I had to catch up with my friend Emmanuelle, she’s a busy mammy, so it isn’t always easy to meet but we found a time slot and met 2 weeks ago at 37 Dawson Street for a Saturday brunch.
I heard so much about the character of this place that I had to have a look myself. 37 Dawson has a “wow” factor. It’s huge, it’s stylish and it doesn’t look like anywhere else. A multitude of antiques and random objects makes you feel like you are in a museum or antique shop.
I booked a table but the restaurant upstairs was booked out for a photo shoot so we were offered a table downstairs at the back. It was nicely filled with natural light, many hipsters were having brunch around us and the staff were all gorgeous and smiley. It was definitely starting well.
The brunch menu is one the most varied in Dublin. The titles are great: Hair of the cat, Feeling fruity, Man vs Food… Their “Ohhh lala” French toasts were tempting and their “Oatalicious” sounded healthy. After much deliberation, Emmanuelle decided to go for what she likes “Eggs benedict” (€9.50) and I was recovering from my Raclette Party so I decided to go for Sliders (€15).
The place was not particularly busy but no kidding, we waited for more than half an hour for our order to be served. Our waitress came to tell us it was taking a bit longer because of the sliders but we thought that they just forgot about us.
The dishes finally arrived in front of us. Emmanuelle had the Eggs Benedict on a sour dough bun with home baked ham and thyme infused hollandaise sauce. It looked gorgeous. The sauce and the ham were good but we found the dough bun too hard and difficult to cut with the knife, suspecting that it stood in the kitchen for a while before reaching us.
The pulled pork with celeriac remoulade slider was good, the meat was tender and moist. The second one was the black pudding with caramelised apple, it was okay but the black pudding was dry. My last slider of Salmon with spring onion, ginger glaze and wasabi aioli was very disappointing. I think they forgot to put wasabi aioli in it. The fries were nicely golden and crisp.
Well, it can’t be perfect all the time, I was expecting so much more from this place since I read good reviews. I was wowed by the décor, the staff were nice but their brunch was a total disappointment ( the wait and the food). I’d definitely go back for drinks but certainly not for brunch. There are many places that perhaps don’t look as trendy but serve better food.
Before I left I saw their cool “All is not what it seems” red neon light and thought it summed up our brunch experience. Sob.
37 Dawson Street
37 Dawson Street
Dublin 2
Phone: +353(0)1902 2908
http://37dawsonstreet.ie/
This is an independent review, I paid for my meal.