Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland

About The Restaurant

 In 1977, Emilio Cirillo took over Nico’s, one of Dublin's oldest Italian restaurants, and almost forty years later his nephew, James Cirillo, has just opened the eponymous Cirillo’s on Lower Baggot Street. The two establishments are like chalk and cheese – Nico’s is traditional in the best sense with not a pizza in sight, while Cirillo’s offers authentic Italian food, from a snappy little menu of antipasti, pasta dishes and wood-fired pizzas, in the chicest of settings at great prices. A lot of thought has gone into what looks like a simple operation. The pizza oven was imported from Naples and burns a blend of Irish oak and ash; the pizza dough is slow-proved for 30 hours using a recipe from the Head Pizzaiolo, Luca; pasta, pizza dough, breads and ice creams are all freshly made in-house every day. They offer a choice of regional wines from boutique producers, along with craft beers, and, as the perfect aperitif, a choice of five takes on the popular Italian Spritz.

On two levels, retro forest green leather banquettes blend with bare cement walls, bentwood chairs, white tiles, and vintage brass lights. We were there on its first night and were quickly brought a complimentary Aperol Spritz (Aperol, Prosecco and soda water). It’s similar to my favourite, Campari – low alcohol and a particularly lovely drink in summer with a slice of orange.
Antipasti included the ever-popular calamari, but here 
it comes with black garlic aioli, while salmon crudo is house-cured and served with a carrot salad, wild garlic dressing and crispy skin. A little bruschetta plate incorporated marinated tomatoes, pickled anchovies and mascarpone, and wild garlic pesto and mushroom. Arancini – deep-fried rice balls – for my friend Paul were three lovely moist ‘golf balls’ stuffed with tomato, mozzarella and basil, with gorgonzola and basil olive oil. A selection of Italian cured meats for me was all it should be
 – but very often isn’t – with five different types of salami, Italian sausage and prosciutto, elegantly arranged in folds along side a
 salad of cured vegetables, which provided the perfect contrast to the rich oiliness of the meats. With this, there was a plate of delicious chargrilled flatbread.

Pasta dishes had papardelle with braised short
rib, tomato ragu and wild garlic pesto; casarecce with ham hock, lard, cavolo nero and crispy skin
 in a carbonara sauce. Fettuccine also featured with a rich duck and Parmesan ragu; while fusilli was with crab, Gubbeen cream and basil oil. I had a big bowl of fusilli with crab, chilli, marinated crisp asparagus and chilli oil, which
 was as delicious as it was light
 and summery. Ten pizzas included the popular Margherita, Marinara, and Diavola but also a Parmigiana with fried aubergine and double Parmesan. Paul had a Carbonara pizza, richly lavished
 with mozzarella, egg, pecorino, guanciale and black pepper. It
 was delicious.

Afterwards, as full as we wre, we managed to thoroughly enjoy between us a delicious slice of dark truffle cake with a quenelle of ice cream. They also have a great lunch menu allowing you to eat as lightly or fully as you wish. There's an antipasti sharing plate plus a bruschetta plate with fresh tomatoes, black olive tapenade, basil pesto and mushrooms, as well as two pasta dishes, one with Nduja, shitake mushrooms and Pecorino in an egg sauce. Salads feature too, including a roasted vegetable salad with salsa verde, pinenuts and Parmesan, as well as their fantastic pizzas. 

Will I ever be able to get in here again – let’s keep it a secret!

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