I suppose the residents of Sandymount will be gunning for me when I say to Ballsbridge what the now trendy Ringsend was to it -the poor relation. Now, however, Sandymount is an extremely expensive area with (in state agent parlance) “the desired D4 postcode, on the coast, within walking distance of the Financial Services Centre...”.
At its veritable heart is Sandymount Green with its Castle, sweet litlle park and quite a few shops. But when it comes to restaurants, it´s always been a desert - until now, that is. Now, in pole position overlooking the Green, is the cream exterior of Mario´s Restaurant. There are two other Mario´s, one in Terenure and one in Ranelagh, although y have not been in either of them.
You can´t reserve a table so we raced just along 7pm to find it buzzing with families. People were pouring in, and we were just in the nick of time. We were shown to a table for two in a line by the wall - conversation might be a bit restricted at those tables, but the noise level is quite healthy.
The exterior reflects the cool urban chic of the interior. With seating for about 100 customers, its stone-hessianed and painted walls are painted walls are broken only by two gilt overmantels in recessed areas. To the rear is a “conservatory” effect, looking out on a terrace. Dark wood floors and tables with brown leather-look chairs, mini-glass planters on the tables hold cacti embedded in layered sand. The decor is neutral and cosmopolitan and could could be serving any type of food. The staff, mainly male and dressed in black, were “busy busy”, on the go all the time - and that in itself creates a buzz and atmosphere. The menú and prices are pizzeria cum trattoria style including minestrone, crostini, pate, magic mushrooms and insalata Caprese.Signor O´Sullivan had noci dorate, £4.30: three good chunks of mozzarella, lightly breadcrumbed and deepfried, served in a wholegarian mustard honey sauce - he was happy.
I had the gnocchi, £3.65: 14 little lozenges, a tad on the heavy side, coated with a tangy Gorgonzola cream sauce, wich I enjoyed.
They have any number of pastas: lasagne, cannelloni, carbonara, fettucini, spaghetti Bolognese or Napolitana. The penne pescatore, £7.75, attracted my attention, with its description of mixed seafood, plum tomatoes, garlic, parsley and “the white wine trick”, as did the tagliatelle with smoked salmon.
Lots of chicken dishes, all reasonably priced and complete. Fillet steak medallions, £12.50, are grilled and served with a choice of sauces, butter and sage, mushroom or green peppercorn.
The 14 different pizzas, £5.50/£7.95, on the menú include Pizza di Mare (seafood), Grand Chebang (everything but the kitchen sink) and La Hot Stuff (for chili freaks like me). The eventual choice was scallopini, £12.95, veal escallopes served with a green peppercorn sauce, and very enjoyable it was too, with potatoes with rosemary (instead of the included fries or baked spud) which carried a supplement of £1.45.
Signor had chicken Milano, £8.95, a breast of breadcrumbed chicken, stuffed with garlic and ham and topped with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce -it was moist and fresh with a pile of fries and side salad. I must say I hated both the dull side-salads and the salad garnishes (cos lettuce, a quarter of tomato and big chunks of carrot).
Kids (big kids too) will love the desserts which I saw going in and out - tall chocolate nut sundaes, knickerbocker glories, banoffi, tiramisu, apple pie and meringue Chantilly - all around £3 each. We had to liquid desserts - large espressos, £1.50, and flamming sambucas, £2.20 - which went down a treat. They also have children´s menú for hte U-10s, with small pizzas, spaghetti Bolognese or Napolitana sauce, £3.95, or carbonara, £4.25.
All the time people were calling in looking for tables, and if none was available, they were directed to the local pub, where they were notified when tables became free. By 8.30pm the first flush of the family bookings were finished, and tables were filling up with couples and groups.
The service, from three or four of the tall "on the ball" waiters, was excellent. "look at the customers, look at the customers," cried one of them empathically to a desultory waitress, dispatching her in our direction having caught my eye. She won´t last long, I thought. She was too busy being languidly beautiful.
Wines were mainly New World with just a smattering of Italian and French, all reasonably priced. With a bottle of Oxford Landing cabernet shiraz (£13.50), our bill, including optional service , came to £57.
Mario´s reminded me of a suitable smart, neighbourhood London trattoria where one might meet New Labour types "on Nanny´s night off". Somehow , I don´t think "New Fianna Fail" has quite the same cachet!

******Go to top******

With four of its seven restaurants being pizzeria-trattorias, Terenure has become something of a little Italy in recent years. I have been to three of these places once and haven´t returned. The fourth by my calculations, I have visited up to 200 times.
Mario´s is a place I have been taking for granted for the past few years. It is a restaurant I never recomend to people for a night out, yet I find myself there week after week because the food is so consistently good and the prices so reasonable that it´s hard to beat.
It is also on the same block as the Sunday World offices and a five minutes stroll from my home so it´s also convenient for, ahem, working lunches as well as an ideal place to bring the kids for a sunday treat.
The restaurant has a no-reservation policy and while this isn´t usually a problem at lunchtime, Mario´s is so popular that you could end up waiting for up to an hour for a table on most evenings. This policy is strictly enforced and there´s no queue-jumping for regulars- a good thing in my book.
My most recent visit was with a colleague for lunch and, as so often happens here, our pair quickly became a group of four...and then a party of five.
Mario´s is modern in style with the walls painted in sections of purple, ochre and plain off-white. Long cables of halogen spots hang from the ceiling above black slate floors and simple cherrywood-style tables and chairs. There are a couple of soft couches which are quite low and make eating a slightly uncomfortable exercise.
The big laminated menu offers a vast selection of starters, pastas, salads and pizzas along with a good choice of meat and chicken dishes. I have tried most of these dishes at least once and, on reflection, i´ve to say that never had a bad meal. The pizzas in particular, are among the best in town. Prices are at the lower end of the spectrum and there is precious little that costs more than a tenner.
On the flip side of the menu is the wine list, which is home to a decent spread of bottles from around the world. Again, prices are very fair with the most expensive bottle being a Macon Lugny at around £16. We went for our "usual" Chianti Serristori, a robust red that we found copes well with most of what Mario´s has to offer and at £14.50 it´s pretty value too.
After 15 minutes the food arrived and we got stuck in. I had canelloni, which carne with a bowl of fat chips and a green salad on the side. The pasta was well cooked and the filling in the tubes was good -beef, pine nuts, basil and all the usual ingredients were present and correct. There was a bit too much sauce for my liking - the only criticism of an otherwise good dish.
Elsewhere on our table things were going well. Spaghetti amatriciana: wellcooed pasta with bacon, chilis and tomato sauce. Chicken Milano (one of my own Mario´s favourites): generous portions of chicken coated with breadcrumbs, garlic tomato sauce and mozzarella served with the afore mentioned fries. The others had a combination of Crostini, pate and bread, minestone and insalata Caprese and there was no complaint. After this lot we sipped a few coffes -regular espresso and cappucino- and finihed our wine. The bill £67.35 - that´s just more than $13 a head with wine- as usual was good value and we left a ten percent tip for Mario´s staff, who always manage to be good humoured despite being under considerable pressure most of the time.
For once, we resisted the temptation to linger for the afternoon - A man I know describes Mario´s as a "glue pot" - and braved the gale-force downpour outside to head back to the office.

The bill for five: