Restaurant review: Sodor & Ko
THE first time I went to a restaurant as a grown-up in my late teens I found the experience intimidating and rather overwhelming.
The waiter corrected my pronunciation of the wine, tried to tell me what to order and sneered at me when I enquired about the extra vegetables the next table seemed to be getting (they had ordered from a different menu). I doubt he cared if I ever went back (I didn’t!).
Times have changed. This kind of attitude would be difficult to find in Ireland these days, but more importantly, the concept of dining out itself has changed.
Sodor & Ko is a very modern restaurant with a very modern Irish chef. Described as Scandin-Asian, the Scandi bit is the drinks menu, while the food is modern Asian, created by Kwanghi Chan, who was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Donegal and has worked everywhere from Chapter One to the Cliff House.
Asia, Scandinavia, and techy cooking techniques are about as 2015 as you could find in restaurant terms. Throw in DJs, beautiful young people, and late opening hours and you can see why Sodor & Ko is jammed full at weekends.
Having said all this, I was a little sceptical about the concept, so it helped that I visited with CB who is far cooler (and younger) than myself. CB loves the place as in her words: “I can go have great food and fun and then I don’t have to leave!”
We began with cocktails — a Dry Manhattan for herself and something bitter and old-fashioned for myself (a Negroni). Our table was ready but CB was determined to make sure I soaked up some of the atmosphere, so we took our cocktails to the smoking room. On warm nights this large room is open to the stars, but on cooler ones the retractable roof can be closed over. Beautiful young things loll around on benches, flop and flirt on couches or simply lean against the wall looking hip. Blankets are provided and there is a fin-de-siècle Parisian decadence about it all. I loved it.
Between courses we returned to the smoking room and staff seemed entirely unruffled that our table was abandoned on regular occasions. As well as cocktails there are craft beers from Ireland and Scandinavia and a short but well-chosen wine list from which we chose a nicely balanced Gerard Bertrand Pinot Noir (€38) from southern France.
Sodor & Ko places a large focus on small plates for snacking and from the Raw section, our smoked salmon was beautifully decorated and enhanced with compressed pear, cucumber relish, hazelnut, and dill. The salmon had only a soft hint of smoke and a velvety texture more like gravlax, and none of the blobs and flourishes on the plate felt out of place. Similarly our Beef Carpaccio was perfectly balanced with some smoked five-spice seasoning, cured egg yolk, avocado oil, and radicchio leaves.
Deep fried Softshell Crab has been cropping up on menus in Dublin for a few years now (Fade Street Social, M&L etc) but I think Kwanghi may have created the best batter — as light as a cloud and exploding with flavour.
Steamed buns are also de rigueur these days and our Chinese Roast Duck with Hoi-sin sauce and salad was pleasantly sticky and sweet and contrasted nicely with the sour and spicy Kimchi bun.
As this is Asian dining, our dishes arrived as soon as they were ready and the kimchi bun also worked with the sticky Pork Belly and Octopus main course. This was a new pairing for me and while the two elements did flirt very well together this was a little like some of the interactions I witnessed in the smoking room — it worked on the night but I’m not sure pork and octopus will ever develop a long-term relationship.
Chocolate mousse served with peanut praline and mango was supremely satisfying and the best thing I can say about the Nobó dairy and gluten-free vanilla coconut ice-cream is that it is very trendy right now — best to just look at it rather than try to eat it.
So if you want to know where it is happening in Dublin these days I think you should visit Sodor & Ko — just bring a young heart if you can’t find a young person.
Dinner for two with five small plates, one main course, one side dish, two desserts, 1 bottle of wine and two aperitif cocktails — €129.50
Sunday-Wednesday, noon–12pm;
Thursday-Saturday, noon – 3am
- 7/10
– 7/10
– 8/10
– 9/10
– 8/10
: Exciting, well executed Asian food served in a supremely cool urban atmosphere
