Firstly the setting is superb located within Blackrock Castle with outdoor dining available when weather permits. The indoor restaurant is a little tight and therefore noisy but acceptable during our meal.
We dined as a table of three and all the food was beautifully presented...however it is the service that is worthy of special mention. Service as I have stated many times previously is in my opinion a vital component of any dining experience and is I believe as lasting a memory if not more so than the food. Our server ( who's name I rudely neglected to obtain ) was superb, friendly and attentive yet informal and knowledgably of her menu whilst maintaining professionalism throughout.
As starters we had the beef cheek croquettes, which I though was skilfully cooked and rendered down to a very good texture, however it was for my palate at least, a little over seasoned ( and I like salt ) and chicken liver pate which was a little over set and metallic in flavour.
For mains I ordered the Hake ! I eat a lot of fish and my Hake ( which is a very good middle of the road white fish ) was cooked to perfection. The dish presented as an attractive and balanced plate, with an unusual golden beetroot ingredient, however I thought the dish required the side order of very flavoursome fries, which when added makes the dish a little expensive for Hake.
My partner ordered the Chimmi Curri Beef Salad which was described as flavoursome spicy but not hot !!! Its just as well she ordered it as she likes heat, which the dish most certainly was !
Our companion ordered the steak as blue which he described as adequate, he couldn't really state whether it required more resting or ageing ! the plate looked a little mean and didn't really catch the eye. It looked unfinished and unbalanced with the steak sitting atop a small offering of fried onions and mushrooms. I personally believe a steak plate desperately requires something green like asparagus to add a bit of colour and cut through the heavy set nature of said plate.
The desserts were a chocolate cup, a bread and butter pudding which were adequate and a rhubarb crumble which was far to shallow in the dish to be effective as a crumble and was supplemented by a tiny ineffective offering of ice cream, even though more was requested.
So all in all I would return and believe 4 stars to be the correct rating, our waitress moved the experience from 3 1/2 to 4.More