Restaurant Review - Mare e Monti
Friday 12 September 2014
Mare e Monti is a new 'Italian Surf & Turf restaurant' located on the first floor of a prime corner in my local village of Monkstown, Co Dublin. We are blessed to have a variety of restaurants in the village, as restaurateurs have snapped up any vacant premises in recent times. That being said, this particular venue has been vacant for a couple of years. For me, one of the problems of this upstairs room is that, while it is a fine, big, bright space, it's a complete homage to the cream-and-brown school of soulless interior design.I was a tad disappointed to find that the new incumbents hadn't added a splash of Mediterranean colour to create an atmosphere reflecting their cuisine, or indeed, any atmosphere! This could so easily be done with a few buckets of paint, kitsch Italian artefacts, fishing nets and so on; but a CD of Italian cliches, played on a loop for the evening, simply didn't cut it. We arrived and departed to Andrea Bocelli's Time to Say Goodbye!
Having said all of that, the food and the welcome from this brother-and-sister team, who have worked together in an Italian restaurant in Greystones for the past eight years, was very good. He is the chef and she is out front. While they offer steak and seafood combinations, the menu is mostly comprised of all the popular Italian stalwarts, including pizzas, pastas, risottos, salads and other favourites, which families will like as well.
We were in time for the early bird menu, which featured 2/3 courses at €17.95/€22.95. Brendan decided to run with this and it turned out to be a cracker. From a choice of four starters, the ubiquitous calamari proved to be a decent pile of chunky, hot, crispy squid rings with mixed leaves, a section of lemon and a dipping pot of sweet chilli sauce. A la carte starters (€5.95-€10.95) included crispy rice balls with pickled red chillies and spiced arrabiata sauce; mussels steamed in white wine with garlic and chilli; Caesar salad; bruschetta; as well as pan-fried prawns. Pan-seared scallops (€10.95) had three of the precious molluscs, spaced along a rectangular slate in contemporary style, between two smears of butternut squash puree, topped with a crispy bacon slice, rocket and sprinkled sea salt.
The scallops were perfectly cooked, well seared, while the squash added vibrancy. The early bird mains selection, included papardelle di manzo e porcini; pizza with a choice of two toppings; wild mushroom risotto; and pollo alla griglia.
Brendan had an 8oz controfiletto - striploin steak. Absolutely delicious, tender and moist, it was served with chips, salad and a green peppercorn sauce. You could also add buttered prawns to this for €5. As well as the aforementioned pastas, pizzas, risottos et al, the a la carte mains included three chicken dishes; braised pork belly with green-onion mash, fennel and smoked bacon veloute - all for well under €20; plus a 10oz striploin steak, a 10oz dry-aged fillet and an 8oz fillet with prawns - the last three were priced between €22.95 and €27.95.
I had a sea bass special (€24), which had the fish resting on a large quenelle of delicious champ potato, surrounded by mussels, a trio of good prawns, broccoli spears and sweet chantenay carrots. We passed on desserts, which included tiramisu; banoffee; profiteroles and ice-cream. With two decent glasses of Tommasi Giulietta (€7.25 each), two of South African Stonewalker Cabernet Sauvignon (€6.50 each) and one espresso (€2), our bill with optional service came to €90.64
Mare e Monti certainly has plenty to offer the Monkstown dining scene and, with a chef who can present the food in the manner in which he does, they should have no problem adding a bit of colourful Italian style to the venue as well.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN LIFE MAG IN SUNDAY INDEPENDENT