Gourmet Food Parlour, Dun Laoghaire.

The Gourmet Food Parlour in Dun Laoghaire is the original of this upmarket group of gourmet cafes serving homemade food from breakfast right through the day and evening. The philosophy is fairly simple, serve excellent home-made food in a very friendly atmosphere. In the evenings, they do a tapas menu and have live music, and on the eve of a trip to Barcelona, it seemed like just the thing to set the mood for the holidays.

GFP have been consistently good, and owners Lorraine Byrne and Lorraine Heskin regularly set off to Spain on fact finding missions, but in amongst the work, no doubt they enjoy wandering around Spanish tapas bars in search of ideas, so we won’t feel too sorry for them. During the day the GFP in Dun Laoghaire is busy and bustling, and in fairness that is when I have usually been there, for lunch or morning coffee so the scene on a recent Saturday evening was a surprise, albeit a very pleasant one. The daytime café has been replaced by a tranquil, moody candlelit space that was perfect for a quiet meal alone, after wives, daughters and friends had all left me to it.

Arriving on a summers evening there are some girls sitting outside enjoying the evening sun, and inside I take one of the high tables at the front, giving me a view of life passing by on the street, as well as the whole inside. Manager Daniel gets me a glass of Cava, while the charming waitress Christina is from Barcelona, so over the next hour or so, we speak about our favourite places in the city, and she gives me tips on the latest foodie destinations.

The tapas menu is reasonably short, and very authentic. Some of the dishes are tapas staples, and they have resisted the temptation to ‘add’ to them, so for example, the papata bravas are just that, there is no added paprika or cumin or bacon or any other addition that some places feel improves things, and of which I generally think the opposite. I end up ordering these, as well as walnut and gorgonzola ravioli, lemon and garlic chicken skewers, and the fish and meat specials of the evening.

As usual, they arrive in a procession rather than all at once, and first up is the ravioli, which is very well made, tasty and comes in a generous portion. Next the chicken skewers are well flavoured and very nice, and they arrive just before the patatas bravas, which are just right.

The highlights are undoubtedly the specials though. The fish dish is a risotto of sorts, or perhaps more properly for Spain small paella, but either way it’s a dish of rice and prawns with saffron. The depth of flavour in the rice is exceptional, the prawn tails are still in their shell, and Daniel confirms that the heads were used to make the fish stock that gives so much flavour to the dish. Last up is the meat dish, which is a slow cooked shank of lamb, roasted in red wine, garlic and rosemary, which is the other triumph of the evening.

I enjoyed a glass of white El Angosto Muscat Sauv. Blanc with the earlier dishes, and treated myself to a glass of excellent Tempranillo with the lamb, both at €5.50. All the tapas are priced between €5 and €8, and two to three per person is plenty; certainly five between a couple should satisfy anyone.

All through this, I listened to the live music of Barry and Daniel Jacobson, two very talented young men who play the double bass and guitar, and have a jazz sound going on that perfectly enhances the evening. Definitely be back for more.