Definitely a great find with room to improve to make it close to perfect: Restaurant Forest Avenue (21. May 2022)
If you want to dine at the Forest Avenue, you better book your table way in advance. I booked with about 6 to 7 weeks heads up and there weren’t too many tables available any more. Once you book, you have to pay the “10 Course Surprise Tasting Menu” (EUR 98.00) in advance, i.e., the full price for the food is charged in the moment of booking. The place is relatively small, i.e., there are only about 20 seats and the place was full.
The evening started with a “brioche donut, smoked Gubeen, PX” which was quite a nice bite to get started.
The “tuna with fermented red pepper and sorrel” was exquisite. The tuna was perfectly matured, rich in flavour, and the combination with the red pepper and the sourness of the sorrel created a very appealing combination of flavours and textures.
The next course was “beetroot, burrata, pistachio” which was somewhat interesting and overall tasty – the combination of the different textures was fine. The herbs which were on top were nicely marinated in oil and a few other ingredients, making it a bit too soggy for my personal gusto.
The next course had two elements – a “cauliflower velouté with red curry, quinoa and almonds” which was one of these ‘homey’ foods. Like, you just want to dig in, enjoy, and keep enjoying.
As a side, you got little cubes of “potatoes with lobster” which were definitely enjoyable.
Next in line was the “roasted cabbage, chestnut mushroom, Vin Jaune sauce” and I must say that the Vin Jaune sauce was absolutely delicious and highly enjoyable. Definitely something I enjoyed. The sauce was of an intensity which was amazing – in combination with the roasted cabbage, which was exquisite, it made for a great dish. And the tarragon powder on top of the chestnut mushrooms really created an interesting combination of flavours. The only thing I’m not sure about was if it needed was the dried ham with which it was served – like, it was nice, and I usually love a piece of ham or bacon to pretty much anything, but it really didn’t add to the dish, I found.
The next course was simple yet great. The “sourdough served with ham terrine and pear purée, accompanied by whipped butter” was lovely. The sourdough was great – the whipped butter incredibly light, and the ham terrine right down my alley.
The “casarecce with rare breed suckling pig ragù and wild garlic” looked so damn promising, and they were good. But they were not mind-boggling. The pasta wasn’t al dente (i.e., cooked a tiny bit too much) but the suckling pig ragù was absolutely perfect with it. So it was still a great dish.
The “hake with mussels in crab sauce” was fine. Frankly, hake isn’t my absolute favourite when it comes to fishes, but it was tasty and the crab sauce was rich and intense, which added quite a bit to the generally rather boring fish.
The “beef filet served with barbecued leek, black walnut and foie gras sauce” was the end of the savoury dishes. The meat was perfect – tender, medium-rare, cooked perfectly. The barbecued leek, in combination with the foie gras sauce was perfect – the single ingredients of the sauce were rather boring but if you mixed them together and applied them to the meat or the barbecued leek, it became a nice and enjoyable combination.
Before the final course, a little pre-dessert was served being “white chocolate, sorrel granita, rhubarb, shiso” which was right down my alley. I mean, I love white chocolate. The combination with the granita was perfect – the rhubarb is something I wouldn’t really have needed, but all in all, the combination was great.
The last meal of the evening was “Japanese milk bread, coconut, coffee & Dublin Oat Ice cream” which was nice – the milk bread was sweet, had a nice texture, and the Dublin Oat ice cream was interesting to try. Not really what you would call an ice cream you need to eat over and over again, but in that specific combination it worked well.
The place is overall quite nice – it’s small, and they make the best out of the space, combining four tables with about 10 seats at the bar. The service is good, friendly, but it is lacking the certain something. They are attentive, making sure you have everything you need and want – but since they are timing everything, so they have basically two rounds of diners at each time, they seem stressed, and it shows. I get it, you want to perform and to be fair, the experience is a nice one, but the whole thing suffers a bit from ‘tried to achieve efficiency’ (compared to actual efficiency) which leads to an impression of the waiters being stressed which is a bit of a pity. Plus, they only served filtered tap water which tastes (although only a little) like chlorine, which I really didn’t like.
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Contact Details:
Restaurant Forest Avenue
126 Leeson Street Upper
Dublin 4 (IE)
Tel.: +353 1 667 83 37
E-Mail: info@forestavenuerestaurant.ie
Homepage: http://www.forestavenuerestaurant.ie
About the Author: Sven
I started the blog in October 2009, while living in Milan which I definitely consider to be one of the food capitals of the world. I was in touch with food since my early childhood (as my father is a former chef). Whenever I can, I travel the world to discover new places, to meet people but mostly to try local dishes and to find hidden gems! If you know a place worth going, please drop a line to: info@thediningexperience.org.
Currently, I am a member of the following food-related associations: Chevalier @Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Zurich-Ville; Membre Gourmet Dégustateur @Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs [OMGD]; Gesellschafter @Goldener Fisch and Member @Slowfood Convivium Zurich City. 
