Fancy lunches, accidentally cheap: Bon Appetit and Peploe’s

Taking the afternoon off work and whiling away a few hours in a top restaurant surely ranks amongst life’s greatest pleasures. For a start, lunch is much, much cheaper, making a trip to an expensive restaurant reasonably affordable. But a long, booze-soaked, lazy afternoon over fine food, followed by a relaxing evening at home or a few quiet pints in the pub holds more appeal than dinner out.

Earlier this year, a generous friend gave me a €100 voucher for Peploe’s on Stephen’s Green. Because I’m deadly. Note: restaurant vouchers make a great Christmas present, particularly for places like Thornton’s, Shanahan’s, Chapter One, and Peploe’s – places that would probably be unaffordable otherwise.  Especially good if you’re buying for a couple, or maybe two siblings, as you can come closer to covering the entire cost of the meal.

Then, a few weeks ago, my good friend Sinead found a great deal on the Livingsocial.ie website:  €20 for a main and dessert with a glass of Prosecco in Bon Appetit, a Michelin starred restaurant in Malahide. It was end of term in my teaching job, so celebration was in order: we took the afternoon off and headed out on the DART.

Lucky me. Just in case you get the idea that I’m always splashing out on fancy lunches – yesterday, a reader said that this blog is “so fucking middle class” – I am not. There’s really been just the two in the past year, one of which was using a gift voucher (thank you, thank you, thank you Mr. Ryberg), and one of which was through a deal website. But, particularly after the Bon Appetit lunch, I’ll be on the lookout for more LivingSocial and Groupon deals.

Starter at Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit

We had it all. Sinead went for a starter of sea trout with potatoes and broad beans, a delicate, fragile and beautifully constructed sculpture of a dish, with earthy flavours balanced by the tang of confit lemon. My own starter of beetroot with smoked duck and feta sorbet – feta sorbet, wow! – once again was a wonderful match of flavours.

Sinead’s roast beef was between medium and well, rather than the medium rare she had asked for – a rather significant error for a Michelin starred restaurant. Still, it was flavourful and tender. It came with baby turnip, red wine shallots, and a sumptuous black pepper gnocchi: a creamy delight with the tingly tongue-fizz of a good quality spice.

My main of pork belly with leek confit, morel mushrooms, and creamed potato was served with a piquant jus. The meat was sweet and delicate, while the vegetables were imaginatively prepared with one or two simple, high-quality ingredients.

It would have been sinful not to have some dessert. We went for a selection of cheeses, served with crackers and grapes, and also had a chocolate jelly with ginger ice cream, lemon curd and candy blackberry. Chocolate, ginger, and lemon curd are three of my favourite foods, and all delivered. The barely wobbly chocolate jelly was the most surprising component of the entire meal: often, outstanding chocolate desserts are sweet and rich, but this was subtle and relatively light, allowing the quality of the chocolate to speak for itself. Oh, and it was the candied blackberry we fought over.

The starters were €7.95 each, two €20 vouchers covered desserts, mains, and two glasses of Prosecco, and we shared a bottle of Prosecco for €35 and rounded off the meal with two Irish coffees, which were €7.95 each. The total cost was €106.80 before tip. We left a decent amount for the effortlessly professional service. Please don’t scream about this “not being a cheap eat.” A bottle of bubbly plus two glasses, two mains, two starters, two desserts, and two Irish coffees would be good value in an average restaurant. In one of Ireland’s best restaurants, it’s a steal.

Cremmmmmme brulee and biscuits at Peploe's

Peploe’s

Peploe’s was also enjoyed with my buddy Sinead, who is fast becoming my fancy restaurant pal. Now, we used our €100 voucher to go quite mad. Here goes: French onion soup, foie gras terrine, a sirloin steak, delicious fresh  fish, two sides, a creme brulee, two martinis, a pinot noir, a French mercurey, and a bottle of Riesling: €145 for lunch, of which we split the extra €45 plus tip. Neil Mulholland, head chef in Peploe’s, is delivering outstanding food in a restaurant that easily matches the electric, exciting atmosphere of Dublin’s most convivial restaurant, the Trocadero. It’s a thoroughly unstuffy place.

Right, so that’s my two top lunches this year, all boxed off, and cheaper than it should be due to a generous gift and Sinead’s eagle eye for a bargain.

Readers, have you enjoyed a top-notch lunch or managed to wangle a cheap, memorable meal? Do you enjoy the long lunch as much as I do?