Kenmare is a Darwinian town, when it comes to food.
It evolves, but slowly, and according to its own rules. So, when Bruce Mulcahy decides on a change, he only moves around the corner to the Park Hotel. And his lieutenant, James Coffey, takes up the reins, and Mulcahy's becomes The Wild Garlic, in a fashion not dissimilar to what happened several years ago in Packie's restaurant, just down the street.
This style of evolution breeds consistency, and strength, and the ability to match the high standards that make Kenmare the envy of every other Irish town.
Mr Coffey is cooking food the town would be proud of. His spinach and ricotta ravioli with sage butter has pasta so ethereal that it melts in the mouth, revealing the delicate spinach and ricotta in a Salome-like culinary disrobing on the tongue. He likes to riff on ingredients, so peas come as peas themselves, as a pea purée, and as pea shoots, and with brown shrimps and a lettuce sauce the conjoining of ingredients serves as the sublime canvas for a perfect piece of brill. The fish cooking is pitch perfect – wild salmon with shoreline leaves; lemon sole with tomato brown butter; monkfish with broccoli and pine nut dressing – but the meat dishes are just as deft, and his chicken dish has cute potato dumplings, whilst aged sirloin with fondant potato is a killer Saturday-night special.
A tiramisu for dessert is a 5-star finish, and the service and the ambience are ageless and cultured, revealing strength through evolution.
The Wild Garlic Restaurant, Henry Street, Kenmare Tel: 064-664 2383
