Restaurant review: Avenue by Nick Munier, Dublin 2
There is, of course, a serious statement of intent going on when a chef/proprietor has the audacity to bestow upon the restaurant their name.
And there’s also a tricky balancing act: will people who aren’t of the foodie persuasion take the restaurant (and by extension the chef/proprietor) seriously? Will they regard such a flagrant act of self-promotion as being close enough to pretention to dismiss it out of hand?
As for those foodies and restaurant critics — the people who know how to slice, dice and serve up large portions of mint-flavoured brickbats — how will they perceive such a self-aggrandising display?
If you’re someone like Nick Munier — the former Maitre d’ at Conrad Gallagher’s Peacock Alley, and subsequently the man behind very successful Dublin restaurant Pichet as well as being yer man off the telly — you are probably self-confident enough to ignore anyone with a grudge to bear and a bag of wisecracks to share.
Now open a few months, there is obviously still some work to be done — literally, as when we walked into the restaurant off a fairly scruffy Crow Street there was a faint whiff of paint in the air, and workmen toiling upstairs for the forthcoming opening of Éclair de Luxe, a separate but linked element of Munier’s aim to provide more than just mere eating experiences here.
Which, instantly, is what you get as soon as the door is closed behind you.
It’s a small enough room, with the welcome counter too close to the entrance, but if you’re a fan of contemporary restaurant design then Avenue takes the biscuit and snaps it in two. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, designed to within an inch of its life.
Sometimes, such attention to detail deflates best intentions; at Avenue, the design is so bold and beautiful it’s the closest thing to an art installation I’ve ever seen within the context of a restaurant.
Where to start? The walls are home to large multi-coloured canvas paintings (by none other than Nick Munier, whose ‘sure-a-child-could-do-that’ approach is at least colourful) as well as a monochromatic photograph of Munier drinking from a coffee cup with the words ‘being normal is boring’ pointing in our direction. The dark blue banquette seating is firm yet soft; the plates are paint-spattered.
The final, exceptionally brazen design touch is all the male serving staff are dressed like Blur’s Damon Albarn circa 1996 Britpop era (dark hair, black buttoned-up faux-Fred Perry tops, black jeans, white plimsoles), and the female serving staff are dressed like Duffy (when she was good — blonde, white tops or signature AV t-shirts, black skirts/trousers).
The contrasting cherry on top is that the front of house, a jet black-haired manager(ess) is wearing a bright red dress. Such a cinematic fusion of colours looks stunning.
Which is all well and good, but what about the food? Well, Munier is in the kitchen (he has help, of course), and so the food is superb.
We choose (from the Early Bird menu — really good value, €20 for two courses, €25 for three) starters of poached egg salad and salmon tartare; mains of Onglet steak, hake, chicken; and desserts of lemon posset and sherry trifle.
We also select roast baby vegetables and roast carrots from the sides menu. Everything — food, presentation — is good with these, and two hours fly by.
Are there teething problems? Certainly. For one, even after a few months the serving staff fuss and fluster about the tables, and there seems to be a disproportionate amount of confusion (and delay) in getting departing customers their coats/jackets.
"This, however, pales in comparison to an instance of upselling that I thought I’d misheard; when asked by our male server if we wanted desserts, we said we’d have a look at the menu, at which he immediately asked, “and three Irish coffees?”
"To which we said no (resulting in two of us consciously choosing not to order any coffee at all). Put this down to either lack of experience or skewed management strategy — either way it’s just not cool in a restaurant that clearly takes being smart as a yardstick.
This glaring error aside, we absolutely loved Avenue by Nick Munier. Yes, it’s perhaps too overshadowed by a cheeky/amusing sense of immodesty, but the venture is ambitious, classy, and (possibly) visionary. In fact, you could say it’s right up our street.
Dinner for three, with wine, came to €101.70, €5 tip.
10am-10pm, Mon-Sat; 12 noon-10pm, Sun
Food: 7/10
Drink: 7/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
