Waterford: A cliff-top challenge
The dining room at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore has stunning views over the bay of the seaside resort.
Ireland’s south east is better served than nearly any region outside of the Pale for pomposo dining. There are a good number of ambitious and imaginative chefs vying for your special-occasion budget so, as Mrs T so icily put it, the competition sets the standard.
Right at the epicentre of that siren cachophony stands The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore. Revered head chef, Martijn Kajuiter’s restaurant is set in a newish, almost Bauhaus, perched on a cliff-top overlooking the sweep of Ardmore Bay. It dominates its setting like one of those massive, concrete gun emplacements today, crumbling into the sands on Normandy beaches. It asserts itself with aplomb and character. Its menus read more like missals than a bill-of-fare shopping list. They touch epicurean erotica and are very grown up. The restaurant strives; it pushes forward with confidence and professional assertiveness, recognising that a quiet chef never got a Michelin star — The Cliff House has one.
So we, DW and I, put on almost our best bib and tucker and we were not in any way disappointed.
I was challenged and ultimately forced to recognise that food that looks more like a plate of Murano glass beads than anything else, can be very real and satisfying. For that pauline moment alone it was worth the journey.
The opening salvo was an amuse bouche beguiling in delicacy and harmony. It was even suggested that we taste them in a particular order.
A beetroot macaroon held together by goats’ cheese, choux pastry stuffed with butternut squash puree and panna cotta of dill and sea vegetable jelly. Really wonderful.
Starters were equally complex and as amusing — good amusing, not weird amusing. DW chose Helvick turbot. To give it its full billing ... fillet, crab cannelloni, garden fennel, sweet pepper, saffron, garden oregano. It tasted magnificently and looked even better. So much so that, after hundreds of restaurant meals together, DW was moved for the first time, to root in her bottomless handbag for her camera.
Mine was described as green asparagus 2012, textures and structures, “Ajo Blanco” gold, scrambled egg, almond, morels. More a minor landscape than a dish, the asparagus sensation was clear, celebrated and prevailed.
Most of the dish was served as a crescent around the edge of the plate, and was visually stunning. That was followed by a second surprise dish — cucumber jelly, apple sorbet and salt foam. Another delight.
Main courses, and great anticipation had been created, followed. I ordered Lismore lamb ... rack, loin, sweet bread, gremolata, white asparagus, broad beans, lamb jus.
It was as good as all of that and then some, but my inner sceptic kicked at the traces, awoken by the idea that anyone might serve me a single lamb chop, albeit accompanied by a small knob of herb-encrusted loin, and call it my dinner. Here two of my worlds collide.
One is very happy to be entertained, to be enthralled even, but the other one wants to be fed as well. Magnificent but more please!
DW was more than happy with her Atlantic halibut, brown shrimp, rock samphire and saffron infusion. The sliver she shared confirmed her judgement.
Desserts were impressive tastes and sights. I choose cheese and crackers with a gorgeous, chilled red dessert wine, Mademoiselle. DW chose peach, and the full billing one more time, textures, honey and milk. More like a clever child’s meccano imaginings than food but with wonderful tastes as well.
The wine was a lovely Lalama Ribeira Sacra — €40.
It would have been wonderful if we had been offered one of the tables with a view of the bay as they became available.
I spent the evening looking at a wall as tables with wonderful vistas emptied. A pity I thought.
None of this diluted the great pleasure of virtuoso cooking though. Great food? Absolutely. Value for money? Yes. An entertainment? Yes. A challenge? Most certainly.
