Circa

There is lovely, lovely cooking being created in Circa. Ross Duffy and his team, led by head chef Darryl Haynes, enjoy the challenge of challenging ingredients – octopus; ray wing; goat meat; nettles; the modern tabula rasa that is celeriac – and they bring to the ingredients a questing and searching style, drawing out the affinities between carrots and nettles; or octopus with morcilla, or foie gras with prunes, in fluent and convincing style. The team have also focused their service in recent times, so weekend brunch service has been replaced with a Sunday lunch offer, allowing the chefs the time and head space to develop their core offer. The result is cooking that punches way above any conventional idea of neighborhood eating: Circa food is elegant and intriguing, modern but singular, different in a delightful and delighting way. Value for money for such fine cooking is quite exceptional, so the good people of Terenure are very lucky people indeed. The garden room is a charmer, and Circa is powering ahead.