I try not to find out too much about a restaurant before I visit, preferring instead to wait until afterwards to research. I like arriving without any preconceived notions of who is running the joint and what they’re trying to achieve.
So when our starters turn up at East Side Tavern, at the top of Leeson Street across from The Sugar Club and Hourican’s, we’re taken aback. A bowl of salt-baked sweet beets baptised in Wicklow buttermilk, accompanied by a perfectly judged sweet beetroot purée and a few luscious blackberries (€10) arrives before me. It’s heavenly in its simplicity. The pressed pork croquettes (€8.50) are of similar calibre. A crispy, golden nugget of moist pork comes with a subtly pickled apple and fennel salad and chunks of homemade black pudding. The food takes us by surprise.
If I had started my deeper investigation of East Side Tavern before I visited, I would have found that Head Chef Niall O’Sullivan had moved from the wine-lined bistro Isabel’s on Baggot Street to take over the kitchen in this beautifully refurbished two-floor pub run by the folks behind The Green Hen and Marcel’s.
The downstairs room is glossy yet dark; a back lit pyramid of booze sits behind a bar tended by an extravagantly bearded barman. Twin Peaks comes to mind! We’re brought upstairs for dinner, into a warm room with another eye-catching bar and a few distinct nooks and crannies.
We fancy a cocktail and our absolutely lovely waitress Flavia (she has a name badge and she is the best) gets me sorted out with a non-alcoholic White Linen (€5.94) – a lemon, cucumber, egg white and black pepper beauty that usually comes with Hendrick’s gin. It’s gorgeous and I’m truly grateful for the effort. It feels like I’m having a real drink, rather than just another sad Nojito that longs for rum. Later on, I get a rowdy Cranberry Sour (€5.94) that has just as much attention to detail, while my dining partner goes for the boozy Green Margarita (€9.90) and finishes with a frothy Espresso Martini (€10.90). The drinks go down well throughout.
The blackberries and beets make a welcome second appearance in our mains alongside a sweetly roasted Breckland duck breast (€24) and some barley. The dish is simultaneously contemporary and classic. A perfectly pan-fried piece of hake (€22) comes with a swirl of enticingly earthy parsley root purée, smoked almonds and brown butter for company. There’s also a superlatively pressed potato stack that is both crispy and velvety. It is so expertly executed by the kitchen.
When I ate O’Sullivan’s food at Isabel’s in 2012, the dishes were impressively ambitious, particularly a memorable honeycomb and salted caramel parfait dessert, but they felt too eager. Here at East Side Tavern, his food feels at home and relaxed on the plate. It doesn’t need to show off or fuss. It’s happy to be unassumingly awesome instead. Without the formalities of a fancy bistro, perhaps there’s more room for surprising culinary creativity.
It was really loud in the room, so loud that we had to strain to hear each other’s compliments on the food. It’s a pub, after all. It added to the experience for us; to have a load of revelers reveling around us while we tucked into delicately treated beetroots and buttermilk, duck and blackberries. I mean, come on! It’s amazing. I get in touch after my visit to find out more about this delicious inconsistency between the setting and the servings. ‘East Side Tavern is a bar. We would like to be one of the best bars in Dublin. And like most bars in Dublin we have a food offering. We are very passionate about great food. What we want to do is offer the best food we possibly can. We don’t want to lower our standards just because we are in a bar,’ Declan Swift from East Side Tavern tells me.
The Beeramisu is tempting, but for dessert we choose a plate of piping hot, freshly fried churros (€7) dipped into rich, melted chocolate sauce. In total contrast, we also order the delicate Woodruff set custard, apple sorbet and sorrel granita (€7). It’s so beautiful, in presentation and in taste. O’Sullivan clearly knows his sweets.
It’s said that the best things in life are the surprises, because of a lack of expectations. We were not expecting to eat so well in such informal surroundings. For me, the contradiction between what’s on your plate and your surroundings adds an extra dimension of enjoyment to a meal. Sometimes it’s kind of boring to have fancy food in a fancy place sometimes. The surprise element of expecting one thing and receiving something much better makes for a special occasion.
The bill, which included two bottles of sparkling water (€4 each) came to €118.18, a price that some might not be expecting in a pub setting. Trust me, it’s worth it. Besides, there is a list of charcuterie and cheese boards to be shared if you don’t feel like going the whole hog for dinner. There’s also the Early Bird from Sunday to Thursday, where two courses cost €19.50 and three courses cost €22. Failing that, try their Express Lunch at €14.
My time at East Side Tavern was the best meal I had in a new restaurant in Dublin in 2014. Here’s to plenty more visits in 2015.
East Side Tavern
104/105 Leeson Street Lower
Dublin 2
01-6789529
Words: Aoife McElwain / Photos: Mark Duggan
