Herbstreet

Over the past month I’ve discovered two of the pitfalls involved in blogging. The first is that if your internet breaks down then you’re altogether screwed. Well, unless you have the time or money to spend an extra seven hours in your local internet café or can cope with posting entirely via an iPhone, neither of which I’m able to! The second is that getting back into the flow of writing and regular posting, even after just a couple of weeks without it is a lot harder than I thought. Admittedly this isn’t how it works for everyone out there; a lot of the hardcore bloggers out there would probably think nothing of taking a three day break and immediately launching back in at the same pace but as for myself, let’s just say that a combination of being a lovely noob, a very slight lack of confidence, limited funds and the distraction of Red Dead Redemption ultimately served to grind me to a complete halt.

Luckily, I never forgot that this blog is just about the one thing I’m good at doing, so the potential waste of it all was a constant reminder as to exactly why I should be picking it back up! With that said, I’m very sorry for the lack of any updates since the Taste festival and if any of you wish for a more substantial apology, I’ll personally cook you dinner on request. Yes, it’s dangerous to put an offer like that out there on a food blog, but it feels like the correct way to make amends; beyond writing another review of course.

Speaking of which, let’s get to it! In the week leading up to Taste, I discovered (thanks in no small part to the outbreak of Facebook ‘like’ pages) a small, quayside restaurant called Herbstreet. Everything about it from the name, the kind of food they served and their environment conscious approach to running the place screamed good review material. How could I resist?

Tucked neatly into a line of shops and bars on the dockland waterscape of Hannover Quay, it took us only a miniature pilgrimage around half of the surrounding area to find it in the first place! In hindsight, I really ought to have known exactly how to get there since I’d only passed it several hundred times beforehand whilst bussing to UCD but on the flipside, I’d been living on a diet of canned tomato soup and bread at the time; Dublin’s eating scene was, understandably, very much on the back burner. We ultimately arrived with one pair of shredded feet due to extended high heel exposure (disclaimer: the feet were not mine, just in case any of you were thinking it!) and thirty minutes less eating time.

As it happens, it was lucky things weren’t held up any longer since it quickly turned out that Herbstreet is not your average evening restaurant. In fact, they’ve only just expanded their opening hours in the last few months to accommodate diners after six, no doubt seizing upon the opportunity presented by the opening of the Grand Canal Theatre some hundred metres adjacent. This safe but calculated approach defines how Siobhan Kennedy and Vinny Mullen - Herbstreet’s husband-and-wife cum head chef/general manager duo - have developed their restaurant with as much attention being given to the efficiency of light bulbs as it is to the food itself! Indeed, the first thing you notice as you find your seats will be the Mondrian-esque array of LED lights that snake up the wall and across the ceiling. It’s just one facet of the sustainable attitude you’ll find upon closer inspection of how Herbstreet ticks. The water is charcoal filtered on premises, none of the wine is transported from any further than Europe to save on travel cost and recycled materials are used wherever possible.

Of course, you can’t run a restaurant on a sustainable ethos without also applying it to the food and Herbstreet doesn’t let up for a second. All ingredients are sourced locally wherever possible, with a distinctly modern Irish feel running through their four separate menus. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner are all covered with each offering just enough of a different choice to stand out from the other. Everything from a full Irish fry up to French toast with peaches and eggs Florentine are available between breakfast and brunch, whilst the heavy hitters like quiche, a turkey club sandwich and the Herbstreet burger make appearances on the lunch and dinner menus. It’s a great selection that fills the day, and all excellent value with only five items (mainly steak dishes and platters for two) hitting over the fifteen euro mark. The best part of it all is that every page oozes a fresh and healthy feel with no dish coming across as overly contrived or complicated.

Had I done better research, I’d definitely have been gearing for a breakfast but the one thing that had caught my eye whilst skimming through their dinner menu was the real Dublin scampi. Unfortunately, the gods were against us and it was the only item unavailable at the time. Disappointing, but more than probably our own fault since we arrived very close to closing time! The rest of the menu had us covered regardless, so I ended up opting for the seafood platter for a shared starter with crab and asparagus risotto for the main. Rebecca, also having had an eye on the scampi, chose the Herbstreet burger and chips instead. Since they were available, we also ordered a side of sweet potato wedges with a chipotle dip.

The seafood platter turned out to be a delightful mixture of smoked salmon both cooked to flaky perfection and fresh, a crab salad served in a lettuce leaf and two kinds of bread, topped off with a salsa that was quite simply incredible. The salad itself was a simple affair of shredded crab meat, chives and a garlic dressing; uncomplicated but delicious.

