As if you ever needed an excuse to visit beautiful Ballyfin Demesne in Co Laois, this year you have an extra helping, thanks to the awarding of its tasty new Michelin Star, its first.
The hotel joins a growing list of stellar eateries on the island including, in the capital, long-standing one-star awardees such as Bastible, and two-star holders Patrick Guilbaud, Chapter One, and Liath in Blackrock. Spoiled for choice, and well expensed meals.
Alternatively, you could spring for a bit of Michelin magic yourself and fork out for the Michelin Star Experience at The Morrison Room in Carton House, another one-star winner fresh out of the oven.
The win is a terrific achievement for head chef and proud Maynooth man Adam Nevin, who only joined The Morrison Room in September 2023, having returned to Ireland from London.
Nevin started out working in a cafe just down the road, trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School and worked in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel before, in 2018, moving to England to become chef de partie at Tom Kerridge’s two-Michelin-starred pub, The Hand and Flowers. He followed that up with a stint at The Grill at The Dorchester in London, before returning home to Maynooth.
Celebrate his good fortune, and yours, by staying for one night in a deluxe room and enjoy a tasting menu for two in The Morrison Room, plus breakfast for two the next morning, for €720. Better yet, stay two nights for €990 – just the one dinner included, mind you.
Big burger
If a good burger is your kind of gourmet, check out the new lunch specials at Hawksmoor in Dublin city centre. Its cult classic The Big Matt was voted the world’s number one burger back in 2023, when it went viral in New York, and has recently landed this side of the pond.
The €21 burger, dreamed up by Hawksmoor group executive chef Matt Brown – just in case you thought it was a wink at any other burger joint – features two dry-aged beef patties, double American cheese, Hawksmoor special sauce, shredded lettuce, onions and home-made pickles, with beef dripping fries on the side.
It takes pride of place on the lunch menu for at least the next few months, alongside other specials such as its “dictionary thick” 35-day dry aged rump steak and Café de Paris butter, served with beef-dripping fries and a steakhouse salad, for €26; roast hake with woodland mushrooms, creamed potatoes and lemon butter sauce, for €26; or charcoal roasted chicken, with roast garlic, lemon and parsley for €24. There’s a vegan option too, charcoal roasted butternut squash, shiitake and oyster mushrooms with cashew ricotta for just €12.
New Old Town
If you’re in Dublin city centre late the new Old Town Wine Bar at Le Pole Square, the office development and social space tucked away between Chancery Lane and Ship Street Great in Dublin 8, near Dublin Castle, is a handy spot for a catch-up, or a post-work “wine” down.
It has 70-plus wines from around the world – well over half of them available by the glass – served alongside an appetising menu of small plates featuring Dingle Bay crab rolls, confit Skeaghanore duck or braised Hereford beef.
Open from 4pm, Wednesday to Saturday, the wood-panelled wine bar has comfy leather couches and booths, and elegant chairs around marble-topped tables, plus some outdoor seating – with all-important heating, perfect for summer.
All aboard
If you’re heading west for work don’t forget to factor in a stop at the Pullman Restaurant at Glenlo Abbey, just two miles from Galway city.
Featuring two original carriages from the Orient Express, its kitchen is headed up by head chef Angelo Vagiotis, a Greek native who earned his stripes at such prestigious venues as Noma in Denmark and the three-Michelin-starred California restaurant Manresa.
He was also part of the opening team for Vincent Crepel’s Terre in Castlemartyr, Co Cork. His new seven-course tasting menu is priced at €130 per person, from 6pm to 9pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Well worth pulling the cord for.
