DILLINGER'S RESTAURANT REVIEW
Tuesday 01 December 2009
“Dillenger’s” – what a name for the times we are in – depression, bank robbers or, some might now say, Dillinger was the good guy and the banks the robbers! Dillenger’s is the new restaurant of Temple Garner, formerly chef and business partner of Ronan Ryan at Town Bar & Grill, which hit the headlines some time ago when it was in financial trouble, leaving some suppliers less than happy. It was later re-financed by Johnny Ronan. The premises of the new Dillinger’s also has a track record, having seen off Dylan McGrath’s Mint Restaurant, and before that Zucchini Restaurant. Dillinger’s perhaps has the best chance of them all, it is of its time, casual, accessible, with decent food.
The décor is retro urban diner style with US army green walls, dark brown ceiling, interspersed sections of latrine white brick shaped tiles, school chairs, green tea lights, a menu on lined copybook paper, and lighting straight from the TV show “The Wire” - I could just see McNulty lashing into the American long cocktails. I lashed in instead with a Harvey Wallbanger, decently priced at €8, made with freshly squeezed orange juice, Vodka and Galliano, and which nearly blew my socks off! Kathy had a glass of Prosecco (€6).
Starters €6/€10 included Manhattan clam chowder with smoked haddock, the ubiquitous calamari, which seems to be a must on every menu in the land, as is goats cheese and beetroot. Panfried chilli garlic prawns are on chargrilled ciabatta, and pork belly salad is with chilli fried French beans, sesame and soy. Kathy had a lovely sushi style crab and salmon roll (€8) with a fennel and orange salad, and mint yoghurt. I just loved my starter and would go back for that alone! It was again a retro influence of devilled eggs (€8) - stuffed hard boiled egg halves with devil spicy sauce, grilled asparagus with blobs of Hollandaise sauce, all sitting on a very ample plate of excellent Parma ham, tweaked with cress. Absolutely ace.
They have a “Plates” section €14.50/€18 which includes corn-dogs, nachos, club sandwichs, clam linguine, and enchiladas, so the very casual Texican option is there. There is a broad spectrum to their menu which we liked. The Grill section €19/€24 includes a 12 oz Hereford striploin. Calves liver is with crispy streaky bacon, mash, spinach and onion gravy, whilst a whole grilled seabream was with greens, lemon and capers. The food is straight up – large portions – no overly frivolous pretty pictures - but very good flavours. A chargrilled veal chop (€24) was a chop and a half and was paired with macaroni cheese, French beans, and salsa verde. I had a half roast duck (€23), a whopper in all his glory. He was glazed with maple and Bourbon, and came with honey sweet roasted parsnips and red cabbage – all of which was delicious.
To follow I had a scrumptious pear and almond tart (€6) whilst Kathy had a chocolate brownie fudge cake (€6). There was a bit of a hard sell initially by a meeter/greeter chap on their House Wines, which they are importing, and have emboldened on their list as “#1 – CHEAP – is great! #2 – DECENT – is Niiice! # 3 – GPPD – is A-OKAY!” They are priced respectively at €20/€24/€26. They are all Italian and their credentials are on the wine list but they have labelled the bottles boldly to correspond simply – 1, 2, 3. “It’s the Ted Rogers 321 Gameshow of the 80’s - where’s Dusty Bin – the booby prize?” quipped Kathy. Will people want to sit up with “1” emblazoned on their bottle, seen from a mile off, spelling out to their D6 neighbours that they are drinking the “plonk”! After that wines move rapidly up from €26 to €42. We had a belting bottle of Vina Zaco Rioja 2005 (€33) which, with a bottle of mineral water (€3.50) and optional service, brought the bill to €146.50. We liked Dillingers very much. They do brunch on Saturday or Sunday.
Dillinger’s
47 Ranelagh Road,
Dublin. 6.
Tel: (01) 497-8010
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON NOVEMBER 29, 2009.