Fringe-ing is hungry work. A lunchtime show in Bewley’s Café Theatre (alas without the Café services), back to work with a rumbly belly and then off to see the very talented Oisin McKenna’s Grindr: A Love Story. By the encore, we were bleedin’ starvin’, we were!

The Gay suggested KC peaches on Dame Street. Too weak to argue or suggest an alternative, I tagged along. I’d been for lunch the previous week and found the experience a bit confusing. The Gay, however, said the place was one of the Friends of the Fringe, and had some amazing meal deals.

This is the third fixed location for KC Peaches in Dublin (they also have a mobile food truck called the Fat Peach serving ‘manwiches’ aka man sized sandwiches). The fit-out is impressive – industrial ventilation, exposed brick, wooden floors, Tom Dixonesque copper pendant lighting with window seating one side and a rotisserie buffet and service counters on the other side of a long narrow downstairs room. There’s also an upstairs eating area.

We met a friend of The Gay, who had stopped in for a take out dinner, and got chatting in the queue at the counter. He’s been a regular since it opened, but his husband and his waistline aren’t too happy with the creamy sauces on the take-home dishes, so he’ll be knocking the habit on its head soon if there aren’t more healthy options.

As The Gays chatted away I became as confused as I had been on my first visit. There is too much going on. The layout is back to front. You think you should be ordering from the till at the door, but that’s where you collect your drinks. You order hot food further down the counter, and then pay at the till at the back? Or do you? Because if you want a sandwich, and not hot food, you order it at the till at the back of the room, and then go right to the front of the queue again to collect your coffee, if you’re having coffee. Seriously, the place needs a host to guide people through the menu options and the ordering mechanism. We just tagged along behind The Gay’s friend and helped ourselves from the buffet.

The dishes weren’t labeled so we choose from what looked like Creamy Carbonara, Chicken Stir Fry, Beef Bourguignon, Chicken Pie, some sort of fish dish, roasted root veggies and potato gratin. The food didn’t look entirely appetising under the harsh lights of the Bain Marie, but we enjoyed the challenge of helping ourselves and piling our plates high with a selection of tasting dishes (not to be confused with Cleaver East’s tasting plates, right Lucinda?).

There were plenty of salads to choose form – couscous, green salads, tabbouleh.  We reached the till, showed our Fringe tickets and got 10 percent off the bill.

The food was a lot tastier than it looked. I had the creamy chicken pie, potato gratin, roasted root veggies and green salad. The piecrust was crispy and although creamy, the filling certainly wasn’t stodgy and was surprisingly full of flavor. The gratin was decadent and calorific, but divine.

The Gay, horrified by the thought of middle-age spread now that he’s over 30 (I’m going to get beaten for that comment), had a selection of cous cous, green salad and chicken stir fry.
Not exactly a gourmand evening out, but for €18 euro each we were certainly two satisfied, full, Fringe-goers.

Upon further investigation after the fact it appears there is a delicious boards and platters menu (upstairs) with roast pork shoulder, rotisserie chicken, meats, cheeses and antipasti – and until the owners sort a wine license you can bring your own bottle with no corkage fee. A third, hopefully less confusing visit is required!

KC Peaches, Dame Street, Pearse Street and Nassau Street, Dublin 2, www.kcpeaches.com