After 17 years of brunch, lunch and dinner, there were confused cries of protest among Eden’s loyal customer base when it was announced earlier this summer that a re-brand was afoot. Eden became NEDE and the kitchen welcomed Louise Bannon and Yannick Van-Aeken (formerly of Copenhagen’s noma ) to take over and transform their kitchen.
Wherever noma is mentioned, expectation follows. “Finally!” we exclaim. “We’re going to get our very own version of a Nordic kitchen wonderland where every mouthful is a taste sensation filled to the brim with patriotic pride!”
My straight-talking cousin Neasa was my partner for our three and a half hour visit to NEDE. We went for the Chef’s Tasting Menu, assuming this would show us the kitchen at its best. The A La Carte dishes would have only worked out marginally cheaper – it’s quite pricey – and €45 for a choice of five dishes seemed rather reasonable, especially given that we were expecting to be wowed.
We ordered all of the nine dishes that make up the tasting menu, using each of our five choices wisely and both ordering a pork dish as a kind of main. Warm, crunchy wholegrain slices of sourdough were delivered alongside light and fluffy crème fraiche butter while an off-menu treat of dried and crispy cod skin and anchovy cream started off our meal. The anchovy cream made an appearance again when delivered with crispy chunks of raw fennel stalks. We loved the combination of that salty anchovy cream with the aniseed fennel but we couldn’t help but think of it as a slightly clever version of crudités and dips. I loved the field vegetable salad with crunchy red and white radishes, spicy leaves, sweet beets and smokey goat cheese but I wondered if my enjoyment was more down to their farmer than their cook.
A dish of three oysters sitting in a plate of pebbles – the stones themselves foraged from the Irish coast our waiter pronounced – were served with bubbles of tapioca and round cucumber on the oysters. When I joked that the uneven number would cause a row between myself and Neasa, our waiter soon appeared with an extra one. The tapioca didn’t make much of an impression, but nor did the cucumber’s coolness dominate the oysters. Like most fans, I usually douse my oysters with Tabasco or shallot vinegar so I enjoyed them stripped back and served in this way.
Razor clams were served without their shells which took away some of this fish’s innate drama and it turned out to be a pretty unmemorable dish. Also from the sea were the stunning Irish sea lagoustines. Halved for ease of eating and utterly delicious, these sweet babies were served with crispy and oiled sourdough toast.
Having enjoyed but been a little underwhelmed by the first half of our meal, we were hoping the wow factor would arrive in the second half. Sadly, it wasn’t on the plate with our pork dishes. The pork was dry, and the tasty sauce that came with it was skimpy. The addition of roasted potatoes and mushy peas made this a dinner that our Dads would have loved but bore none of the explosive finesse that we were looking for.
Our fortune took a turn with the exquisite desserts. A HasBean coffee ice-cream on top of a crispy brownie and a dish of meringue and strawberries was minimalist artistry at its purest. A sweet finish to a somewhat unfulfilling evening.
The staff were attentive and chatty, familiar and helpful. Yannick was out of town at a cookery championship (fierce!) the night we visited so it was Louise who came to our table a few times to make sure we were enjoying our meal. One of the evening’s managers put us somewhat on the spot at the end of our meal by asking us for our feedback. We so wanted to spill over with superlatives but, sadly, we couldn’t.For our ten tasting plates and two glasses of wine each, our bill came to €122.00. The vision seems to be there alongside an honourable dedication to keeping everything on the plates Irish, and there were glimpses of that Nordic simplistic beauty in our meal – the crunch of that fennel or the sweetness of those langoustines. I just hope the kitchen at NEDE get a chance to prove themselves and reach a point where they consistently deliver that vision onto their dishes.
NEDE
Meeting House Square
Dublin 2
01-6705372
