Temple Garner was one of the first chefs to bring New York-style dining to Dublin Restaurants, during his heady days at the much-loved Mermaid Café and subsequent stint at Dillinger’s.
Since 2011 he’s been majoring in New York-Italian fare, serving up steakhouse cuts, hearty pasta dishes and knock-out desserts at the hip and buzzy San Lorenzo’s.
The popular spot was a notoriously noisy dining space and a later revamp, which looks gritty and slick, hasn’t completely addressed that problem. Nevertheless, that didn't stop customers flocking here for the gutsy cooking, both evenings and weekends, when a brunch booking is a much-sought-after thing.
Char-grilled steak is a speciality and everything, from the delicious bread to the pasta and ice cream, is made in-house.
Big, clean flavours have always been Temple’s strengths and dishes like a char-grilled salad of calamari and chorizo with roasted peppers, gremolata rolled pork belly or Himalayan salt-aged rib-eye with red onion, tomato, duck fat roasties and rocket are bound to please.
Desserts are a big deal here and always superb. Nutella baked cheesecake might tempt, but anyone in the know will make a beeline for Temple’s legendary pecan pie.
Staff are always friendly but, with tables tightly packed in, they come under pressure at busy periods.
Reservations are strongly recommended.
*Bresson in Monkstown, Co Dublin, is a younger sister restaurant.
