Alfies Restaurant Sth. William St, D2.

Alfies is a restaurant in South William Street in Dublin 2, just a short walk from Grafton Street. This hip and contemporary restaurant is packing them in with a menu of Irish and International cuisine. There is a pretty cool bar upstairs, and the good food and value for money make Alfies a winner.

Alfies occupies a very plush purpose built premises, and has a small seating area outside. Inside the downstairs room is long and thin at first, before opening up as it goes towards the kitchen at the back. Upstairs is a larger dining area with skylights and throughout the décor is contemporary and fresh. The glass room throws in great light of a summers evening, and the bar does a brisk trade in cocktails. On Friday’s and Saturday’s a there is a DJ to keep the party from flagging.

The restaurant serves food right through the day from lunchtime. There is a special menu at lunch, featuring three sections, where you choose one dish from each, so for example you could go soup + Thai curry + rice, or alternatively fishcakes + steak sandwich + fries. There is also a drink included, and at €10 offers great value.

In the evening the A la Carte kicks in and features starters such as Alfies spicy chicken wings with blue cheese dip, scallops with black pudding and prawn bisque, prawns Pils-pils or chicken liver pate with sour dough. Starters are mostly around €8, with the scallops coming in at €10. Main courses continue in the same vein with seabass with creamy spinach and tomato and basil sauce, duck a l’Orange with savoury herb mash, a homemade burger with a choice of toppings, a choice of steaks and grilled lamb chops with French beans and creamy mash.

On our last visit we had the scallops, black pudding and prawn bisque, which was a very well put together dish, the bisque ensuring the scallop and pudding combo wasn’t too dry, and we followed this with the lamb chops which were perfectly cooked pink as requested and a great comfort food dish. Large portions efeated the dessert, but we finished with good coffees.

I ate from the a la carte, but there is an Apres Work menu daily offering two courses for only €14.95, with most of the a la carte dishes available for reasonable supplements. Alfies is doing a fine job of hitting the casual dining market with a range of food and offers that are spot on. If you haven’t been yet, they are well worth a visit.