Restaurant review: 3 Leaves is a star of Dublin's leafy suburban scene
3 Leaves restaurant in Blackrock Market, Dublin. Photograph Moya Nolan
8.5/10
My introduction to the cuisines of India was a 19th birthday present from my sister-in-law, Fionnuala, of Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery.
I was in second year in college and by the time I was 21 I had literally cooked every recipe in that book, some a dozen times or more.
That book had a transformative effect on me and led directly to my love of food and cooking and to an insatiable curiosity.
I bought other books by her and other writers, Sameen Rushdie’s Indian Cookery also got a lot of use (recipes in that book were tried and tested by her older brother Salman).
In the Ireland of the 1980s and early ’90s, every Indian restaurant and take-away had an identical menu (lamb madras, chicken korma, etc.) so you had to cook it yourself if you wanted to learn more.
The more I cooked and read, the more I realised how much more there was to know; India, after all, is 3.3m square kilometres and has a billion inhabitants; that’s a lot of grannies passing down recipes.
How different it is today, with Rare (Kinsale) and Dublin’s Pickle and Ananda, to name just three great restaurants.
There are a dozen more I could mention and high on the list would be Chef Santhosh and his wife Milli’s 3 Leaves in Dublin’s Blackrock Market (what began as a tiny stall just grew and grew).
Blackrock Market is right on the Main St, with a small entrance opposite SuperMac’s.
Walk past the market’s most famous resident, the two-star Liath, and wind your way past the various coffee stalls and the Korean Burrito unit (I’m confused too), and you will find the bright green and white 3 Leaves on the left-hand side.
There is comfortable indoor seating for colder days but we opted to sit outside, the only disadvantage being the annoyingly upbeat soundtrack blaring from the poké stall directly opposite.
I initially went for lunch on a Thursday with the Physicist (back home briefly from his Master’s studies) and we feasted on a tasting thali (tray), (€20 each) with five curries or dals plus vegetables, poppadom and rice.
Highlights included a nutty fried chicken curry in tomato and yogurt, a rich earthy slow slow-cooked beef (on the bone) curry, a black chickpea dish with crunchy bread pieces and spinach, and, maybe best of all, a silky chana dal (or possibly moong) with lemony notes and subtle spicing.
We mopped all this up with four portions of Malabar paratha, a fluffy flaky pulled bread named for the Malabar coast and found in Tamil Nadu and Kerala (the latter is the home state of Milli and Santhosh) in Southern India.
This hugely satisfying lunch came to €63, including beers and water, but I had to come back to try more, in service of you, dear reader.
So the following Sunday afternoon we returned, this time with the Engineer in tow. A very different menu was on offer and once again we opted to eat outside, incessant contemporary pop music bedamned.
Milli had a huge smile to welcome us back and once again her enthusiasm for the food and her descriptions had us wanting to order the whole menu.
We began with vada pav (€16), a famed street food from Maharashtra best described as sliders with a crisp-fried fluffy potato dumpling in a bun and with a trio of tasty sauces (the tamarind worked particularly well).
Niligiri jumbo prawns (€25) in mint, coriander, and coconut had a gorgeous fresh flavour and came with a salad of puffed rice, pickles and greens. The delicacy of the sweet prawn flavours were not lost, the herbs and coconut adding complexity and enhancement.
There were too many other dishes to mention, with crispy fried chicken lollipops in a rich smoky tomato sauce, a sweet and lightly spicy fish curry and a slow-cooked lamb shank in a tomato sauce (a little like classic rogan josh).
The flavours in the mains were slightly less complex than in the starters, so next time I’m doubling down on starters and ordering extra portions of Malabar paratha.
We washed these savoury dishes down with bottles of Kingfisher and Cobra beer and, of course, we had room for dessert (€6).
Classic carrot halva was sweet and intensely carrroty but the standout of the two desserts was the vibrant yellow and intensely flavoured mango amarkhand which showcased this king of all the fruits to perfection.
3 Leaves is named for the three classic herbs of the subcontinent: Mint, coriander, and curry leaves. We encountered these three but also a million welcomes and a thousand great flavours. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
- 3 Leaves
- Unit 30, Blackrock Market, Co. Dublin
- 3leaves.ie
- Lunch for 3 with beer and soft drinks cost €153.18
