The service is excellent at a new restaurant in central Dublin, writes Tom Doorley
It appears that size does matter in restaurants and cafes. Fire Restaurant is enormous, cavernous, vast. Like Fadó, which it has replaced at Mansion House in Dublin, I wonder how often it's going to be filled. But more of that later.
At the other end of the scale, the nation's cafes appear to be having problems with being too small. I hear that some are being told they can't prepare fresh food because their kitchens are not big enough. I don't know if this is a nationwide problem, but several small outlets have been told, by their local environmental health officer, that they must bring in salad and vegetables pre-prepared and meat products pre-cooked. This must be great news for the companies that supply such stuff. It's lousy news for consumers, of course, but that doesn't seem to matter.
Ever wondered why the grub at the bar au coin is so much better than in the Irish equivalent? There are many answers to that question, but this could be the latest one. The Food Safety Authority has an important job to do, of course, but it's a shame when regulations work against the provision of fresh food. I wonder how many food enthusiasts work at the authority.
If the kitchen at Fire is in proportion to the restaurant, there will be no problems with such niggling rules. It will certainly take exceptional food to fill the space on a regular basis.
Our dinner there the other night was entirely adequate, if a little expensive, and the service was consistently charming and efficient, provided by what are now known as "non-nationals". They are a credit to their calling.
Fresh figs with Cashel Blue cheese melted over them were pleasant enough. Rather less fig and more cheese would, perhaps, have worked better, but at least it makes a change from the usual suspects.
Chargrilled baby squid was less successful, in that it tasted a little fishy - something that perfectly fresh squid doesn't - but it was tender, smoky and pleasant enough. It seems compulsory now to serve a sweet chilli sauce with squid, and this was no exception. The chilli-sauce industry must be booming.
Wood-fired jumbo tiger prawns, described as a signature dish, makes use of a wood-fired oven that would dominate a smaller room. To be sure, the prawns were large and, as such things go, quite juicy. They were loosely stuffed with "sauteed chorizo and lobster tail", which produced much saltiness and a rather dry texture, and it was all swimming in garlic butter.
It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds, but one has to wonder if it might not be improved by being simplified. I don't know if it would have been improved by having it served on "a sizzling plate", as promised on the menu.
Fire-roasted fillet of pork with Parma ham and red pesto was, again, rather better than it sounds. Wrapping things in ham is a dodgy business, but here it worked, keeping the meat moist. The red-pesto stuffing was curiously good, too, and the whole dish was carnivorously satisfactory. So much so that my guest claimed it brought out his inner German. The accompanying "fennel dauphinoise" - slender and tender slices bathed in a buttery, creamy sauce - was delightful.
Little salads of young rocket were crunchy but let down by the quality of the Parmesan shaved on top. If you're going to use Parmesan, you have to insist on good stuff.
A shared dessert of dark-chocolate pudding scored highly on cocoa solids but was let down by overuse of sugar. Dark chocolate loses its character when its bitter edge is softened by too much sweetness.
With three very pleasant Polish beers and a bottle of keenly priced Portuguese white wine, mineral water and two espressos, the bill came to €134.10, including excellent service.
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Fire Restaurant, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2 (01-6767200)
WINE CHOICE Château Plessis (€18.50), an Entre-Deux-Mers, and the red Château Haut Peyruguet (€18.95) are decent and keenly priced house wines. Bonny Doon Big House White and Big House Red (€23) are Randall Graham's cheapest wines, but they are much better than much of what sells at this price. Raimat Abadia (€25) still delivers plenty of red fruit and oak after all these years, while Masi Campofiorin, another old favourite, is a Veneto red with attitude, at a keen €28. Marqués de Cáceres rosado (€24) is pink, dry, full of fruit and goes with anything savoury. Our Outeiro de Esquila (€25) was light, crisp and refreshing. A €48 Gigondas appears to have no name.