Bodega! is great. All of it. The style. The cooking. The service. The wines. The craic. The sense of fun. The lack of pretension. The good times. It's a maverick place run by two maverick brothers, Cormac and Donagh Cronin, who have steered it stealthily now for more than a decade, and the brothers are great restaurateurs, people who know how to source their foods – Waterford blaa from M&D Bakery, Triskel goat's cheese, Crowe farm pork – people who know how to write menus and wine lists, people who understand how to fill a room with the promise of good times, and how to deliver that night after night.
The food is tilted towards the Med rather than just Spanish influences, but like the best Spanish food the flavours are big, sweet, syrupy and satisfying: Portlaw tarte tatin; Kilmore Quay fish cakes; Joe Mallon's Angus sirloin with frites. Folk in the know tend to go straight for the blackboard specials. Cancel tomorrow.
