Restaurant Review - NSquare
Tuesday 18 September 2012
“Am I in an Italian, Moroccan, Thai or a Steakhouse & Grill”, I asked of the waitress in N Square, a new restaurant under a block of apartments, by the River Lee, just over the bridge from Cork Opera House. Keeping things simple here was certainly not the ethos, and we found the concept totally confusing. Billed as N Square Steak House & Seafood Restaurant, I guess we expected to find a modern ‘New York Style’ Steakhouse, instead we arrived to a wonderfully exotic studded doorway, and an interior that was a cross between a themed Pirate Ship and Aladdin’s Cave. The décor has lanterns hanging from a canvas lined, splay beamed, faux sailing ship ceiling, a red tile roofed bar, white painted block and red brick walls, multivarious nautical artifacts and pictures, and jolly sailor figures.
Likewise the menu was enormous and confusing and, the first thing I would do here, would be to cut it in half! To start with, a handwritten list of Specials of the Day had four starters and a half dozen or so elaborate fish dishes, almost a enough to make a menu on its own. However, the main menu had 18 starters with options, plus 9 “From the Land” Main Courses, 10 “From the Sea” , 4 “From the Land and Sea” , 5 N Square Specialty Couscous Dishes, 2 Vegetarian Dishes, not to mention N Square Oysterhaven Mussels and Brik specialties. Even their wines were “From the Land” – red, and From the Sea” – white, and I am not even touching on their Tapas offerings!
There were pork chops, pork tenderloins, racks of lamb, lamb cutlets, seabass stuffed and unstuffed, combinations and trios of fish and shellfish, sole on the bone, or off the bone, Royal Fish Pie, poached monkfish…. It took us ages to work it out, never mind choose. It is not what you would call contemporary food, nothing wrong with that, more 80’s retro, and plenty of it. Seated on elaborate high back carved wooden benches, we were three. From the combination of over 20 starters, I kicked off with “Organic Smoked Salmon Rolls stuffed with prawns, chives and goats cheese” (€9.80). In fact the “rolls” were a trio of slices, laid like a Shamrock on ‘petals’ of leaves interspersed with lemon segments, criss crossed with chives, with an encircling drizzle of red sauce. It tasted nice but was more Hyacinth Bucket than Heston Blumenthal in presentation. Mike’s starter was tasty, having two pieces of charred pork belly (€12.50) lying in a pool of applesauce, topped with a single scallop. The menu mentioned beef carpaccio, grated Parmesan, truffle oil and organic rocket leaves but chopped chives seemed to have replaced them. Brendan had the Tunisian starter of Brik (€7.95), a triangular pastry parcel stuffed with potatoes, eggs, parsley, and mincemeat. Standing full sail, wedged into a lemon base, Sir didn’t take to it as it seemed to be 95% potato.
Mike followed with seabass fillet (€27.50) stuffed with a seafood and prawn mousse, crisscrossed with asparagus spears, and napped with a Hollandaise sauce which he said was fine. Brendan had an 8oz fillet steak (€28.95) with sautéed onions and mushrooms, grilled asparagus and homemade onion rings, which whilst slightly overcooked for him, was a cracking piece of meat, tender and delicious. “My husband is Tunisian”, said the Irish lady in charge, as my N Square Royal Couscous (€28.95) arrived, in proportions that would have done the job of the loaves and fishes, complete with a lamb cutlet, tiger prawns, seabass on the bone and langoustines. So that explained all the interesting colourful influences and it certainly reminded me of Mediterranean holidays in the past.
With a bottle of Torres Ibericos Crianza 2009 (€29.95) our bill with optional service came €159.60 for three. A lot of money has gone in here, down to embroidered N Square napkins, but please guys – give yourselves and your diners a chance - cut this menu in half. You wouldn’t get that selection on an Ocean Liner feeding 5000.
N Square,
Camden Wharf,
Camden Quay,
Cork,
Co. Cork.
Tel: (021) 450-1545
www.lucindaosullivan.com