RESTAURANTS:Seagrass has seen the light on prices - and portion sizes, writes Tom Doorley
IT'S A STRANGE thing but there's no doubt about it. The €15 main course is becoming more common. Restaurateurs are, ever so slowly, adjusting to the new reality. And the reality is that most people who eat out occasionally are more interested in a decent plate of food without cheffy frills - and for the price of a few pints - than a work of art on a plate that costs more than a mobile phone. And they are often the very people who will occasionally justify a main course at one of our Michelin-starred establishments that costs as much as filling the tank of a BMW. But only occasionally. Yes, we are becoming more conscious of value for money at last, and conspicuous spending is very 2005, thanks be to God.
Seagrass, a new restaurant on the fringe of Dublin 2, has seen the light. Main courses range from a mushroom risotto for €15 to beef striploin at €22. And there are tasting plates - not quite tapas despite this word appearing on the menu - for around €6. I like this idea. Not only does this restaurant price itself according to the real world but it accommodates the way in which real people like to eat these days: viz small dishes rather than three standard courses.
And I like the fact that the kitchen can produce a decent risotto, which is still a rarity in Ireland. Too many chefs think that gritty rice in gloop is what makes this speciality of the Veneto. It also does a good lamb pie, so the indications are that Seagrass can do decent food when it has a mind to. But somehow, for me, it doesn't really hang together. We confined ourselves to the tasting plates, so perhaps a more rigorous trawl through the menu might yield a better experience.
The highlight was what the menu describes as "braised lamb, carrot and roasted baby onion mini-casserole" at €6.50. This was, for me, essentially a Dingle pie, as tender meat and dark gravy came under a canopy of buttery pastry.
Risotto of squid and chilli was better than it sounds, the squid very tender, the chilli restrained, the texture somewhere between solidity and soup, as it should be. Button mushroom and blue cheese hotpot comprised . . . er . . . button mushrooms and melted blue cheese, and it was no hardship to eat. Indeed it tasted of more than the sum of its parts.
There is a long description on the menu of a "farce of pork" (and God knows, I've been tempted to use that description of other dishes but not, as they say, in a good way). Suffice it to say that this ball of minced pork was generous enough, nicely flavoured with rosemary and served with a rich gravy that most certainly didn't come out of a packet. It suggested that someone is trying to do something a little different.
Seared tuna with little balls of beetroot, caramelised orange rind and a curiously good reduction of soy and pastis was a very busy dish but it all pulled together.
Pretty as the blanched courgette slice with goats' cheese and tapenade undoubtedly was, I'm not at all sure that it justifies a price tag of €5.50. Cost of ingredients? Eighty cent, tops.
While Seagrass has talent in the kitchen and the place itself is attractive in an unfussy, quite modern kind of way, this restaurant struck me as lacking something. Pzazz? Passion? Some kind of X-factor? I just don't know. But to be fair, it gets a lot of things right (with the notable exception of the wine list) and all restaurants are, essentially, works in progress. Perhaps it will, indeed, progress. The bill, with several glasses of very basic house wine, an espresso and a pleasant panacotta came to €92.20.
Wine Choice
By and large, wine lists are getting better and better as restaurants come to realise that they can buy advice if knowledge and enthusiasm are not available in-house. Our Sicilian house wine (€22.50, or €4.50 a glass) was perfectly drinkable but equally dull. Among the few bits of interest on this short list I would include Don David Malbec (€28.50) from Argentina and Hungerford Hill Shiraz/Viognier at the same price. Pannier NV Champagne (€65.50) is decent fizz. You will find that Lupé-Cholet Chablis (€33.90) is conspicuously absent from the country's more discriminating wine lists.