Gruel...I love you. There. I've said it! - I Can Has Cook?

So, yeah. Gruel is officially my favourite restaurant in Dublin. It has its faults, but in my eyes, it’s the closest to (my kind of) dining perfection that I’ve had the experience of tasting in Dublin.

When I bring friends to Gruel, I feel the same way as I do when I show an out of towner around Dublin. I really love the place and, so, I want them to see it at its best too.

There have been a few occasions when friends of mine and Gruel just haven’t clicked. It can be very crowded in the upstairs part of the swamped restaurant on a weekend night, and yes, some of the staff can be a bit distant (never the sweet Italian lady with the glasses though, she’s lovely). A little gripe people have with the place is the compulsory 10% service charge, whether or not you liked the service.

But I have always gone back for the food and the cute little kitschy vibe of the place. They have exactly the same glasses that my Nanny McElwain used to give us Orange Squash out of circa 1988.

Some people object to being served wine in these little glasses, and although I do agree that it must affect the taste of the wine, damn it all if the wine doesn’t go down fierce quick out of them! (Erm…that’s good in my book!)

It’s an accurate guestimate to say that I have eaten in Gruel around 25 times over the last five years. In all that time, there has only been one occasion wherein I was underwhelmed by the food. It was a few months back when I had a pretty dodgily undercooked risotto cake, which tasted like doughy flour buddha bag in my mouth. I couldn’t finish it. Which for me, is a pretty big thing.

I had some Scottish friends over last weekend to see The Boss, and before I headed down to Oxegen, we went out on a pub crawl, with me at the helm determined to show them Dublin at its best. To set us up for the night, I suggested we start off with dinner at Gruel. We had a marvellous meal, with the two lads going for the immense meatballs and tagliatelle (which one of them actually managed to finish and then down about 8 pints of Guinness) while I had the skewered tuna and salmon. Deeeeeelish.

We had such a great night with the meal and atmosphere and the whole vibe of the place going down so superbly well that I wanted to return tonight to see if Gruel was back to its old consistency, after the little bump a few months back.

My sister NiNi and I were waaay overdue a girly sisterly chat so we met up in Gruel this evening for what turned out to be another point for the folks at the Dame Street establishment.

We started with some Focaccia & Dips for €6.50. The focaccia was on the oily side tonight, but the houmous, red and green pesto dips were their usual rocking selves.

I insisted Niamh had the Skewered Tuna and Salmon with Tomato Avocoda and Coriander Salad. She loved it. At €14.95, it makes up for being heavy on the purse strings by being extremely light on the tum. Perfect satisfaction.

Apologies, bad shakey photo is not doing the beautiful tuna and salmon any justice at all.

After my last risotta trauma, I felt it was only wise to confront my fears and order The Brie Filled Risotto Cake with Tomato Sauce, Rocket and Parmesan for €13. I’ve had this dish in various incarnations a few times at my visits to Gruel, as it is one of the staples that continuously crops up on the menu.

This time, the good cake had come to say hello. It was perfectly cooked, the risotta rice crumbed on the outside and beautifully moist on the inside, with the risotta rice maintaining a bit of bite while the Brie seeped an elegent goo all over the gaffe. Ah jaysus, it was lovely. And the tomato sauce was killer too.

Oooh lovely.

Well, obviously we had to have the Chocolate Brownie for dessert. I mean, look at it for Fudge’s Sake!

All in all, the vibe at Gruel is good, honest food with no fuss. The menu changes a couple of times a year and there’s usually a choice of about 8 main courses, all between €10 and €15.

And yeah, sometimes the laid-back atmosphere means that the waiters don’t give a fuss either, but to me, it’s all part of the charm! I just love the chilled atmosphere in the hubbub of a busy restaurant, and the great, reliable food, and the just about reasonable prices.

We had one starter, two main courses, one dessert, and *ahem* six glasses of wine. Including the 10% service charge, the bill came to €68. I blame the booze.

Seriously, the booze is quite expensive by the glass so mark my words, buy a bottle when you go in, because in those wee glasses, you’ll down a bottle and a half before you know it.

Gruel is the little sister restaurant to The Mermaid Cafe, and both are located on either side of 68 Dame Street. Check out their websites for all further details. Gruel do lunch as well, with fabulous salads and their flippin’ ace roasts in a rolls, which are exactly what they say on the tin – a roast in a roll. Scrumptious.

I’m not sure if they’re open on Sundays but they are open Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner. Check it out. And if you had a bad experience in the past, give them another chance. You’ll come round. I know you will.

Let’s have one more look….nom nom nom nom nom!