Restaurant Review: making a tax-day treat out of Dublin's Asador
The interior of Dublin 4's Asador. Pic: Jeff Harvey
- Asador
- Victoria House, 1 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04HY58
- Tel: 01-2545353
- Asador.ie
With my annual tax bill due soon and talk of a potential global warming catastrophe on every news programme, I’m afraid I did the irresponsible thing and spent a load of money on steak and expensive wine.
But, you see, Asador has a new chef and I felt I had to try it out, especially as it is Robert Sabongi. Robert is also the brother of seafood supplier extraordinaire Niall Sabongi, so I knew the Asador prawns on Instagram would taste as good as they looked.
Asador’s main dining room is bright and comfortable and the kitchen is open so you can opt to watch your steaks and prawns grilled in real time. I visited with a gourmet friend who is one of the best home cooks I know, and we felt we deserved a last meal out before tax day.
Asador’s menu has a distinct Latin character as befits a restaurant specialising in cooking gaucho-style on a wood-fired (Asador) grill. We followed this theme and ordered croquetas, pan con tomate and chipirones to start.
The chipirones (€9) arrived first — chunks of tender squid in a crisp coating and with a tasty and reasonably pungent smoked pepper aioli sauce for dipping. True chipirones are Basque baby squids of course, but these chunks of regular squid worked well enough and the large bowl disappeared quickly.
Pan con tomate (€7) offered refreshing contrast to the squid with sweet pulped tomato atop crusty grilled sourdough. Jamón croquetas (€7) however were the size of baby fists which we felt was a little too large to get the full benefit of the crispy exterior and the soft interior. Good quality jamón and a rich béchamel meant the flavours were good — we just would have preferred 6 small ones over two huge ones.
Next came the highlight of the meal, grilled gambas pil pil with toasted sourdough (€18). Fat, sweet, tender prawns with a lightly spiced pil-pil dressing with a touch of char from the grill — perfection. If I could have eaten the shell of these prawns I would have, instead we made the most of the flavours by sucking the juices from the heads and licking our fingers clean.
As expected from a grill restaurant there is a lot of emphasis on steak at Asador, but we could also have opted for grilled chicken or meaty fish such as halibut, monkfish or swordfish. There were several steak options from rib-eye Delmonico to picanha, picanha being the bargain cut on the menu at just €29. Given our fin de siècle mood we opted instead for one of the three Côte de Boeuf, a 28oz piece costing €98.
The beef arrived rare to medium-rare, exactly as ordered. The charring on the exterior had been taken to just the correct point and did not overwhelm the sweet flesh. On the side were three sauces which we eventually ignored as the steak tasted better on its own. The pink peppercorn sauce was the best of the three but we found the gravy too sweet and the chimichurri a little too vinegar-focused.
Triple-cooked fries (€6) were properly crispy and embers cooked broccoli (€9) offered contrasting grassy bitter flavours to cut through the meaty richness of our steak. I was a little less impressed with the Romesco sauce for the broccoli which I felt focused more on smoky earthy flavours rather than roasted pepper and almond flavours.
Asador’s wine list is a good length with good options under €40 but I’m afraid we ordered a 2019 Barbaresco from Produttori di Barbaresco in Piedmont (€98). As hoped it was utterly delicious, silky red and black fruits with a touch of ink and black tea, its elegance underpinned by structure. Perhaps not the perfect match with our steak but a remarkable wine all the same.
Asador’s desert menu is short with just three options — lemon tart, ice cream sundae and Valrhona chocolate fondant (€15). We shared the chocolate fondant which had just a touch of liquid ooze once breached, but was still pleasingly lush and rich tasting and a satisfying end to the meal.
So, besides some saucing notes for the chef, this was a very solid meal and one that could have cost half had we been less indulgent.
