Brown’s Restaurant and Champagne Lounge
Bonds Hill
Derry
BT47 6DW
028 7134 5180
I’M NOT really one to talk about the sacrifices I make. I don’t mean the appease-the-capricious-gods kind, by the way (I couldn’t avoid that pheasant, and one goat hardly counts). No, I mean the sacrifices that mark me out as a good, noble person, who cares for humanity.
Seeing as you insist though, let me tell you I’ve given up bread for Lent. Leaving aside for the moment that I am eating half my body weight in dark chocolate Hobnobs each day as a substitute, I think we can all agree that this is temperance of the highest order, an act of self-denial which will see the world a noticeably better place come Easter Sunday. Forty days and forty nights is a long time, mind, and I’m only human. A little treat every now and then is the least I deserve.
Well, treats don’t come much treatier than dinner at Brown’s on the Waterside, so that’s where my wife and I headed to mark 10 days without so much as looking at a barmcake.
We’re lucky in Derry to have some terrific restaurants, offering a range of experiences. Brown’s has been around longer than most. It’s a place of easy elegance and light-touch refinement where, beneath the surface, the legs are going like the clappers to come up with new and exciting ways to get the most out of the carefully sourced ingredients.
Not every attempt comes off – I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy pureed egg – but the emphasis is always on making the dining experience better, and you can’t knock that.
Our starters set the bar high. The chicken thigh, boned and rolled, was dreamily tender and wrapped in beautifully seasoned skin, served with a vivid chimichurri and a sharp sweetcorn relish. Delicious, but not as good as my crab. The sweet, deep meat sat beneath a disc of crisp pastry, dotted with a bold Bloody Mary jelly, and sent soaring with intense, fresh flavours of cucumber and celery: a lively, thrilling and clean dish.
The Dexter beef steak was sealed a deep brown and perfectly pink inside. It gave up at the first glimpse of the knife, the taste of the beef complemented to perfection by the Northbound beer jus, oozy and boozy without threatening to overpower.
After my crab, I continued with the seafood theme. Fish of the day was John Dory. I’ve only had this once before. I loved it then and I love it even more now. While the skin could have had more texture, the fish itself was beautiful – a lovely combination of strength and delicacy. It came with sweetly subtle mussels and an absolutely fantastic langoustine raviolo.
I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure how well it went with the John Dory, but, gosh, was it good! I could have eaten a plateful – the texture and consistency of the pasta was spot on and the langoustine was fresh and sweet and mellow.
I’ve got to mention the wine, by the way, a lovely, crisp, uncomplicated Sancerre, with touches of lemon and lime that glugged along nicely with all the dishes, especially the fish.
Now, the puddings. Things certainly didn’t get worse with these fellers, I must say. Not that they were perfect, mind. The tart was intensely lemony, no holds barred, and topped with a pomegranate crisp, both delicious. The shards of Italian meringue were a touch clumpy, I thought, and lacking snap, while the pistachio ice cream, although creamy and full of flavour, didn’t really fit with the tart.
The chocolate terrine was a layered slice of sponge and cream, which was a tad bland, although the chocolate coating was pretty good. The blood orange sorbet, however, was brilliant – fabulous sweet and bitter flavour grenades with the pin taken out.
This was just a wonderful meal. I might give up bread more often if I’m going to get treats like this.
THE BILL
Donegal Crab, cucumber, Bloody Mary, celery £8.95
Chicken thigh, sweetcorn relish, polenta, bacon, chimichurri £7.50
Dexter beef, beer jus £19.95
John Dory, langoustine raviolo, mussels, Jerusalem artichoke £18.95
Buttery mashed potato £2.95
Seasonal vegetables £2.95
Lemon tart, Italian meringue, pistachio, pomegranate - £5.95
Chocolate terrine, sponge, cremeux, blood orange, gold leaf - £5.95
Drinks
Bottle of Sancerre £34
Coffee x 2 £6
Total: £113.15
