Okay, so we could point your summer travels in certain sure fire directions as you head off on holidays – don't miss KAI in Galway which is excelling itself each and every day; don't miss Vasco in Fanore which is an archetype of the true WAW experience; don't miss Harry's Bar in Bridgend where chef Derek Creagh is offering incredible food at incredible prices; don't miss 1826 in Adare where Wade Murphy is on top form; don't miss Deasy's in Ring, just outside Clonakity where Caitlin Ruth and her team will blow you away; don't miss the chowder and the fried fish in The Long Dock in Carrigaholt as you tour Loop Head; don't miss the sublime Black Pig as you happily wander around lovely Kinsale. We could list many more sure fire food places for any food focussed itinerary.
But, of course, what you really want to know is: who are the emerging talents and new ventures that are going to be the most talked about figures of 2014? Who are the really hot, hot people working in the happening rooms this summer? Well, here they are: The Hot 10 places for Summer 2014.
Kevin Murphy
Mr Murphy has moved from Ballydavid into Dingle town, but out in Ballydavid he was already doing wonderful things over the last couple of years – we received an almost breathless report from Aoife Cox of the McKennas Guides after her visit, raving in particular about Mr Murphy's signature dish of crabbouleh, but also about a style of cooking that was “delicate and refined”. Delicate and refined it is, but also focused and grounded, and several of the menu dishes are already signatures: monkfish cheeks with cauliflower tempura and purée; poached lobster tail with crisp pork belly, broad bean hash; buttered hake fillets with crabbouleh; slow-braised and charred Jacob's Ladder with horseradish mash. As befits a guy who trained as an artist, the food is painterly picture perfect on the plate, and the room is quite lovely.
IDAS, Dingle, Co Kerry IDAS is on Facebook
Katie Sanderson
If you measured the column inches and online traffic devoted to Dillisk before Katie Sanderson even put a plate down in front of someone, you would conclude that here is someone with a mighty cult reputation, who gets attention and respect even before the stoves are lit. You'd be right, and Ms Sanderson's pop-up, Dillisk, where she will be cooking alongside Jasper O'Connor in a converted boat shed close to Cleggan, has already gathered several sold-out evenings before they have brought in all their foraged gear. Expect to be seated beside every Dubliner who owns a second home in Clifden and Roundstone.
Dillisk, Aughresbeg, Cleggan, Connemara, Co Galway dillisk.com
Matt Strefford
Matt Strefford's cooking is mature and unshowy. He is a discreet cook, so the dishes don't shout at you. Instead, from the taste of truffled cauliflower velouté to a piece of Catalan orange cake with vanilla ice cream, this is a cuisine of whispers, of flavours that have been tweaked until they are perfect, pitch perfect, and in complete alliance on the plate. Moy House itself is rockin' under the genial charge of Sinead Foyle, and you can hardly eat better on the WAW. Don't miss the vegetables.
Moy House, Lahinch, Co Clare moyhouse.com
Myles Lamberth
Jane and Myles Lamberth's story reads like a life well lived. Dubliner Jane and South African Myles meet while both working in the famous Headland Hotel in Cornwall and clicked over a mutual love of surfing. It was surfing that drew them to Strandhill, also the welcoming outdoorsy entrepreneurial community. When a local landlord showed them a neglected greasy spoon premises on the seafront they twisted his arm to take over the building immediately, and they opened their Shells Café just ten days later. Myles leads the kitchen, taking influences from around the world and melding them together. Blackboard specials supplement a menu which includes breakfasts, salads, burgers, sandwiches, big plates, light bites, speciality teas and desserts. Over the last four years they have become the star of the county, so don't miss this hot destination, and don't miss their adorable shop.
Shell's Café, Strandhill, County Sligo shellscafe.com
Michelle O' Mahony and Gavin Moore
The paint is still wet on Monk's Lane, but Gavin and Michelle have shown savvy from the outset thanks to smart sourcing of key ingredients – this is where you come to for that perfect cup of coffee! – and their quiet aesthetic sense is beautifully expressed in the room, and in the classy wines, craft beers and good foods. Monk's lane is your Timoleague stop on the Wild Atlantic Way .
