Like a lot of capital cities, I think it is very hard to find good food reasonably priced in Dublin. However, this week, success! A place called Harry’s Café, which is just off St. Stephens Green so a super-central location. The website describes the restaurant as follows…
Enjoy the best Irish and Continental foods, prepared with
loving care and served in a casual and relaxed atmosphere.
All of that is true. Whilst the restaurant was mostly empty (it was a Tuesday night) there was no lack of atmosphere, thanks in no small part to the great selection of tunes playing. And as everyone knows, a good tune must have been released in the 1980s.
Course by course…
Chicken liver pate with melba toast. A classic, simple pate like you might make at home, and absolutely delicious. A good size slab too, with great fruit chutney. On balance, pate is probably the starter I order most often and this was as good as any I have eaten recently.
A new place for dinner often means a burger. If you can’t get a burger right, you might as well give up and close your restaurant. With burgers, I think there is a ‘tell’ that will point to the quality before you have taken the first bite: if you are asked how you want your burger cooked then 9 times out of 10 it will be great. This shows confidence in the raw ingredients that most places just don’t have. The (rare) beef was lovely and so were the fries. However, the best plaudits are saved for the tomato and red pepper relish. Divinely spicy and very fresh.
Dessert was inevitably for me a selection of Irish cheeses. All were good and there were plenty of thin, crispy biscuits to accompany them. A generous block of quince paste too which was great. The olives were nice but unnecesary.
So, for €18 (we were just in time for the early bird menu) a great place to eat, and one I will definitely endeavour to visit again.
Recommended.
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