A touch of Irish hospitality

With 5 restaurants to juggle, he's a man on the move

By Sheryl Julian , September 28, 2006

The Blarney Stone, a fixture on Dot Ave., is one of those places that’s so genuinely welcoming, you find yourself wondering: Can they be real?

They are. It continues at the table, where the waitstaff is attentive but doesn’t interrupt conversation, and the folks all around seem to be having a fine time — at least if you measure enjoyment by the amount of laughter they’re generating.

This establishment is owned by Michael Conlon, who runs several places as the Eat Drink Laugh Restaurant Group. He took over from his father, Irish-born Michael Conlon. So Blarney has been going strong for three decades. The younger Conlon turned the menu into modern American fare, and it boasts all the items you would expect — quesadillas and nachos on the appetizer menu at dinner, steak and mashed for entrees, warm chocolate cake for dessert.

It’s the Irish hospitality at the Blarney Stone that makes it so friendly. Alas, the food does not soar on every plate, but that hardly matters here. What you get is a neighborhood restaurant frequented by a diverse crowd and a place that feels so comfortable, you wish you had this spot on your own block.

Bulgarian-born chef Todor Buhov, who was a sous chef at Aquitaine in Boston and sous at Woodland Golf Club in Newton, has been running the kitchen since March. His mini cheeseburgers, stuffed with Russian dressing and pickles, come four to the order ($8), and they’re superb. They’re topped with the thinnest, crispest fried onion strings.

The guy knows his way around a deep-fryer. His fish and chips ($12), made with a large piece of haddock dipped into a cornmeal beer batter, is the best version of the dish I’ve had in years. It rivals Matt Murphy’s Pub when Murphy himself was at the stove. The single piece of fish, says manager Ben Dinneen, is pretty much the way it’s served in Ireland. Fries, a good creamy slaw, and a homemade tartar sauce are the accompaniments.

Buhov’s fried calamari appetizer ($9) has a homemade quality, quite unlike the overbreaded squid you usually get; the garlic-lemon aioli is just right.

But a flank steak ($15), delightfully chewy as expected, and sitting on a sea of mashed potatoes that’s so large it’s off-putting, has no beefy flavor. And if the diver scallops ($10 for a half order, which is plenty for one average appetite) were cooked half a minute less, they would have been even more splendid on their bed of corn and mushroom risotto.

Crab cake in a sandwich with a spicy avocado sauce ($10) is such a large, thick compact cake that the person who ordered it half expected to see the NFL logo on the top. Shrimp salad ($12) boasted woefully overdone shrimp and an overdressed salad. And there was very little lobster taste in the lobster ravioli ($10 for a half order).

But a Key lime pie ($7) made up for everything else. It wasn’t flashy or too adorned. Just smooth and limey and slightly homely — in a good way — and obviously made in this kitchen. The waitress seemed genuinely pleased that we liked it.

The Blarney Stone is that sort of place.

Blarney Stone 1509 Dorchester St., Dorchester. 617-436-8223