David Coffey's smart brasserie-style restaurant above O’Brien’s pub is attractively fitted out with dark solid-wood tables, brass fixtures, warm lighting and a real fire, The Sussex offers an inviting menu, with a strong emphasis on well-sourced, modern Irish cuisine.
This Dublin Restaurants well laid out one-page menu lists six starters, followed by three salads, four fish dishes, three types of chargrilled dry age steaks, four desserts and a cheese plate
To start, difficult choices have to be made between dishes (mainly in the €11-13 region) like Dingle gin & citrus cured salmon, chilli prawn tostada, mozzarella & fig salad or salt and pepper calamari.
Appealing main courses (from €17) are likely to include the Sussex burger with Hegarty’s cheddar, tomato chilli relish and smoked bacon, steamed garlic Roaring Bay mussels with Dan Kelly cider or slow-braised lamb Shepherd’s pie.
Steaks are served with roast plum tomato, rocket salad and Bearnaise or Café de Paris butter.
Whatever you choose, it will be perfectly crafted: unfussy yet full of flavour and attractively presented.
Finish, perhaps, with baked New York cheesecake with white chocolate and raspberries or a chocolate brownie trifle.
Impeccably sourced ingredients include Robinson meats, seafood from Mourne Seafood and Wrights of Marino, specialist produce from La Rousse and Arun bakery and organic vegetables from Vernon catering.
The man behind the food at The Sussex is the owner/chef David Coffey who is clearly one to watch, while front of house manager Alisdair Walter’s warm, professional manner is reflected by all of the waiting staff. If you’re looking for great Irish dining without the ‘diddly-eye’, this is it.
