Restaurant review: The best cheese toastie in the country
Living High On The ‘Hob: Ron D's, in Ballydehob, turning out some of the very best grilled cheese toasties in the country.
- Ron D’s Food Truck
- Ballydehob Community Hall Ballydehob, Ireland, P81 FC89 ·
- Tel. +353 83 810 8028
- facebook.com/RDWestCork
- Opening Hours: Wednesdays, 12pm-2pm; Mondays (Taco Night), 5.30pm-8pm
We are greatly privileged to have year-round access to a house in West Cork and our annual sojourning always includes an extended decampment west. This year, it coincided with the heatwave that seemingly morphed our seaside home into a perch alongside the crystalline turquoise waters of the Aegean, a blissful delirium when we spent almost as much time in the balmy seas as the fish and seafood we consumed voraciously by night, cooked al fresco over charcoal fires.
We also dined out, day and night, and while this summer didn’t feature usual visits to that great West Cork Troika, Pilgrim’s (Rosscarbery), Dede at the Customs House (Baltimore) or Restaurant Chestnut (Ballydehob), three of the best restaurants in the country, our magical mastication tour was none the poorer — the bulk of it centred around Ballydehob.
Right now, Ballydehob is not only the food epicentre of West Cork but, pound for pound, the most vibrant little village in the country when it comes to filling the belly.
We ate breakfast streetside at Budd’s; a savoury fry-up, homebaked rolls and divine CloudPicker coffees. We enthusiastically honoured La Daughter’s pleadings for a YayBurger evening, recently relocated from Schull. She relishes her ritual preference (classic burger, ketchup, onions) while No 2 Son and I get down and dirty with delicious Big Kahunas.
One evening, we are devouring steaming bowls of divine ramen (punchy chilli beef or a vegetarian starring sweet shiitakes) from Bia Rebel food truck, parked alongside the gloriously gaudy riot that is the Levis Corner House beer garden, when we realise we have shamefully forgotten the birthday of one of our party.
I nip out to the shop for a €3 chocolate log plus candles, which is then delivered to Birthday Boy by Les Salamandas, the sublimely talented Franco-Hibernian singing duo also moonlighting as Levis’ servers, who harmonise exquisitely on a bespoke multi-lingual Happy Birthday. Once candles are blown out, wishes are made and Silver Patron tequila is administered, BB declares it one of his best birthdays ever.
Chef Davitt Conroy only recently returned from years cooking abroad and is still learning his way around the West Cork larder but an exclusive evening dinner for 10 — in a marquee halfway up the mountain behind Ballydehob with glorious sunset views to the coast — is a delightful experience.
One eating experience, however, stands above all: Ron D’s food truck, owned and operated by Simon Kershaw (also sous chef at Camus Farm Field Kitchen, outside Clonakilty) and partner Liz.
It is a golden age for the Irish grilled cheese toastie and the recent food truck explosion has added further exponents of the same. Other trucks may be snazzier than the endearingly rundown Rod D’s wagon but their offerings aren’t remotely in the same league.
Even my toastie benchmarks to date: The Market Kitchen (Temple Bar market and various festivals) and Loose Cannon, both Dublin-based, and St Francis Provisions, in Kinsale, can’t quite match Ron D’s, the best I’ve tasted in Ireland.
It begins with excellent organic sourdough bread, tart, nutty notes of rye, that Kershaw begins fermenting and proving on Sunday, finally baking on Tuesday for Wednesday. (Ron D’s only opens two days a week: toasties on Wednesday; tacos on Monday.)
Kershaw’s sourcing of ingredients is equally immaculate, supplemented by his own superb pickles and dressings. All are employed with imagination and a consummately balanced appreciation of textures and flavours, including commendably ridiculous amounts of melted butter when grilling.
The Muffuletta is inspired by famous New Orleans Italian-style sandwich, layers of cured meats (capicola, Gubbeen salami, mortadella) topped by creamy melting provolone cheese. Crunchy tart giardiniera, an Italian pickled vegetable relish is a bracing counterpoint.
The Reuben that rocks No 2 Son’s world, contains Kershaw’s own salt beef and sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and a nicely biting Russian dressing; SpouseGirl’s veggie version features chard and roasted portobello mushroom, leaving her equally euphoric.
The truest test is the calibre of the classic plain cheese. Ron D’s is sublime: golden crunchy bread; molten cheese trio of Hegarty’s Cheddar, Smoked Gubbeen and Durrus Farmhouse; charred scallion sour cream as grace note. Each mouthful draws an elemental response, a flashback to my youth when I lived solely on cheese toasties.
Sweet treats include cracking potato doughnuts (cinnamon and sugar and chocolate glazed) and good cookies but it’s some hours later before we can even look them in the face. I didn’t think it was possible but Ballydehob just got even tastier.
