My Top 10 Irish Dishes of 2021 #1

#1: The Porterhouse for Two at F.X. Buckley in Dublin-

The menu at F.X. Buckley Steakhouse on Pembroke St. in Dublin is extensive. But if there are two of you, let me recommend the porterhouse. It’s an oversize T-bone with filet on one side and New York strip on the other. My wife Kelly took the tenderloin side of the bone and I got the big strip steak portion on the other side.

All of the Irish beef on the menu is well-marbled  and dry-aged for 28 days, a rarity in this country. Dry-aged beef loses as much as 30% of its weight, making the finished product a lot more expensive to produce than the “fresh” beef found in the average Irish butcher case. The fully developed flavor and tender texture of dry-aged beef are on another level entirely.

Our steak was perfectly cooked to the requested medium-rare. It came with all four of the house steak sauces: piquant black pepper sauce, delicate Béarnaise, beefy bone marrow jus and (my favorite) classic garlic herb butter. I took turns dunking steak bites in each one.

There was also an array of the award-winning steakhouse’s terrific side orders including: rich creamed spinach, crispy beef dripping chips, buttery mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, roasted chestnut mushrooms and caramelized onions. To be honest, Kelly was more enthralled by the steakhouse sides than the steak. I was happy to trade her some of my vegetables for some of her meat.

I have come across quite a few butcher shop/steakhouses in my travels. F.X. Buckley Victualler & Grocer is a brilliant example of the genre.