They say that the restaurant experience can be influenced by your mood when you arrive. Well, consider this. Our evening was preceded by quite the ride. We were happily sitting in our taxi until it hit a bus, just a scrape, but enough for the driver of the bus to start blowing its horn madly and have our driver jump out of the taxi to yell back at him. No gardaí were summoned, so we were still going to make our booking.
Our taxi, one of those van-based cars with sliding doors, let us out on South Great George’s Street in Dublin 2 and as my beloved pulled across the stiff door, the window burst out of the frame, smashing into smithereens on the street. A now more agitated taxi driver sprang from the car and hurled a collection of abuse at us for smashing the glass, just as the bus he had earlier hit pulled up alongside, turning the affair into a two-front war.
Passersby checked we were okay and we headed away from the scene – which was not of our making – just in time to arrive for our restaurant booking and, just to inject more drama, watch gardaí wrestle to the ground and handcuff a tourist who had clearly been doing 12 pubs on repeat, possibly since Christmas.
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This is not how you want diners to arrive, but, with our trauma carefully compartmentalised, a series of Italian waiters in the newly opened La Vespa in Castle Market charmed us beyond any lessons provided in Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table, and a carafe of water and bottle of Vermentino (€38) continued the good work.
La Vespa is directly opposite La Maison and is exactly what you might come up with if you decided, ooh, let’s do the same thing again, but this time in Italiano. Which is perfectly logical, since Giorgio Urbani is the operator of both restaurants.
Here, it’s an all-Italian crew. Paolo Orlando, the head chef, is originally from Corleone in Sicily and spent years working across Sicily, Piedmont and Veneto, before moving to Ireland where he cooked in The Unicorn, Peploe’s and Nanetti’s in Dublin and Rinuccini in Kilkenny. For him, it’s all about sticking to the regional Italian classics, while Sardinian chef, Eliana Marteddu, makes the fresh pasta.
The menu covers cicchetti (snacks), starters, mains and desserts, with the usual Italian crowd-pleasers – arancini, burrata and bresaola – but it’s the fritto misto (€16) that has caught my eye because it lists calamari and Dublin Bay prawns as the seafood in the mix. My scepticism fades quickly when the gloriously battered prawns on my plate are indeed the Dublin Bay variety, not something you see often, while the rings of squid are tender inside the crunchy coating.
Handmade beef and mortadella cappelletti (€15) are served in a chicken broth of such intensity, it tastes like the chicken was roasted before it was made. The filling works well, the taste of the mortadella coming through in a neatly made pasta with firm edges, perhaps from a little too much time on the counter.
Dublin Bay prawns star once again in the tagliolini (€28) main course, al dente ribbons dressed in a white wine, garlic, chilli and oven-dried tomato sauce and folded through with sweet langoustine tails, still in their shells to maximise the crustacean flavour.
Saltimbocca alla Romana (€29) has everything that gives the dish its “jumps in the mouth” name – pan-fried veal escalope topped with Parma ham and sage, served with a buttery white wine sauce, sautéed potatoes and tenderstem broccoli.
For dessert, we have tiramisu (€10), which is a fairly standard example, but the classic affogato (€12.50) is the dish to order, with the three elements served separately – the hot coffee, amaretto and scoop of ice cream – so you can catch it at the perfect moment.
La Vespa is the type of restaurant you go to with friends. The menu makes no attempt to be adventurous, serving up tasty, crowd-pleasing dishes, allowing the focus to be on conversation and company. Crucially, there are no rules about how to eat here – a pasta dish and a glass of wine are as welcome as a full three-course meal.
The Italian wine list is designed accordingly, starting at €35 for Pinot Grigio with plenty of bottles below €40. There’s flexibility too, with 13 wines by the glass, along with spritzes, aperitivos, cocktails and beer on draught. In a very Danny Meyer sense, La Vespa understands that a restaurant is not just about feeding people, it’s about how you make them feel, staying on for one more drink rather than heading somewhere else.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine was €148.50.
The Verdict: This Italian restaurant is all about hospitality
Food provenance: Seafood and fish, Kish Fish and Shellfish De la Mer; Dutch veal, Quantock Foods; vegetables, Caterway
Vegetarian options: Beetroot risotto, spinach and ricotta agnolotti, arancini, warm radicchio salad with grilled goat’s cheese
Wheelchair access: Fully accessible with an accessible toilet
Music: Italian classics
