Cost: \u20ac\u20ac\u20ac<\/p>\n
I was in the Loire Valley recently (one of France\u2019s<\/a> finest wine<\/a> regions), travelling along the river from Nantes to Blois. Apart from exploring the many ch\u00e2teaux, wineries and caves, I was on the hunt for good restaurants. Star Wine List, a global online guide to wine-focused restaurants, turned out to be the perfect place to start, a task that was promptly delegated to Steve, my chauffeur and navigator for this trip.<\/p>\n It recommended Popote & Pompette, in Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay, run by a highly regarded chef who is seriously into wine. Open for lunch only, it offered three courses for \u20ac22, which included a delicious terrine, veal Orloff with baby vegetables and a well-chosen cheese board. The wine list was equally impressive, featuring organic, biodynamic and low-intervention wines.<\/p>\n We are unlikely to get classic bistro food with great wine for anything like those prices over here, but despite rising costs across the hospitality industry, there are some restaurants that still offer good value.<\/p>\n Piglet Wine Bar in Temple Bar, which I would put in this category, is also listed on Star Wine List. It is relevant because Thomas Loisel, the chef who worked there from day one alongside owners Thibaud Harang and Enrico Fantasia, has now moved on and opened T\u00e1bla in the Mount Merrion premises formerly occupied by Little Mike\u2019s, and more recently, Esther\u2019s. The restaurant is jointly owned with well-known sommelier and front-of-house manager Tanguy Gros Daillon, whom Loisel met when he was working in Piglet in 2019.<\/p>\n Little has changed physically since Esther\u2019s incarnation, beyond signage, fresh paint and a few new pictures. We pass the terrace on a sunny evening, heading in past high stools by the window and around the open kitchen to a dark blue room at the side.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a French-focused menu, with five snacks, five starters and five main courses, each course having an appeal. We share Burgundy snails (\u20ac9.50) from the snacks menu which come bathed in a ramekin of parsley- and lemon-rich ma\u00eetre d\u2019h\u00f4tel butter, with toasted bread soldiers to mop up all the delicious sauce.<\/p>\n From the small plates, the country terrine (\u20ac15) is everything you would want, a true test of a restaurant. With a confidently loose texture (not too compressed), it has a deliciously meaty flavour from a forcemeat of pork, chicken liver, c\u00e8pes, lovage and a splash of booze. It\u2019s served with sourdough, while the pickles on the side include carrots, enoki mushrooms, baby cornichons and onions. It\u2019s exactly as you would get in the Loire; the kind of honest, unpretentious cooking that would have delighted Ernie Whalley, Ireland\u2019s highly regarded restaurant critic, who died recently.<\/p>\n The crab salad (\u20ac15) is let down a tad by the fact that it\u2019s not freshly picked, although that is increasingly rare to find these days, and the substantial pile of haricot beans beneath it means I\u2019m unlikely to miss my five-a-day target for once.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, the wine list is worth investigating. This reasonably priced one-pager focuses on organic and low-intervention producers with bottles from the likes of Luis Seabra, Rafael Palacios and Jean Foillard. A bottle of Weingut Steininger Gr\u00fcner Veltliner 2024 (\u20ac44), pairs beautifully with the dishes we order.<\/p>\n Turbot (\u20ac42) is a premium fish that appears less frequently on menus, and the promise of it being served with lemon and butter sauce, new potatoes and asparagus makes the decision an easy one. Often, when a kitchen gets hold of a large fish like this, the temptation is to be precious about it, but here, it is cooked simply, with a golden crust from the pan bringing a richness to the buttery sauce and garlicky fried potatoes. <\/p>\n For our other main course, the chicken and forest mushroom fricass\u00e9e (\u20ac29) is mixed with orzo in a delicious mushroom sauce, its clean flavours supported by plenty of butter without becoming too rich.<\/p>\n Our neighbour, who we\u2019ve had quite the chat with at this stage, offers us a taste of the chocolate mousse, which she highly recommends, but it\u2019s an enormous bowl, and we opt instead for the strawberry tart (\u20ac9). It too is substantial, although I find the pastry and pastry cream a touch too sweet, overshadowing some of the strawberries\u2019 natural flavour.<\/p>\n T\u00e1bla feels like a true neighbourhood restaurant. What Loisel and Daillon have brought to Mount Merrion is a confident taste of France, a clever wine list and a sense that a restaurant should be at the heart of its community.<\/p>\n Dinner for two with a bottle of wine was \u20ac163.<\/p>\n The verdict: French bistro classics in a neighbourhood restaurant.<\/p>\n Food provenance: Glenmar Seafood, Ennis Butchers, Foxbrook free-range eggs, Keelings fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n Vegetarian options: Egg mayonnaise, white asparagus and gribiche sauce, and orzo with peas and asparagus.<\/p>\n Wheelchair access: No accessible room or toilet.<\/p>\n Music: Brigitte Bardot and Nu Genea.<\/p>\n![\"Honza](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GYJDMRGKD5EQ3DHOG4FPTFXVIU.jpg\")
Honza Margold preparing the Sunday roast. Photograph: Bryan Meade ![\"Honza](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/U56OXRMKZ5B4DG4K7C5BJAP2XU.jpg\")
Honza Margold and Thomas Loisel preparing the Sunday roast. Photograph: Bryan Meade ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/S3T35CM4RBCMVNG3UT5GEIN27U.jpg\")
The Sunday roast at T\u00e1bla. Photograph: Bryan Meade <\/p>\n![\"Tábla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/JMR7Y3H3PJA6BBIFMCPULW7BU4.jpg\")
T\u00e1bla restaurant, Deerpark Road, Mount Merrion. Photograph: Bryan Meade ![\"Tábla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781763971_218_UQWP7EDAXJHIBGOYJMADK7R2DM.jpg\")
T\u00e1bla restaurant, Deerpark Road, Mount Merrion. Photograph: Bryan Meade <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La T\u00e1bla \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 Address: 63 Deerpark Road, Mount Merrion, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, A94 PN23…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[177,42,709,29934,43,5861,5863,40,38,41,39,17328],"class_list":["post-505598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-blackrock","tag-headlines","tag-magazine","tag-mount-merrion","tag-news","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurant-reviews","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}