Eating out:'I don't think 2007 will go down as the year that changed the face of Irish food forever, but there were several Good Things', to borrow a phrase from 1066 & All That, writes Tom Doorley
When Olive, one of the BBC's food magazines, asked me to nominate my favourite neighbourhood restaurant I went for Alexis Bar and Grill, in Dún Laoghaire, which is within walking distance of our Dublin bolt-hole. But it's more than a neighbourhood restaurant. It is exceptional in that it delivers good food at very down-to-earth prices and serves plenty of decent wines at about €20 a bottle.
Opened in March, it seemed to anticipate the downturn; this is a restaurant that will retain the loyalty of its customers even if times get very hard indeed, because it resisted the temptation to rip them off when such behaviour was rife. And, incidentally, I've heard from only one reader who didn't have a great experience there.
Alexis presses all the buttons for me. Except one. It seems to lack the hard-to-define quality that I will call, for convenience, soul. But can you have everything? Rarely, in restaurants.
The other big opening, also in March, was Balzac, Paul Flynn's brasserie, which replaced the awful La Stampa and brought good food into Dublin's most impressive dining room. The food has always been well above average on several visits - a warm salad of smoked haddock was close to sublime - but I've had intermittent complaints about service. Putting this in context, I would have to say that complaints about service are well nigh universal at the moment. It reflects two facts: good waiting staff are very hard to find these days; and Irish diners have much higher expectations than they used to. But Flynn's determination to get Balzac absolutely right shines through. It shows great promise.
Troy Maguire left L'Gueuleton just before Christmas last year and headed off to resurrect , in Portobello, a restaurant that had been one of the very few decent places to eat in 1980s Dublin but had faded over time. Giving this highly talented bistro chef a broader palette on which to work has resulted in some very exciting food, served in crisp, elegant, simple surroundings by a very keen team. All of your e-mails about Lockshave been positive, which may well be a record.
L'Gueuletonis now headed by Warren Massey, who appears to have retained perfectly the menus and cooking established by Maguire. It remains one of the places where food enthusiasts gather. In this respect it resembles the Winding Stair, which opened in 2006 and where a recent change of chef seems to have gone smoothly.
Town Bar & Grill opened its large, ultra-modern suburban satellite, South Bar and Restaurant, at the Beacon Centre in Sandyford, in September. After a slightly shaky start, Temple Garner took over the kitchen and turned it into one of the year's more interesting openings. So, if you were underwhelmed in the first few weeks, you will find it well worthwhile to head back for a second bite.
Good restaurants in Irish hotels are still a rarity. I had high hopes for the Gordon Ramsay-branded operation at the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, in Co Wicklow, but was sorely disappointed and concluded that Ramsay had finally spread himself too thinly. Your e-mails were surprisingly few on this one, but they reflected my own experience.
The Garden Roomrestaurant, at the new Capella Castlemartyrhotel, in Co Cork, was utterly delightful, with delicate, modern food by a chef fresh from a two-Michelin-star restaurant in London. This, I have to say, was a very pleasant surprise, and my lunch there was one of the highlights of the year.
Next month will see Michelin's new restaurant guide appear, and several Irish chefs will be biting their fingernails. The revamped Thornton's, on St Stephen's Green in Dublin, where I enjoyed a very fine lunch during the summer, will undoubtedly be under the Michelin spotlight, but the inspectors are notoriously slow to recognise changes, good or bad.
Dylan McGrath of Mint, in Ranelagh, seems determined to chase stellar recognition, but I'd be surprised if Michelin doesn't hold back a while longer. Whether this is justified is hard to say, especially as Michelin machinations are quite beyond me.
I don't know if the inspectors have made it to Co Cavan yet, but Neven Maguire, at MacNean House & Restaurant, in Blacklion, is overdue a star. If he were cooking in Birmingham he would have had one years ago.
Finally, one of the brighter episodes of the year was a visit to the revamped Il Primo, in Dublin, where Anita Thoma's cooking is blissfully simple and robust, with the kind of confidence that is all too rarely seen in Ireland.