This south Dublin restaurant stands out from the crowd

Novenas are being offered in Castlegregory for the failure of a new Dublin restaurant. Or so I hear from my friend. Our Kerry-connected pal has just filled her in on the back story to chef Greg O’Mahoney’s arrival in the Dublin suburb of Milltown.

The people of Castlegregory do not wish the chef ill, of course. But there’s a sliver of hope that if Ember dies then O’Mahoney will return to the small Kerry village, and locals will be able to enjoy his cooking again.

O’Mahoney was head chef in The Milesian restaurant in the village, and then Gregory’s Garden, where he cultivated his own vegetables and a good following. He has cooked with Derry Clarke and Ross Lewis in L’Ecrivain and Chapter One. After what his website described as 10 Kerry summers he’s arrived in the big smoke with Ember, a restaurant in a strip of shops ambitiously called Milltown Shopping Centre.

Ember feels a long way from Castlegregory. The restaurant has a smart clubby feel. There are red leather banquettes, ridged glass panels and lamp shades, and a handsome bar with comfortably upholstered stools. An oak parquet floor and glittery goldeny wallpaper complete a look as far from hipster bare brick and filament bulbs as you can get without going all red velvet and white linen.

The food is also pleasantly different. Instead of the typical brown bread or sourdough we start with some herby flat bread, all nutty cumin seeds and clarified butter cut into soft shards for dipping into an excellent house pesto.

Then fat fried juicy scallops are dotted on a plate with apple crisps, a small cube of pork belly and sweet charred leeks. They’re so good I have to swoop fast to claim a taste. I get a squid risotto, a cheesy soupy risotto ringed in a black slick of squid ink cream like a stricken sea bird. The squid meat is confined to two curls of white covered in a foam.

Staying at sea, a good chunk of hake has been crisply finished in butter and topped with brown shrimp and broccoli advertised on the menu as tenderstem but actual regular garden variety broccoli.

My fish is fine, but I’m more impressed with the dish across the table. It’s a comforting wintery plate of buttery floury rolls of sage potato gnocchi dotted with curly kale and chunks of feta pebble-dashed with caraway seeds. At least two varieties of mushrooms have been scattered over the plate.

It’s the dish of a chef who’s in touch with what’s still growing in winter fields or stored from autumn. What saves it from being a dreary seasonal rummage in the potato and cabbage bin is the sharp creamy tang of the feta (typically thought of as a salad sprinkling) lifting it all into a higher register.

The same trick is pulled with small juicy Brussel sprouts which have been caramelised into baby brassica gobstoppers and sprinkled with shards of bacon.

Desserts are a return from those individualistic riffs to pure classics. A dark chocolate fondant that we’re told will take 10 minutes is worth the brief wait. A lava flow of chocolate slides out of its warm centre once the first spoonful is eaten. Salted caramel is dotted on the plate and it’s all dusted with a frost fall of icing sugar.

My apple crumble comes in a glass bowl that looks like it once held one of those ridiculously expensive three-wick candles. But that’s the only nod to modernity. Here we have hot pureed apple, crunchy crumble on top all bathed in warm custard like an antidote for January.

So sorry, Castlegregory, I like Ember and I’m pretty sure the people of Milltown and beyond do too. In times when many mid-range restaurants seem to be run by algorithm O’Mahoney is a fresh talent, doing things differently in small ways that make Ember stand out from the crowd.

Dinner for two with two glasses of wine and a peppermint tea came to €103