green nineteen

Woohoo! My first official restaurant review!  Not that I am pretending to know how this is done, so bare with me.  Here is goes...

The first time we stumbled into Green Nineteen we took a recommendation from Yelp purely based on the amount of €€ signs and the exterior facade on its listing.  Sometimes a book can be judged by its cover.  And by its reviews, which talked much of their creative cocktail list and their bang for the buck menu. Sold.  

We made plans to meet Maria and Dave at 7 but arrived a little early thankfully. They reserve just two tables in the "bar" area for walk-ins everything else was booked. So we saddled up to a cozy high top under the stairs and ordered a couple cocktails. Normally I like to try a signature drink of the house, but my stomach was feeling a little queasy so I opted instead for their homemade ginger beer, with whiskey of course.  The ginger beer was deliciously spicy and bubbly and came in a little brown bottle pop top.  Niall enjoyed his fav classic, a negroni, as we took in the atmosphere for our third time.

The restaurant's bar was, as usual, manned by owner Conner, a young, lanky, bearded man who could pass for a Colorado mountain man any day of the week. A really nice dude. He is the one who informed us that our search for a great cocktail bar in Dublin was futile. Turns out the pre-prohibition cocktail trend has not made it across the pond yet. (I can't believe we didn't pack our martini shaker). Luckily we have Green Nineteen and their "auld fashions". The ground floor holds only seven or eight tables backlit by the cutest little kitchen window I have ever seen. The upstairs has about the same amount of tables, but opens up to a small roof top patio. Late summer nights here we come. The rest of the space is fitted with large pop art pieces with spot lights. I love the cut out in the chalkboard (above). And I swear every server had a different accent.

Pot roast chicken

Once our friends joined us we defaulted to the chalkboard specials for pinchos as an appetizer. The description had us slightly baffled and the server didn't make it much clearer. We ended up with six bite size hors d'oeuvre for four people. What could have been classic marinated anchovies, nice slices of Serrano ham and pieces of blue cheese presented simply on their own, turned out to be a slightly forced arrangement of each on toasted bread. We all wanted to try a bite of each, but ended up having to pick and choose because the pieces were so small and few. As per youge, we took our time ordering each course, which threw the server off a little. So in the mean time we all agreed on a carafe of the house white.

I remember the first time I read the dinner menu I was amazed to find corned beef and cabbage along side pork belly with chorizo both for only €10 a pop. Maria had the same reaction. You can't get a bowl of noodles at the Chinese take away for less than €10. Well maybe, but it's a freakin bowl of noodles. There were three dishes that immediately caught my eye. All three of which my dear friends and lover chose as their entrees before I was able to decide. So I ended up breaking what I thought was my only rule when dining out: no one at the table can order the same entree as another. I just wasn't in the mood for ham with mash or a burger so I sided with Dave and went for the pot roast chicken. Mostly because they called it pot roast chicken. In my head this pot roast chicken had crispy skin and juicy white meat. I imagine rich brown gravy over mash potatoes and roasted orange colored veg. I already saw myself cleaning the last bit of mash on my last piece of chicken wiping the bowl clean with the fork in my left hand. Sometimes my mind gets carried away with simple phrases like "pot roast". But, it just goes to show, energy does follow thought. It lived up to my fantasy expectation and then some.

Gooseberry crumble

Thankfully I was able to snag a bite of Niall's sweet and savory Moroccan spiced lamb tagine before it disappeared. Maria's pork belly turned out to be a little too fatty, as the server warned, which goes to show you that you should always head your server's warnings (notice how I didn't say recommendations).

Being the savoury whore that I am I skipped out to the loo while everyone else decided on dessert. We ended up with a warm brownie al a mode and a g o o s e berry crumble. Which generated more conversation about the correct pronunciation of gooseberry than it did about the taste of the dessert. The desserts were a little too plain for me, but I attribute that more to my mood than their execution.



My biggest regret of the evening was not finishing the ginger beer before we left. Seeing as this was actually out third time at Green 19 I don't think I have to tell you that we will being going back. Next time, brunch.