We are in the hands of a maestro. It helps that he’s Italian. Luca can go dreamy-eyed about a Dublin Bay prawn without a hint of a cringe. He’ll tell you about his efforts to persuade trawler men not to blast-freeze their catch at sea and you’ll put aside your menu and have what he’s talking about. We’re not the only ones who do this. The table beside us orders precisely the same dinner, after getting the Luca treatment. We’ll have both starters and both mains, they say. You had us at buona sera.
Welcome to Rosa Madre, a place recommended by a friend, not least because of Luca. It's in an old stone and brick building on Crow St in Dublin's Temple Bar. The name is written over the windows with a florid R and M. Chilly minimalism isn't on the menu here. Inside there are bare bricks and tablecloths, a basket of biscuity fresh baked bread, meaty green olives and olive oil as fresh and grassy as a Dublin park after a summer drenching.
The menu, Luca tells us, is the safe space where the classic Italian dishes live and we’re welcome to go there but he’s a man on a mission to get us islanders to eat the “fish that people don’t eat normally”.
So he describes today's haul, and those menus are sent back unopened. There are large Dublin Bay prawns like the ones that used to grace the seafood platters of old. These babies are the length of a forearm, with meaty tails, and we can have them cooked with some aubergine and courgette on the side. Then there's red gurnard, an ugly-beautiful bottom feeder with a fin that fans out like a Dr Who alien, and scialatielli, a Neopolitan pasta made with grated pecorino kneaded into the dough so you have cheesy carbs in the lengths of pasta.
Scallops are served in shells which washed up from the 1970s. They’ve been diced into slivers and mixed with crisp breadcrumbs, Parmesan and tomatoes. If I have to pick a fault, it’d be a slight scarcity of scallop meat.
Lemon olive oil is produced as a garnish for my Dublin Bay prawns but they need no embellishment. The flesh is entirely different to the rubbery Asian prawn experience. It’s cloudy and soft and more satisfyingly and delicately fishy, barely holding together in one sliver when it’s scooped from its coral pink exoskeleton.
Main courses come on cheerfully coloured happy plates which are sat onto stands so their contents can be shared. Luca offers fish cooked in three ways: grilled, baked or salt-crusted. With the gurnard there’s a fourth way. It’s cooked in a pan with some water so the fish steams and then the juices are combined to make a beady broth to which they add some fresh basil and tomatoes.
This turns the gurnard into delicate chunks of white meaty fish in its cooking broth with bursting, just-roasted tomatoes. There is the occasional tooth-flossing bone to be extracted, but it’s the best kind of simple fish dish, something I could do at home, but done here with the freshest starting point of a just-caught fish.
The scialatielli comes as a mound of thick linguine-style pasta, chewier than regular pasta thanks to its cheesy heart. The swordfish sauce surrounding it contains cubes of fish rather than flakes, which is a bit disconcerting, but other than that it’s good.
Next Luca recommends a sgroppino, which sounds like something you might see your GP about, but it is a boozy slushy made with lemon sorbet, lemonade and Prosecco. They come in small Champagne flutes with straws and are delightful.
We're dithering about dessert when Luca says the kitchen made fresh cannoli that day. It's a classic of this decadent Sicilian invention. A cigar shaped fried pastry is stuffed with fluffy just sweet enough ricotta and has had both bulging ends dusted with pistachio. One cannolo is big enough to share.
You can’t fake good front of house. I watch a couple arriving and see them break into huge grins as they’re greeted by Luca. They’re obviously regulars and their reaction sets the tone for a night of fun and food stretching ahead of them. Rosa Madre is not pushing out any boats, except maybe the ones with the freshest catches on board. What they’re selling is heartfelt pleasure at having you walk through the door. And that will always add to what’s on the plates.
Dinner for two with one glass of wine came to €79.50.
ROSA MADRE, 7 Crow St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2; tel: 01-5511206
Facilities: Upstairs
Food provenance: None
Wheelchair access: No
Vegetarian options: Limited
Music: Nice laid back jazz
THE VERDICT: 7/10 – Superb front of house in a properly cheesy Italian restaurant
