I have always had a soft spot for Canaletto's - Terry Sheeran's restaurant on Mespil Road, close to the Grand Canal. As it has moved and increased in size, as it did last year, it has never lost the sense of fun and humour which was evident among the staff when it opened.
It's a neighbourhood place, where the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo will come in an opened, unlabelled bottle, the sort of place which will be open on a Monday evening, when so many other restaurants are shut.
And they have always done things well in Canaletto's, taking care to get their sandwiches more interesting than their competitors, and dreaming up interesting vegetarian dishes. If the food is essentially simple, it is nevertheless well considered, and suitable. Intrigued by a starter dish called "Heroic Sausage with Baby Roast Potatoes and Mustard", we asked the waitress why it merited such a description. "It's a Dublin-made pork sausage and it's called heroic because it's so big," she said. It made it sound like a wholly unlikely start to dinner.
So we ordered it, and it was a cracker, the curving banger fizzingly tasty, accompanied by four excellent little roasters and a fine grain mustard cream sauce. If it might be thought of more accurately as a main course, it was nevertheless an excellent dish, for the flavours were punchy and it was very reviving to eat.
Even better was a Croute of Pear and Gorgonzola, one of the classic Italian combinations. Here the cheese and pear sat in a little pastry case, surrounded by frise, radiccio, some roasted peppers and a little pesto. This was a dream starter: expertly light, with all the flavours commingling. It was satisfying cooking with finesse and flavour.
Our main courses largely dispensed with finesse, but continued with the favour. A cannelloni of ricotta, spinach and walnuts with field mushroom sauce had a tomato sauce on top as well. And if this sort of dish is relatively old-fashioned, it nevertheless shows the sort of classic combinations which Terry Sheeran likes to work with.
The ricotta and spinach were excellent with the pasta, and they enjoyed the addition of the walnuts, which gave the dish even more body. But the cannelloni could have been better if it had enjoyed the lightness of execution which made the pear and Gorgonzola such a success, for the overall effect of the various ingredients gave the dish a measure of overkill. Hungry 20-year-olds will love it, of course, and I suspect that is who the dish is aimed at. I'm probably just getting too old to eat this sort of carbohydrate-fest.
Our other main course was once again an imaginative pairing, teaming rigatoni with chicken and mangetout, showing that Sheeran can borrow from ethnic cuisines as well as his beloved Italian cooking. The flavours and the idea were excellent, with the dish having crunchy and savoury notes along with the starchy tubes of pasta. But again the chef had gone for overkill with the sauce, simply using much more cream than the dish needed.
We might describe this as a failing of generosity - it is an inexpensive dish, and cream isn't a cheap ingredient - but the failing meant that the balance which the idea and the flavours deserved had been compromised. Both of these dishes were within a whisper of being as fine as our starters, and I have no doubt that the kitchen can produce them to thundering perfection, for their logic is unassailable. It seemed to me that we had just ordered them on a sleepy, quiet Monday night, when the kitchen had just decided to relax.
And so, it seemed, had the serving staff. For we finished our dishes, but neither of the charming waitresses stopped their conversation to come and fetch the dishes, or to inquire if we would like some dessert. And so we waited some more, until eventually I was forced to turn around in my chair and interrupt them, and ask if we could see a menu, at which point they sprang back into action.
I'm perfectly happy with relaxed service, especially in a simple, funky room like Canaletto's, and I appreciate that they are open seven days a week, but if you are open, then you have a responsibility to serve your customers.
And the desserts, as it turned out, were scarcely worth the effort of disturbing the staff, for both a Berry Tart and a Blackcurrant Cheesecake were uninteresting, a disappointing end to a meal which began with such promise and which was within an inch of being terrific. But, I still retain my soft spot for Canaletto's. If we both need and want restaurants which offer us long opening hours, as Canaletto's does, then we have to accept that sometimes their standards will dip, and that time is most likely to be on a quiet Monday evening, after a crazy Dublin rugby weekend.
Terry Sheeran's food enjoys well-considered logic in its mixing and matching and it is fine value for money - starters range between £2.50 and £5.50, main courses between £8.95 and £14.50 - and when it is good, like the heroic sausage and the pear and Gorgonzola, it is very good indeed.
Canaletto's, 71 Mespil Road, Dublin 4, tel: 01667 5220. Open Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-4.30 p.m., 7 p.m.- 11 p.m., Sat 9 a.m.3.30 p.m., 7 p.m.-11 p.m., Sun 10.30 a.m.-4 p.m., 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Major cards.