FXB Restaurant, Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.

Review

The FXB restaurant on Pembroke Street was the first of their outlets, coming into existence in the way back eighties, and being consistently good ever since.

FXB Restaurants are a group of restaurants in and around Dublin city centre, with over 15 years experience in the restaurant business. All the restaurants offer award winning modern International food with an Irish twist. All the meat used comes from their own farm in County Offaly Ireland and is all free range . Fish is bought in daily and only the freshest seasonal vegetables ever see the inside of the kitchens. Paolo has visited all the restaurants over the years and here is a sample of what he had to say.

Meat of all kinds figures largely on the menu, which is no surprise if you know that F.X. Buckley's was always one of Dublin's premier butchers. Main courses include char-grilled tuna steak, medallions of beef, supreme of chicken Piri Piri, stuffed chicken breast, duckling, medallions of pork and pan fried venison. All of these are served with a choice of spring onion mash, chips, baked potato, a side salad or rice. However I was here as a man with a mission, and there it was on the menu: char grilled free-range beef. You can even select the size of steak you want and pay by the ounce, and I toyed with the idea of a sixteen ounce steak very briefly before realising that I'd never be able for it, even with the days of anticipation behind me. Still, the ten-ouncer on the menu looked more than tempting so I chose that. There were a number of fish dishes on offer, salmon steak, black sole on the bone or the catch of day, which was ray's wing. 'And what fish for you, darling?' I asked. 'An eight-ounce fillet steak for me,' came the reply. Talk about Pauline conversions.

Our main courses came and fulfilled my two-day long dream. Big, tender steaks, cooked exactly as we'd asked for them, in Susie's case very rare and in mine, blue. A near-raw steak is as good a test for tenderness as you can find, and mine passed no bother. In the end the chips and onion ring part of my fantasy never came to pass, as I really could only manage the meat. You won't be surprised to read that neither of us could eat a dessert either.