Restaurant review: Is Dublin’s trendiest viral sandwich worth queuing for?

Does Morso’s most Instagrammed sandwich live up to the hype?

Morso sandwich shop on Drury Street, Dublin. Picture: Moya Nolan.

Morso

42 Drury St, Dublin 2

Our rating: 7.5/10

Ah, the toastie. I remember vividly the day the sandwich toaster arrived in our house in the early 1980s. I quickly became chief toastie maker and experimented far beyond ham and cheese. If all the electrical equipment in our house exploded our panini/sandwich maker would be quickly replaced, right after the kettle and the Dualit toaster.

The cheese and ham toastie is an important part of our culture and this is especially true in Dublin. It’s hard to top Grogan’s one, although I’m also partial to the ones in the Stag’s Head and Fallons (who deserve kudos for using batch bread). These are old school toasties, of course, and need slathering in Colman’s mustard to create the full effect; a pint of stout is the obvious match.

Just 50 metres from Grogan’s is Loose Canon, where the toasties are on sourdough bread and made with mature Coolea and Hegarty’s cheddar. Opt for the Gubbeen chorizo or smoked ham. They are outstanding and a fine foil for a pét-nat or a glass of orange wine, sulphur-free and natural, of course.

Now, just across Drury Street from Loose Canon is Morso, with the poshest toastie in town (sort of). This is a new venture from Ciaran McGonagle, creator of Mani Pizza, the Roman-style pizza joint that had queues snaking down Drury Street for months after they opened. McGonagle spent time in Rome and Madrid to study the art of Roman Pizza and initially operated from a food truck (to wild acclaim) before moving to ultra-trendy pedestrianised Drury St.

Morso's roast beef sandwich. 

His apprenticeship shows in the Mani pizza base, which is exactly as it should be (personally I’d like some punchier toppings but that seems to be just me).

Mani Pizza has moved across the street to a larger space and the queues on Drury Street are now just as bad for Morso, an Italian-style sandwich shop with nods to NYC and Melbourne, open Wed-Sat from 12pm until they run out.

Morso is Italian for ‘bite’ and all the sandwiches are on traditional Tuscan schiacciata bread baked fresh in-house, a little like focaccia with similar aeration, but thinner and crispier and found in Siena and most importantly Florence, where McGonagle first tasted it.

Arriving on a Friday at 12.20pm the queue was 15 people long, with most spots on the outdoor tables already full. There are no indoor seats, just bright orange school desks outside. Thankfully, it moved along at pace and within 10 minutes I was able to place my order at the counter with the smiling (and patient) staff.

Six tempting sandwiches are on offer, we skipped the Ham & Pickle, the Turkey Caesar and the Caponata and opted for Chicken Parm, Porchetta and Roast Beef. Let’s mention price: each sandwich costs either €12.95 or €13.95, which sounds steep, but the highest quality Irish ingredients are being used and the sandwiches are enormous. Half came home with us.

Our favourite was the Roast Beef, slices of rare beef with melted provolone and gardiniera pickles jammed into slices of toasted schiacciata. Rich beefy flavours were rounded out by the provolone and countered by spicy tangy pickled veg (cauliflower, gherkins etc); the textured bread was a perfect host, like a canny diplomat at a cantankerous UN meeting, holding things together and making sure each ingredient had a chance to shine.

Morso's Chicken parm sandwich.

Next for me was the Porchetta made from sliced roasted pork shoulder plus crispy bits, potato cream, lots of rocket, and a salsa verde.

This was richly flavoured with creamy sweet pork flavours balanced by lots of peppery rocket to lift that fattiness.

Finally, the Chicken Parm, a breaded fried cutlet dipped in tomato-vodka sauce with provolone, pesto and whipped stracciatella. This was tasty and the first bite gave lots of umami intensity but all three of us felt it needed more seasoning or heat. Having said that, we are in the minority: this is Morso’s most Instagrammed sandwich.

To wash it all down, I chose blood orange ‘gut friendly’ soda from All About Kombucha, based in Claregalway. Juicy and fruity, it was a great option and it’s nice to see support for an Irish craft producer. Ditto the Mani Birra (€6), a crisp hoppy Italian-style lager made for Morso and Mani by Rye River Brewing, a great match for porchetta.

Wine options are on tap, €9.50 for a glass of Refosco from Northern Italy with pleasing bitter cherry fruits and a good balance of fruit, texture and acidity. Spritzes are another option. You can choose from Limoncello, Hugo and Aperol (€13 each).

So, is Dublin’s trendiest viral sandwich worth queuing for?

Yes, is the answer, the bread above all makes it worth it, as do the quality ingredients and fine attention to detail. Bravo.

The bill: 

Lunch for three with drinks, cost €70 (including 15% tip)

Visit morsosandwich.ie