The Dublin sky had
beautiful pink shades that evening, autumn was in the air and I was excited to
start the week-end by attending a play at the Abbey Theatre. But before that I
needed to fill my French belly with good food at a reasonable price.
“French Food for feck all” is what they say on their website and outdoor signs. Le Bon Crubeen is located on Talbot Street, on the North side of the Liffey. It’s written ‘Brasserie’ on their façade and inside it feels like it with the big bar on the left and the French posters on the wall.
“French Food for feck all” is what they say on their website and outdoor signs. Le Bon Crubeen is located on Talbot Street, on the North side of the Liffey. It’s written ‘Brasserie’ on their façade and inside it feels like it with the big bar on the left and the French posters on the wall.
Their lunch menus
offer open sandwiches served with fat chips for €10.95 and mains such as
Bangers and mash (€10.95) or 8oz Rib eye steak with béarnaise sauce and hand
cut fries (€16.95). They also do a ‘Sunday lunch menu’, a Saturday ‘Jazz super menu’, a’ value dinner
menu’ and of course ‘A la carte’.
We went for their
attractive pre-theatre menu, served from Monday to Friday from 5pm with tables
to be vacated by 7.30pm. The price is €18.95 for 2 courses and €20.95 for a
three course menu. I didn’t find the menu particularly French as advertised but
still found it appealing.
I decided to have
their chicken liver parfait. It was served on a slate with some grilled
ciabatta bread, frisee salad and red onion jam. The parfait was smooth and
beautifully matched the sweet red onion jam, delish on the crusty bread! Mr
FFID ordered the ham hock, pork and pistachio terrine. Similar presentation to
my dish, he also had grilled ciabatta bread and frisee but also an apple puree.
Lovely flavoursome starters I must say.
I didn’t want to expect too much of the mains but I was
almost gobsmacked at the sight of my dish. Here came my 12hour roasted pork belly
beautifully accompanied by its crackling looking far prettier than expected on
a bed of creamy mash and buttered spinach. Around the mash was a delicious pork
jus and apple puree. The meat was tender and the crackling very crispy, I loved
it and was almost feeling guilty for messing up the beautiful presentation.
Of
course the man had to order the dry aged 8oz rib eye steak (€5 supplement). My
frenchness rubbed of on Mr. FFID and monsieur now likes his steak rare. Chunky chips
came on the side and the steak was topped with roast tomato and garlic butter.
We agreed and thought it was a good steak, I enjoyed the strongly flavoured garlic
butter. It reminded me of the one used for escargots and there was also red
wine jus, perfect to moisten the fries.
To finish, love is
sharing, so we decided to order one dessert between the two of use. Two love
birds sharing a chocolate chip bread and butter pudding with crème anglaise,
sweet isn’t it? Simple and well platted, the melted chocolate and the pudding was
delicious.
Thumbs up Le Bon
Crubeen! I thought it was an excellent value pre theatre menu, not a surprise that
they were the winner of the best value restaurant of The Dubliner’s 100 best restaurants
2012 edition. I certainly didn’t expect
such attention to detail for the low price. The menu is more Irish than French
but I certainly saw the French twist in the décor and some of their dishes. Think about this place if
you are heading to the Abbey, the Gate or even Croke park and looking for some
casual dining.
I left as a happy French
frog. Fantastique!
Le Bon Crubeen
82 Talbot street
Dublin 1
01 704 0126