Restaurant Review

Duzy's Cafe

Elizabeth Field regrets John Dunne's departure from Glasthule's Duzy's Café

It's always a shame when a favourite restaurant slips, but with the departure of chef/co-owner John Dunne in June 2001, much of the sparkle has gone out of Duzy's Cafe.

Co-owner and f-o-h man Stephane Couzy is still very much in evidence, and Duzy's ambience is still stylish, informal, uncluttered and bright. The service is very friendly and efficient, and neighborhood residents still flock there for its reasonably priced food.

But where John Dunne's light but exacting cuisine matched Duzy's unfussy ambience, new head chef David Cosgrove has introduced all sorts of 'fusiony' elements that muddy the culinary waters.

A starter selection was the best dish tried. It featured some nicely chilled dill and salmon rillettes; a piping hot spring roll of sweetcorn and crab with mango relish; a savoury blue cheese cake; and an oddity - avocado guacamole with rock-hard banana plantain chips. Roast butternut squash and lime soup couldn't decide whether it wanted to be homey or 'Asian'; it ended up thick, with a sour aftertaste.

The mains - penne pasta with roast tomato coulis, chorizo sausage and crumbled goat's cheese, and a soy and ginger baked quail with pecan-dressed rocket leaves - were unmemorable. For all its promised Asian flavourings, the bird hadn't been marinated, so it ended up plump and bland, with a thin ginger-soy sauce on the side. Champ potatoes were delicious.

There's no excuse for a dessert of roast Caribbean-spiced pineapple to be burned, whereas banana and passionfruit sable with chocolate sauce was innocuous.

It's not that Cosgrove's food is bad; it just lacks the rigorous clarity and attention to detail that made Dunne's cooking such a pleasure. It's a pity that, as my husband Bruce said, "Only the Couzy is left in Duzy's".

Duzy's Café, 18 Glasthule Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
Tel: (01) 230 0210
Email: duzyscafe@clubi.ie

email John and Sally | read other articles in this issue