Restaurant review: Ranelagh is known for expensive houses but has a great value restaurant too

Duck away from fine dining at this gem

• CN Duck
• 12 Ranelagh, Dublin 6. D06P9W8. 
• Tel: [phone]
• www.cnduckdublin.ie
• Opening Hours: Sunday-Wednesday 12-10pm, Thursday-Saturday 12-11pm

Dublin is an expensive city for eating out, and it’s going to get worse. Rents are higher, produce bills are rising every week (alarmingly so, according to one chef friend), and we are probably just going to have to put up with it and refrain from blaming restaurants.

Staffing is still a huge problem and restaurant chains are now reportedly hanging around restaurants at closing time trying to poach chefs and waiters with a promise of better hours and pay.

A small bit of good news, however, is that one of Dublin’s most expensive suburbs now has one of the cheapest best restaurants in the city.

CN Duck is on Ranelagh’s main street just opposite Host — which is the last restaurant I reviewed in this swish suburb back in April 2019. CN Duck specialises (as you might expect) in roast duck, those gleaming crispy-skinned bronze beauties you see hanging in the special bullet ovens in cities like Hong Kong.

CN Duck is a casual restaurant with very high standards. 

Besides roast duck, pork, and chicken, CN’s menu is split into short sections such as Asian bites, sides, and a selection of rice and noodle options including ramen, rice bowls, and wok-fried dishes to which you can add roast meats or tofu.

First up were shao mai prawn dumplings (more usually spelt “Sui Mai”) which are made in-house and set the tone for the meal. They were quite probably the best I’ve ever tasted. The six large (almost) golfball-sized dumplings proved a challenge for our chopsticks given their size and slippery outer skin, so we resorted to spearing them. For just €8.50, these were nearly a meal in themselves, packed with soft minced pork and mushrooms and topped with a large juicy prawn, with an umami-rich soy sauce dip on the side.

The Shao Mai dumplings set the tone for the meal. 

Generally, sui mai dumplings have the prawn minced in with the pork but this method worked much better with the prawn flavours hitting the palate first and then melding nicely with the pork and mushroom.

Won ton soup had silky soft dumplings in a light broth and had pleasing subtlety and complexity. There is something magical about a fine Asian dumpling soup (or ramen for that matter) — to appreciate it properly requires focus and undivided attention so in retrospect we should probably have eaten this dish on its own rather than between bites of crispy duck and pork.

Similarly the wok-fried char siu rice (€13.50) which had a generous quantity of fresh vegetables from bok choi to peas and scallions, and of course numerous slivers of crispy roast pork — this too would have been a joy to eat on its own.

And now to the duck and pork: Oh my goodness, the crispy deliciousness of it all. Half a roast duck on the bone (€16) made a delicious crackling sound when pierced with a knife and all the fat seemed to have disappeared into the crunchy skin. Crispy pork belly (€14) was just as described — perfectly rendered skin nestling on top of tender pork belly. Too often I have to remove some of the fat from pork belly as the grease gets too much, but not here. Cucumber pickles (€3) served as a fine palate cleanser as we switched from duck to pork to rice to dumplings.

The Wok-fried Char Siu Rice had a generous quantity of vegetables. 

The drinks menu includes Asahi on draught and bottles of Tsing-Tao with a BYOB option for the low price of €6 for wine and €1 for beer.

Redmonds Off-Licence is less that 100m away and has one of the best wine and beer selections in the country where I picked up a bottle of Albert Mann Alsace Riesling for €29 — its fragrant tangy apple and citrus fruits were a perfect match for everything we ordered.

I know that I have made CN Duck sound almost Michelin standard, so I should point out this is a very casual restaurant that just happens to have very high standards.

Staff were charming and super-efficient and this was a hugely enjoyable meal at a bargain price.

The Bill: Dinner for two including several small and large dishes plus two beers cost €80.30 and an extra €29 for a BYOB bottle of wine our bill came to 109.30

The Verdict:

Food: 9/10

Drink: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Ambience: 8/10

Value: 9/10

In a Sentence:

CN Duck is charming and fun and probably serving the best roast duck and pork in the country.

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