Top of the ratings

IT MAY not be the kind of icy economic indicator that would beguile Standard and Poor’s or Moody’s, but the fact that a Saturday night table at Farmgate is not so easily secured must mean something positive.

It probably means a few things. The people of East Cork know a good thing when they see it, despite everything inflicted on us by rogue bankers and mysterious, jesuitical rating agencies good — or, as in this instance, excellent — restaurants have a far better chance of being busy than dodgy, falling-apart ones.

And most importantly of all — the belief that there’s nothing like a good steak and a rioja with broad shoulders to sweep away the Anglo Ague is still cherished and observed. Farmgate ticks all those boxes, and in a region blessed with more than its fair share of premiership restaurants it does more than enough to consolidate that enviable reputation.