Mayo's Andarl Farm A Star
Radisson's Brasserie Features Irish Produce
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| Andarl Farm. Masterfully executed dish. |
With many restaurants, mainly because of staffing difficulties, choosing not to open on Mondays and Tuesdays, its becomes more difficult to find meal on those days. The solution, for us, on a recent Tuesday, was the nearby Radisson and its Brasserie. The sun was shining as we arrived and the car temperature (it had been parked facing the sun, was some 27 degrees!.
Indoors, in the large Brasserie, it was much cooler; they had doors and windows open. It was on the cusp of a menu change when we arrived. We worked off the lunch menu; had we waited 20 minutes longer, we would have had the dinner menu in front of us. Perhaps because of the changeover time, service was a little slow, nothing serious though and it was well up to standard when extra staff arrived as dinner-time approached. All by the way were friendly, helpful and efficient.
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| Another ace dish, this time the chicken shines in a superb sauce. |
I had already checked the menu online and had put my eye on a dish featuring the produce by Andarl Farm, the Castlebar home of Velvet Pork that has been making a name for itself in restaurants around the country. There was a fairly similar dish on the evening menu.
Anyhow, I ordered the Roast Bacon Cutlet (Andarl Farm pork, Sautéed greens, spiced carrot Grain mustard reduction, all on cream potato). And I did hit the jackpot! Right on the money with amazing flavours and texture, superbly executed and very neatly presented indeed. Nothing redundant here, all the elements, including the mustard and veg, played a role and all that was left was a very clean bone! Well priced too, I thought, at €15.50.
Chicken Supreme and Braised Thigh Chasseur (19.50) was CL’s dish. It was served with plum tomatoes (some puréed, some whole), forest mushrooms, silver skins onions, Tarragon cream and creamed potato. Quite a plateful! More or less half a chicken, good quality and lifted by that gorgeous sauce, the only downside being that the two whole baby carrots could have done with a fraction longer in the pot.
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| Moretti. Not bad at all. Would have preferred a local craft beer. |
They have a nice selection of sides including Salad, Creamed potatoes, Skinny skin on chips, Roast root vegetables, and Cheesy garlic bread. We did share a tub of the chips and they were just perfect.
Aside from Andarl Farm, they do support quite a few Irish producers including Ardsallagh, Hegarty’s, Mozzarella from West Cork, Gilligan Farm beef, West Cork beer (in their batter), Loughnane’s of Galway, and their cheese board is a selection from West Cork. They say: All our beef, chicken and pork is of Irish origin unless stated otherwise.”
The Drinks List features a terrific selection of local gins: Beara, Bertha’s Revenge, Cork Dry, Method & Madness, Mike, Kinsale and Míl. So I was hopeful that they’d have an Irish craft beer especially when I saw two by Franciscan Well listed. But they didn’t have either of those and that was it.
Studied the list a bit further and I eventually settled on a bottle of Peroni (which I’ve seen praised by one of the top American beer writers recently). So my server went and came back, again empty-handed. No Peroni! At least, I knew now that they had Moretti as CL had one in front of her! So I settled for that well known Italian beer. They’ve been making it since 1859 so they must know a thing or two about it. And I was indeed well pleased with it, its flavour and refreshing qualities, especially on such a lovely warm evening!
Really well pleased overall with the comfort of the place, the friendliness of the staff and the quality of the food.
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