Monks Lane, Timoleague Monks Lane is on Facebook
Bernadette O’Shea
It's not grandstanding to say that Bernadette O'Shea is a legendary figure in Ireland's food firmament. Almost twenty years after her iconic Sligo restaurant, Truffles, closed its doors, and people still talk of how the pizzas they ate there were the greatest pizzas they ever ate in their life. Well, Ms O'Shea is back, in a sparkling new space on the main street of little Dromahair. Luna has pizzas – the California Classic, the Fennel Sausage; the Artichoke Cream and so on – but it also has Ms O'Shea's twist on chicken wings, roast duck with balsamic sweet potatoes; baba ghanoush; frozen zabaglione and a whole lot more. Great room, great art, and expect to have a half dozen chefs sharing the room with you.
Luna, Dromahair Luna is on Facebook
Susan Holland
No one puts food on a plate like Sue Holland. When she and Ian Parr ran The Customs House in Baltimore, West Cork, they were as cult as cult can be. The reason was the simple but definitive cooking Ms Holland brought forth, almost all of it fish and shellfish – ceviche of brill with coconut milk; monkfish with polenta; red mullet with socca pancakes and tapenade; sole meuniere. The funny thing was that you could have that ceviche with shaved fennel and and red onion one night, then go back the next night and order it again and... it would somehow be completely different. Ms Holland had changed the focus, sharpened her aperture, shifted the emphasis. Few cooks can do that. Very few cooks can do that. Sue and Ian are cooking in the Mews in Baltimore for just one year, before they return to their base in France. Catch them between now and October.
The Mews, Baltimore + 353 28 20818
Andy Rea
Restaurants don't often cross the border in Ireland, so Andy Rea's Dublin incarnation of Belfast's Mourne Seafood Bar is a novel and brave step. Mr Rea isn't well known down south, but Belfast food lovers know him as one of the great northern chefs, heir to the line of Rankin, Price, Deane, Millar and McKenna. To a smart room in the Millenium Tower Mr Rea brings his quiet charm, and a powerful culinary authority. Best of all, he brings that unique and understated Belfast culinary and hospitality confidence to Dubs – it's worth noting that Cathy Cleary in The Irish Times admitted that “They had me at hello”. The Mourne will also have you at goodbye, and you'll be back sooner than you thought possible.
Mourne Seafood Bar, Dublin mournseafood.com
Gautham Iyer
Iyer's could not be simpler. There are about seven tables in a little room with a counter on Pope's Quay on the north side of the River Lee in Cork city. The music is a funky mash up of wonderful Indian melodies. The place is super-cool, without trying to be anything at all. The food is southern Indian vegetarian cooking, the food of Gautham Iyer's birth place, Tamil Nadu. Born into the Brahmin class, he cooks according to Ayurvedic principles, laid down millennia ago in the Vedic texts. Unless you have been to southern India and befriended some Brahmins, you won't have eaten cooking like this. The beauty of the cooking lies in its subtlety: the way the chickpea chole has been cooked with sour mango; the rice flour and black gram flour used to make the fermented dosas, which are served with a fresh coconut chutney and a tomato chutney; the cabbage and pea poirya, the sambar and the rasas with a Thali plate, the dry lightness of the poppadoms, the sweet shock of the mango lassi. There is no other food in Ireland like Iyer's.
Iyer's, Cork city Iyer's is on Facebook
Kevin Pyke
You need to discover the food cart from heaven on your summer travels, and here it is. In the shadow of the Foyle bridge, Kevion Pyke takes street food, sends it out from his British Leyland cart at the river's edge, and sends it into the stratosphere. Other food cart operations will be debuting soon who will be keen to show that they can be as creative as Mr Pyke, but right now his Pyke 'n' Pommes food cart is The One. So, one Codfather, one Notorious P.I.G, one Legenderry Burger, happiness all round.
Pyke 'n' Pommes, Derry Pyke 'n' Pomes is on Facebook
