Overall, great experience. My wife and I are not very experienced in fine dining, but thought the food and service were top notch. All of their produce, meat, drinks, etc. are local to west ireland, and they gave us a list of suppliers at the end of the meal.
Snacks, served two at a time:
1/2 – lobster pastry bites with roe and a seaweed broth with sea spaghetti
3/4 – Chicken liver parfait on a macaron and a crab tart
All very good little bites, the chicken liver macaron was especially a standout
5 – Bread and butter – really great, the bread was hefty enough you couldn’t eat it too fast and it lasted easily through the next few courses, the butter had some great flavor and texture
6 – oyster over an oyster emulsion, with local seeds – one of the best courses, but we’re biased and already both love oysters. Not complicated, but delicious
7 – custard flavored with spider crab – a miss for me, but my wife loved it. Heavy on the crab flavor, the texture was lovely light and creamy, but just too heavy and rich for my taste
8 – whipped cheese curd with leeks and asparagus – served as somewhat of a palate cleanser and break from all the fish, I loved this. It definitely needed the texture and flavor from the tuile, it surprisingly really enhanced the dish
9 – potato and nettle mousse, with a king oyster mushroom ragout beneath, and served with potato bread brushed with beef fat – good; none of the flavors were very pronounced or in your face, but it came together nicely. Something I would eat regularly if I could
10 – beef tartare with radish and truffle – great flavor on the meat, accompanied well. I personally would have loved a course with some more tang or acid by this point, I was feeling like every dish was heavy and earthy
11 – eel and sour cream-filled savory rosette – the crunch was quite nice, and the filling deliciously balanced
12 – poached cod with turnips and truffles – my wife’s favorite course. I honestly liked the turnips more than the cod, and the truffles got lost in the mix
13 – oyster ice cream with sea lettuce powder – yep, oyster ice cream. No sweetness, it was exactly like what you expect ice cream made from an oyster to be. Both of us were fascinated, neither of us really liked it
14 – venison, venison leg wrapped in bacon, Maitake mushroom, Jerusalem artichoke puree – the main course, and my favorite for sure, the venison in both forms was sublime
15 – cheddar cheese puff – it was fine, everyone liked cheese, a little oddly placed in the meal maybe, and honestly mostly forgettable
16 – lemon verbena sorbet – absolutely fantastic; sweet, tangy, herbal. Could have eaten a tub of it
17 – elderflower mousse and strawberry gel mille-fuille – good, the strawberry was great, the elderflower could have used some more identifying flavor
18-22 – a ‘puzzle box’ of small desserts. All great bites, none particularly better or worse than the others
Drink pairing:
We did the Irish drink pairing, which consisted of six pours: a cider, a Riesling, a mead, a raspberry wine, a rosco (native? Irish grape), and an apple ice wine. All were great, I thought, but I especially loved the mead
by nukemecatol
1 Comment
Looks great. I’ll back in Galway this summer, and am debating making a reservation.