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Joris Minne: Restaurant 23
Friday, 27 March 2009
enlargeSo you thought that good restaurants didn’t exist outside Belfast? Then head to the coastal town of Warrenpoint for a gourmet surprise
Great things come in twos. Ant and Dec, Cagney and Lacey, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor. These seaside twins are the only two coastal resorts in Northern Ireland to face south south west into the setting sun, just like, er, Monte Carlo and Nice, thereby giving this stretch of Co Down the rightful claim to the title of the Ulster Riviera. Forget Newcastle because it’s not facing south the right way.
Warrenpoint and Rostrevor are small towns and only a couple of miles separate them. While at first sight they both share the same look — elegant Victorian frontages, sober seafront promenades and now dishevelled town squares — they have both chosen very different identities.
Rostrevor is all music, culture and chic second homes for the rich with a famous annual festival of gentle music called Fiddler’s Green while Warrenpoint (annual festival: the rockin’ and rollin’ Blues on the Bay) is a busy commercial port making its mark as a serious import/export gateway for Northern Ireland. Larne had better look out.
Both towns are delightful, especially on a weekend and in any weather, but Warrenpoint has a slight lead on its neighbour because of one bright and busy restaurant: Bennetts on 23 Church Road. Bennetts is a bar, and its eatery is known by the more hip name, Restaurant 23.
Expectations tend to dip when you leave Belfast. There is a built-in prejudice among city folk that there are no decent restaurants or shops out of town, so why bother. The adviser becomes uneasy once she goes west of the King’s Head.
For her, green landscapes and fresh air mean dopey restaurants where volume and three kinds of spuds (mashed, chipped and roasted) are the mark of quality. When she was told that this week’s dinner was to be in Warrenpoint, she suggested I go with someone else, or alone. She caved in, eventually.
It takes less than an hour to get to Warrenpoint from the capital and after eating at Restaurant 23, I would have been happy to travel much farther to get to this kind of quality. Well established, the restaurant boasts highly qualified chefs yet is still off-piste for city slickers and very much the hidden secret of locals and foodies.
The modest but bright interior might be described as the design of an owner who had a good flick through a homes and interiors magazine one day at the dentist’s and did the place up from memory.
Apart from the jarring stained-glass Victorian-effect inside front door, the place is all white walls, cheerful modern paintings, low lighting and modern creamy leather upholstered chairs. The tables and chairs are well spaced with long, high-backed red leather banquettes against the wall and the room itself, with its bends and corners, is charming.
There is nothing numpty about the staff either. Here is a team of young black-clad waiters and waitresses who, 20 years ago, in rural Warrenpoint would have been painfully shy and self-conscious.
Nowadays, older teenagers in country places are as cool and confident as their city counterparts. The adviser noticed their urban ways, was reassured and slowly removed the hanky from her nose and mouth.
The menu soon revealed the full ambitions of the place and the brief but clever choice of dishes prompted decision agony as the five starter and main options were all equally compelling (children can get half portions).
Lamb shank, roast pork, cod goujons and roast sirloin don’t sound cutting edge, but the way these are cooked and presented with their accompanying sauces, onion mashes, champ and purees places them among the top in Northern Ireland.
Braised chicken and ham pie kicked off the dinner with a country slap on the back. Deep golden, robust but flaky pastry encased the best quality pieces of ham and chicken and the creamy white sauce within. It might sound like the wrong way to start a meal but the proportions were just right in terms of both quality and volume.
The adviser’s chicken liver pate came in a little glass sealed pot, which is very rustic and the way they do it in the French Auvergne. It was smooth, cool and light and accompanied by generous slices of toasted brioche (she asked for more brioche and it came without the bat of a heavily and attractively shadowed eyelid). The orange mound of carrot chutney was divine and the perfectly tangy third player in this fabulous trinity.
Her cod goujons were well executed but the pea puree it came with was a show-stopper. I remember the taste of the peas in a risotto served up at the double Michelin-starred Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud years ago — Restaurant 23’s beat them easily for flavour.
My crisp spiced pork with creamed savoy cabbage, white beans and thyme sauce was no less tasty and the mix of high-octane porky savouriness and crispiness, moist buttery cabbage and sauce provided a Hamlet moment of serenity.
But best was to come. If you only ever eat one dessert in your life, let it be a Paradise, the name given to the restaurant’s iced coconut parfait and milk chocolate mousse. I have never really understood the term ‘fine dining’ but if I had to define it then this dessert would feature as its prime example.
The hard white pyramid of coconut ice sharing the plate with a very decadent dollop of rich mousse was sensual, seductive and completely addictive. Little rice crispies hidden in the mousse provided tiny but smile-inducing crunches.
They take their desserts very seriously here and I hope they can hang on to their pastry chef long enough so I can go back and try the others.
Restaurant 23 is a revelation not least for its staggeringly low £15.95 for three courses. There has been sporadic talk of where the north’s Kinsale is (Kinsale in Co Cork has an unusual density of brilliant restaurants). We don’t have one but if another good restaurant opens in Warrenpoint, we will have a contender.
For future review news follow twitter.com/jorisminne
The Bill
2 X Sunday 3-courses: £31.90
2 X Sunday 2-courses: £24.90
Pinot noir: £21.95
Total: £78.75
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"high-octane porky savouriness "
"Hamlet moment of serenity"
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Posted by Neil Savage | 27.03.09, 13:32 GMT