Located along the harbour in Skerries The Brick House is a tapas bar and restaurant with stunning views of the harbour. I recently seen it advertised on GrabOne with an offer of four tapas and two glasses of wine for €19. Seeing as I live in the town I figured it was the perfect excuse to try it out.
The restaurant is split over two floors of what was once a residential building. Downstairs there is a small bar to the left as you walk in and to the right is an bright open dining space. There is also an open fire which I can only imagine is the perfect place to sit on a cold day looking out to the sea. As it turned out it was a fairly mild day when I visited but they had the fire roaring anyway. Upstairs is split into three sections. A large dining space to the front by the windows and two smaller sections either side of the stairs towards the back.
Downstairs with Open Fire
Bar Area Downstairs
Myself and himself were promptly seated by a friendly waitress at a table by the window. To be honest I don’t know a lot about tapas (despite owning a still in its wrapper tapas cookbook for about 3 years) but I do know they are of Spanish origin. You can find out a bit more about tapas here. The tapas menu was quite extensive and dishes ranged from €4 for the simplest such as Sundried Tomatoes up to €11 for Pil Pil Prawns.
We ordered four of the dishes to share. The Pil Pil Prawns, Steak Bites with Pepper Sauce, Chips N’ Dips ( Jalapeno, Ranchero, Tomato Salsa and Cheese Sauce) and Spicy Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dip. Although the voucher didn’t specify it, it turned out that some of the dishes had a supplement charge on them. Typically it included two of the dishes I chose. A supplement of €1 on the Steak Bites and €3 on The Pil Pil Prawns. We also went for a side order of bread with garlic mayo and a glass of house white (sav blanc) and house red (merlot).
The bread was light and tasty and obviously freshly baked and the accompanying dip was probably one of the best garlic mayos I ever tried.
Bread with Garlic Mayo
I wasn’t sure what to expect with the Chips N’ Dips being a tapas novice but it was of course Tortilla chips with dips and a sizeable portion at that too.
Chips ‘n’ Dips
The Steak Bites were tender and cooked to a light pink. The pepper sauce however which came with it lacked flavour and was actually quite bland. The portion size again was quite good.
Steak Bites
The Pil Pil Prawns were served with garlic and chili and cooked to perfection.
Pil Pil Prawns
The Spicy Chicken Wings were heavy on a taste of vinegar but light on the taste of spice. They were the only disappointment of the meal.
Chicken Wings
The two inclusive glasses of wine washed everything down nicely. The white crisp and fruity and the red smooth and full bodied. Including the supplements on two dishes and the cost of the voucher the overall bill came to €24 which to my mind was great value.
On a sunny day this is one great spot!
The Brick House 24 Harbour Road Skerries Ph: (01) 849 4122 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brick-House/190839821090360?fref=ts