Restaurant review: Middle-Eastern eatery Shouk serves up a feast
The Mezze at Shouk, Dublin 9
- Shouk
- 40 Drumcondra Road Lower, Dublin 9
- Wednesday-Sunday - 12.00 - 22.00
- Tel: 01-5322114,
- www.shouk.ie
- Instagram: @shouk_dublin
Fadó, fadó, back in the 1990s when Dublin was still a cheap place to live, the area around Portobello near Camden Street suddenly seemed to be filled with Middle Eastern shops selling merguez sausages, doughy filled Murtabak/Paratha flatbread, pomegranates, tahini, fresh coriander and honey-sweet flaky baklava pastries.
I was thrilled, I already had a well-thumbed copy of Claudia Roden’s Book of Middle Eastern Food but had struggled to find some ingredients. Even now it is probably my favourite comfort food, and when I eat hummus, falafel or baked aubergines it brings me back to that time in my life.
These days thanks to Yotam Ottolenghi the cuisine of Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Iran is much loved and almost commonplace so I probably don’t need to explain further.
So as you read this you are probably still feeling full from Christmas feasting and you need some excitement in your life. Travelling to Beirut or Tel Aviv probably isn’t an option so I recommend you head to Drumcondra to visit Shouk as we did in early December.
Begin with the Large Mezze Platter (€35) which includes a mound of nutty rich Falafel and fresh-made Pita bread to put them in along with hummus and mildly bracing Yemeni Zhug chilli sauce.
The Pita in Shouk is fluffy and lightly doughy and quite different to the dried out anaemic supermarket ones, so you will find yourself digging into the babaganoush with it and gathering clumps of aubergine and carrot salad.
You may think your mouth isn’t big enough, but it is.
Chicken skewers (€14.50) and grilled chicken thighs will get stuffed into more pita with tomato and cucumber salad and of course you need the Schnitzel crispy breaded chicken pita (€11) and the Kababella Pita (€12) with succulent minced lamb and beef with gherkins, hummus and chimichurri.
The Za'atar herb flavours on the pita for the chicken skewers will sing through the other flavours nicely, softened by the sweet grilled red onion and cherry tomato, and lifted by the chilli and the bitter notes from the tahini and the citrus tang of the Sumac.
The Vegan and the Veganuary temporary convert will wonder where Shouk has been all their life because of course you also order The Cauliflower (€12.50). A whole roasted volleyball-sized veggie beast covered with tomato salsa, zhug, grilled cherry tomatoes, and dotted with jewelled pomegranate seeds - it’s spectacular.
Textured, rich and earthy, you may wonder as I always do why it is so much more interesting than the other members of the brassica family. It’s like a reverse Corrs - the Shouk Cauliflower in fact is Andrea, Sharon and Caroline all rolled into one - who needs Jim broccoli, Jim sprout or Jim turnip?
The draught Spanish lager will wash some of this down but given the complexity of the food you will want to order a bottle of Château Ksara Reserve du Couvent for the bargain price of €34. Ksara was founded by Jesuits and is Lebanon’s oldest winery - its savoury, sweet, baked red fruit flavours and light spice notes rounds out the flavours in Shouk's dishes remarkably well.
For dessert a plate of flaky honeyed pistachio baklava for a mere €8 might need some coffee or mint tea to balance the sweetness. Or opt for the Malabi (€7), the classic Turkish dessert with coconut cream, coconut flakes, pistachios and rosewater - a richly scented fluffy milky mousse with texture from the coconut and floral richness that lingers on the palate thanks to the rosewater.
We filled five cartons with leftovers so you will want to do the same, just remember to order lots of extra Pita for takeout as you know you will need them in the coming days. By the end of the week you will be rooting through your Ottolenghi books hoping to recreate some of the dishes and the dark month of January will seem a whole lot brighter.
Dinner for Four including a large Mezze sharing plate, salads, hummus, extra pitta, mounds of meat and vegetables, dessert, beers, and a bottle of wine cost just €146.00
- Food: 8.5/10
- Drinks: 8/10
- Service: 9/10
- Ambiance: 9/10
- Value: 9.5/10
Shouk serves generous portions of extra tasty Middle-Eastern food perfect for sharing and exactly the kind of restaurant you want to visit on a cold winter day (or a hot sunny one for that matter).
