Tasty Sandwich and Amazing Salad But Zero Atmosphere

I've heard a lot about this restaurant over the last year since they opened on Drury Street, and kept meaning to pop in and try out their food. I finally got around to it this week and really enjoyed my lunch, it's just a pity the the atmosphere was dead. Maybe it's more of a weekend or evening spot rather than a place to go for lunch, but the food was good either way.

The Drury Buildings opened about a year or so ago and there was a bit of a buzz about it from the graffiti covered exterior to the New York cool interior. It's also based on one of the most exciting streets in town, Drury Street. Despite it taking up a huge piece of prime real estate, I don't really hear people talking about it much and I wasn't sure what type of food they serve up. I decided to pop in for lunch and see what it's like.

When I arrived at the bar downstairs I wasn't sure that they were open for lunch because there was literally nobody there. I took a seat and had a look at the menu and decided to go for the grilled peach, ricotta and parma salad and the mozzarella and speck sandwich. They arrived after about 5 minutes which I would think is pretty good timing but I had the advantage of being the only person there. The salad came out and looked stunning, and tasted just as good. The peaches were perfectly soft, the ricotta was really fresh and creamy and parma ham gave it a nice salty kick. It was definitely my kind of dish and in retrospect I should have just ordered a main portion of the salad.

The sandwich was also pretty good, but it's hard to mess up what is essentially a ham and cheese sandwich to be fair. They use Toonsbridge mozzarella (the ricotta in the salad was Toonsbridge too) which I am obsessed with, it's the only Irish buffalo mozzarella and is worth seeking out... It's incredible. The bread was fresh toasted sourdough and the speck was good too. The sandwich would have been a bit on the small side if it weren't for the chips, garlic mayo and side salad which came with it. The chips were divine, I wasn't going to eat them because I had the salad before hand but I ended up hoovering them all up. The chips and side salad really did make a meal of it, I was stuffed like a little turkey afterwards. It definitely wasn't one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten but it was tasty and I really enjoyed it. The salad was €9.50 (seems a lot but I think it was a small salad portion rather than a starter, which I had thought I was ordering) and the sandwich was €8.95.

While I was there three other people came in, I wasn't sure why such a cool space in such a great location was so dead at lunchtime. I'm guessing their trade is more weekend and evening based. Maybe it was because the dinner menu is so expensive people don't think of it for lunch. Or maybe it's because none of the items on the lunch menu (apart from the salad) sounded particularly 'oh-my-God-I-need-that-in-my-belly-now'. Either way I hope they sort it out as it's an exciting spot and there's huge potential for them to sweep up some of the lunch trade from the surrounding streets.

If you also love Drury Street, then check out our piece on our top picks on the street.