OF all the things we should render unto Caesar, we should be most careful, and most respectful, with his salad.
Caesar Cardini's great invention is one of the classics of the kitchen, a sublime mix of cos lettuce, oil, lemon juice, egg, cheese, Worcester sauce - and that's enough. So just what are they at, in Galway's Kirwan's Lane restaurant, announcing a salad which includes smoked mussels and calling it a Caesar Salad?
Caesar Salad doesn't have smoked mussels. Nor does it have thin slices of red pepper, as this one did. And you don't make it with iceberg lettuce, as they had done in Kirwan's Lane. And you certainly don't make it with smoked chicken, as they include in another version of their "Caesar Salad". What's wrong with calling it Smoked Mussel Salad? Or Smoked Chicken Salad? Not only would it be more accurate, it would surely be more honest.
This sort of modern menu manipulation works two ways. It leads the customer to expect one thing, and thus detracts from the dish that arrives, simply because you find yourself saying, "Well, it may be good, but it sure as hell isn't a Caesar Salad". Restaurants may think it's a bit of a hoot, but it's closer to a shot in the foot.
And the Kirwan's Lane salad was pretty decent, with only the over smoked mussels detracting from a decent, crisp collection of leaves and croutons. It was slightly better than the House Salad, an ambitious melange including smoked peppers, olives, cheese, basil and toasted pine nuts with a mixture of leaves - a concoction maybe a little too involved for its own good.
Mucking about with the classics, and throwing smoked peppers and toasted pine nuts into the house salad, gives you a pretty decent picture of Kirwan's Lane.
It's a classic modern restaurant, a long, lean room with rag painted walls, subdued lighting, an open kitchen, and a menu littered with all the modern menu notes: parsnip shavings, basil batter, lemon grass, even the awful affectation which means they call coriander by its American title, cilantro.
That it is so vogueish is perhaps surprising, given that it is owned by Michael O'Grady, whose family has run the long established O'Grady's Restaurant in Clifden for decades. Mr O'Grady, in moving into the city, has moved smack into the modern world, bravely adding the sub title Creative Cuisine to the restaurant's name.
So, does Kirwan's Lane's creative cuisine amount to more than messing around with menu speak? Well, it does, actually. What they are best at is, ironically, the great bistro staples. After the Caesar salad, I had a dish of homemade sausages with sauerkraut and mash, the latter artfully smashed in the modern style, and it was good: simple, enjoyable food which the kitchen had accomplished well.
Order some lamb's liver with an onion confit and corn and potato cakes and you will see just how good they are at this punchy style of cooking. A panache of seafood with sweet couscous and a prawn veloute only suffered by comparison to the bistro classics, for it failed to match their liveliness.
But if Kirwan's Lane can do the bistro stuff perfectly, they can do the nursery puddings to perfection. A clever apple brulee the apple baked and then topped with a seared caramelised hat, was excellent fun, while a generous bowl of rice pudding with raspberry jam lacked only a smidgin of extra vanilla to make it really memorable.
The service in Kirwan's Lane is good the wine list needs a lot of work to make it interesting; but anyone who plays to the restaurant's strengths and chooses snappy, flavourful dishes, will find enjoyable cooking. The starters are about £5, main course prices are from £9 to £13.50, lunch is about £7.50, and they have a three course lunch for £12.50.
JUST down the road, another Galway restaurateur has recently moved shop, as an Zeltner has transferred his operation from the upstairs floor of Ti Neachtain's celebrated pub. He has taken over Nimmo's restaurant, down by the river, which gives him much more space than before, and the restaurant is housed in a long, spacious room, which culminates in the kitchen at the far end of the stretch.
In comparison to the flowery elaboration of the menu at Kirwan's Lane, the menu here is almost mute: Homemade Pasta With Sauce Of The Day; Today's Special; Vegetarian Dish Of The Day, and Catch Of The Day My Way, are titles which tell you effectively nothing about the cooking.
The hard working waiter did elaborate on the menu's silences, telling us that the sauce for the pasta was red pepper sauce, the fish of the day was monkfish and john dory, the vegetarian dish was vegetables baked with cheese.
The red pepper sauce for the pasta was a fine dice of peppers in a cream sauce with macaroni, and while a fine idea, it simply lacked any sparkle or brightness of taste.
But two other starters showed the sort of richly flavoured cooking this kitchen excels at.
A quail and mushroom stew, which was accompanied by two tiny balls of polenta, was excellent - the good gamey flavours countered by the sweetness of the polenta, while a shellfish ragout with smoked salmon was similarly upfront and successful.
But the main courses slid back into a flavour timidity: noisettes of venison with apple and Calvados had fine pieces of meat but a dull sauce. The fish of the day was cracking fresh and was perfectly cooked but the sauce was lacking in definition and a garnish of chopped celery and carrot had no business being on the plate.
Pan fried chicken breast with duck foie gras was unremarkable. Vegetables arrived separately broccoli, carrots, sprouts and potatoes - and were fine.
That the kitchen needs to find some more discipline in its work was borne out by the desserts, for both chocolate mousse and a pastry cone with fruit and a parfait glace, seemed to be content to be passable rather than pleasurable.
Some more time in operation should help the kitchen to find more consistency, so that it can send out food with the personality and savour which made two of the starters so good.
Prices in Nimmo's are fair - dinner costs £23 - the wine list is excellent and service is charming.