Club Brasserie

Caz, Anita, Annie and myself wanted to try the new restaurant Club Brasserie, Lapps Quay. We went for the early bird time and met at 5pm. Entering the restaurant you come to a desk where you are greeted by one of the staff. The front desk is part of the bar and waiting area which is lovely decorated and has a very calm and elegant feel to it. We were then led to our table in the dining room. Stone coloured panels and mocha coloured couches against the wall give the dining room a very elegant and sophisticated atmosphere...until you get closer to the tables as the white linen you expect turns out to be paper table cloths (and not very good ones either) and paper napkin. That is the only negative thing I have to say about the restaurant itself. It simply didn't match...but the food did.

Being a vegetarian is never easy in most restaurants as they don't really cater for 'people like me' but they made up for it in the fish department.
Anita choose the calamari which came with a spicy dip. The rings were thinly sliced and that gave the dish the wow factor as it looked as elegant as quid could ever do and Anita reckons they were the best calamaris in Ireland. Caz and myself decided to share a starter of warm goats' cheese and sun-dried tomato dip with crusty bread....hmmmmmm. The plate looked stunning, the bread was indeed crusty and the dip was spicy and warm and can simply be described as pure comfort food.

For the mains, Anita had the club burger with mushroom sauce....the burger was a big portion and you could see that it was handmade rather than being pushed out of a machine. Her face lit up after the first bite. Caz opted for the roasted sea bass with champ and roasted vegetables. the skin was crispy and the flesh was soft and coked perfectly. It is quite some time ago that I had champ and i had to admit that this champ was one of the best I have ever eaten. I decided on fish & chips with minted pea puree...and I stopped talking for once as this was fish & chips as they should be in any chipper. Batter was deep golden coloured, crispy and the fish was white and flaky. The chips were handcut and looked as i remember chips from my childhood.
After all that, we still had some space for dessert and Anita choose the baked alaska (pressure from me made it easy to decide) and I ordered chocolate brownie....which was very nutty and rich and came with vanilla icecream. Lovely dish but the normal stuff you get anywhere.
We had great hopes for the baked alaska which is difficult to make to begin with and it didn't live up to the ones I had when I was a child. It looked a bit messy and the jam was simply too sweet for the cake and ice cream. All that was 'washed' down with a lovely Chenin.

Overall, a great meal. The staff are all dressed in casual black without an uniform and are very polite and accommodating. I will definitely go again...just wished they would get rid of the paper on the tables....