Goat's Gruff

Isn't Goat's Gruff a pizza and coffee truck in the Strawberry Beds?

Not any more. The goats have made the move to a real life restaurant with a roof and walls, in the culinary desert of Castleknock (we probably get more messages from readers in Dublin 15 than anywhere else about there being NOWHERE GOOD TO EAT. Small mercies that Stoneybatter is but a bus ride away).

The bland as beige D ONE 5 around the corner barely lasted a year, with some shouting that "locals don't support independent restaurants!" But is that the real problem? Or is the problem the restaurants? Do locals want more buffalo wings, grilled chicken with mash, or striploin steak? Or do they want handmade agnolotti with smoked Gubbeen, and crab gnocchi? Judging by the avalanche of customers descending on Goat's Gruff since it opened last month, logic would say it's the latter. After several failed attempts to get a table, we finally arrived for our 16:45 booking, smugly passing by the poor hopefuls outside, foolishly optimistic about their chances of getting a walk in table.

Owners Ciara and Brian Kennedy originally pitched up their food truck across from Ciara's family pub The Strawberry Hall in 2019, and it was a major success story, offering drive through coffee and pastries from early, to lunchtime toasties, right through to pizza all night. Queues were standard, quality was consistent, business was constant, but they ended up in a two year battle with Fingal County Council to retain permission to trade, a battle they eventually lost, just a few weeks after opening the Castleknock site. Onwards and upwards?

What seating options are there?

It's a tight space, only sitting around 24 inside, and another 18 or so outside on a covered, heated terrace. The fit out inside is tasteful and fresh, a long mirror on one wall making everything feel bigger, the caramel coloured, leather banquette seating very comfortable to sink into. Strangely for a place that was full of families, they don't currently have high chairs.

You want a banquette here if possible - we're not big fans of tables marooned in the centre of a restaurant floor, servers squeezing past every few mins. You'll have a better view of the pizza oven action from one of the walls too, and there's a lot of it - their takeaway pizza business is also booming.

Is it just pizza?

Not any more - you'd need more than just pizza to draw crowds like this. They're open for coffee and pastries in the morning, and sandwiches at lunch, but it was the dinner menu that got us here. They've astutely ventured into handmade pasta, and other small plates like pumpkin and burrata salad, and beef short rib, as well as some appealing sides, like salt and vinegar spuds. There's a sharing menu for groups of six + also, priced at €45, giving you a taste of lots of smaller plates, and the choice of two items from the pizza and pasta options.

We know that GG do excellent pizza, so we were here to see what else they can do. Scamorza arancini (€10 for three) came dolloped with saffron scented mayo and grated cheese (no charge), cheese oozing out from the centre. They just needed a few more seconds in the fryer to transform some cold spots in the centre.

A pumpkin, burrata and walnut salad (€13) was unadulterated Autumn on a plate, toasted and pickled walnuts bringing all the texture and acidic lift to the creamy cheese and earthy pumpkin. Clumps of toasted, honied seeds add even more crunch.

There are two handmade pastas on the menu right now - we reckon they thought it was better to start strong and manageable rather than putting too much too fast on the kitchen, and with dynamite dishes like these you won't miss the lack of choice. Brown crab gnocchi (€16) were five plump pillows of potato, nicely crisped, covered in a generous amount of white crab and topped with toasted breadcrumbs. Maybe the brown meat was in the luscious sauce underneath. Hot plus cold plus crunch plus all the flavour = full marks from us.

The other pasta dish of Gubbeen agnolotti with toasted hazelnuts , Jerusalem artichoke and kale was better again, perfect pasta encasing cheesy custard, swimming in a bath of more of the same. We don't know what they've toasted those hazelnuts in but we'd pay a substantial amount of money for a home delivery.

The sole meaty small plate was a melting rectangle of beef short rib, in a green peppercorn gravy with both deep-fried and pickled shallots, and a lovage sauce (€16). Gorgeous with the big G.

We tried a solo pie to check that everything was still in order, and we come bearing good news. The pork and piña (€18) was in no way miserly with the toppings, the beautifully cooked base dripping in San Marzano sauce and Fior di latte, with plenty of slow cooked pork, caramelised pineapple and pickled onions to ensure every slice had its shot. Garlic dip should be offensively garlicky right? The one here is, so much so that we were still tasting it with dessert. You win some you lose some.

Salt and vinegar spuds (€8) came doused in white vinegary powder, and while they hit the salt and vinegar profile on the head, we would have liked them more crunchy.

An incredibly well dressed side salad of endive with orange and Parmesan was perfection - change nothing, never let it leave, other restaurants take note on what a side salad should aspire to.

Desserts of tiramisu and cookies with ice-cream look basic so you might be tempted to skip. We don't advise this. That warm mound of still gooey cookie is going to be a hard one to follow (and we usually don't love these thick, cakey ones - turns out you just need them warm with a scoop of ice-cream on top. Cookie pudding if you will).

This is the 568th tiramisu we've had in the last few weeks after a spate of new Italian openings, and this one is going for a podium finish. There's a sleep-affecting espresso kick going up against that creamy mascarpone sauce, properly dripping sponge, and enough cocoa on top to bring the bitter to all that sweet. You won't need a post-dinner coffee on the side.

What about drinks?

The drinks are where things fall down for us - my Kingdom for a non-flat spritz! Everywhere we've been recently bar Fuoco has served us a spritz bereft of bubbles. Is there a particularly bad, non fizzy frizzante messing it up for all of us? Last night's wine? We'd love to know what's causing this fizz-free epidemic.

Wines won't have anyone's heart racing either, with a lot of them from O'Brien's next door. The selection is pedestrian but will satisfy basic tastes - sadly ours are not basic. A Nero D'Avola BTG with the pizza did not show the juicy Italian grape at its best, but we're very, very picky.

How was the service?

Very pleasant, and we never had to wave anyone down for service. Water was refilled once empty, plates were cleared once finished, and drinks were offered when glasses were looking dry.

What will it cost us?

If you go all in on a small plate, pizza, side, dessert and a couple of drinks each you'll want to budget around €70pp before tip (and should bring indigestion tablets with you). If you share a couple of small plates, a pizza, a side, a dessert and a bottle of house wine, it'll be more like €50pp. For our hard earned euros that feels like brilliant value for money.

What's the verdict on Goat's Gruff?

Those goats have a neighbourhood smash on their hands, and we can't see the frenetic demand dropping any time soon. Plan accordingly, don't expect a walk in, and ideally you'll bring enough people to try it all. Is this the start of a new and improved food scene in Dublin 15?