Restaurant Review - The Exchequer

Baked chicken with dijon and lime,

sauteed courgettes and boiled rice

I was really in the mood for a pub meal and suggested we check out The Exchequer. A few weeks ago we were walking past and had a look at the menu. It looked pretty good, and we were especially interested in the pre-ordered Sunday roast. Considering the city center location of the restaurant, the prices were very reasonable. Unfortunately since we decided to go there at the last minute, we couldn't pre-order the roast. Boo!

The Exchequer classifies itself as a 'gastropub', and I knew that before we went, but it's definitely a restaurant and not a pub. I was a little disappointed about that. The decor is very modern and it's nice, but it's definitely not cozy. You walk in through the bar, then back to the restaurant. There's an area which couches and leather chairs where people were reading the paper, but then right next to that there were ultra modern booths. It was kind of weird.

They have a sunday brunch menu, but we were there too late for that. The roast joint of the day was ham, which didn't really appeal to me. I was really in the mood for chicken, but there was not one chicken dish on the menu. What!? We ended up both getting the roast striploin of beef. It said it came with mash potatoes. It didn't. Don't promise me mash, then not give up the goods! There were a few little roast potatoes and some roasted carrots, parsnips, and onions. All I can say is, well, the roasted onions were good! Overall, I found it all very tasteless...kind of watery. The beef, the potatoes, everything was watery tasting to me. Wes said he thought it was alright, but then in the next breath said, 'Only two months until we get American beef!'  You be the judge of how he really felt! The portions were okay, but we were both still kind of hungry so we ended up getting dessert. I got the warm winter berry crumble and Wes had the blueberry and almond tartlet. Wes loved his and mine was good, but it's pretty hard to mess up a crumble. While we weren't enamoured by the food, the staff was really attentive and the service was excellent.

I gave it a 2 out of 5. Wes felt the quality of service bumped it up to a 3 out of 5. I realize we should probably go another time to make sure The Exchequer gets a fair assessment, but we won't be back. There are so many other restaurants in Dublin that we'd like to try, so onwards and upwards!