Restaurant Review - Saint
Friday 18 July 2014
Saint is the new moniker of Dublin City Food - an eatery that made its name over the past year or so doing hip hot sandwiches of the 'New York deli' variety, but named after areas in Dublin. Phibsboro, Rialto and Portobello all get an honourable mention on the menu. It subsequently opened a restaurant section upstairs, where I visualised we'd be sitting for dinner, looking out through the quaint, latticed bay windows of the attractive old building.
However, it was a quiet night, and the chap in charge directed us to a table in front of a counter, telling us he would look after us very well on the ground floor instead. He was true to his word.
There was an awful lot we liked about Saint. It is not a big, flash restaurant, but more a quirky wine bar with a hipster vibe - in a good, genuine way, not of the pain-in-the-ass, contrived hipster variety that is so prevalent these days. You feel you could easily become a regular: sit with a bottle of wine, pick at some plates, and observe tourists feeling they've found a secret place "with the locals".
Saint was further canonised, in our view, when we saw that, apart from wine and craft beers, it had a half dozen sherries available by the glass or bottle, plus fortified-wine-based cocktails, including the tantalising-sounding Flamenco Sketches, with cortado, Aperol and lemon, as well as Sancho Panza, with manzanilla, lemon and bitters.
The menu offered quite a selection of plates, priced at €6, €9 and €12, including gumbo with creole sausage, green peppers, rice and prawns in a spiced broth. Buttermilk fried free-range chicken came with ruby slaw and home-brewed hot sauce; while slow-braised beef short rib was served with sticky pomegranate.
Confit rare-breed pork cheek had black beans, creole sauce, crisp serrano and crackling; while delicious-sounding chargrilled jumbo gambas with creole BBQ sauce, scallions and lemon wedges, were also available at €14.
We kicked off with a tempura of jalapeno chillis, stuffed with Fivemiletown goat's cheese and smoked mackerel, from the €6 selection.
Crispy and crunchy, with a subtle flavour emanating from the soft cheese and mackerel filling, they were good value, as were a brace of delicious mini lamb burgers, also €6. Flavoured with cumin, topped with avocado and citrus cream, preserved lemon and yellow pepper, with smoked tomato coulis, a couple of these could go down very easily. You'd be very satisfied if you beefed them up with sides of spiced sweet potato fries or aubergine fritters with wild honey.
I certainly didn't cry when they told me they were out of monkfish liver - as memories of a ghastly lobster liver roll, in a now-defunct seafood bar, rapidly sprang to mind! We moved on to Atlantic clams with Hairy Goat IPA beer at €9. While there was a very decent-sized plate of clams, they were a lot of work for little satisfaction.
We wondered why one would cook them in beer, rather than just enjoy the subtle clam juices themselves.
We ordered what was a delicious selection of bread (€4.75) to mop up what little jus there was, but I think I'd pass on the clams next time.
Our other dish was more successful - for us, anyway; truffled poached duck egg (€9) sitting on toasted sourdough with a bouquet of grilled asparagus, served with an excellent chorizo and date chutney.
Home-made churros (€6.50) to share, with a dulce de leche dipping sauce, rounded off the evening nicely. With two double espressos (€5), bottled water (€4), and a bottle of delicious Valencian Angosto Moscatel Verdejo (€28), our bill, with optional service, came to €87.
I will most certainly be back in that corner, sipping a nice wine cocktail, observing Dublin-city life and its tourists.
Saint,
7 St Andrew Street,
Dublin 2.
Tel: (01) 485-3273
www.dublincityfood.ie
www.lucindaosullivan.com
First Published in Life Magazine, Sunday Independent