I sometimes wonder if we are too inclined to indulge in an old Irish failing and pat ourselves on the back for having got so sophisticated so quickly, writes Tom Doorley.
The tedious predictability of the average restaurant menu owes more to customers' fear of the unfamiliar than to restaurateurs' lack of imagination.
Chefs who daringly try to tread new ground, even just with an unusual cut of a traditional meat, usually find that their lovingly prepared experiment in innovation gets short shrift at the table. It takes a very determined chef to persevere when the exciting stuff sells only a couple of portions a day. So innovation in Irish restaurants can be a pretty thankless task. It's a wonder we get any at all.
Cornerhouse Grill, created by the Brasserie Sixty6 people, is an interesting concept in that it seeks to deliver keen prices, not something you see every day in Dublin, even in these dark days of what the pundits like to call a lack of consumer confidence. But it goes farther and has produced a menu with plenty of organic and free-range produce and an indication of where the stuff comes from.
Sensibly, it has decided to avoid frightening the horses with unusual dishes and to stick with the staples: steak, burgers and chicken for the most part. But, as if to compensate the sybarites, the wine list is pleasantly left-field. It all adds up to a very good idea and one that deserves to do well.
To ensure that it does, it needs to have a red-hot kitchen that can produce simple food with panache. Our five main courses (or four with a starter) were pretty good.
I like chicken wings, but I don't like where they generally come from. Here they were free-range, very tart and spicy, and came with an intense blue-cheese dip, along with the usual bit of celery.
An organic hamburger with a vast bun, remarkably ripe tomato, onion and a big pickle, sliced in two, was one of the better examples I've tasted recently, and it's not really a complaint when I say that it was too big to eat in the traditional hands-on manner.
A 340g (12oz) organic steak, cooked a shade more than the requested rare, had excellent flavour rather than the usual supermarket blandness and weighed in at a very reasonable €19, along with creamy mushrooms and grilled tomato halves that, amazingly, tasted strongly of tomato. Is this a record?
You would need a fine appetite to tackle the extensive club sandwich, with its combination of bacon, egg and marinated chicken breast, which tasted pungently of garlic and coriander. The filling was excellent, as was the toast.
Fillet of cod was encased in a rather heavy and greasy batter of the sort that seems so much more attractive when bought late at night in a chipper. Mushy peas were clearly produced by someone in touch with his or her inner mushy pea, but the round fries that accompanied this (and both the steak and the burger) were the only major disappointment. These were what used to be called saute potatoes (or, in our house, potato bickits), but they lacked the essential crispness that they must have in order to work.
I know Cornerhouse is a grill, but the kitchen doesn't seem to know how to fry. Frying is all about crispness, and neither the spuds nor the batter measured up. Our onion rings were crisp, but the onion was underdone and the batter was shockingly oily.
A single selection of ice creams, including a wacky but delicious Guinness version (malty and pleasantly bitter) was shared by the entire family. Two large bottles of mineral water, a half-carafe of scrumptious Corbières, two double and one single espresso (not bad, but not great, either) brought the bill for our hungry family of five to a very reasonable €110, including delightful service.
We have vowed to go back, as we are keen to try the rare-breed pork on the dinner menu. tdoorley@irish-times.ie
Cornerhouse Grill, 17 South Great
George's Street, Dublin 2, 01-7079596, www.cornerhousegrill.ie
WINE CHOICE
A terrific list that offers most wines by the glass, half-carafe and bottle. Domaine du Tariquet (€6/€10/ €20) is pure Colombard but is more like Sauvignon than many Sauvignons. A'Beckett's Pinot Auxerrois (€9/€18/€35) is a remarkably good English blend, dry and flinty. Dr von Bassermann-Jordan Riesling (€8/€15/€31) is steely, dry and elegant. Höpler Grüner Veltliner (€7/€13/€26) is exceptionally well priced. Sá de Baixo (€6/€11/€21), from the Douro, offers amazing value: rich and nicely oaked. Our Château Ollieux Romanis Corbières (€8/€14/€28) was a stunner if you like your reds brawny yet stylish. I prefer Allegrini's ripe and round Palazzo della Torre (€11/€22/€44) to its Amarones. A Mano Primitivo (€7/€13/€25) is an old favourite.