Jonny and Christina Taylor’s new Malone Road venture is very much about wine pairings, without imposing a whole tasting menu on you Wagyu carpaccio, Saga Saga. First it was Blank and the unique concept of not knowing what you were going to eat. A blank tasting menu featuring an empty outline of the map of Ireland, and on the back, a list of produce, ingredients, cheeses and meats, meant you could only guess what you might be getting.
Always good to know where things come from. But also good to know what intentions the team in the kitchen might have. Are they honourable? Well yes, they were, and the dishes were accomplished and frequently daring.
But eating in a restaurant is not going to the theatre or the cinema. I don’t want suspense, plot twists, anti-heroes, moody silences or unexpected endings. In a restaurant, we already know the script: there will be a menu, food and nice people serving it and the place will be comfortable.
That’s all the restaurateur needs to produce. We come here to be, as the French might say, restored, after a weary week of toil and stress. We also come here to be fed.
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