Review: Mongoose, Dublin 8
In our latest restaurant review we find proper cooking, fair prices and a refreshing sense of perspective at Mongoose, at a time when dining out feels increasingly out of reach.
Though Chip Paper has always been our space for our longer-form food writing, it was here — four years ago — that we first began publishing restaurant reviews around Ireland. Over time, and owing to print commitments, that strand of our output shifted elsewhere but we’re returning to it now deliberately, continuing with Mongoose, and will be continuing to punctuate this space with more Irish restaurant reviews throughout the year.
As with all our Chip Paper reviews, this piece is illustrated by hand by Patrick — drawn directly from the plate.
The value question is paramount in dining in Ireland right now. It’s not necessarily a line between what’s affordable or not, but the grasp of what affordability looks like — and it being a sliding scale rather than a rigid price ceiling.
What appears fair to one is being fleeced to another. What’s a splurge to one is bog standard to another.
The thing is, tasting menus and fine dining in general continue to ascend into unattainable heights. Click, click, click, just like the anti-rollback on a rollercoaster as you inch towards a peak. But neighbourhood dining is not getting cheaper, either. You might not notice the extra euro on bottled water or that the pasta that was €15 is now €17.50, but you will quickly notice a suggested 10% service charge quietly evolving into 12.5%. It’s relative: restaurants have been buckled by VAT, wages, rates and ingredients hikes, so those increases are passed on.
Is there any wonder pizza by the slice with a can on the side of the road, hauls from artisanal bakeries, and single-cocktail nights out are the splurges of the twenty-something these days? A €5 croissant and a proper matcha is today’s little luxury. The cozzie livs has made Celtic Tiger excess look like Ireland was starring in an episode of Cribs, lauding its lavish luxuries and unnecessary indulgences, to which it had firmly become accustomed before the bailiffs were knocking on the door of the country’s mansion.
We’re all feeling pinches from somewhere, some more than others, and Mongoose is a great big breath of fresh air. A tiny new restaurant from a Michelin-starred team anchored by properly good, honest, simple cooking at an incredibly fair price. Keelan Higgs is probably robbing Peter (one-starred Variety Jones) to pay Paul (his new casual neighbourhood joint next door) to make it work, but it feels entirely noble and almost democratic.
Dublin needs this.
“We want it to be affordable,” Higgs declared in his spoken manifesto on an Instagram interview clip announcing the new place. “Simple cookery, a couple of delicious things on the plate, well seasoned, much of it cooked over fire,” and having eaten there twice in the last month, he’s nailed it. Another element he teased pre-opening in late April was that they would have a bit of bustle in the service, turning around tables quickly and balancing bookings and walk-ins, which we feel was lesser nailed. More on that later.
It’s a Sylvanian Families-sized dining room. 78 Thomas Street, the site of the original Variety Jones, which Higgs opened with his brother Aaron in 2018. Mongoose was supposed to take shape three years ago when VJ, a few years in and comfortably retaining its Michelin star, outgrew the shoebox and moved to the larger corner site next door. Eight days into the new digs, a devastating fire ripped through the space. No casualties, thankfully, but the dream perished in the blaze.
The team, licking their wounds, were forced back into the box. They had no choice but to continue cooking back where they started to keep the lights on.
