Restaurant review: 'Seas' the day with a food delivery from Beach House in Tramore
Herbed roast potatoes
As the hours, days and weeks continue to merge together only the slow steady lengthening of the evenings seems to mark the passage of time. Thank goodness for the chime of the doorbell and the army of delivery people who remind us daily that there is a world beyond.
However, the Friday night takeaway delivery has lost some of its lustre as the weeks have passed as I crave restaurants. While delivery pizza or Chinese takeaway are not to be knocked, they could never ever compare to what arrived in our house last week from Beach House in Tramore.
Beach House opened just in time for the global pandemic and the excellent news is that they now have a nationwide delivery showcasing the refined and elegant cooking of Jumoke Akintola and many fine farmers and food producers.
Jumoke and her husband, Peter Hogan (a Tramore native), were the team behind Fish Shop on Queen Street, Dublin 1, which I reviewed here in glowing terms a few years ago. That restaurant closed when they moved to Tramore but they still run its younger sibling Fish Shop on Benburb Street which serves some of the best battered fish in the country.
So what makes Beach House At Home different? Well a criticism I would have of some provision boxes, including from restaurants I adore, is the stress they cause. Colour-coded boxes of differing shapes and sizes and a list of instructions cannot compare to a finely-trained kitchen brigade (of course they can’t).
Beach House has wisely kept it incredibly simple and I’d love if everyone copied them. Each container had a sticker with ultra-clear instructions — the cold starters and sauces just needed to be decanted and the pre-cooked dishes simply reheated in the oven or on the stovetop.
Among the starters, my favourite was easily the Crab Mayonnaise: sweet rich crab meat in silky mayonnaise that enhanced the sweetness while also providing a balancing tang. We smeared this on slices of nutty sweet-sour crusty Tramore's Seagull Bakery Heritage Loaf (€4.50) which I warmed in the oven to bring it back to its just-baked glory.
Celeriac Rémoulade (€3.50) was pitch-perfect: crunchy and lightly pungent and a perfect foil for the meaty umami-rich Chicken and Rabbit Terrine (€6.50). The Rémoulade also worked well with the meaty-creamy fatty moreish Pork Rillettes (€5.50) — the rillettes lasted three days as it was too rich to eat in large quantities (in a very good way). Garlic bread (baked in the oven for 10 minutes) did not stint on the garlic, the butter or the herbs and just for fun we dipped it in intensely flavoured Aïoli and topped it alternatively with terrine and pork rillettes.
I’m guessing the Aïoli was mainly intended for the Mediterranean Fish Stew (€12.50) in the same way that a garlicky Rouille accompanies a Bouillabaisse. Gurnard, Red Mullet and Monkfish had been lightly cooked in a rich saffron and chili infused shellfish stock that still allowed the fish to take centre stage — the Aïoli lifted the flavours nicely.
Sausage and Lentils (€12) was light crumbly (Andarl Farm) pork sausage patties with nutty rich Lentille du Puy and a spiky herb dressing for contrast. Chicken Cacciatore (€10) was made with Ring’s Farm chicken breast (on the bone) cooked with garlic, olives, herbs, carrots, and onions. This won the main courses for me — a rich meaty sauce and beautifully textured flavourful chicken. Herbed roast potatoes crisped perfectly in the oven in 10 minutes and matched the other dishes as only good potatoes can — I'd have eaten them on their own.
Tarte-Tatin with Crème Chantilly (€8.95) cooked neatly in a foil tin and the caramelised apples contrasted with the light crisp puff pastry to round off our meal perfectly. The next day the three of us repeated the starters and what had survived of the mains and devoured the crumbly nutty-sweet Rhubarb and Almond Tart (€8). The Madeleines (6 for €5) were kept for afternoon tea and matched particularly well with both Orange Oolong Black Tea and Lover’s Leap Pekoe tea which I ordered recently from Cahills in Limerick (cahillstea.com).
Set your phone for Thursdays at 6pm!
- beachhousetramore.ie
- Beach-house.clickandcollection.com/
- hello@beachhousetramore.ie
- Menus uploaded every Thursday at 6pm for collection or nationwide delivery on the following Friday (8 days later). Set a reminder as food sells out quickly.
- Four Starters, Three Mains, Three Desserts plus breads, sides and condiments fed three of us for two days and cost €113.40 (incl. delivery charge of €12.95)
