Allegro Restaurant
Castle Street
Now here’s a real trip down memory lane!
The Allegro, in its previous home on the corner of The Mall and Denny Street, was an essential meeting spot for many who went to secondary school in the 80s and 90s (and possibly before that, I can’t remember).
My earliest memories of the eaterie were, as a first year in CBS The Green, going to the tiny takeaway part where there was a special for students – 30p for a bag of chips!
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And they were great chips too; chunky and homemade, not the frozen type.
Later in life (sixth year) it was a place for coffee and spotting talent in one of the booths there. I’d say many a courtship was started over a coke and a banana split.
As teens turned to 20s, its all-day fry-ups were a saviour on a Saturday morning for many of us who were feeling ‘tired and emotional’ after a night out in Spirals or Horan’s.
But the move to the smaller Castle Street premises at the start of this century signalled the beginning of the end of the students’ relationship with the restaurant.
Two things prompted me to visit the Allegro on Friday: one was the fact that I’ve reviewed almost everywhere in town that serves lunch and the other is my predilection for liver and chips.
It was a pretty quiet Friday when I entered at about 1.30pm, just three other tables occupied at lunchtime.
I sat down and the pleasant waitress handed me the menu. There was an abundance of choice on it; roast chicken, about a zillion types of burger, pizzas, steaks and so on.
But my mind was on offal and I ordered liver, bacon and those great homemade chips (€11.50).
I didn’t have to wait long and my dish arrived, somewhat impressively, with the chips in a small metal bucket on the side. They were delicious, of course, while the bacon was good too.
The liver though, wasn’t as good I remembered from my last visit (about five years ago) or as I’d cook at home, but it was ok nonetheless.
I had to forgo the coffee as I was in a hurry, but it was a nice trip down memory lane.
