Review
Brasserie Sixty6 is over ten years old now, still serving great rotisserie chicken and mash, grilled steaks and even a suckling pig if you are organised enough and hungry enough. Always a good bet for good food, service and a damn fine night out.
Sixty6 led the charge to change Sth. Great George's Street into the foodie Mecca it has become. It's easy to forget that when they opened, it was a fairly lonely furrow. Since then of course they have been joined by 777, Rustic Stone, Fade Street Social, and all the other restaurants that now inhabit this foodie quarter of Dublin City.
It is a large premises, with a double front that stretches all the way back to the walls of Dublin Castle. There are two parallel dining rooms to the front, while further back the rooms opens up, and diners are afforded a view of the open plan kitchen. A feature chandelier hangs from the ceiling, a wall of plates dominates the entrance and a cocktail bar fairly rocks when it's busy, which is most of the time.
Brasserie Sixty6 is all about the meat, served from their rotisserie, or flame grilled or slow cooked. We have reviewed Sixty 6 several times since they opened, and always liked it. Paolo liked it too, and here is a little snippet of his review from when it was all shiny and new;
"For the main courses Roz had picked the Sixty6 rotisserie half chicken, one of the signature dishes.....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 it enormously."
We went back during the heat wave of 2018, sure to be remembered forever as the summer that was. We arrived about six on a Wednesday and already the room was filling up. A table opposite the bar with plenty of room saw us nicely set up, and a bottle of sparkling water, a mocktail of mango and ginger and a Rossini – prosecco and strawberry since you ask - for the food scientist made us happy while we checked out the menu.
There are two menus on offer, the A la carte and the set dinner which offers three courses, cocktails on arrival and a bottle of wine for €60. That is extraordinary value, and I reckon most of the tables around us at this early hour were doing just that.
On the A la carte some things have changed obviously, but it's still true to its roots. The menu is short by some standards, but manages to pack in several dishes we liked the sound of; seared tuna starters, a crab salad, a selection of homemade pies and perhaps a newish addition to the rotisserie on the form of a duck.
We decided on the crab salad for Abigail to start, while I had to try the seared tuna, and mains were the lamb cutlets and polenta pie for Abi, while I had to try the duck from the rotisserie.
We settled back and before we noticed it the room had packed up, so now there was a pleasing buzz of conversation and laughter. It's big enough to handle it though, and the sounds of people being happy and having fun on a weekday evening were quite enjoyable.
The seared tuna arrived, looking very pretty on its plate with wafer thin radish slices and shoots. It was perfectly cooked as I'd requested, seared on the outside, but still red inside. I prefer my tuna almost raw, and these perfect little slices were fabulous.
Abigail’s crab salad was topped with avocado mousse, and was incredibily light. Little segmentss of pink grapefruit added a hint of tanginess and it was well balanced and tasted great.
Abigails main course of lamb chops with the polenta nd cheese topped pie on the side was a huge portion, but the pie was fabulous, and even if more suited to a cold autumn evening it was very good indeed. My duck came perfectly pink, served on baby potatoes, with a watercress and rocket salad, grapefruit and pine nuts.
We finished with a classic tiramisu, bursting with the flavours of espresso and amaretto.
Brasserie Sixty6 is almost an institution, and it deserves to be. Delicious food, a fine setting and good service mean it always hits the spot. All cities have places you want to go back to for a bite with friends, and Brasserie Sixty6 fulfils that function very well. It's like a warm hug from an old friend.
