Sorry for the Slight delay in posting....But here goes.... Kevin Thornton Rides Again! The last time I went to Thornton’s, it was to thank some friends of ours who’d done some “soliciting” for us when we bought our house. The meal, to be quite frank, ended up embarrassing us, due to the sloppy service, an extremely poor sommelier, and mediocre food. Having allowed some time (approx. 18 months) to elapse, and for the restaurant to lose one of its Michelin star, we decided the time was ripe to try again. Wary folk that we are, we decided that a pre-Christmas lunch was the best idea. And what a wonderful idea it was. Put it this way, before we left, we had made a booking for dinner in February. Kevin Thornton rides again!!! Thorntons doesn’t wimp out in the pre-Christmas run up - the full menu is available right up until the 23rd/24th December, when only a special set menu was available. Fair enough. Happily, we went a weekend when the full menu was available…..as was, the waiter assured us, the 8 course surprise menu, which would, without doubt feature truffles……Oh dear. As we both lack most forms of self-control when it comes to food, you can guess which option we followed. We regret nothing. The sommelier seemed happy to simply provide us with wine pairing to best accompany the courses – it’s difficult to choose for yourself when you have no idea what food to expect. We started with an Amuse of fillet of herring with lime. This succulent, bite sized piece of herring was garnished with frozen lime zest and one of the tastiest anchovies I have ever tried. The Amuse was a portent of great things to come. We moved on to our first course to feature truffles. King scallops, lightly sautéed in a white truffle sauce with black and white truffle shavings. In my view, the finest course of the meal. The scallops practically melted in the mouth, the sauce had us licking the plates. Succulent, aromatic and faultless. A trio of foie gras next appeared. Featuring foie gras terrine, a hazelnut-coated ball of foie gras and sautéed foie gras with warm brioche, this course was a worthy successor to the scallops. The quality of the ingredients’ shone through in the sautéed element, the skill of the chef was luminous in the terrine, and the hazelnut-rolled sphere suggested the inventiveness of the cooking. Our fish course featured sautéed brill with artichoke in a citrus sauce. While I found the citrus sauce perhaps a little over powering, and a little too akin to the taste of the amuse, Simon loved it. The brill was perfectly cooked, with exquisitely crisped skin. It worked very well with the artichoke….there’s not enough artichoke on Dublin menus, if you ask me. At the beginning of the meal we were asked if there was anything we don’t eat. Feeling vaguely foolish as I have done in the past mentioning my loathing of both capsicums and celery, I usually keep quiet. It was a shame therefore when the sorbet arrived – red pepper sorbet, served with ginger and bitter lemon. I gamely attempted a few spoonfuls, and could see the attraction and inventiveness of the dish. But the over-riding hatred of peppers won through and it was the only plate I sent back to kitchen with food left over. Noticing this, the waiter commiserated, telling me that he too was a hater of those red, yellow and green devils. Our meat course consisted of Bresse pigeon, mushroom mousse and wild mushroom consommé. This was a surprisingly delicate course, with the game flavour of the pigeon balancing nicely with the piquant wild mushroom consommé and the frothy mousse. As we expressed our regret that truffles had only raised their head one spectacular time, our dessert arrived – poached burgundy pear, pear parfait and truffle ice cream! This unusual combination seemed to work very well – of course, you could probably fry a tyre with truffle and we’d eat it! The pear was a wonderful wind down to a festive cheese course featuring Gubbeen cheese served with mulled wine. Gubbeen Cheese is a surface ripened, semi-soft cheese. This creamy cheese has a mushroom/nutty after taste, which blended well with the small glass of lightly mulled wine. A selection of petit fours were served with our coffee, at which point we started chatting with our waiter, who turned out to be closely related to Kevin Thornton. This chat turned into a half hour conversation, where we found out that the restaurant is to be closed for January while it is totally being refurbished. The conversation terminated in our making a booking for a repeat visit in February…to try the 13 course dinner menu…. This lunch experience was one of our most satisfying meals in Ireland in 2006. The service was smooth and attentive; the food was imaginative, of superb quality and perfectly cooked. All earlier memories have been deleted, and replaced by our feeling that Kevin Thornton is a man on top of his game, and Thorntons has in my book, reclaimed it’s place as one of the finest restaurants in Ireland.
