Review: The Place Above L’Gueuleton

There’s a bar that has opened some time in the last year over L’Gueuleton, the excellent French restaurant on Fade Street.  It’s all very trendy and pre-recession: distressed walls, low leather couches, no name over the door, expensive cocktails.  I only recently realised that they serve brunch when friends arranged to meet there two Sundays ago.

The prices for brunch dishes range from €8 to €10.50 and include lots of brunch classics like French Toast and Eggs Benedict.  I went for a Croque Monsieur, which is a poncy French ham and cheese toastie.   The Croque Monsieur was €9, and while I know many people object to the idea of paying €9 for a cheese toastie, it did have excellent cheese, beautiful thick ham, very good bread and a delicious side salad.  You could easily pay the same amount for a pallid panini in some miserable roadside cafe (or Dublin airport).

We all had cocktails with lunch: but why on earth have we all just accepted that the standard price for a cocktail is now around €10?  That’s so far from the actual cost of the ingredients that it makes me want to laugh.  And then cry. I like cocktails!  I had a Bloody Mary, forgetting that I only ever really enjoy the first two sips of a Bloody Mary and then struggle with the rest.  Note to self: stop ordering Bloody Marys.  They have a good selection of cocktails and they’re well made, but as in most other places in Dublin they’re much too expensive.

We were in a large group and every single person was really happy with their food. The only disappointment was that the chips were very bad indeed, undercooked and greasy and sprinkled with parsley (a pointless affectation that serves no purpose but to anger parsley-haters like myself). They cost €4 for each very meagre portion.

Overall, I would recommend this mystery place (the Snail Bar? Number Six? no-one seemed to be sure) above L’Gueuleton for brunch. The food is very good, just avoid the chips and the cocktails.