The Chart House, Dingle review by John McKenna

Jim McCarthy hasn't had much time to get on his bike during the summer of 2013. For a guy who is a serious cyclist – Jim will see you in Paris in a day or so: you will take the 'plane, but he will take his bike! But what is a guy to do? The Chart House has simply been too busy, too much pressure, so many customers. And it's easy to see why everyone wants to be in this room: it feels good to be here, it's a modest and honest place, welcoming, warm, softly lit, understated. It has an Irish lack of pretention which disarms you. It feels, in fact, almost as if you have been invited into someone's home, rather than made a booking in a professional restaurant where there is a bill at the end of the the evening. Partly this is due to the unobtrusive service, partly to the almost domestic nature of the design, partly to the fact that the cooking is graciously modest, whilst being never other than professionally precise. Scallops, for instance, come with a little curry dressing that suits their natural sweetness. Almost best of all are the vegetables, good Kerry spuds and leaves and fruits that are a joy and a delight: you would come back just to have the potatoes and carrots and parsnips and, above all, to have Jim's stunning wild blackberry ice cream. Charming is a word that doesn't suit many modern places to eat, but the Chart House is pure charm. It will charm the living daylights out of you.