Fire Restaurant, Dublin 2

Fire Restaurant at the Mansion House may just have the most impressive dining room in the city centre. This imposing room in Dublin's Mansion House has been transformed into a state of the art restaurant. Well worth a look..

The Mansion House itself holds many memories for my wife Deirdre as we walk towards it on a pleasant Friday evening in April. The restaurant is situated to the left of the main residence, in the large room overlooking the gardens and Dawson Street. This was the scene of many of her triumphs in poker backed, ringlet wearing Irish dance competitions in the galaxy far, far away that was the late seventies and early eighties. Long before Michael Flatley sprang onto stage after Jean Butler Deirdre danced her little cotton socks off to win Gold and Silver medals in the room that now houses Fire Restaurant. So it happened that as we passed some couples enjoying the balmy evening over wine on the veranda I was regaled with the Irish dancing stories and how she really must mount the medals and hang them in our house!

Anyone else who had cause down the years to attend functions here will remember the room as cavernous, so I was very interested to see how the present owners had managed to transform it into a restaurant setting. I needn't have worried. The room has been divided using floor to ceiling muslin nets, bronze cones inhabit the centre and an impressive mosaic backdrop on one wall and a large wood burning oven all combine to shrink the room to an impressive, but very manageable size. We arived on the evening in question at 7.30pm and the room was filling up nicely, quite a few of the tables hosting groups of eight or more. Our waitress let us to the table, providing menus and water and left us to our choices. I had heard about the wood burning stove before and had decided to choose dishes cooked this way. There are about ten starters, including a lightly spiced chargrilled lamb, french onion soup, mussels marinaire and woodfired jumbo tiger prawns. I am always have a conundrum when faced with French onion soup, but on this occasion I stick to the plan and order the jumbo prawns while Deirdre, prehaps in a bout of nostalgia brought on by the memories, plumped for the mussels mariniere. Main courses include a selection of Woodfired Naples flatbread, which I susupect are posh pizzas, and well as more tradional offerings including four steak choices, the largest a jaw dropping 24oz! Other dishes include seared scallops, corn fed chicken with fresh lime and honey glaze and chargrilled fillet of monkfish. I ended up going for the 10oz fillet steak, while Deirdre decided that a filet mignon was in order.

The starters arrived and my prawns are served in a sizzling oven proof dish with bread on the side to soak up the garlic butter the prawns are swimming in. I have had variations of this dish regularly in Spain, where they replace the butter with olive oil. This one was succulent and very tasty, and the prawns were generous and not overcooked. Deirdres Moules mariniere were of the classic variety and the tradional white wine and shallot broth was tasty. The main courses continued to impress, both steaks cooked as requested and the meat is well sourced and flavoursome.

We decided that after this banquet of meat, desserts were superfluous to requirements and ordered two coffees. Fire is a stunning room in a great location. The service was exemplary and professional from start to finish and the food is very good. Great location for a night out with friends and a bottle of wine on the balcony overlooking Dawson street on a fine Summer's evening is a good bet. The bill including tip came to €97, not exctly cheap but I suppose someone has to pay for the location.