Restaurant review: The Salt Yard, Kilkenny
One of Ireland’s truly beautiful spots to visit, Kilkenny has narrow, winding streets by the dozen and we wander in and out as lunchtime approaches.
We walk along Friary Street and standing outside Rafter Dempsey’s pub, we glance across the street, and can’t help but notice a group of people looking nice and warm inside the Salt Yard — a tapas restaurant open less than a year.
Those who know Kilkenny well will be aware that the premises was previously occupied by a financial institution (and before that an ESB retail shop), so it’s good to know money is still being exchanged in return for services that are probably now much more appreciated.
What hits you as soon as you enter is how visually deceptive the restaurant is. From the outside, the Salt Yard looks a bit pokey; inside, it’s open, spacious, and expansive.
The notion of space is enhanced by a centralised bar and a much larger seating area towards the back (with a high vaulted glass roof) that looks into/onto the kitchen.
Factor in large portrait images of distinct Spanish characters, sizeable blackboards emblazoned with all manner of details about the food, wine, and beers, and exposed industrial-size vents and pipes, and you have a type of restaurant that — food aside — blends rustic with retro with futuristic.
It’s a credit to the restaurant designers’ that this melange of styles works, but then one supposes the whole point about tapas is that you can mix and match to your heart and stomach’s content and enjoy the end result.
The Salt Yard’s culinary pitch is, essentially, not to overcomplicate matters. And so it proves with the food, the menu of which is presented in clear-cut fashion.
Taking ingredients sourced and imported directly from Spanish producers and placing them side by side with local produce (including cheese from Macroom, Co Cork; fish from Kilmore Quay, Co Waterford; black and white pudding from Cromane, Co Kerry; meat from Kilkenny’s master butchers, Paddy Kenna and Paddy Mullins; and cider from Highbank Farm, Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny), the food is good and plentiful, although, to be honest, not particularly exceptional.
From the menu we select from under various headings, including Galician-style bread, olives, Pavia de Merluza (fresh hake fried in light beer batter, with alioli and seasonal leaves), mussels in vinaigrette, meatballs albondigas (beef and pork with garlic and tomato sauce), and Pimientos del Piquillo (stuffed cone-shaped red peppers).
For some people who may not be familiar with the tapas experience, there is the quandary over how many items should be chosen.
The selection here is made easier by the fact the plates (or ‘raciones’) are somewhat larger than normal tapas portions (and, accordingly, priced somewhat higher), so for most people, three each should be enough.
So it proves for us, to the point that when it comes to choosing something from the dessert menu we just can’t hack it. (If we’d had room, however, we’d have gone for the house special of Creme Catalana; classic Spanish custard delivered in four ways — frozen, solid, liquid, foam.)
Throughout our lunch, the restaurant quickly fills up with locals and tourists, and there is little sign of anyone feeling the need to move on or, indeed, of being made to feel as if they have to, which is something other restaurants might like to think about (and, yes, we can already hear laughter directed towards that particular suggestion).
Certainly the staff are as friendly as they come, and the hard-working crew also make sure any newcomers to the tapas experience are quickly acquainted with relevant details.
A few things irk: Images of Marilyn Monroe adorn the walls of the Senoritas rest-room, but what this cultural icon has to do with Spain is anyone’s guess. Such a thematic anomaly needs reviewing (we politely suggest Penelope Cruz as a suitable substitute).
The soundtrack, while in keeping with identity and theme, is too loud and insistent. And the food? Make it more exciting — it should seduce and sizzle as well as satisfy.
Lunch for two, with beer, came to €50.05. €5 tip.
HOW TO:
Tues-Fri, 12.30pm-3pm, 6pm-9.30pm; Sat, 12.30pm-3pm, 6pm-10pm; Sun, 1pm-4pm, 5pm-8pm.
Food: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 7/10
Drink: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Friary Street,
Kilkenny,
056 7703644
www.thesaltyard.ie
