If anyone is going up to da big schmoke for da bit of Christmas shopping and you're around Arnotts and Henry Street, I strongly recommend this restaurant for a great meal. Read on and see why...
Talbot 101
101-102 Talbot Street
Dublin
1
Phone: (01)
874 5011
Open: Tue –
Sat 5-11pm
All major
credit cards accepted
When I
called the 101 to make a booking I told Pascal, who took the call, that I had a
choice between his restaurant and my friend’s choice of Eden Eden
When this
place was opened back in the darkness of the early 90s Dublin O’Connell
St Dublin street
The menu is
generous with the staples of sirloin steak with garlic butter or whiskey cream
sauce, slow roast shoulder of lamb, goat’s cheese salad and more adventurous-than-usual
sounding veggie options. I had pathetic intentions of having a light meal but
chose the Crispy Pork Belly wrapped in Savoy Cabbage served with a plum and
ginger sauce as my starter. It was a joy to behold on the plate. A perfect
round mould was created from the bright green cabbage leaf, the pig was inside,
and it sat contentedly in a bright pink pool of its sauce, like a pig in,
sauce. When I cut into it the cabbage still had plenty of bite, it and the pork
were warm, and the pork was a little crispy and shredded into chunks. The cold
sauce contrasted well with the meat and the vegetable to give a great contrast
of flavours and textures, with a fruity almost oriental twist. My date’s choice
(rather my second choice) of starter was the Warm duck liver salad with roast
pine-nut and balsamic dressing. The livers were very rare and deliciously
tender, almost runny in the middle; I ate most of them as Date was a bit squeamish.
The accompanying salad was a bit unimaginative but everything in it was fine
and it worked with the livers, which don’t need much dressing up anyway.
For mains I
chose the Char grilled Swordfish with smoked garlic and chilli butter. I was
asked how I’d like it cooked, I went for medium. It came served simply on a bed
of roasted baby new potatoes with its butter running down its sides. It was
juicy and delicious, falling apart at the touch of my fork. The smoked garlic
butter had none of the usual tang of garlic butter and didn’t murder the fish’s
delicate flavours. My bowl of side salad was pretty standard with cucumbers,
tomatoes and lettuce. The star of the show was the date’s main of Pan Roast
venison served with sautéed bacon and cabbage and redcurrant jus. The venison,
cooked to medium was melt in the mouth and so rich. It’s dark red colour with
pink centre oozed sexiness on the plate, enhanced by the fruity, heady jus. The
bed of bacon and cabbage sounded strange but the cabbage was finely shredded
and barely sweated with the smoked bacon to make an unusual but uplifting
marriage to the meat.
The wine
list was very reasonably priced from €22 to €32 for the most expensive. I don’t
drink white but often choose the fish and the server suggested the Sardinian
Bombarde which was light enough for the dish but still held up well to the rich
meaty ones.
Though the
Date insisted he couldn’t manage desert after all the rich food I told him he
had to, it was part of the brief. He chose the dark chocolate cheesecake with
strawberries while I had the fool of blueberries over black-berry compote. The
cheesecake was one of those ones that make you cry, it was so rich and dense it
almost crumbled. Strawberries peeked out from its insides and oohs and aahs
could be heard from other diners in the same state of bliss who had ordered it.
My fool was light and fluffy and came in one of the little wine glasses; it
looked like something from a Marguerite Patten cookery card. It was good to eat
something a bit lighter than the rest of what we’d indulged in, though I must
admit that I had most of the cheesecake too. We were so full we had to have
brandies and coffees. Lots of diners were lingering over pints of Guinness and
drinks. It seems you can have your whole night out here and never get flung
out.
The meal for
us both came to €124.00 including beer, wine and brandies (well it was
Saturday…..)
Valerie
O'Connor











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