Restaurant Review

Claire Goodwillie eats in Ireland's most famous deconsecrated church, Chez Hans in Cashel.

When you enter Chez Hans, this converted, deconsecrated church with its high vaulting ceilings, dark coloured walls, a remarkable art collection and well-used furniture, it gives a slight feeling of having walked into a country house dining room, rather than a restaurant. This impression is further emphasised by the other diners being of a definite horsey ilk and 40+ in age, and by the jazz music playing quietly in the background.

Our starters arrived, and proved to be the high point of the meal. In both cases they exhibited wonderful combinations of flavours: risotto with chorizo, duck and wild mushrooms was strong and hearty with a real earthy taste, while the spinach tagliatelli with smoked salmon and crab meat was lighter but equally well balanced, with the crab providing an interesting texture. The bottle of Chateau Le Vivier was chosen by the steak eater with an eye to red meat, but it also went superbly with the risotto thanks to the presence of the duck and the chorizo.

My casoulette of seafood - prawns, salmon, cod and a scallop - was served in a large scallop shell. The perfectly cooked seafood was unfortunately swimming (sorry!) in an over-salted chive velouté. The 9oz (and when is meat ever going to go metric?!) fillet steak, on the other hand, was deemed cooked to perfection, well complimented by a caramelised onion purée. Both were served with dauphinoise potatoes, deep fried parsnip chips and mushrooms, just the sort of thing Hans has always done very well indeed.

We were given dessert menus almost as the dinner plates were being removed, which felt a bit rushed, but then had to wait an age to order. Fortunately, the selection of sorbets (mango, strawberry, vanilla) with fresh fruit, and the steamed chocolate pudding with white chocolate ice Cream, were well worth waiting for. The sorbets were genuinely fruity, garnished with pineapple cubes, and the chocolate pudding was a thundering combination of hot and cold, light and dark.

All the Chez Hans portions were generously sized (perhaps even a bit large, but then they know their audience after more than 30 years in the business) and were served in a pleasing non-pretentious style.

Coffee, unfortunately, was not a good end to an otherwise enjoyable meal as it tasted as if it had been standing on a hot plate for several hours. The service in Chez Hans needs more consideration and needs to work harder, however, for whilst it was adequate, if slightly brusque, a smile or a mid-meal enquiry would have improved things no end.

Chez Hans, Cashel, Co Tipperary Tel: (062) 61177

John McKenna does the middle class thing in Avoca Handweavers and Elephant & Castle

"So, lunch on your own in Avoca, whilst reading The Irish Times", chided a friend encountered after lunch in Avoca's Suffolk Street branch. And yes, the Pratt family's superb destinations are indeed middle-class temples, which deserve to be gently satirised. But above all, they deserve to be praised, for the smart food culture evident in all their branches, the very thing that draws us middle-class food lovers back time and again, is truly one of the glories of modern Irish food.

Energy and culture collide here, for the staff are well into their work, and the kitchen knows exactly what it can achieve, a comfort zone of stylish and well-executed modern Irish cooking. A special of the day such as Parma ham, Parmesan and semidried tomato tart is right on the money: light, good pastry, packed with flavour, all the taste notes complemented by broccoli and hazelnut salad, good fresh green leaves, sweet tomato salad and a creamy potato salad. There is vigour in this food, and along with the energy of the room and its boisterous lunchtime series of groups and solo diners, it all adds up to one of the great feel-good experiences of the capital. Never mind the middle class bit: Avoca is simply pure class.

Avoca is one of the pioneer Irish restaurants, for it proved that you could do what others said you couldn't. i.e. cook good food for very large numbers of people and offer them cooking rather than catering. Another of the great pioneers has been Temple Bar's Elephant & Castle, where Liz Mee and John Hayes also proved that you could do what others said you couldn't. i.e. cook good food all day long, seven days a week. But John and Liz have moved on, and the E&C continues to be humungously busy; even on a Tuesday evening, the maitre d' is advising folk at 7pm that you will have to wait at least an hour for a table.

Whether what you get after your hour's wait is worth it is debateable. Those trademark spicy chicken wings were very carelessly arranged, the celery had not been trimmed and didn't have that crisp-crunch factor which you could have relied on in the past. This is such a simple dish that it needs perfect execution - hot wings, cool dip, crunchy celery - but this effort was missing by a mile.

One of the specials was vermouth shark with tomato, red onion, potatoes and a char-grilled tomato salsa, but this again missed by a mile. The shark was fine, but the red onions weren't properly cooked, and there was simply far too much food on the plate. Calamari salad, on the other hand, could have offered some more calamari, though this was a pretty plate of food, deftly arranged and presented.

But, the E&C remains a great room with fantastic energy and the service was as sharp as it has ever been. But the precision in the cooking which has been the trademark of the restaurant was off on vacation, leaving us with that most unusual feeling: a sense of disappointment with one of your oldest and dearest friends.

Avoca Handweavers, Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 www.avoca.ie

Elephant & Castle, 18 Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Tel: (01) 679 3121