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Takeaway Review: Diep At Home, South Circular Road

The view from Diep At Home

Grim... the view from Diep At Home

There’s a street in Dublin 8 that runs from South Circular Road at Dolphin’s Barn down to the canal, that has to be one of the most desolate stretches of retail I’ve ever seen anywhere. This street has a closed-down hair salon, a closed-down cobblers, a closed-down butchers, a closed-down shop that looks like it once sold scented candles and dreamcatchers, a closed-down cabbies, an open but scary chicken takeaway and a funeral home.  It’s a depressing reminder of how there are plenty of parts of Ireland which were untouched by the boom and are still left forgotten.

diep-at-home-logoSome signs of life appeared recently when a Tesco Express opened, but like most small Tescos, it’s so badly stocked that it’s not much of a draw.  A couple of takeaways then opened, and I did an actual double-take when I saw that one of them was Diep At Home.  As in, a spin-off of Diep Noodles of Ranelagh, a very Ranelagh-type establishment – hip, robustly  priced and frequented by yummy mummies.  And of course, Diep Le Shaker, the ludicrously posh Thai restaurant on Pembroke Lane.  Not at all the kind of brand that you expect to see springing up around these less fancy parts.  I was genuinely surprised, but I assume that Diep would not take such a step at such a time without having a healthy customer base in the area, something that would be easy to establish based on calls to their other branches.  Maybe it will kickstart the street’s business life again, and that would be really great to see.

Now that there’s a swanky takeaway in my hood, I had to try it out.  A friend and I ordered one starter of Tom Kha Gai (€5.50), the chicken soup with coconut and lime that is one of my favourite dishes of all time; the Koh Samui noodles with seafood and Asian greens (€11) and the Phi Phi fried rice with beef (€10).  Everything was good, there were no quibbles about the tastiness of the food.  The rice and noodle dishes were both tasty, and the Tom Kha Gai was delicious.   The only disappointment lay in the level of spice – both the Koh Samui and Phi Phi were marked with two chillies on the menu, but neither had any discernable heat.

I also still wonder why Thai food is always priced at so much more than Chinese.  For something with seafood, €11 is a decent price, but the €10 fried rice dish didn’t have any particularly fancy ingredients.  It was very similar to a Chinese fried rice dish, just with ginger playing the role that MSG takes in Chinese food.  Local Chinese takeaways usually charge around the €7 mark for beef fried rice.  Is it just a novelty thing, because Thai is a more recent and less ubiquitious presence among our restaurants?

With all that said, I will order from Diep At Home again as the menu is really interesting and the portions are generous.  I’ll just take care to order something a bit more impressive and specify extra chillies next time.

Diep At Home have branches in Blackrock Village, Ranelagh Village and South Circular Road.

Have you tried Diep?  Any other Thai takeaway recommendations?  Does the price discrepancy between Thai and Chinese seem fair enough to you?

8 Comments

  1. I’ve tried here a few times – I love their massaman curry. It’s yummy. Put me in mind for tonight’s dinner….

  2. yes it’s good, but the bart thai paste (massaman, yellow, green and red) are 1.99 in supermarkets and are so good, add some kaffir lime leaves from your freezer, a bashed lemongrass stalk and fresh lime juice to a tin of coconut milk and some prawns/salmon/chicken/veg and you have an amazing meal! for 4/6 for the same price!

    Also your family/friends will think you are so cool!

  3. Just ate there tonight. The street food selection is really good, different from the usual dishes.

  4. Very nice but Saba in Rathmines is nicer 🙂 Diep has an advantage of being able to deliver to Crumlin though!

    I was very surprised when i saw its location too, had to do a double take. Delighted to have it close by though even though it certainly isn’t on South Circular Road, its in Dolphins Barn. South Circular Rd just sounds better!

  5. Had the Pad Thai and found it a bit heavy/starchy and not what I usually expect from Thai food. Spring rolls were gorgeous as was the sauce. It’s more than just a little more expensive in comparison to the chinese so it wouldn’t be a regular take away for me. Great to see Tesco’s & Diep moving into what really is a depressing road though!

  6. I think it’s that noodles don’t really travel well. When they’re in the case, they cook a little bit more in their own steam. I never get Pad Thai to take away.

  7. I was so so happy to catch a glimpse of Diep as I was driving down the South Circular Rd a couple of months ago. I agree it’s pricey, thai food always is for some illogical reason, but it’s so tasty.

    I live in Ballyfermot and there isn’t one decent chinese/thai takeway for miles around so I’ll gladly pay an extra couple € for some good food every now and then.

    I never get curries in a thai takeaway because we buy the big cartons from the asian stores and make them ourselves for next to nothing. I love the thai stirfries with all the fresh herbs.

  8. I often pay over 10 Euros for a chinese in Crumlin I tried the Pad Thai and Green Curry which were spot on the staff are pleasant and can understand English an advantage when you are ordering in!