Saturday 29th October 2011
Cafe di Napoli
Cafe di Napoli had been a cute little Italian deli and coffee shop that I used to frequent when I originally moved back to Dublin from London about 8 years ago (can't believe it's been that long, I only meant to stay a year!). I noticed a while back that they had extended it into a full restaurant, but I hadn't been in that part of town in ages, so it was only when I was walking to Dublin Contemporary the other day that I spotted it again and made a mental note to try it out. I used to love going into it for lunch, I'd get a panini stuffed with grilled aubergine and mozzarella or courgette and pesto and sit on the seats outside with a lovely coffee watching the world go by, so I had high hopes for what they are offering as a restaurant.
I'd booked a table for my sister and I for 8pm. On arrival we got the menu, which was pretty long. The starters were interesting, so I was definitely going to get one of them, but then I couldn't decide between pizza or pasta. Although I really enjoy a simple pasta, such as the oil, garlic & chili, I always (wrongly) feel a little cheated if I do order this as I feel I could easily have stayed home and whipped the same up for a quarter of the price. So I had major indecision. Originally pizza was winning as I thought I might compare their pizza with that of the wonderful Don Mimi/Da Mimmo (whatever you want to call it, must do that blog entry soon), but I wasn't overly hungry (due to too many sweets stolen for children at my niece's Halloween party earlier that afternoon) so in the end I opted for one of the gnocchi dishes, But more of that later.
So what did we have for starters? Well my sister had the melanzana, which is pictured above. Now this was gorgeous, but as you can see a massive portion, it would have been better as a main course, there must have been a full aubergine sliced, battered ( in what I think was gram flour), deep fried, slices of mozzarella then placed between each aubergine slice, smothered in tomato sauce and whacked into the oven for a couple of minutes so that the cheese was all soft and oozy. It was absolutely delicious, but must have been a thousand calories .
For my starter I had the arancini. These were nice, but maybe slightly too soft inside. A nice crisp outside of breadcrumbs gave way to a very soft and oozing inside which seemed to be based on a tomato risotto. There was no bundle of cheese in the center however which I was expecting. The presentation, as you can see from above wasn't great.
My sister opted for the spinach cannelloni (pictured above). It was on the specials board, which also had porcini risotto and a fish dish (whoops, can't remember what it was). This was disappointing primarily because of the bechamel. It was too much, much too rich to go with the dense spinach. We both agreed that a tomato sauce would have been more suited to the dish.
My gnocchi was very disappointing. I was expecting home made, possible pan fried soft gnocchi, but instead I got packet dumplings which were extremely waxy and a very poor butter and sage sauce ( not enough sage and the butter tasted as if it was almost on the turn).
We decided not to bother with desserts which were the standard Italian fare of tiramisu, profiteroles etc. The staff on the whole were nice and service was good. We shared a bottle of one of the house whites which was a Pinot Grigio, but could have done with out the inquisition on why we chose that grape variety and not another from the waiter.
It was reasonably priced however, just over 60€ which isn't too bad. On the whole I wouldn't recommend it, but probably would go back if I were in a group and I wouldn't mind trying the pizzas just to see what there are like. Not a patch on my other favourite Italians in Dublin however, Il Primo just off Harcourt St on Montague St., and of course the wonder da Mimmo on the North strand.
http://www.napoli.ie/
Cafe di Napoli
Cafe di Napoli had been a cute little Italian deli and coffee shop that I used to frequent when I originally moved back to Dublin from London about 8 years ago (can't believe it's been that long, I only meant to stay a year!). I noticed a while back that they had extended it into a full restaurant, but I hadn't been in that part of town in ages, so it was only when I was walking to Dublin Contemporary the other day that I spotted it again and made a mental note to try it out. I used to love going into it for lunch, I'd get a panini stuffed with grilled aubergine and mozzarella or courgette and pesto and sit on the seats outside with a lovely coffee watching the world go by, so I had high hopes for what they are offering as a restaurant.
I'd booked a table for my sister and I for 8pm. On arrival we got the menu, which was pretty long. The starters were interesting, so I was definitely going to get one of them, but then I couldn't decide between pizza or pasta. Although I really enjoy a simple pasta, such as the oil, garlic & chili, I always (wrongly) feel a little cheated if I do order this as I feel I could easily have stayed home and whipped the same up for a quarter of the price. So I had major indecision. Originally pizza was winning as I thought I might compare their pizza with that of the wonderful Don Mimi/Da Mimmo (whatever you want to call it, must do that blog entry soon), but I wasn't overly hungry (due to too many sweets stolen for children at my niece's Halloween party earlier that afternoon) so in the end I opted for one of the gnocchi dishes, But more of that later.
 |
| The quite extensive menu (some of it is hard to read, sorry. I got a smart phone finally so I like how one can take a photo conspicuously, as if you're just sending a text , I hated getting my camera out at the table before). |
So what did we have for starters? Well my sister had the melanzana, which is pictured above. Now this was gorgeous, but as you can see a massive portion, it would have been better as a main course, there must have been a full aubergine sliced, battered ( in what I think was gram flour), deep fried, slices of mozzarella then placed between each aubergine slice, smothered in tomato sauce and whacked into the oven for a couple of minutes so that the cheese was all soft and oozy. It was absolutely delicious, but must have been a thousand calories .
For my starter I had the arancini. These were nice, but maybe slightly too soft inside. A nice crisp outside of breadcrumbs gave way to a very soft and oozing inside which seemed to be based on a tomato risotto. There was no bundle of cheese in the center however which I was expecting. The presentation, as you can see from above wasn't great.
My sister opted for the spinach cannelloni (pictured above). It was on the specials board, which also had porcini risotto and a fish dish (whoops, can't remember what it was). This was disappointing primarily because of the bechamel. It was too much, much too rich to go with the dense spinach. We both agreed that a tomato sauce would have been more suited to the dish.
My gnocchi was very disappointing. I was expecting home made, possible pan fried soft gnocchi, but instead I got packet dumplings which were extremely waxy and a very poor butter and sage sauce ( not enough sage and the butter tasted as if it was almost on the turn).
We decided not to bother with desserts which were the standard Italian fare of tiramisu, profiteroles etc. The staff on the whole were nice and service was good. We shared a bottle of one of the house whites which was a Pinot Grigio, but could have done with out the inquisition on why we chose that grape variety and not another from the waiter.
It was reasonably priced however, just over 60€ which isn't too bad. On the whole I wouldn't recommend it, but probably would go back if I were in a group and I wouldn't mind trying the pizzas just to see what there are like. Not a patch on my other favourite Italians in Dublin however, Il Primo just off Harcourt St on Montague St., and of course the wonder da Mimmo on the North strand.
http://www.napoli.ie/
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