Restaurant Review - Platform
Tuesday 15 October 2013
When a restaurant is hopping on a Monday night, I guess you can take it they are doing something right. So it was when we arrived sans reservation to Platform Pizza Bar on the seafront in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Aptly named as it backs onto Bray Dart Station, so perfect for those who enjoy a glass of something and want to let the DART do the driving!
Industrial chic is the thing here but forget any ideas of ‘works canteen’ this is cushioned ‘roughing it’. The grey corrugated effect exterior looks suitably ‘grungy’ as does an ‘Only Fools And Horses’ three wheeled bright yellow ‘Del Boy’ car parked outside. Enter down a couple of steps, beside sister restaurant Ocean Bar & Grill, and the granite and brick bare walls are lined with comfortable button backed leather banquettes. There is also a long communal table, plus a natty tucked away booth, and some stools in front of the open kitchen. We were lucky enough to get a table on the banquette beside the kitchen and boxes of lovely fresh lemons, limes and oranges. There are lots of funky touches here including walking through a big wardrobe to get to the loos, menus clipped on cardboard and the like.
It is far more than just a pizza restaurant. It’s more Tex Mex Ital Irish with craft beers, cocktails, wines, with selections that include ‘Small Bites’ (€5 - €8) of antipasti, or indeed pork, beef and Tayto meatballs with spicy tomato sauce and Parmesan. ‘Just Wing It Wings’ (€7) sport Bootleg Kansas City, Buffalo, or Spitfire extra hot Texas Style. ‘Flatbreads’ (€7/8) include a choice of Moroccan spiced chicken, hummus and Harrissa; or roast oyster mushroom, Feta cheese and spinach. Flatbreads and pizzas can be had gluten free. Salads €7/€9 offered sweet potato and spiced bacon sweet corn and more, whilst a dozen pizzas €10/€13 had combinations from goats cheese, mozzarella, pancetta, walnuts and maple syrup, to chorizo, mozzarella and tender stem broccoli. The late Michael Winner always bemoaned that he couldn’t get a fried egg on a pizza, here you can have the breakfast sausage, mozzarella, crispy bacon, black pudding, mushroom and fried egg. The final offering is ‘Oven & Broiler’ (€13 - €20) with 8oz rib-eye and 10oz New York striploin steaks coming with Tobacco onions, shoestring fries, and peppercorn sauce; whilst oven roasted chicken is stuffed with spinach, Gorgonzola and Pancetta. Topping off that section, seafood linguine is there, as is lasagna.
I kicked off with a salad grilled aubergine (or eggplant as they say U.S. style) and Haloumi cheese (€9). It was a bit like aubergine Parmigiana, the warm slices of aubergine cosied up to the Haloumi cheese, but it retained its own identity very well being not as soft as mozzarella. The salad base was excellent too with mixed leaves, cherry tomatoes and chickpeas. Himself had calamari and prawns ‘fritto’ (€8) with garlic, chilli rings and a caper aioli. Again a good stash lightly coated, crispy, and served in a black cast iron pan.
I had a great pizza (€13) with anchovies, mozzarella, tomato, capers and green olives – I like that world of Mediterranean combinations with the slightly bitter taste of olives and capers cutting through the salty anchovies. Himself had lasagna (€13) again served in a black cast iron pan with a pizza pastry lid to keep in the moisture. Good value and pleasant, it came with shoestring fries and he had a side order of tobacco onions (€3).
When it came to desserts, “Danny’s freshly baked American cheesecake and chocolate Brownie” lost out to a selection of Renzo Rossi’s handmade icecream. For the initiated, Bray Seafront has a great Italian Gelateria, with wonderful homemade icecreams dispensed from a revolving wheel, and icecreams from here are delivered to Platform each morning. They were a steal at €6, served in an enamel bowl, including chocolate, pannacotta, and a lemon sorbet to die for. With a bottle of lightish house Quinta del Campo Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon (€20) our bill with optional service came to €80. I should say the service was great – friendly, smiling and welcoming. Such a joy – no wonder it was packed.
Platform Pizza Bar,
7 Strand Road,
Bray,
Co. Wicklow.
Tel: (01) 538-4000
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT