Dublin: Hooked at first Bite
Bite’s manifesto is to offer high quality fish dishes, (there are a couple of veggie and chicken options) at affordable prices, and this is achieved that with gusto, shame about the wait though.
IT’S five years now since the Irish economy went belly-up. And with the ensuing recession hanging around like a sick dog, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for a badly squeezed restaurant industry.
Here’s the thing, though. Recession hasn’t just brought closures. In Irish restaurants, it’s also prompted some of the most creative comebacks of any service industry.
Think of Dylan McGrath, who went to ground after Mint. Since then, he has spectacularly re-invented himself as a Masterchef judge and the chef behind two of the hottest new concept restaurants in the country — Rustic Stone and Fade Street Social.
In Drogheda, Eastern Seaboard has brought a sizzling, one-size-fits-all solution to a town hardly renowned for its food. In Galway, the dynamic duo of Drigín Gaffey and JP McMahon have thrived in tightened times, opening a neighbouring tapas joint and a terroir-based restaurant on Dominick Street, and bagging the city’s first ever Michelin Star in the process.
In Dublin, there are as many openings as closures these days — the kind of churn we took for granted during the Celtic Tiger. Bear, Mulberry Garden, The Greenhouse, 777, Damson Diner and Fade Street Social are just some of the new kids on the block.
Bite is another. Typical of the emerging Dublin 2.0, it’s a city centre joint hung on a smart and tightly thought-out concept. Dubbing it ‘fancy fish ’n’ chips’ may be a bit too simplistic, but that’s essentially what’s on offer — along with a lengthy cocktail menu and very affordable prices.
Visiting with friends on a Saturday night, five of seven main courses include fish — with chicken and vegetarian linguine dishes the only variations. No steak. No burgers. Just snappy treatments of seafood with fashionably pimped-up sides (duck fat fries, mushy peas with pancetta, chargrilled broccoli with garlic and chilli et al).
We’re a party of four, so we range widely on the menu. Of the starters, prawns with crushed chickpeas and rose harissa bring a nice, spicy chomp. Smoked salmon rillettes offer good texture and depth-of-flavour. But star of the show is the crispy soft shell crab.
This arrives exactly as described: a small-but-fully-formed crustacean, cooked in a crispy tempura batter and served on a black slate with pickled radish, wasabi mayo and soy. It’s a steal at e8.95. Bite offers a full bar, with everything from draught Guinness to Chocolate Cosmos on offer — a good thing, as it turns out, given the time that elapses between our arrival (c. 8.30pm) and that of our mains (c. 10.30pm). Friendly and apologetic staff bring two complimentary rounds of drinks as we wait, but in all fairness, two hours is absurd.
“Everybody arrived at the same time,” is hardly an excuse, either. Bite may be new on the scene, and its clubby vibe certainly has the celeb imprimatur — everyone from Bono to Brendan O’Connor has been — but it’s open long enough to anticipate these pile-ups.
The mains taste great, mind you — however tardily delivered. My hake is beautifully juicy, encased in a crunchy vodka and beer batter. A braised monkfish is cooked to a tee, swimming in a broth of parsley, white wine, mussels and garlic. The chicken comes with prosciutto, mushrooms, pecorino and rocket... a moist cut lathered in piquant accessories.
The duck-fat fries, alas, are overcooked and dry. If you’re going to make a song and dance about these, charging e3.95 for a small portion, isn’t it worth getting them right?
No quibbles about dessert. A chocolate mousse is sticky and delicious and an apple and blackberry crumble comes with an impressive lightness-of-touch.
Overall, despite service delays and dry fries (once-offs, I’m hoping), Bite works brilliantly. It’s a bit messy having diners pass through the service area to reach the heated terrace, but otherwise the sequence of spaces works well and the value-for-money shtick is very genuine — could this little fish become a franchise?
