Review
Gourmet Food Parlour Dun Laoghaire have moved. They have left behind their first store at Cumberland Street and moved into an uber cool premises on Crofton Road, facing the sea and just down from the DART station.
The new restaurant is vibrant and modern, with the classic tell tale signs of GFP chic. The menu runs from morning until night with home mdade food throughout. the evening tapas are still to die for, and to keep you going until we do a full review here's a snippet from Paolo's last visit.
"The first three dishes to come to the table were chorizo cooked in red wine, warm fresh breads and dips, and deep-fried aubergine with Mahon cheese.
Good dips of pesto, hummus and sun-dried tomato plus decent bread made a good start, along with very tasty aubergine slices and properly cooked chorizo.
Next came a dish described as 'surf 'n' turf', which was black pudding, pan-fried scallops and crispy pancetta, along with a small sliced sirloin steak served with horseradish puree and samphire.
A tinned pot of sweet-potato chips with aioli arrived with them, and they were so tasty we ordered a second round.
The surf 'n' turf dish worked fairly well, and I'm getting used to finding black pudding in unusual pairings.
The steak was tender enough, but the horseradish puree and the samphire were delicious.
This might have been a good place to stop, but there was still a lot to come.
The next arrivals were marinated neck of lamb with a tzatziki dressing and crumbled feta, pork belly served with an apple compote, and meatballs in a tomato sauce.
The lamb had been slow-cooked and was very good; well-flavoured and very tender. The pork belly arrived as three small rectangles – perfect as there were three of us.
I had the same reservation about the meatballs that I often have, which is I would have preferred a finer mince. I like my meatballs not to fall apart when I cut them.
And that too might have been a good place to stop, but even more arrived. Next came prawns pil pil and a large raviolo, covered in a pesto cream and Parmesan shavings.
I liked both of dishes, and they both ended up as empty plates.
Obviously, that would also have been a good place to stop, but we decided on desserts. We chose two cheesecakes – a baked American cheesecake with a caramel topping and fruit compote, as well as the aptly named red velvet cheesecake. Both of these were well made, with a fine texture and a good taste.
Despite our many dishes, these got finished.
No wine is going to pair with all the different dishes we'd had, but we chose a Pinot Gris from Australia's Wairau River, which had a pleasant crispness and was listed at €29.
Four glasses of the house red at €6 each and three large bottles of mineral water completed the drinks order. These and two espressos brought our bill to €154."
