RESTAURANTS:The Westbury's revamped restaurant is a revelation
LIONS WHELP IN the street, owls sit upon the Capitol at noon, Mary Lou McDonald is the new John Maynard Keynes. And there is now one more Dublin hotel restaurant that is worth visiting. We live in very strange times.
Given a straight choice between eating the general run of hotel food and watching an entire series of Big Brother, I would not hesitate. The food would be the lesser of two evils. But it would rank, in terms of uplifting experiences, somewhere in the same league as Brendan O'Carroll's literary works. Or do I mean Brendan O'Connor? Whatever.
When the Westbury Hotel announces that its revamped restaurant is to be called Wilde (yawn) and the menu carries the quote about being able to resist anything but temptation (oh that's where it comes from) and that the menu has been drawn up by an executive chef from Dubai I am not, so to speak, drawn as to a magnet.
However, I have to report that this new restaurant delivered quite a lot of pleasure.
The interior is impressive in a very contemporary way, the dominant colours being black or brown, with some very expensive marble and a general air of restrained opulence. And unlike other hotels - such as the Ritz-Carlton where the "art" looks like framed photocopies - you get proper pictures here. It's not often you get to linger over a Louis le Brocquy as you enter a restaurant.
The menu is short and clearly designed to tug at that thread of nostalgia that runs through the core of those of us who are old enough to remember a time when, say, air travel was glamorous and not a form of ritual humiliation.
So effective is this nostalgia thing that we ended up thinking of the time of our arrival as "the cocktail hour", a phrase which I'm pretty sure has never consciously crossed my mind before. And so, a glass of champagne and a very good dry martini preceded our starters: a very contemporary fresh fig and Cashel Blue tart and a traditional prawn and crab cocktail. The latter was period-perfect, right down to the cocktail glass and the pink sauce, the former let down only very slightly by a rather crude pastry case which was filled with a heavenly combination of sweet fruit and salty, creamy, melted cheese.
One of our main courses was an exercise in how not to make a risotto. Firstly, it's not impossible to make a pleasant beetroot risotto but it's not easy. And, secondly, risotto in which the grains of rice are uncooked in the middle is not a risotto at all. It's an abomination.
But our dry-aged 28-day rib-eye was possibly the best steak I've ever snaffled. And one of the best cooked. Rib-eye can't be served rare because some of the tissues remain tough and stringy. It needs to be done just enough to be tender and this is why I said I'd have it whatever way the chef wanted to do it. It was perfection, full of meaty flavour, tender and moist, requiring literally nothing else - but the bearnaise was pleasant if a little too mayonnaise-like in texture and low on tartness.
Chunky chips were pretty good too. But the quality of that Black Angus steak made every other facet of this meal recede into a kind of background blur.
I have a distinct memory of sharing a dish of frozen berries over which was poured, at the table, a jug of white chocolate melted with cream. I can't remember who invented this (sounds like Gary Rhodes) but the version they do at Wilde is very good indeed.
With aperitifs, water, espressos and a bottle of good Crozes-Hermitage, the bill came to €175 including service. And service was nostalgic, too, in that it was provided largely by true Dubs with old-fashioned Dub charm, pride and consideration.
WINE CHOICE
Apart from a good selection of serious clarets dating back to 1978 (which must have come from the Berkeley Court) this is very much an hotel list, ie garnered from the big suppliers. Our Crozes-Hermitage Les Launes from Delas was worth the €40, but Louis Latour Savigny-les-Beaune 2002 at €121 must be a misprint. Among all the Rosemount and Wolf Blass there are plenty of pleasant wines, but nothing particularly exciting. Domaine La Bastide Merlot (€28) and Santa Ana Eco Malbec (€28) are both decent, simple, fruity wines. Chateau de Pez 2000 (€67) from Saint-Estephe will get better but is drinking well now.