There’s a new place in town for Italian dining and it’s called Fiorentina. Housed on the corner of Parliament Street looking out onto Dame Street and across at Dublin City Hall, this fancy Italian restaurant has breathed new life into a room that had become uninspiring and stagnant in its previous incarnations.
Kris Burness is a chef who has worked in restaurant consultancy in Dublin for nearly a decade, being part of the teams that put together spots like Brasserie Du Pont and the renovated Waterloo Bar. He decided 2014 was the year he was going to open his own joint so he pulled together a team of people he’d been working with over the years to create Fiorentina, which opened in April of this year.
Manager Marc Matthews, also the graphic design artist behind Fiorentina’s identity, comes from good kitchen stock having done his time at Fade Street Social and Rustic Stone amongst others. “We didn’t want Fiorentina to be too plush as to scare people off,” he tells me after dinner. “Instead we wanted it to be accessible to everyone. It would be foolish to marginalise ourselves as an occasional restaurant. We want Fiorentina to be affordable luxury,”
They have achieved that. Fiorentina is not a rustic trattoria and it doesn’t transport me to the vibrant lanes of Naples but keeps me rooted in Dublin with a dash of elegance and an Italian inspired menu that keeps us interested.
There’s a serious master behind the bar, who starts our experience off with a raspberry-tinged treat that is the Bellini Del Giorna (€11) and the passion fruit mocktail (€4.50) is a thorough delight.
The Gambretti starter (€11.50) is the type of prawn dish one dreams of. Fat, juicy prawns smothered in garlic butter begged to be devoured. A springtime bruschetta of brilliantly green broad beans and peas needs seasoning but a sprinkling of salt (this is not the type of place that hides the salt shakers) helps matters tremendously and I adore the fluffy ricotta that offsets my crushed legume topping.
A dish of pasta with amatriciana sauce (€15) feels a little weak on first bite – the sauce is thin in texture rather than my personal preference for full-bodied chunkiness. It wins me over with flavour by the third bite and the bowl is licked clean. The special of the day is a stunner of a rib-eye steak (€24.50) served with chunks of melting gorgonzola atop the meat, with salad and perfectly salted skinny chips. We share a stunner of a lemon tart (€6.50) for dessert that comes with the welcome cliché of raspberry sorbet.
There’s always one table in a new restaurant that hasn’t found its right place. We’re sitting at the table closest to the kitchen and, though it’s somewhat glorious to be in the middle of the buzz with waiters whipping back and forth, I feel a bit exposed. I have no doubt the team would have moved us to a comfier and cosier banquette seat but the fact remains that a table remains that provides questionable comfort to diners. These are teething issues and hardly worth mentioning except that it may help you to decide where you want to sit on your next visit.
Their front of house team of manager Marc and hostess Flavia have to be commended. She gave us a such a genuinely warm welcome that cemented the accessibility of our stay. Restaurants that are between casual and high dining can be stiff and stuffy because of an insecurity of how to approach their dinner guests but Flavia and Marc help set the tone perfectly.
Fiorentina has arrived as a fully formed restaurant. It’s so clear that this gang have done this many times before and they totally know what they’re doing. It’s a restaurant that knows who it is and how it wants their guests to experience it. Everything works well together which is why, though I usually prefer a more unpolished dining experience, we feel really comfortable here. We’re relaxed but we respond to being fussed over in the most friendly of ways. It’s a bit of a treat.
And the treat doesn’t come at too much of a price. Our meal, which includes a glass of rich Montepulciana (€7.50) and two joyous little macchiatos (or should I say, *macchiati*) at €2.50 a pop, comes to €98 even.
Fiorentina
40 Parliament Street
Dublin 2
01-6351922
www.fiorentina.ie
Words: Aoife McElwain
