Restaurant review: Mulcahy’s Restaurant, Kenmare, Co Kerry
Such a decision began an adventure in controlled, safe exotica, strange colours and smells and little green things that Mrs Cadogan would never have allowed in her kitchen at Shreelane House— even if Major Yeates had enjoyed them on an visit to the Nizam of Hyderabad during his army days.
It was like crossing a Rubicon leaving the comforts of spuds-with-everything, and an extra chop if the mood struck, for Unknown Foreign Things.
Of course we have become so foodie sophisticated that such a recollection would cause us to look away, denying our pretty recent past even before the cock crows its last on the way to the stock pot. Like cycling it’s kosher if it’s a lifestyle choice but look-away embarrassing if it’s an economic necessity.
Vegetarian restaurants may have been a reality but like space travel they were only for the curious and committed. How wonderful it is that things have changed so very much and so very much for the better.
The other side of that coin may not be as appealing though. A vegetarian visiting a restaurant, even a good one, is not always assured of a welcome. Concessions, if that word does not suggest the wrong frame of mind, can be begrudging and the experience far less pleasant than the bill might suggest.
Even the most accommodating house will offer to do little more than rustle up something pretty stopgap, more often than not a risotto. Mushroom risotto.
In those sated days after Christmas, those days that are little more than ambulant hibernation, DW and I, and an old friend NC, visited Mulcahy’s in Kenmare. NC is a lifelong vegetarian, tough-minded and quietly committed — she would need to be.
The menu, and it was like most in any decent Irish restaurant, offered just one vegetarian option out of 14 listed. Even the pretty, wake-up-the-taste-buds amuse-bouche was off limits. This may reflect ’ expectations but it is hard not to think that a few more vegetarian options would not make any restaurant more attractive to a wider range of people, a growing number of people too.
It must be acknowledged that when asked for a vegetarian main course the waiter could not have been more helpful and NC, though with more resignation than enthusiasm I suspect, accepted the offer — you got it — of mushroom risotto.
DW began with what looked and smelt a lovely dish of cannelloni, prawn, salmon and lobster, bisque and Parmesan. Rich and soothing, layered and lovely it seemed something close to splendid.
NC chose, if that is the right word again, warm goat’s cheese, nut crust, confit tomato, candied beetroot with apple balsamic and expressed herself thoroughly satisfied. My choice was influenced by post-Christmas seams screaming for mercy — a simple prawn cocktail and it was exactly as it might be, straightforward sweet and crunchy.
For her main course DW chose scallops with textures (honestly) of cauliflower, caper and raisin dressing.
They were smartly and cooked almost crispy but meltingly sweet on the inside. Very good. NC’s mushroom risotto was, I am assured, substantial, and far better than many of the off-the-cuff compromises offered elsewhere.
I had roast halibut, mussel, bacon and clam cream. It was beautifully cooked and the mussel, bacon and clam cream mixture was a really lovely addition. It was a pity though that the pleasure was undermined by the parsimony of the portion, it was little more than the size of a deck of cards.
The red cabbage, hardly a natural bedfellow for any of the dishes on the table, served as a side dish, and did not add to the gaiety of the occasion either. The desserts were wonderful, sharp and sweet but, like the halibut, more than a shade on the shy portion side.
Like many restaurants Mulcahy’s closes its doors for a few weeks at this time of the year and when they reopen they will be in a different premises so you may have to wait a few weeks before visiting but if the standard of cooking is maintained then the wait will be well worth it — especially if the portions recognise that I may not be the only broth of a boy in the south of Ireland.
Dinner for three, with a lovely amuse-bouche each and petits fours, wine (€35.00) and an Irish coffee came to €179.50, tip extra.
Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Wine: 7/10
Closed until mid-February when restaurant will reopen in a a new Main Street premises.
Kenmare, Co Kerry
064 6642383, 087 2364449