Quickly following the empty plate came my risotto and Rebecca’s burger; not necessarily as healthy as the rest of what was on Herbstreet’s menu but healthy in portion size, make no mistake! The burger was thick, cooked well done and crowned with crispy onion strings. The accompanying fries unfortunately tasted as though they'd been cooked from frozen, but the sweet potato wedges were the perfect riposte; chunky, crisp and full of flavour.

My risotto meanwhile arrived as described; a creamy combination of finely shredded crab meat and soft asparagus. It has to be said that years of reading through restaurant reviews and food writing has led me to believe that a really, really good risotto was something of a rarity in and around Dublin’s dining scene, however I personally find the opposite to be true: a bad risotto has so far eluded me. Perhaps I’m just lucky, or perhaps the inherent criticism that seems to accompany a risotto dish with any kind of flaw in the slightest has scared it off the menu of any chef who doesn’t feel entirely comfortable cooking one. Regardless, the point is that Herbstreet did not drop the risotto ball; their own version is a wonderfully cooked dish.

While eating, it was impossible not to take in the fantastic view of the Docklands Herbsteet offers, especially if you manage a window seat. Only metres across was a barge filled with partygoers and that unmistakable wafting summer barbeque smell, whilst the docklands were bustling with theatregoers on their way to the evening show. There was something just so wonderfully suited about the location to the restaurant itself, almost as if there was no other place it could – or should – have been situated; an island of urban laziness and culture that you can’t but help enjoy.

That said, most of the fun we had was in strolling back home! Rebecca may or may not have a minor obsession with waterfront areas, so she was in her element by the end of it all. It’s safe to say that the food we’d just eaten played a big part therein; Herbstreet is definitely a restaurant that we can both look forward to dining in again at some stage in the near future. This in itself is a luxury when you consider how short the life-span of a catering business can be in the current economic environment, but the straightforward common sense behind how this little gem of a restaurant is run guarantees that it will have the longevity needed to satisfy us, and hopefully yourselves, time and time again.

Herbstreet
Hanover Quay,
Grand Canal Dock,
Dublin 2

Tph: 01-6753875

http://www.herbstreet.ie/

Darwin's

It might as well be said now rather than later: the meal I had at Darwin’s on Tuesday night was one of the best food experiences I’ve ever had. Yes, you read correctly, it was indeed up there. Actually – all things relative considered – I’d go so far as to say that it may very well have been the best thus far. Strong words, right? Especially when coming from a pedantic, biased-toward-katsu curry/Yamamori perfectionist, who secretly dies a little inside every time somebody describes anything as being amazing, genius or a similarly out of context adjective!

See, I have a terrible habit of considering almost everything in relative terms and I shy away from laddering things, food especially. You normally won’t hear me say that one restaurant is particularly better than another, just a ‘different’ place that one person may like or be able to afford more than somebody else would. For example: a very nice takeaway might be, to me, as much a great meal as what you’d expect to be served in Fallon and Byrne. The food itself is fundamentally incomparable, but the enjoyment you get from either can vary to one end of the scale depending on any number of factors. The same can be said of X, Y or Z recipe. It all depends on the person, their individual tastes and the situation they happen to be in. This defines the overall experience when it comes to a meal in a restaurant, of which the food is only one part. So, to hear me say that Darwin’s in particular was the ‘best’ is a completely blue moon affair that you should all take a snapshot of!

Forget my own thought process for the time being though, you’re here to read about why it was that good, and conversely why you should ever visit yourself. In a nutshell, all of the elements that make a meal experience enjoyable – food, service, company, atmosphere and cost – came together flawlessly. Combine that with high expectations on my and Rebecca’s part and it made for a great feeling of satisfaction all ‘round. Not that I’m trying to stir up similar expectations in you, but I am. Unashamedly.


This actually wasn’t my first visit to Darwin’s; I’d previously been to their old location on the same street a few months ago. Back then I’d been surprised at how small a restaurant it was for one with such a good reputation, so the move to a bigger venue (twenty-five seats bigger to be exact) was quite simply a case of ‘if you cook it, they will come’.


The new building used to be an antiques dealership, from which the two iconic statue lamps you can see in the background were originally bought. Funnily enough, there had only been space in the old restaurant for one beforehand, the other staying in the dealer’s itself until they finally moved over instead! Of course, these two lamps are one of many things you notice about Darwin’s when you first walk through the door. The food may have little to do with evolution (don’t go in expecting Galapagos giant turtle steak or braised iguana), but the walls are adorned with large drawings of the man himself, humanity’s ancestors and even a large tribal bow! Very little has changed in the move-over, the only thing you’ll notice is that it feels much roomier.


