Restaurant review: Twisted, Kinsale, Cork

The problem with being first out of the blocks in a long distance event, particularly when you set off at an impossibly blistering pace, is rivals will eventually catch up. 

And though Kinsale led from the front for over two decades, the country finally found it, panting against a wall, race seemingly run.

As popular as ever with tourists, local restaurants still churned out mighty volumes, but the erstwhile ‘Gourmet Capital of Ireland’, back when the rest of us still drooled over ‘hang sangidges’, seemed to have shot its bolt, the scene was flabby and bereft of innovation.

Then recession arrived and local industry pros admit it gave them a much-needed boot up the arse.

They reassessed, pared back menus and injected them with a renewed commitment to best local produce.

Then support runners arrived over the hill, a whole new wave of restaurants, chief among them, The Black Pig and Bastion, young Turks doing their own thing on their own terms and doing it exceptionally well. Kinsale, it seemed was ‘back’.

Twisted is part of that new wave, opened by Christophe Moreau and Maushmi Arun, 18 months ago, as a tapas/wine bar but now operating a greatly expanded menu.

It being a weekday at teatime, Dearly Beloved and I can’t find babysitters for the progeny, yet romance is still in the air.

Twisted is burrowed into a long narrow nook on Main St, a cosy room over-enthusiastically decorated with an excess of typographical tropes, on walls and table surfaces, constant reminders of your location lest you forget.

We begin trawling a shoal of menus.

As we browse, in walks an old friend, P, one of Ireland’s finest independent wine retailers, here on business, and his presence augurs well for what turns out to be an excellent wine list.

We order a Godello (Crego E Monaguillo 2014), serene and fruity yet with the cojones to handle red meat.

The cuisine is largely Spanish and though the early bird is good value, we mix and match from a variety of menus (tapas, sharing boards, full dinners, early bird).

Cod Croquetas are better than any enjoyed during a recent week in Southern Spain, velvety béchamel infused with ocean notes and Nikkei Avocado and Seaweed Roll is fresh and pleasing.

Twisted Patata Crispy, four new potatoes, roasted, deep fried and served with brava and garlic sauce, is a marked improvement on myriad patatas bravas littering too many tired Irish menus since the initial tapas explosion 15-plus years ago.

DB has Free Range Organic Chicken Roulade stuffed with lemon- infused veg, with Cherry wood smoke, couscous and shiitake mushrooms.

An accomplished dish but why spend on quality chicken then hide it behind such a barrage of flavour?

The progeny delight in Gourmet mini-burgers and rightfully so for they are fine little patties of Irish beef with imaginative toppings.

Twisted Slow-Braised Rabbit is good, gamey and comforting, perhaps best enjoyed in winter’s depths, but the standout dish truly brings Iberian sensibility to Hibernian produce: Prawns, cherry tomatoes, shredded Toonsbridge Mozzarella, toasted coconut, and freshly foraged sea spaghetti is a sublime union, exuberant citric-marine notes of the sea plant joyfully embracing all.

Desserts are equally popular and freely exchanged, each as good as the other and though I happily share my Canelé de Bordeaux, little brioche-like cakes served with crème patisserie, I cling to the accompanying Jurancon sweet wine.

Chef Guillermo Carrión Garcia is highly accomplished, technically assured, and with a confident, original palate.

As he comes to know more the superb Irish produce available on his doorstep, he will only improve; featuring imported farmed sea bass and prawns over infinitely superior locally-caught Irish seafood is certainly missing a trick or two, especially, in Kinsale.

Neither would it do any harm to simplify and reduce the menu.

Christophe and Maushmi may be new to hospitality, but their charming welcome renders some of their marketing and branding initiatives redundant (scrub those ‘wordy’ table tops with sulphuric acid and wire brushes as the very fine fare at Twisted is more than capable of speaking for itself!).

Opening Hours

Closed Monday/ Tuesday; Wednesday to Sunday 9.30pm to 5pm; Sun 11am-5pm

The Tab

€132.75 (excluding tip)

The Verdict

Food: 8.5/10

Service: 7/10

Value: 8/10

Atmosphere: 8/10

Tagline: “… Kinsale will gladly surrender to this latest Spanish-tinged invasion.”

Twisted Tapas Bar & Restaurant, 5 Main Street, Kinsale

Tel. [phone] www.facebook.com/TwistedKinsale