Restaurant Review - Oriental Cafe
Monday 31 October 2011
We were almost elated sitting down in the new Oriental Café by the Yamamori restaurant owners in the former Bewley’s Oriental Café premises in South Great George’s Street. Here at last it seemed was the perfect, nay obvious, match for this legendary spot in Dublin’s dining sphere. Great big Chinese blue and white jars and platters were so at home whilst four magnificent heavily carved tables formed one long communal table, with small tables and bentwood chairs to the sides.
The format is one I like very much, small portions, mix and match. At lunchtime the Salads/Rotisserie/Robatayaki €4.50/€7.50 section included prawns with roast garlic and chilli butter or Teriaki pork ribs. An 8 oz rib eye steak was with Japanese Yaki Niku sauce whilst Oriental pork buns of slow roasted and glazed pork belly were with pickled cucumber and hoisin sauce. Congee, seasoned rice porridge, €3.50/€3.95 is served with seabass or pork belly, roast duck and egg, or Japanese pickled plums. Chinese and Japanese Dim Sum and Gyoza were listed at €3.50/€450.
“Were we ready to order” we were asked, before we even opened the menu, and coming back twice in the next few minutes. We were the only ones in the main room at this point even though it was lunchtime, with a half dozen people in a raised front section by the window. An Oriental lady was in charge whilst waitresses in black were trying very hard to look busy but, with three of them at one stage moving around the room with damp cloths wiping down shelves, ledges, potplants, anything in sight, it was unsettling and inappropriate at 12.40 pm! One girl, working her way down a line of bentwood chairs to the table next to us, almost saw me jumping up to let her do mine!
Specifying “to start” we ordered Dim Sum Scallop Shui Mai (€4.50), Pork and Prawn (€3.95) and Chicken and Kimchee Gyoza (€3.95) to be followed then by a Roast Duck Salad (€6.95), Negima Yakitori (€6.95) and Nasu To Dofu (€4.50). With a great selection of wines by the 50 cl carafe and glass, we ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon (€5.50) and Alsace Gewurztraminer (€6) but sat, and sat, with the girls still ‘looking busy’. “What about the wine?” I eventually asked. At least we could wet our whistle! This elicited a chap from behind the bar at the end of the room with two glasses of white! That got sorted as the lady in charge busily made changes on her till and spoke to our waitress. Dipping sauces arrived for the Dim Sum. We were hopeful. More waiting until up came my duck salad ‘main course’– the horse before the cart! Back it went and more apologies. Eventually four delicious open topped scallop dim sum dumplings appeared with tasty Gyoza…..followed then with the chicken and kimchee Gyoza parcels.
Another pleasant little girl had taken over and re-presented the shredded roast duck salad, which was fine but needed more sauce. No sign of Brendan’s Yakitori – skewered chicken - which was over charred on one side when it did come. Nasu To Dofu (€4.50) was delicious slices of aubergine and tofu glazed with honey teriyaki. We were there for two hours, weary and anxious of the whole experience at this stage, and called for the bill. The credit card machine was the fastest thing to arrive – before the bill - so fast I had to say to the lady in charge standing over us – “can I please check the bill first”? Allowing the ‘Service Option’ to come up, I pointed out to her that it would be farcical to leave a tip as it had been a catalogue of errors. I could have been talking to the wall at that point. Our bill was €45.30 – and later on, having had an opportunity to scrutinise the bill, I saw that we were accidentally overcharged on menu prices - €4.50 each for the Gyoza (€3.95), €4.95 for Scallops Shui Mai (€4.50), €7.95 for the roast duck salad (€6.95), and €4.95 for the Nasu (€4.50). On phoning later, the restaurant offered us a refund of the differences but I was also told their prices had subsequently increased.
The Oriental Café,
12-13 Georges Street,
Dublin. 2.
Tel: (01) 645-8001
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON 30TH OCTOBER, 2011.