Aoife Cox says Barry Liscombe's cooking, in Harte's of Kildare, is on a mighty roll.
So I was explaining to my mother that I was bringing my sister to the Vatican for her dinner.
No, there would be no audience with the Pope, nor flights to Rome, for that matter. It was the simplest way of describing the location, nearby, of Harte’s of Kildare, a premises which, in a former life, was a pub known to locals as the Vatican, because - so I was always told - it had a reputation for intolerance of swearing by its customers. Nowadays, I expect that there’s not much call for swearing amongst the clientele of Harte’s, except to utter the more colourful, Kildare equivalents of damn fine! or bloody good!
I had eaten at Harte’s before, perhaps a year and a half previously or more, and the food, which was very good then, had clearly stepped up a gear. The menu showed impeccable sourcing - Ballyhoura mushrooms here, Goatsbridge trout there and Irish craft beer all over the gaff - and it suggested that you might like to try some of that crafty beer with your main (and you might, sure you might - the pairing possibilities were listed).
The dishes that arrived showed precision in their composition, cooking and presentation - beetroot cured salmon with wasabi, apple, soy, ginger and honey dressing was meltingly good; sweetly syrupy pecans counterpointed the oozy, earthy contents of spring rolls filled with those Ballyhoura mushrooms and Cooleeny Darú cheese; the braised blade of beef was slowly cooked but quickly eaten, surrendering readily to the slightest touch of the knife, fall-apart perfect; the evening's fish special took the honours for best dressed - pieces of trout, hake and others, artfully arranged on crab meat and pea risotto with baby vegetables - fennel, carrot and a sweetly perfect whole white baby turnip. It was an excellent ensemble piece - the fish tasted as fresh as fish should and had perfectly crisped skin, the risotto was done to perfection - and not too much of it either - while the vegetables were properly al dente.
The desserts which followed - an orange creme brûlée with poached fruits and an apple tarte tatin - were, if not reaching the heady heights of some of the earlier courses, competently delivered. The service was warm and the room - which has brought great style to the square in Kildare - had that pleasant buzz of a restaurant full of satisfied Saturday evening diners, thankful, I’d swear, for all they had received, and amen to that.
Market Square, Kildare (045) 533557
Aoife Cox
Read other articles in Megabites...
