We’ve been frequenting Chez Max, this petite french bistro off Dame Street, for quite some time now. Years in fact, possibly almost as long as it has been open. We like it for a few reasons. It is authentic in all the ways that matter. The food is french, the owner is french, the atmosphere is french and above all they treat you with an emotional distance that is peculiarly french.

Chez Max is owned, rather obviously now that we think about it, by Max, an ex-property man who decided to emigrate to Ireland. He has the laissez faire attitude to his customers that most french restrauteurs do, well in France anyway (but not in Gilbaud’s). This can be a downside in that he won’t hover over you, ask you how you like his restaurant, offer a glass of wine on the house. In fact he studiously ignores you most of the time, if he is busy. This is ironically comforting. You sense that he is doing what he should be doing to keep this piece of France profitable: talking to the waitresses, to the kitchen, to his suppliers, to his wife, perhaps even to a myriad of other women that french men routinely flirt with. He’s just not talking to you. If he was Irish you would run a mile, affronted by the lack of contact, but when you reach Chez Max you are in France and that is what is so disarmingly good about it.

Prices are average, you will get out with dinner for two with a bottle of wine for perhaps 70 or 80 euro. They have a lunch special for around 10 euro each day and the tartines, that is baguette smothered in Reblochon and potatoes is around 8 euro. The food is exceptional at times, good in spots, average in others and you are never sure where it will land. Overall it is authentically middle-of-the-road: good cheap ingredients cooked well if sometimes a little too much, with generous portions and the menu has all the old bistro favourites including moules et frites, steak et frites, cassoulet, soupe a l’oignon, charcuterie and fromage platters and even andouille, that genuinely disgusting, mouth curling speciality of a sausage made from the innards of a pig. You see Max is brave enough to be himself, both in personality and in serving the true food of his homeland. He doesn’t care that you may not like the smell of a pig’s gastrointenstinal contents convoluting the flavours on the platter of meat - that is french food and if you don’t want it, you can ask not to have it.

thedublingobbler has recommended this restaurant to printers, wine sellers, businessmen, women friends who have run out of places to go. Without exception, all have returned, some travelling great distances to do so. It is now booked out (we are told by a disappointed friend) for five Saturday’s in advance. If you go, call ahead and if the sun is threatening to shine, ask for a gingham covered table in the yard at the back where you can sit as the sun fades into darkness and have your last glass of wine by candlelight. Just don’t expect anyone to engage you in friendly conversation or even try to practice your holiday french. House wines are good, they come by the glass or the bottle though the rule of thumb applies – don’t pick the cheapest or dearest wine, choose the one in the middle. Better still, if Max appears, it is highly acceptable to ask him to recommend a wine for you!

Chez Max, next to Dublin Castle, Dublin 2 (opposite the Olympia Theatre) – Telephone: 01 633 7215

http://www.chezmax.ie