The classics are at home in the Irish-led Green Hen Restaurant
Cosy and elegant with heaping handfuls of Irish class, the Green Hen Restaurant on Dublin City’s Exchequer Street is strikingly familiar in its ground-floor fin de Siècle meets Andy Warhol style and yet singularly reminiscent to those cities around the world that have maintained some of their late 19th century French-style elegance.
Cities in mind in particular can be found in the New Orleans, Louisiana French Quarter, a place that always brings back memories of annual spring breaks celebrated in the USA’s Crescent City while another of our number favoured Paris, the City of Lights in France; the third in our trio favoured more of the meat-and-potatoes variety at least in food, but the bistro-style menu and charm over two floors was a hit for all.
The Green Hen provides a lively respite from the throngs in its city centre with a welcome to the weary into classic surroundings edged with vibrancy, and not least in the evening’s special dish. It had all the hallmarks of a traditional cassoulet though instead in a summer-weight tomato broth and full of vegetables just to the tooth.
Finely diced vegetables and tender lamb pieces rounded out the dish, scented in aromatic spices – too much so for our meat-and-potatoes fan so best to approach with caution if expertly balanced spices aren’t a thing.
Everyone got into the sauteed Gambas & N’Duja though, the scent of garlic and coriander with a hint of lemon the perfect foil to prawns in a sauce, barely scented with the taste of pork.
The Green Hen Restaurant has been known for its fabulously curated wines since opening in 2010 and definitely one well worth going back for will be the Domaine de la Bretonniere Muscadet from France’s Loire Valley. Drink it at the classic long bar along with cocktails from the traditional favourites to the latest tipple or at table dressed in white linen for evening service.
The Green Hen Restaurant on Dublin City’s Exchequer Street is open for midday meals and dinner. See https://www.thegreenhen.ie for reservations.
Tags: Food & Drink
Image credits: The Green Hen Restaurant, Kim Mullahey
