Balzac
35 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 677 8611, http://www.balzac.ie/

According to the website Paul Flynn’s Balzac is designed to “recreate the ambiance and glamour of the best Parisian brasseries”, and he largely succeeds.

The bling of the old La Stampa restaurant has all but gone to be replaced with comfortable cool green leather banquettes and bentwood chairs with green cushioned seats. The lighting is diffuse and the ambiance is comfortable and relaxing. To get the true Parisian Bistro feel the room will need a couple of years wear but so far so good.

The menu is classic French Bistro with the odd twist (French Onion and Beetroot Soup, Brandade of Cod with Catalan Escalivada) and some classic Paul Flynn such as Crab Crème Brulee.

For starters I opted for Oysters Mignonette €12.50 (about as classic as they come) and herself had the Crab Crème Brulee with pickled cucumber. The pacific oysters were spanking fresh and served on the half shell and the accompanying mignonette sauce of shallots, vinegar and herbs worked well. The Crème Brulee was creamy, crabby, sweet and tasty as with the pickled cucumber a perfect foil. One crib however is both of us felt the dish would have worked better had it been served with a hint of warmth throughout rather than stone cold with a hint of warmth in the top.

For main I had “Pot au Feu of Pork” for €22.50 which turned out to be an essentially vegetable broth (albeit one made with meat stock) topped with a slab of slow roast belly of pork and mashed potatoes. Now pot-au-feu is a meat stew (“the foundation of empires” according to the Comte de Mirabeau) made with varied boiled meats and if I had wanted roast belly of pork I would have looked for it on the menu. It tasted fine but badly needs a name change in my view.

“Slow Cooked Beef, Horseradish and Parsley Crust” €25 was rich, full flavoured and melted in the mouth. The horseradish could have been a little more piquant but that is a quibble. The small boy had a perfectly rare and very tasty “Rib Eye Steak with Bearnaise Mousseline and Fries” for €27. Praise the Lord the chips were as they should be – thin, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle - other restaurants take note; if we want wedges we will ask for them.
We couldn’t resist a couple of extra potato dishes – duck fat roast potatoes and dauphinoise potatoes at €4.50 each – the dauphinoise was very good but the duck fat roasties were fantastic, and tasted even better the next day when heated up in tinfoil with some of the left over beef (our doggy bag).

Our shared Chocolate Truffle cake was rich, chocolaty quite fine in flavour rather than unctuous – I would have preferred unctuous, but elegance has its place too.

The wine list is creative and quite interesting but with few bargains – house wines are €26. For something interesting I felt the need to spend €32 (the next cheapest red as it happened) which got a fine elegant, slightly spicy bottle of Cotes du Rhone from the excellent co-op Vignerons D’Estezargues.

Total bill came to just over €190 including 12.5% service charge. On mature reflection this final bill seems a little more than the meal was worth. This is generally very solid bistro cooking, but that price tag seems to lead one to expect just a tad more.