The Red Berry Restaurant has impeccable taste. From the elegantly sinuous wooden chairs to the lighting everything speaks of restrained Asian Style. Nothing on its menu would look out of place at your local Chinese take-away, but when the food arrives you get one of those moments when you realise you’ve been eating the shadows in Plato’s Cave and the real thing has just arrived.
So how a hand written white board outside, with the specials markered up on it, is allowed to spoil the effect I will never understand.
Nevertheless, last night myself and Shoegal flopped into it, suddenly gripped by a need to eat its unsurpassed aromatic duck. In the end I had Nasi Goreng, and she had the duck. I had to pass up the chance of their all day offer of a kind of huge platter thing, with a main, a side, rice and a bowel of miso soup for €12.50. Normally I would have jumped at it, but to be honest, I’d already eaten a two course dinner at lunch time. As it was I couldn’t quite finish my own mound of food when it arrived.
Service is smashing, and very friendly- if a little jittery. I’m reminded of Laura Mackey’s tales of Chinese rail travel, with overstaffing levels so severe that every staff member is always on the look out for something to do to help. Like a sober Jim McDaid, my glass of water was topped up repeatedly when it was barely half empty.
Still, I left a happy man with an impending food coma, rolling my duck-filled companion in front of me like a Roald Dahl cautionary tale. The price for two generously portioned mains, and green tea to follow was €37.50. My only complaint is this- in an area where the service of mediocre food always results in a full restaurant, why are the eaters of Dublin not thronging more into this quality establishment?