waiters were clearing the tables around us with a trolley and re-setting for breakfast! I was feeling almost embarrassed in front of our guest – definitely time to ‘board’…

With a €7 overcharge removed, a bottle of Keenan’s Bridge Shiraz Cabernet 2007 (€24) and two glasses of Saint Clair Vicar’s Choice Sauvignon Blanc (€7 .50 ea), our bill sans service came to €122. Coffees were excellent!!

Having dined, I approached the reception desk to have our Car Park ticket validated. Silly me! Add €8.20 parking plus €1.80 each way to cross the East Link Bridge to get there………

The menu and food are seriously ill judged here – neither fine dining or slick rapid fire modern food…….. Lead Balloon was more in mind than Led Zeppelin as we took flight….

Coda Eatery,

The Gibson Hotel,

Point Village,

Dublin. 1.

Tel: (01) 681-5000

www.lucindaosullivan.com

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY MAY 15, 2011.