The House is just that, a restaurant in a house – and the food is just as honest, writes CATHERINE CLEARY
‘THIS IS HOWTH,” the passerby says soothingly when I ask him whether you have to pay to park in the village. It’s the “you’re in your granny’s” tone that’s comforting. In Howth you can leave your big city worries behind.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten in Howth in the dark. If you don’t live there it’s a daytripper kind of place for blustery, sunny walks and chips on the pier. On those gift days of rare Irish summer, the restaurants are typically jammed to the doors as us city-bound people pile out to this pretty north Dublin fishing village. But it’s a dark stormy January evening and I’ve booked a table for two at The House restaurant for their jazz evening.
The House is just that, a restaurant in a house. It’s one of those great old Irish village houses where you step out of the front door and on to the footpath. It’s reputed to have been the home (or lodgings) of Captain Bligh, he of mutiny on the Bounty fame, who designed the North Bull Wall at the end of his seafaring career.
They’ve resisted any urge to festoon the walls with anchors and muskets, thankfully, and it’s a nice mix of homely and smart, with a standard lamp in one corner and bare iridescent bulbs hanging over the tables. China plates, saucers and cups hang around the place on hooks at eye level, but that’s as twee as they’ve let it get. There’s one very large table for big groups and two leather chesterfields. A jazz sax, double bass and guitar trio led by guitarist Louis Stewart will play shortly.
Wednesday nights are jazz nights. On Tuesdays you can bring your own wine (on-the-razz nights maybe). The chalkboard also has another big reason to leave your fireside in January and brave the elements, a €10 “surprise dinner”. I’m not sure if the surprise is the price or just another way of saying “special” but a slow-roasted pork belly with colcannon and caramelised apple sounds perfect.
To start I get squid with melon, chilli and samphire and Juliana gets the potato and kale soup. Mine is delicious. It comes piled up on a large clean white plate with a bright orange sauce in a circle around it. The squid rings are fresh and lightly battered. They sit in a pile on top of gorgeous slim samphire (this ingredient on the menu is fast becoming code for “good food here”). They’re not flavours I would have put together but it works beautifully, a clean sweet-salt combination with a kick of heat from a harissa-like light sauce. The soup is a competent rendition of the classic, gloopy and filling. A doorstep of nutty brown bread with it is very good.
My main course is exactly what I want on a night like this. Another little food tower, it starts at the top with a wedge of apple, browned with the skin still on. This sits on knife-tappingly crispy pork crackling and sumptuous beautifully-cooked meat without too much fat beneath. A nice colcannon cushion is at the bottom, with a moat of almost-syrupy appley gravy around it all. Juliana gets two plaice fillets lightly floured on the skin side and beautifully fried. Green beans, small potatoes and a surprising apple and parsley puree accompany it. “I would never think of putting apple with fish but it works,” she says.
The equally tricky combination of live music and a small restaurant also works brilliantly as the three musicians make their virtuosity look effortless. All three look like they are enjoying playing as much as the diners are enjoying listening to them.
A pavlova is not quite as the Larousse on the shelf beside us describes the classic: a marshmallowy meringue filled with cream and fruit. This is more of a solid torpedo with a splodge of cream and passion fruit on top. My plum crumble is very nice, with ice-cream giving that hot-cold combination. Instead of wine we have a cranberry juice and mineral water combination which is refreshingly light. It’s all been more than worth the trip and we’ve definitely relaxed into a Howth state of mind.
Dinner for two with soft drinks and a mint tea came to €72.20.
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The House
4 Main Street, Howth, Co Dublin, 01-8396388
Facilities: A little on the chilly side
Music: Great live jazz every Wednesday. Louis Stewart plays every first Wednesday. Food provenance: Plenty, with a commitment to local sourcing.
Wheelchair access: Yes
A change for the better: F&B
For a long time, the downstairs wine bar in Fallon Byrne was a better prospect for food than its posher upstairs sister. You could have a shouty get-together over a well-priced platter of meat and cheese or tasty soup, where upstairs things were never quite as good as they should be for the prices.
But things have changed for the better in the second-floor brasserie. It has always been a great room with those huge mirrors that trick you into seeing ghostly wisps of Gauloises smoke. The prices are good, with a pre-theatre deal available all night on weekdays and until 6pm on Saturdays (two courses are €24 and three come in at the strangely pedantic figure of €28.81).
A celeriac soup was great, a pork belly starter gorgeous; a main course of a Puy lentil and leek Wellington was hearty veggie fare. But the brasserie classic of rib-eye (medium rare) with Béarnaise sauce and fries was as good as it gets, perfectly cooked meat, pink and luscious and generously portioned. Standout was a Knickerbocker Glory with nuggets of nutty butterscotch. Although it came without one, this dessert was the cherry on top of a great meal.
The business is in interim examinership over a tax bill of €1.4 million and the company has said they're hoping to trade through the difficulties. Finally getting the food right on the second floor might help them do that.
Fallon Byrne, 11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin, tel: 01-4721000
