I’m going to be honest. I was not expecting to like San Lorenzo. It opened in November of last year in the building which used to house the vegetarian restaurant Juice. I only copped afterwards that my dubiety towards San Lorenzo was really the fault of the ghost of Juice. While it was always a lovely room, the food in Juice was under-whelmingly dull at best.
The room has had a face-lift, taking full advantage of its high ceilings and, although I’m not quite sure of the wooden panels on the wall, they make for an impressive composition. The seats are benches, which aren’t to everyone’s taste but happen to be to mine. Our amiable waiter had us seated and watered within seconds, a bowl of wonderfully crusty bread and soft butter for us to nibble on as we perused the menu. I say nibble but what really happened was we scoffed that bread. Not made in-house but well-sourced nonetheless.
I started with the soft and gooey Burrata Buffalo Mozzarella which came adorned with fresh figs, a delightful truffled honey and sourdough toast. It was fresh and sweet, and a pleasing start to my meal. Niall’s starter were Pan-fried Gambas, which sat in their full shells, swimming in a sauce of white wine, chilli and garlic. No big deal, right? Wrong. We had to order a second helping of that scrumptious bread (neither portions of which appeared on the bill) so that we could soak up every last bit of that juice.
For my main course, I decided to take a chance on the ubiquitous pork belly. I’m so BORED of pork belly. It’s been everywhere for ages now. There was something about its description on the menu, however – a Slow Roast Gremolata Rolled Pork Belly – that had me intrigued. I wasn’t disappointed. It was a delicate but perfect portion of pork belly expertly cooked, surrounded by green lentils, sautéed broccoli, and outstandingly fluffy-yet-crispy duck fat roasties. There was also a little pile of cabbage, smoked bacon and chorizo, which I thought was a curious addition at first. One taste of it along with the pork belly and I remembered that Temple Garner is at the helm of this kitchen. He has been in charge of many great kitchens in our city, including The Mermaid Café, so, yeah. He knows what he’s doing.
Niall ordered the Confit of chicken cacciatore as it seemed to be the most straight-up Italian dish on the menu. Served alongside borlotti beans, savoy cabbage and duck fat roasties with an underlying flavour of bay leaves, it had the same sophisticated twist prevalent in all of our dishes. Our meal was rounded off with an exquisite Lemon Tart and Raspberry Sorbet and an Apricot Bread and Butter Pudding with indulgently rich mascarpone cream.
We had arrived in time for the Early Bird, which meant our three courses cost us €24.50 each. Two courses would have been €19.50, and we got a lot more than one might be used to at those prices in Dublin. Our total bill, which also included a bottle of Picpoul de Pint (€26), two coffees (€2 each) and a bottle of sparkling water (€3.50), came to €82.50.
I was thoroughly impressed by the value for money we got at San Lorenzo. Rather than leaving feeling underwhelmed, we said our goodbyes to our waiter feeling very positive for the future of this new Italian-inspired kid in town. Oh, and one more thing. This spot is definitely a front-runner for best bathrooms in the city. You’ll have to book yourself in for lunch or dinner to find out if you concur.
San Lorenzo’s
South Great George’s Street
Dublin 2
01-4789383
http://www.sanlorenzos.ie/