Greeting us as we arrived was Dolores, who spent the whole evening thereafter taking care of us, filling us in with stories about Darwin’s and generally being the friendliest hostess I’ve ever met. The funny thing is that it took zero effort to actually get conversation flowing to begin with, just the simple question of ‘is this your first time with us?’ Yes, some people prefer to have a meal in peace but personally, I feel that the more welcome you’re made feel the smoother any dinner will be. All of the staff had such a relaxed and casual demeanour, with cups of tea changing hands between attending the other diners. Given, it was a Tuesday night after a bank holiday, but it just felt comforting; everybody knew exactly what they were doing, which has a lot to do with the same people being carried over from the old restaurant I’d imagine – a factor that they advertise proudly.

Before the meal I’d been talking up Darwin’s desserts something incredible, so everything that was going to be served otherwise had become, as far as both of us were concerned, just the build-up. This was entirely the wrong way to go about it, but thankfully (or rather, inevitably) the starters, mains and even the bread dips completely stole the limelight. I can’t remember if I had the plate of bread and dips the last time I visited, but if I did then it surely knocked me out beyond memory.


What you get is a few slices of mixed bread accompanied by three dips: spicy hummus, basil pesto and sun dried tomato paste. If the entire meal had been three courses of this we’d have left happy! Even better is that it was given to us as an amuse, although at three euro, we ought to have bought another. Maybe three.


The starters on offer are plentiful and diverse, covering antipasto, pate and the usual favourites including fried calamari, spring rolls and tempura prawns. Rebecca skipped hers, but stole plenty of my wild mushroom and black pudding risotto. I don’t blame her; it was beyond delicious and featured plenty of nice, chunky mushrooms. This is a definite bonus, as I’ve known a lot of other restaurants to serve similarly mushroom-orientated dishes without any actual mushrooms noticeable. The black pudding was a perfect accompaniment, almost as supple as the risotto itself. In the end, the empty plate left over says more than I ever could.


In the way of mains, Darwin’s reputation is firmly founded on serving up a great steak. I’d personally stop short of calling them a steakhouse outright, but they are definitely central to the menu. Complimenting the cuts is a vegetarian page (for those with enough strength to turn it), one or two intriguing fish dishes and several side orders, all reasonably priced at three euro. The mains themselves do all land between the twenty to thirty mark but in gauging quality and portion size, I guarantee you that this price is well warranted.




In the end I opted for a juicy rib-eye, Rebecca the lamb plate. Both were perfectly cooked, both had us scraping the bones for whatever little bits of meat we could salvage as it all slowly disappeared. The lamb in particular was frighteningly good, largely thanks to some delightful parsnip chips and a mint jus that seemed impossibly subtle. If I could have stolen one recipe from Ciprian Isbanda all night, it would have been for that jus. All the more reason to return sooner! Either dish came with a choice of salad or vegetables, either being a nicely portioned addition.

Finally, it was time for the dessert I’d been harping on about all night. The choice had already been made: Darwin’s dessert platter for two. If could only order one item off the menu at Darwin's, this would have to be it, no question about it.


As I’ve said many a time before, what often separates a good restaurant from an okay one is how they handle dessert. When love and effort, or at least a bit of inventiveness is put into the final course, it sends the diner away impressed and satisfied. Darwin’s takes pride in this department, and the result is a raft of sweet delectables that include an Eton mess, rhubarb fool and their signature bread and butter pudding. All of these, with added slices of chocolate brownie and mango something (tardy note taking, sorry!) cheesecake, made an appearance on the platter and ended the meal with a sumptuous flourish that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else. A Baileys each was also kindly gifted on the house, topping off what had turned into an excellent dining experience. The total cost? Seventy six euro; an absolute bargain, all things considered.

We spent the final twenty minutes before leaving locked in conversation with Dolores, who reaffirmed that despite the current economic climate – in which restaurants are certainly a high risk business – Darwin’s is most certainly not in a position to be worried about. Phew! She did however suggest one or two household names may not be as secure, which only means that we all have to speed things up if we don’t want to miss out on some dining opportunities! Then again, when things go this well in any given restaurant, it makes you wonder what need there is to try anywhere else. The reason is a simple one: there will always be a better food experience to be had, one way or another. For now though, Darwin’s is the record holder in my books.

Darwin’s
80, Aungier Street,
Dublin 2

Tph: 01-4757511

http://www.darwins.ie/