Harry's Café knows how to cook minced meat to perfection. Now it just has to get the hang of some of the other ingredients, writes Tom Doorley
What is life without a little risk? Pretty dull, if you ask me. Yet powerful forces are dedicated to its elimination, including the ever-vigilant Food Safety Authority of Ireland. I suspect it is more interested in safety than in food. (And some of its TV commercials are weird. Remember the one with cartoon characters that appeared to have been borrowed from South Park, except they had Russian accents?)
Not that safety is a bad thing. A stint as a hospital porter had such an effect on me that when I see parents allowing their children to travel without seat belts I want to execute a citizen's arrest for child abuse. Risk is fine in its place, but there are limits.
So, thanks to the food-safety people, I am now very risk averse when it comes to hamburgers. Harmful bacteria such as E.coli can, with the best care in the world, be present on the surface of your steak. Eat the steak rare, by all means, because the heat its surface is exposed to will have dispatched the bugs. Mince the same piece of steak for a hamburger and the bugs will now be evenly distributed, inside and out. Undercook it and the bugs in the middle will think all their birthdays have come at once.
And yet, in restaurants all over Ireland, they still ask how you would like your hamburger cooked. What? Like "safely" or "oh hell, I think I'll risk a spell in intensive care"? If I were a restaurateur and some eejit demanded a rare burger I'd demand a signed statement of indemnity in return.
You can cook a hamburger properly and still have it good and juicy, of course, which is precisely how they did it for me at Harry's Café. Mind you, there was bemusement when I asked for it to be cooked through. "I'll see what the chef says," replied our waitress dubiously. I even went so far as to explain why I wanted it cooked that way. I ended up with the impression that I was being regarded as an amiable eccentric with a morbid obsession. But when the hamburger arrived it was cooked to perfection.
This was the "home-made" half-pound organic beef burger with melted Gruyère cheese and shoestring fries, and it was quite good. The fries were "home-made", too, which is to say not bought from a catering supplier, and they were crisp if a little solid. Fries, or chips as I prefer to call them - never Pont Neuf potatoes, which is what posh restaurants call big, greasy chips - need to be crisp outside but fluffy within. Burger buns need to be toasted, and this one wasn't. For an extra €1.50 I could have had an extra topping of smoked bacon or guacamole, and now I wish I had given it a go.
Harry's Café has its heart in the right place. Named after Harry Moore, the electronics shop that used to occupy the building, it is informal and seems to be trying to keep prices reasonable. This may explain the lack of steak on the menu, at least in unminced form, which so dismayed the companion that he ended up ordering the special.
This was sea bass - how unusual; all I see when I close my eyes these days is bloody sea bass - and it was not very good. Two very small fillets had been fried beyond the point of no return and served on a large fried-potato-cake affair. Fried with fried is not a good idea, and this fish supper was on the cheerless side of grim.
We had started with a shared plate of antipasti with a very, very small roasted-pepper salad and very good "home-made" tomato-based relish. It was perfectly pleasant, a combination of serrano ham, salami and chorizo with some olives, served with decent enough bread. With a bottle of pink wine, the bill came to €56.
Harry's Café needs to gain confidence and lose a certain amount of tweeness. Headings such as "For a Smaller Appetite" and "For Heartier Appetites" make it sound as if Hyacinth Bucket wrote the menu. On the other hand, its environmental policy, which is outlined in the booklet-style menu, is commendable if not quite lapel- grabbing.
This was not an impressive meal, but it would not take a great deal to put it right. This place has lots of potential.
Harry's Café, 22 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, 01-6394889, www.harryscaf.ie
WINE CHOICE A smart list at unusually down-to-earth prices. Our JC Beauvoir rosé (€18.50/€4.25 a glass) was a bit flabby, but there are plenty of good inexpensive wines, including the crisp and dry Cuvée Mondie white at €17.50/€4 (against €29 at the Conrad hotel, on the other side of St Stephen's Green), the ripe and intense Banjo Shiraz Merlot (€19/€4.25), a steely Picpoul de Pinet (€20/€4.25) and the yummy Domaine Terre Mégère Merlot (€21/€4.50). Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico (€36) is a brilliant Tuscan; Domaine Emilian Gillet Mâcon-Villages (€40) is a Burgundian stunner. The red Bergerie de l'Hortus (€26) and white Bodegas Fillaboa Rias-Baixas (€34) are fairly priced modern classics.