Restaurant review: Woodruff is a restaurant everyone in Ireland needs to know about
Woodruff: "a precious, joyous thing"
- Woodruff, Unit 7, The Village, Stepaside, Dublin 18.
- Mon-Tues - closed; Wed - 5-9pm; Thur-Sat - 12.30-9pm
- Tel: 01-5581362.
- woodruff.ie; @woodruffstepaside
It’s hard to keep up. I’d heard Woodruff in Stepaside was good and that chef Simon Williams and manager Colm Maguire had ambitions, but I had clearly not been paying enough attention. Woodruff is not just ‘good’ — it is a restaurant everyone in Ireland needs to know about.
In case you are unfamiliar, Stepaside is a suburb in the foothills of the Dublin mountains that most people breeze through on the way to Enniskerry. A taxi from Dublin city centre would probably cost around €20, but the 44 bus stops outside, and it is just off the M50, so no excuses please.
The philosophy of the restaurant is pleasingly direct but verging on the provocative: “Cook with the seasons, sustainably source direct from farms, ferment, forage and cure while minimising waste”. This is the kind of cooking ethos we should all aspire to, not just chefs with ambition.
A food friend was also anxious to visit Woodruff and as the lunch menu is the same as the dinner menu we finally got around to it just last week. Lunch is a full à-la-carte menu that changes regularly with a good choice of snacks, starters, mains and side dishes — the only problem was that every single dish sounded creative, tasty and thought-provoking, how to choose?
Thick crusty slices of sourdough bread arrived first along with a house-cured butter that was lightly creamy and properly seasoned (unlike many a chef-made butter). The sourdough crust had that essential squeaky, crunchy, and slightly sticky texture present in all good sourdough and it tasted joyous.
A ‘snack’ of House Cured Goatsbridge Trout (€7.5) could have been a starter given its size. Guinness crumbs added sweet nutty textures, horseradish crème frâiche added a little pungency while trout roe added briny freshness, and chicory and salad leaves rounded out the dish — faultless.
Mushroom Tart (€12) had wild mushrooms sitting plumply on fine flaky puff pastry and a creamy 63° egg for texture while black truffle slices added extra umami and earthy notes.
Seared Tuna (€15) was pleasingly presented in half-centimetre slices dressed with a punchy chilli and home-made mushroom soy sauce that woke up our palates — just as a starter should. On the side were flavourful (and decorous) wild garlic leaves and scarlet elf-cup mushrooms — the two appear together in early February we were told), another flawless dish.
St Tola Goat Cheese Gnocchi (€20) had mild cheesy flavours and a smooth texture and were nicely offset with kale, preserved walnuts and salty little wild capers, while organic pear slices provided contrast and a welcome hit of sweetness. John Dory (€30) was crispy without and translucent within and sat on meaty squid ink fregola pasta which added depth. Wild alexander stems tasted somewhere between celery and endive, while a Vietnamese (coriander and lime sauce had a kick of fish sauce for added pungency. House Fries (€4.50) were properly crispy and fluffy and served with a roast garlic and saffron mayonnaise (perhaps three survived the meal).
Wine is another reason to visit Woodruff thanks to an eclectic and artfully chosen list, mainly organic from European vineyards. Prices begin at around €32 and there are good selections by the glass such as the wines we ordered: aromatic, layered Domaine Goisot Bourgogne Aligoté (€9), fragrant, complex Xisto Limitado (€8) from the Douro and weighty, nutty, Komokabras Thalia Naranja (€9.10) — a rare orange Albariño from Galicia.
For dessert, a White Chocolate Mousse (€7.50) was offset with blood orange slices for contrast and meadowsweet meringue for crisp-chewy sweet textures, and a pistachio and chocolate crumb for roundness. Basque Cheesecake (€7.50) was new to me, cooked as with a New York cheesecake, but lighter and creamier and offset with gooseberry sauce and nutty sweet Jerusalem artichoke.
Simon and Colm have created a precious, joyous thing in Woodruff and the room is as welcoming and well thought out as the menu (it won an Architecture award). Get there quick before the world beats you to it.
Lunch for two at Woodruff including bread, snacks, two starters, two mains, two desserts and three glasses of wine cost €141.10
- Food: 9.5/10
- Wine: 9.5/10
- Service: 9/10
- Value: 8.5/10
Woodruff is serving brilliantly cooked, seasonal, foraged and carefully sourced ingredients in innovative creative ways — and you need to find a reason to go there soon.
