RESTAURANTS:Overends fails to live up to its delightful setting, writes Tom Doorley.
GILES COREN, the restaurant critic of The Timesof London is not a popular man in West Belfast these days. He was sent to review Goodfellas, the establishment which had successfully sued The Irish Newsfor a less than flattering account of the food on offer there, a judgment that was overturned on appeal.
In the interests of free speech, according to himself, he weighed in not just to one of the dishes he was served but also the clientele, with particular reference to their average weight. It was a piece of writing in pretty poor taste, right enough, but an entertaining read. Given that The Timesof London is not a big seller in West Belfast, it is unlikely to damage custom; indeed, the kerfuffle it has caused may well boost business.
Goodfellas, it would appear, is a working class restaurant, while the object of my scrutiny this week is the polar opposite. Overends Restaurant, in reality a café, is affluent, aspirational, middle-class Dublin incarnate.
With the exception of a few 10-year-olds, who looked as if they spend more time at their PlayStations than playing football - and possibly myself - the average weight was well within what your family doctor would regard as acceptable.
The little Airfield estate is a lovely resource with its delightful gardens, model farm and a centre for exhibitions and concerts. There is even a museum containing the vintage cars that once belonged to the sisters who lived here, including a glorious 1927 Rolls-Royce. On a sunny spring day, with lambs gambolling in the fields which are so unexpected in suburban Dublin, it was a delightful place to spend a few hours.
The café appears to do a roaring trade and if I had confined myself to the home-made scones with equally home-made raspberry jam, I could understand why.
But Overends, which is run by exceptionally cheerful and friendly people, is out of kilter with the rest of the place. There are signs of complacency: great big, flabby potato wedges which were obviously made from the baked spuds of yesterday and a microwaved slice of soggy ham and mushroom quiche.
Yes, ham and mushroom. I thought everybody knew at this stage that if you really do want soggy quiche, this is the way to go. Mushrooms release lots of moisture when cooked and this is what had happened here. Microwaving completed the job, so that there was no contrast in either texture or indeed colour between the filling and the pastry. It was so bad that my ravenous 11-year-old left most of it behind.
Vegetable soup was okay in terms of flavour but contained a degree of grit that would have Gordon Ramsay spitting blood. I think his argument would be, when translated from the stream of swearwords, if you're going to do simple food, for God's sake do it well.
Two foccacia sandwiches were okay. One contained rather bland chicken breast with tomato and basil, the other a reasonably spicy cajun chicken breast.
The accompanying salads were better than average. The benchmark for this kind of food is Avoca and while the Overends kitchen and self-service counter is small by comparison, this is what the restaurant should be comparing itself to because, as sure as eggs are eggs, this is what the customers will do.
My sweet-toothed daughter thought that the rather luscious-looking chocolate cake was too sweet. It's really dark, she said, and when it looks like that, you expect it to be rich but not so sugary. She's dead right.
Okay, so Overends serves a purpose and it seems to have lots of satisfied customers. It's just such a shame that it doesn't try to serve that purpose better. Airfield is a centre of excellence, to borrow a phrase from the health services, but the café is pretty average. It strikes a discordant note. The real pity is that it would take very little to turn it into the kind of place where people would go for the food and then stay for the rest of what is on offer. As it is, Overends is a very ordinary place to eat.
Best to watch the lambs and content yourself with some scones and jam. Our bill came to a little under €40 for three including two Cokes and an Innocent Smoothie.