beeftro

absolutely delicious steak and up there with one of the best iv had, recommend their steak sauce, fillet and fries. their bread and butter pudding is fabulous also. redwineis good value but overall it is quite highly priced for a dundrum casual eatery

you really can’t beat a good steak . i always get mine rare and usually with some mash and pepper sauce… i’m always afraid to try another sauce in case i don’t like it and my meal is ruined!

we strolled in to the restaurant at about 8.30 on a saturday evening. i always make reservations but i guess with this being based at a shopping centre i didn’t really think it’d be too busy…. i was wrong! the place was buzzing and the waitress informed us that we’d have a bit of a wait for a table so we plonked ourselves at a table outside and wrapped a blanket around ourselves as it was baltic. only a few minutes later she came back out to us and explained they’d had a cancellation and so had a seat for us – thank god as we were starving by now!

tables are nicely spaced out and you aren’t sitting on top of your neighbours. the interior is clean cut but cosy with lots of dark wood and leather. we took our seats and were given a lovely little wooden basket of bread and decided on somewinefirst. a nice bottle of domaine corbellieres sauvignon blanc was priced at €32 and we went for that.

more importantly – onto the food! there was a pretty good mix, plenty to choose from including blue cheese, duck salad, calamari, chicken wings, carpaccio of beef & french onion soup – priced from about €5.50 to €12. for some reason i wasn’t in the mood for a starter but e got the french onion soup, €5.50. this came out in a lovely black iron dish and was piping hot! in my haste to try it, i burned the tongue off myself! the soup was so comforting and salty, just yum. e isn’t a fan of cheese and forgot to ask for it without, so i dutifully took chunks of the gorgeous melty cheese from the bowl and plonked it on the white bread… so i guess i had a starter anyway :-)

for mains the obvious choice is a steak and they have a few options. however if you aren’t in the mood for it, the other mains on offer are burgers and a few fish and chicken choices. we both went for the fillet, €29.50 (beginning to see a pattern here?!). the steaks come with a potato puree of your choice. i love anything spicy that burns your mouth a bit so went with the jalapeno chilli and e went for the bbq. next choice is your sauce, i’d heard rave reviews on the marrow sauce but was totally predictable and went for the pepper sauce. sauces are all separate and priced at €1.50 – possibly my only gripe with the whole restaurant experience, it’s not expensive but i kinda think your sauce should be included.

once the steaks arrived we made pretty short work of them. e always gets his well done, me always rare. i am not into well done beef at all but i will admit on tasting his, it was still really tender and tasted fab. mine was rare and beautifully soft and juicy.

we made bad choices with the sauce on our puree though. i’m not sure why we thought a chilli or bbq sauce on mash would pair well with the pepper sauce we both got…. both were equally tasty but the mixture of different sauces on our parts was silly – i should keep the jalepeno’s for my pizza in future! the pureed potatoes were absolutely to die for, not a lump in sight and so creamy and soft. the sauces on them were gorgeous when kept separate to our pepper sauces and as is the norm we cleared our plates.

after that we needed to take a bit of a breather. ourwinehad rapidly diminished so we had another look over the menu and decided to splash out on our fave white, a nice marlborough, new zealand called tin pot hut, €37. i adore this wine… it went down way too easily!

after a little break to let the steak digest we decided to share a dessert. we’re both full on chocaholics and it’s our first choice on any dessert menu. hot chocolate fondant with banana ice cream, €6.50…. how could you go wrong?! dessert arrived and oh. my. god. was it good! the chocolate sauce was smooth and just the right amount of sweet and bitter and the ice cream went perfectly with it. needless to say that lot got polished off too!

we sat over the second bottle ofwinefor quite a while. all evening while we were there, we’d seen a steady stream of people through the door and it only really started to quieten down at about 10.30. i predict beeftro will only get more and more popular as they serve just great quality food. we both agreed it was spot on in beeftro and will most definitely return – next time i’ll try the truffle puree and marrow sauce!

beeftro opened in the pembroke district in dundrum town centre a while back, i visited not long after it opened but wasn’t in ‘review mode’ so didn’t take pictures or think too much about it and just enjoyed what i ate, intending to be back to it not long afterwards. the ‘not long afterwards’ turned into a few months, just one of those things that every time we went to go back, something else got in the way. so on a random tuesday earlier this week after one of ‘those day’s in work, i needed wine, and meat… so beeftro it was.

it wasn’t too busy on arrival so we got a lovely table for 2 in the window. inside beeftro is classic bistro style – think french meets american… dark wood, white tiles, mirrors, dark red leather, marble…

we were given the regular menu,winelist and the early bird. the early bird is really excellent value at €19.50 for 2 courses and €24.50 for 3 courses and is available 5pm – 9pm monday – wednesday.

beeftro goats cheesethere was a special starter of liver pate which was also available on the early bird. i decided to go with that, followed by the beeftro bourguignon. he decided to start with a crispy goats cheese salad and follow it with the sirloin rump which is served with a potato puree and pepper sauce on the side. we added a side of fries (but to be honest didn’t need them!).

on thewinelist they have certain wines indicated as good pairings to steaks so from that list, we chose a portugese red – azamor, a blended variety including syrah, touriga nacional, merlot, trincadeira, alicante bouschet, mouvedre and petit verdot – a dark, full bodied and juicy red, ideal with the steak and bourguignon. at €36 its a treat but more than worth it.

the starters were very good, the goats cheese salad was a nice take on a staple with the crispy fried cheese. the pate was presented beautifully, with grilled toasts beside it. the main courses were definitely the stars of the show.. the sirloin arrived unadorned on the plate, just it alone. for rump steak the quality was amazing, it was cooked perfectly medium as requested, chargrilled on the outside and inside, pink and tender. a puree potatoe and pepper sauce came with the steak and for someone who doesn’t like mashed potato (him), he did a fairly good job of it! my bourguignon was simply stunning… loved how it was presented (which can be hard with dishes like this) and tasted just as good as it looked. there was nothing i could fault in this dish and i’m still thinking of just how delicious it was.

we had no room for dessert so instead squeezed in a 50cl carafe of one of the house reds, a spanish tempranillo/syrah/cabernet, which at €17 is well priced.

we were really impressed with our 2nd visit to beeftro. its a lovely spot for a night out or indeed a break from shopping, and i’m looking forward to my next beef fix at beeftro…