Brasserie Sixty6 Restaurant, Georges St. Dublin 2

Review

Brasserie Sixty6 is five years old now, still serving great rotisserie chicken and mash, grilled steaks and even if suckling pig if you are organised and hungry enough. Always a good bet for good food, service and a damn fine night out.

A large, modern double-fronted premises, Brasserie Sixty6 is a long room, narrow in front, that opens up to a larger space and wine bar in back. The first thing you notice on entering are the plates, lots of them on one wall - all different designs and patterns - and it works, it lightens the very contemporary woods, taupe’s and grey design and is a bit of fun in the contemporary European setting.

Sixty6 isn't wide, but it is very long, running from Georges Street right back to the high walls of Dublin Castle. The kitchen is towards the back end where the room widens somewhat and is open-fronted, so you can watch the chefs at work. There's a splendid chandelier made from empty bottles hanging from the high part of the ceiling that’s very striking indeed.

It’s five years since Brasserie Sixty6 opened - it seems to have been here forever, but it’s easy to forget that this is a restaurant that heralded a new wave of value for money dining in Dublin, along with L’Gueleton and a handful of others. Some of those restaurants have changed totally, others have gone by the wayside, but Brasserie Sixty6 is still doing what it set out on the first day, and still packs them in. Paolo has been a fan since the early days, and here is a snapshot of one of his reviews.

For the main courses Roz had picked the Sixty6 rotisserie half chicken, one of the signature dishes. Very good it was too, crisp, tender and tasting of the rotisserie. Hugo had chosen the veal liver, which was pan-fried and served with gnocchi and roasted onions flavoured with Balsamic vinegar. I'd picked the sausage and mash option, where there was a choice of Cajun sausage, chive sausage or Italian sausage. Naturally I'd picked the Italian one, which was flavoured with the anisette taste of fennel. The sausages came on a bed of mash, and although a simple dish, I enjoyed I enormously.

Neither Hugo nor I were up for dessert, the mash potato having rather defeated me, but Roz was keen to try the amaretto crumble, which like all the desserts was priced at €6.50. While Roz enjoyed her crumble Hugo and I settled on espressos which were good.