Restaurant Review - Sr Frango
Thursday 03 October 2013
Sr Frango ‘Modern European Cuisine’ is the latest eatery to join the plethora of reasonably priced spots in the Camden and Wexford Street area of Dublin. Its rustic Tex Mex wood panelled shopfront didn’t initially strike us as the most appealing, and belies the cool modern diner décor of the interior. However, as we approached, a neatly dressed young waitress in black and white was outside making sure the shine was just perfect on the window, whilst inside the young man in charge had the mop out perfecting yet perhaps another minor spot. “That looks good”, I said to friend Carmen, and indeed it was for the place was gleaming - including the downstairs loos as we discovered later.
With a colourful ‘Cocktails & Dreams’’ bar to the left offering reasonably priced cocktails around €6, it’s a bright room on two levels with white brick effect walls broken with splashes of red, modern pictures and a proliferation of contemporary retro multi coloured hanging lights. The tabletops are wood, dining chairs are of the deep base leather cream and black variety, and to the rear of the room is a large open kitchen with chefs working quietly. Somehow it reminded me of places that you come across on holiday. Starters €4/€7 included a bakers dozen of everything from crispy calamari to organic goats cheese and beetroot salad, whilst steamed mussels were with scallion, light cream, garlic and herb, and duck and Alfonso mango spring roll had a Thai dressing.
The young very gracious foreign Meeter Greeter brought us a jug of water with mint whilst we tried to get a handle on what exactly this restaurant had to offer. The initial impression of it being principally a burger, pasta and fajita joint, was suddenly dispelled by spotting dishes such as wild mushroom risotto with Parmesan shavings, lemon and tarragon dressing, as well as honey glazed duck breast with baby carrots, asparagus and apple. A list of white wines was broken into three sections of four with one from each section being offered by the glass. However, on the night, all they had by the glass was Pinot Grigio as they were awaiting a delivery. He brought it to us to taste and it was flat and bitter. We were wondering what to do when he shot over with another bottle of PG saying “please taste this”. Very nice it was, but then he came back with yet another bottle asking which we thought was best! You couldn’t ask for better attention than that.
It began to fill up with young couples and Carmen ordered prawns and chorizo skewered with cherry tomatoes, white wine and garlic aioli’ (€6). It proved to be one skewer with three decent King Prawns on salad but the chorizo element could be enlarged. I had Nachos (€6) – a great pile of crispy tortilla chips with tomato salad, Jalapeno chillies, melted cheddar, guacamole and sour cream!
From a choice of six burgers (€9-€12) I had the ‘Crazy Hot Burger, with Cashel Blue cheese, bacon and chutney at €12. I was even asked how would I like the burger cooked, and so, ‘well done’ it was with a bucket of really cracking chips. With one piece of streaky bacon, a couple of pieces of Jalapeno chilli, and a little bit of melted cheese on top, the burger was good but it could really rock if the toppings were a bit more flahoulac! Carmen’s choice of Seabass (€15) on the other hand was more than pretty okay. It really showed someone knows what they are about in the kitchen, apart from burgers and fajitas, having a fine fillet of Seabass, perfectly pan-fried and laid in a pasta bowl on top of a delicious Bouillabaisse mélange of baby potato, cherry tomato, mussels, calamari and prawns.
We passed on puds and our bill with 3 glasses of wine (€18), two coffees (€5.10) and optional service, which was delightful, came to €68.10.
Sr Frangos offers tasty ‘short order’ food at good prices – nicely served on contemporary white tableware.
It was such a pleasure to be in a simple eatery where the staff and chefs were just doing their jobs professionally, quietly and helpfully.
Sr Frango,
77 Lower Camden Street,
Dublin 2.
Tel: 475-8399
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT