Restaurant Review: Margadh Café's fare is as artful as its RHA Gallery home
The interior of Margadh Café in Dublin's RHA Gallery
- Margadh Café & Wine Bar
- RHA Gallery, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2, D02 A213
- Open: Tue-10-5pm; Wed-Fri: 10-9.30pm; Sat: 11-10pm; Sun: 12-5pm; Mon: Closed
- The bill: Dinner for two including six courses each and three glasses of wine cost €151.65
“You can’t beat a bit of culture to sharpen the appetite,” said my guest as we looked over the menu in Margadh which is just inside the door of the brilliant RHA Gallery on Ely Place.
The Royal Hibernian Academy’s 194th Annual Exhibition opened on May 20 and is stuffed with brilliant art as usual so we made sure to give ourselves an hour to peruse before our booking — you should do the same if you can.
The exhibition runs until August 4 and make sure not to miss the beautiful Diana Copperwhite abstracts, the scrap metal Robot from Labadanzky, Katie Spier’s glass bird sculpture and some (let’s say) unusual glass ice cream cones from Sadhbh Mowlds. I’ll say no more.
There were also some pleasing food portraits that ranged from a rather sublime sourdough loaf from Blaise Smith, to playful Plums and Wotsits from Maev Kelly, some pretty onions and a rather forlorn Chinese takeaway carton.
Margadh is open for late breakfasts and for lunch early in the week and operates as a wine bar/restaurant from Wednesday to Saturday. Margadh is Irish for Market and there is always a seasonal touch to the menu.
Chef Leticia Miranda is Brazilian and the current tasting menu has a South American twist to some of the dishes including leche de tigre and dulce de leche.
The àla carte features snacks such as oysters, padron peppers, croquettes, and sharing plates, but we were hungry so opted for the €49 tasting menu.
First up were a trio of snacks with the highlight being the Gubbeen and chorizo croquettes: The crisp crumb yielding velvety smooth cheese with spikes of fruity, meaty Gubbeen chorizo and a lightly pungent black garlic aioli underneath that was so tasty we used our fingers to wipe the plate clean.
Gigas oysters topped with tiny dice of Granny Smith apple and red pepper and coriander were briny and citrusy while Margadh’s signature anchovy toasts were pleasingly salty and tangy.
Next, some tender trout and trout roe that popped nicely in the mouth. The trout had been cured with a tangy leche de tigre ceviche marinade that thankfully didn’t overpower.
The flesh yielded nicely but retained its trout texture and the dots of coconut cream added a pleasing nutty accent.
As is fashionable these days the bread course came next — fluffy light focaccia was served with a bracingly briny and nutty olive butter on the side.
Durrus raviolo, meanwhile, was the size of a baby’s fist with the silky pasta plump with almost liquid Durrus cheese from West Cork.
A mushroom escabeche added extra umami while chopped roasted pine nuts lent textures and wild garlic a whiff of fruity wildness. A perfect dish, I was tempted to order a second one.
Beef cheeks came next — melting, deliciously soft, and beefy sweet. A cauliflower cream added some concentrated earthy-sweet touches while slices of pickled pears lifted the othe flavours.
Margadh’s wine list contains around 60 wines with prices starting at €36 for that (gorgeous) old reliable Ciello Rosso Nero d’Avola from Sicily.
There are orange wines, chilled natural reds and most of the on-trend wine regions are featured with classics such as Rafael Palacios ‘As Sortes’ Godello from Valdeorras, Remelluri Rioja and even some old school wines like Château Potensac and Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Our glasses of Perez Godello from Bierzo worked particularly well with the trout and the oysters and could even cope with the anchovy Chilled Côtes Catalanes Guerilleros red, meanwhile, was a beautiful match for the mushroom escabeche and the beef — its intense cherry fruits knitted in nicely while cleansing the palate.
We finished with dulce de leche mille feuille which was a loose interpretation of the term with just two layers of puff pastry filled with rich sweet condensed milk caramel and crumbled cashew nut praline.
The richness of the caramel might have overwhelmed but thankfully a quenelle of bracingly tart Velvet Cloud yoghurt scented with tonka beans was there to help out. I loved the bold flavours in this dessert and it proved to be a rather triumphant finish to our meal.
Service was attentive and knowledgeable and there was a pleasing buzz in the restaurant with a noticeable number of courting couples mixed with groups and a sole diner.
Margadh is serving thoughtful, balanced dishes with a spark of joy, and artistry in every dish — as much artistry as the best of the artworks in the RHA.
- Food: 8.5/10
- Drink: 9/10
- Service: 9/10
- Ambience: 8/10
- Value: 8.5/10
