EATING OUT: The Chatham Brasserie offers unpredictable dishes cooked very well indeed, writes Tom Doorley
The next time a waiter asks me "would you like to see the menu?" I think I may just throw caution to the winds. "No," I'll reply. "I'll just guess. Let me see ... goats' cheese to start, followed by some form of lamb."
The average menu is so utterly predictable that this approach is unlikely to draw a blank. Indeed, such a gambit might add a frisson of otherwise entirely absent excitement.
Of course, choice is one thing, execution another. A dull selection of dishes that are nevertheless exceptionally well done adds up to a perfectly satisfactory meal. The Chatham Brasserie is certainly not dull, and the cooking is very good indeed.
Whoever put together the menu at this latest manifestation of the Fitzers empire, seems to have been keen to keep everyone happy, while pushing somewhat at the usual boundaries.
In a mid-priced, city centre restaurant, this strikes me as an eminently sensible thing to do. There are the obligatory pizzas and pastas along with a clatter of multicultural nods. This is not so much fusion as refreshing eclecticism. Or fusion without the confusion, which comes as something of a surprise after reading the introduction to the menu.
The restaurant, it says, "is an informal eating house which offers ... Italian, American and Pacific influences." It has been quite a while since an Irish restaurant called itself an "eating house".
There are, inter alia, spicy chicken wings, tempura vegetables, burgers, turkey breast, Cumberland sausage (hip! hip!), grilled organic Irish salmon fillet (hooray!) and ... er ... risotto Caprese "with mozzarella, tomato and basil".
Tempted as I was to see if this latter spin on an Italian classic would actually work, I was more attracted to a couple of distinctly retro dishes.
Shrimp cocktail comprised a very generous scoop of proper shrimps, bathed in good old-fashioned Marie Rose sauce, served with a wedge of lemon and two doorstoppers of first-class brown soda bread. Full marks to the Chatham Brasserie for bringing back this Irish classic and, equally, for resisting the temptation to chef it up.
The same can be said for the fish and chips, a dish which many chefs are reluctant about doing, possibly because of the whiff of Burdock's, but more likely because it's bloody difficult to get right. And the Chatham Brasserie gets it spot on. Two chunks of perfectly à point haddock encased in perfectly crisp, light, thin batter served with crunchy shoestring fries and a whole ramekin filled with proper tartare sauce. More than proper, indeed; this version had a lot more than the usual dose of capers which are, of course, one of God's gifts to the gastric juices.
We were warned that my daughter's nachos plate would be big. In the event, it defeated even her healthy 14-year-old appetite: a vast plate piled high with corn chips slathered in mozzarella (they like mozzarella here), spiced up with spanking fresh chilli-spiked salsa, topped with lots of sour cream and dollops of smooth, tangy guacamole.
She followed it with Malay chicken curry. It was rich and sweet with coconut milk, fragrant with cardamom and warm with chilli. Serving it in a kind of bowl fashioned from a poppadum was not a good idea. Within a few minutes the crisp shell had collapsed into something resembling damp cardboard. There was also a huge serving of raita, chunky cucumber in sharp yoghurt, and what seemed to be most of a jar of mango chutney. Generous and good.
I fell at the desserts hurdle, protesting that I could manage only an espresso. The teenage appetite, on the other hand, forged on with good vanilla and chocolate ice cream layered in a big, old-fashioned knickerbocker glass, but gave up the ghost somewhat short of the half-way mark.
With two glasses of crisp white Bordeaux, chosen from the short but refreshingly funky wine list, and a coffee, the bill for this large and very satisfactory feed came to €67.90, service excluded.
The Chatham Brasserie, Chatham Street, Dublin 2 (01-6790055), open Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-midnight