Restaurant review: Union more than pays Déise dues

Union Wine, Bar & Kitchen in Waterford

• Union Wine, Bar & Kitchen 
• 11 The Mall, Waterford, X91 EF2D 
• Tel: [phone] 
• unionbar.ie
• Opening Hours: Wednesday to Saturday; noon to close (Limited bar menu, 4pm-5pm)

It is a bitterly cold evening as No 1 Son and I barrel along the highway to Waterford and though not yet 6pm, you’d swear we were heading for the pitch-black heart of eternal winter.

However, we also have Brother-In-Law on board and our eastward-bound skite is a very belated celebration of his 40th birthday the previous June.

As this proud father of three young children under five rarely, if ever, gets away for a night, despite the sub-zero temperatures and Stygian darkness, the mood within the car is of giddy high summer. It’s what the womenfolk in our lives refer to with amusement as a ‘boys’ night away’.

Having checked into the gloriously flamboyant Dyehouse, a splendid guesthouse and erstwhile gallery, still festooned with artworks, we head out on the town. Waterford is one of the last redoubts of a venerable old-school pub culture, with some of my most favourite bars in the country and we wind up in one of the very best, The Munster Bar, for a brief liaison with old Déise comrades.

The Munster Bar is in one corner of an imposing and storied old building dating back to the 1700s and while it would be possible to burrow through the back to access its former restaurant, we instead leave by the front door and head around the corner to Union Wine, Bar & Kitchen’s front entrance on The Mall.

It is a sizeable room, perhaps originally conceived for a less elevated, higher volume offering but it is a warm and welcoming space, including a glittering vintage-style cocktail bar right next to the open kitchen.

The proprietors of this latest addition to the city’s dining portfolio are chef Stephen McArdle, formerly of Stanley’s, in Dublin, and his partner, Canadian sommelier Morgan VanderKamer, with whom he previously operated Barrow’s Keep, in Kilkenny, before they relocated to Waterford.

VanderKamer was the 2021 Restaurant of the Year Awards’ sommelier of the year and is current president of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers and the wine and beverage offering is pitched on an equal par with the food.

The proprietors of this latest addition to the city’s dining portfolio are chef Stephen McArdle and his partner, Canadian sommelier Morgan VanderKamer

With that in mind, we start with smashing cocktails, innovative takes on two classics, a juniper negroni and a New York sour, as we dredge pillowy focaccia through terrific and peppery olive oil.

No 1 Son orders Riversfield Farms organic beetroot with St Tola goats cheese and pumpkin seeds and is justly taken with his well-worked plate of variations on a beetroot theme, from sweet pickles to earthy roast to creamy emulsions that all harmonise with the bright, lemony, lactic tang of fine goat’s cheese.

I have superb ham hock and foie gras terrine, immaculately constructed, a blissful marriage of flavour and texture, rich, buttery foie gras oozing over sweet, salty meat and alongside, a crescent of crunchy pickled vegetables.

CS has crab salad or as much as No 1 Son and I leave him as it is not only the pick of the three starters, but my favourite dish of the night.

Divine fresh crab sports crisp, clean notes of fennel and lemon that sing on the palate, croutons add a pleasing crunch, and langoustine aioli grounds proceedings with an umami punch.

No 1 Son’s main course is a doorstep of very good fillet beef that yields tenderly to the knife, exposing a succulent pink seam within. It is served with grilled flat cap mushroom, shallot, wilted spinach and a rich and flavoursome PX jus.

CS sticks with his marine theme, enjoying an excellently cooked piece of hake, but the supporting cast is infinitely more muscular than the various components of his crab dish, a bolshie combo of smoked bacon, cauliflower and melting organic baby leek in a rich, buttery, creamy sauce topped with shavings of black truffle.

I’ve plumped for a vegetarian dish of hand-rolled gnocchi, but it is no shrinking violet either. Well crafted house gnocchi relish the lush, fungal, forest funk of meaty grilled flat cap mushroom, enhanced by a cream of parmesan and cep, topped off with more shavings of black truffle.

It seems one of my favourite towns in Ireland just got better again

There’s not much fight left in us after that feast so well-executed desserts are appreciated if not quite wolfed down, including a dark chocolate pave, with honeycomb and salted caramel ice cream that appeals to No 1 Son’s sweet tooth.

McArdle’s cooking is rock solid, blending flavours and textures of good produce with skilful aplomb and, in what is still a comparatively conservative town when it comes to dining out, there will be no complaints whatsoever about the generosity of its delivery.

Unsurprisingly, considering ‘wine’ precedes ‘kitchen’ in the restaurant’s full name, VanderKamer’s liquid offerings near eclipse the excellent food.

We enjoy three cracking wines from a smartly curated list—again, with a weather eye on the local market—combining conventional wines with more intriguing outliers.

Or Blanc Jacquère (Fabien Trosset 2021) is 100% Jacquère grape, from Savoie, in France, fresh, crisp and dry, with a salinity to get the juices flowing.

From Ribeiro, in Northwest Spain, A Teixa Blanco (Luis Anxo Rodrigues Vazquez 2018) is 95% indigenous Treixadura grape, with chalky minerality, lush, creamy body, lingering long in the finish.

Coteaux du Loir Rouge-Gorge (Eric Nicolas 2018) is 100% Pineau d’Aunis, its elegant minerality and gentle spice is not unlike a good Pinot Noir.

Union appears to be a flexible operation, capable of satisfying all appetites, from gourmand to the traditional grubber who values volume — and then with a side shuffle and body swerve, it can just as easily be a good wine and cocktail bar with great snacks on the side.

It seems one of my favourite towns in Ireland just got better again.

The Verdict

Food: 8.5

Service: 9

Value: 8

Atmosphere: 8

Tab: €168 (excluding cocktails, wines and tip)