This is a new restaurant opened by Martin Wishart last week. Reading the online description in a news article around the opening, it is designed as a French Bistro style with influences from further afield. In short, I think it is a really nice place. the food was delicious, staff and service very well thought out and the decor and ambiance in the place is ideal for this city center place.
Now a little more detail. Nested at the Queen street end of North Castle street, from the outside, this place has a look of style and grace about it. The menu on the outside of the building is sadly tucked behind the door, so if you were passing during open hours, the door is propped open and you have to do a bit of a dance to see the menu behind the frame of the door, but the head waiter told me this was already noted and getting fixed this week.
As you walk in, there is a warmth around the place, both in terms of the golden theme to the decor and the temperature of the place due to the hard working open kitchen at the far end of the dining room. It is deceptively bigger than its front suggests, and with wonderful high ceilings, it has a grand air about the place.
The staff greet you with a warm smile and their typical French waiter attire, black waistcoat, white shirt, white apron, tells you what you can expect. The place has a mix of white table cloth dining and casual bistro style. you get shown to your table, but nobody holds your seat out for you or places your napkin on your lap. I think that's good, I think it sets a more relaxed tone about the place.
There is a bar area too, which looked heavily used by the time out meal was finished. there were also people eating at the bar, the same menu being available in the bar and dining room.
The food. There is a traditional menu on offer and fairly comprehensive. Starters were things such as scallops, a terrine, brown shrimps. There is a pasta menu, which offers starters or main sizes. A fish menu with locally caught produce. A steak menu with a good selection of cuts to suit all needs.
For starter, I had brown shrimps and my wife a pasta dish. The shrimps were delicious and a perfect starter, I think about £8. The pasta was a taggliatelle with roast cherry tomatoes with what we think was a tomato broth which had the most amazing flavour.
For main, we both had sirloin steak, one medium, one medium rare and both were cooked to perfection. They come with either a red wine sauce or a béarnaise sauce, we have one of each and they were both delicious. We also had some fries and green beans, which were as good as you'll find.
We wanted to have a dessert, but by this time the place was full and the waitress was doing he best to keep her tables served, so we decided to give it a miss after we waited for a little while to place our orders. As soon as we got up, the head waiter was on to us and apologising as well as he could and offered a glass of something in the bar. This was a minor distraction from otherwise exceptional service and as far as I'm concerned, nothing you shouldn't expect from a place that has been open one night and already had hundreds of people through the door. I am 100% certain by the time I write this, any little kinks like this in their service will be fixed. The head and assistant head waiter were running a tight ship from what we saw and you can imagine them getting things right very quickly.
We had a bottle of wine with the meal and two course for two people, all together it was a couple of pounds shy of £100 without a tip. I think this is a great place, pricier than your everyday eatery, but a splash of style and grace you rarely find in a new restaurant. The food is fantastic and well worth the money. read more