RESTAURANT - REVIEW - GUINNESS STOREHOUSE
Thursday 20 October 2011
“I’ve just got off a plane this morning and headed to the Guiness Storehouse otherwise my friends back in New York would never speak to me again.” So said a young scientist here for a three day conference in Trinity College as he supped his pint of Guinness in the circular glass capsule that is the Gravity Bar, where Queen Elizabeth viewed the rooftops of Dublin. The GS have recently launched their new “FIVE’ Guinness and Food Experience, with the 5th Floor dedicated to Guinness and Food, encompassing Arthur’s Bar, the 18th century inspired Brewer’s Dining Hall, and Gilroy’s bistro restaurant – after the iconic Guinness advertisements by John Gilroy. Himself was only delighted by a trip to the home of the Holy Grail, but our missions were slightly different, he was looking forward to the Pint on ‘Hallowed Territory’ and I was interested to see the food being served to our Tourists at Ireland’s No 1 visitor attraction.
I wasn’t prepared for the awesomeness of the place. It really hit me that, in times of yore, when production was in full steam at James’s Gate, the whole area really was like a City within a City – the Vatican of Dublin - headed up by the Earls of Iveagh whose brigade of staff made Downton Abbey look like small fry. Approaching the entrance between the height and sombreness of two great big red bricked buildings, made one feel just like a tiny matchstick, realising then too why the British artist L.S. Lowry was so obsessed with these great Industrial Buildings in his works.
Entry tickets €14.40 each included a Pint of Guinness (reduced rates for Students, OAPs). Standing in the Atrium you feel like a Liliputian at the bottom of a giant pint glass spanning up seven floors through the core of the building. Needless to say, you are soon greeted by a vast Guinness Store with ‘friendly fellows’ taking your cash and “what part of America are you from Sir.” All very Disneyish.
We split our dining experience between the two restaurants. Gilroy’s menu is concise offering Soups & Salads, Hot Dishes, and Grill dishes – no starters per se – unless you select from soups or salads €9.95/€13.50 which we were told were mains sizes. A pity in a full service restaurant, and I did overhear an American man say “is that your full choice then?” Prices €9.95/€19.95 included Guinness marinated topside of beef; cockles, mussels and cod soup; big burgers; Carlingford Lough mussels with Guinness, dill and cream, and Glin Valley chicken paillard. My fine fillet of hake (€15.75) was atop a copious bed of fennel, peppers, green olives and saffron aoili, which I thoroughly enjoyed, as did Brendan his excellent chargrilled 8oz Hereford prime rib-eye steak (€19.95) with Bearnaise and chunky chips.
The Brewers Dining Hall’s self service counter offered hot and cold buffet style dishes, home style ham, quiche, salmon, salads, and hot pots, around the €10/€12 mark, all looking good and wholesome. We shared a luscious deep Guinness and chocolate pot (€4.50) and sat at a long communal table which truly had the feel of a workers dining hall as there were lots of chaps in yellow work gilets. The surroundings with the old white tiles in both areas are amazing but, whilst staff were pleasant enough, there was just somehow no life and soul about the dining experience – more functional than fun – and they need some personal element in each to warm up this aspect.
Brendan was surprised the Pint was €4.40 – the same as in his local pub. It seems a pity too that only visitors paying an entry fee can utilise these restaurants, which puts them off limits to local diners who might have added a bit of colour and experience for the tourists. A lot of people too weren’t dining. Would it not be possible to introduce a system whereby, having spent a particular sum in the restaurants, your entry fee was deducted – after all you would only want to do the tour once! Our total bill for entry, two main courses, optional service in Gilroy’s, and one pud was €73.05
Guinness Storehouse,
St. James’s Gate,
Dublin. 8.
Tel: (01) 408-4800