Review - Jamie's Italian, Dundrum Town Centre

My opinion on Jamie Oliver has really changed in recent years. Having once not been able to grab the remote quickly enough to turn off the awful Naked Chef with his fake friends, I have grown to quite like the more mature, easy manner he displays on his 15 and 30 minute meal programmes (marvelling all the while at his ability to get through the guts of an entire bottle of olive oil in almost every episode).

Since Jamie's Italian opened in the Dundrum Town Centre back in September,  opinion online has been very varied with Menupages citing horror stories such as two hour waits for booked tables. And the consensus on the food hasn't always been favourable either.

There are Jamie's Italians all over the UK and beyond and I had previously visited the Angel branch in London which I found to be strangely industrial place with pretty unremarkable food. The people behind Jamie's do say, however, that all of the restaurants are unique and the Dundrum branch is certainly a nicer, brighter space in which to eat whilst retaining many of the same features as that particular English cousin,  namely the cute little blue and white teatowel-style napkins and a specials board written in Jamie-speak and general feeling of bish-bash-boshiness about the place.

We were both ravenous when we ate here a couple of Saturdays ago having not been able to get a reservation until 4pm. Even then there were very few vacant tables.  We both started with ravioli - his with buffalo ricotta, lemon and other nice things (a peek of which can be seen in the very top photo) and mine the 'Wild Mushroom Panzerotti  filled with porcini & brown caps, chilli, thyme ricotta and parmesan' (pictured above). This, the smaller starter portion (€9.50) was in fact very generous (the main course portion costs €14.75). It was also really cheesy and tasty with a rich thick sauce and,  eaten with the mixed bread selection we ordered (€3.95)  probably sufficient for a 'normal' lunch. But, true to form, we soldiered on.

I would generally never order turkey out. It just doesn't seem very 'special' but I was tempted by 'Jamie's Favourite Turkey Milanese stuffed with prosciutto, fontina, with a fried free-range egg & truffles' (€16.95) after seeing it featured on a fellow blogger's review. The portion was absolutely huge, much bigger than it appears above and though not unpleasant to eat,  was just a little bland and with no evidence of prosciutto.

With our mains, we ordered 'Funky Chips' (€4.25) which were just ok flavour-wise as well as being tooth-breakingly hard

and some belly-busting Polenta Chips (€4.50) which I was very fond of.

His burger (not pictured, €13.95) didn't receive a great reception, deemed to be "pretty dry with too many sweet onions." And service was a bit hit and miss with the waitress bringing our bread selection (ordered from the appetisers section) after the starter (and only then when prompted) whilst the second drink we ordered with our mains never arrived.

Nevertheless, I quite liked this Jamie's. It feels a bit frantic and would not be good for a romantic evening out but it offers decent food at decent prices and looks set to keep packing them in for some time to come.

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