Restaurant review: Everybody needs good Neighbours — Naas is lucky to have this place

• Neighbourhood Naas
• 1 North Main Street, Naas East, Naas, Co. Kildare, W91RH96
• Tel: [phone],
• Neighbourhoodnaas.com 

Who doesn’t love a neighbourhood restaurant, especially one with ambition?

I adored having Circa Restaurant metres from my house — it’s gone now, but to have a restaurant that constantly strove for perfection so near to my house was truly joyful.

The head chef in Circa was Gareth Naughton who is now in Neighbourhood — lucky Naas. I recognised some of Gareth’s flourishes, but his dishes have clearly been pushed to a slightly more complex level, possibly the influence of Jordan Bailey (formerly) of Aimsir Restaurant who consulted on the menu.

The first dish to arrive was a ‘snack’ of Hegarty’s Cheddar Croquettes (€6) — three golden crumbed spheres of liquid farmhouse cheese. On their own these were perfect but a dill emulsion with pickled jalapeño and onion transformed the dish by adding a delicious herbal sweetness.

“This needs to be put in a jar pronto” declared my guest — make that two jars. Bread was provided gratis with some airy onion and leek Focaccia and some rather disappointing dried out Guinness Brown Bread, the latter enhanced considerably by excellent cultured butter so all was not lost.

Pressed Foie Gras with Rabbit and ham hock (€15) was nicely cut by pickled apple slices and sweet prune confit. The menu had promised black pudding in the mix but this seemed to have been changed to ham hock, a minor point and none the worse for it, but this was one of a few menu omissions I noticed.

Roast Courgettes with Ricotta

Grilled Currach Caught Scallops (€16) were nicely caramelised and sat on creamy Coco (Borlotti) Beans which gave the dish welcome textures and a flash of Spanish flair. A (very) light lemon foam added a murmur of citrus but we could find no evidence of the promised ‘Scallop Roe Nduja’. To be clear, none of these missing flavours mattered in the end as the dish worked well and disappeared quickly.

Roasted Courgettes with House Ricotta, Almond, white miso and brown butter (€26) was as good as it sounds with crunchy roast courgettes offset by creamy ricotta. We tasted hazelnuts, adding welcome extra texture and flavours although the menu had promised almonds — once again the substitution wasn’t a problem but I’d like if it had been flagged.

Pressed Suckling Pig Belly had a properly toffeed top and fine flavoured sweet pork with a nutty cream of Celeriac to add some earth tones, pear ‘ketchup’ to add sweetness, and a roast cabbage heart added sweet-bitter notes. The menu promised morcilla but I reckon this Spanish butcher had lived in Ireland as what was on my plate tasted more like Jack McCarthy’s black pudding to me (a good thing).

Strawberry Tartlet

Fried Lyonnaise Potatoes (€6) were pleasingly crispy with some dollops of sweet slow cooked onion nestled in between plus a wisp or two of onion foam. Tasty potatoes with a good crunch, but I’d like to see a name change as Lyonnaise Potatoes implies sliced sautéed potatoes with onions rather than roast potatoes with some onions on the side.

The wine list has a good mix of European wines, many organic, but more options by the glass would be welcome and more wines priced under €50 are needed. A glass of Karl Milan Bourgogne Chardonnay (€13) was excellent, packed with melon and creamy lemon fruits, while my red fruited Côtes du Rhône ‘Les Oliviers’ from the Estezargues co-op (€9) also worked well.

For dessert my Warm Pistachio Cake (€11) was crumbly, sweet and nutty and was served with a stunningly good Velvet Cloud yoghurt sorbet to lift the flavours plus some softened Irish cherries to add spikes of contrast.

Strawberry Tartlet meanwhile had a light pastry base, sweet strawberries in clotted cream, and was topped with soft strawberry gelato.

We very much enjoyed our meal in Neighbourhood, staff were attentive and charming and each dish we ate had flair and flavour. What was very slightly lacking was focus, or perhaps just daily updates to the menu.

The Tab:

Dinner for two including starters, mains and desserts plus two glasses of good wine cost €161.00

How To:

Wednesday-Saturday: 12-3pm, 5.30-9.30pm

Sunday: 12pm - 9pm

Closed Monday-Tuesday

The Verdict:

Food: 8/10

Wine: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Value: 7.5/10

In a Sentence:

Neighbourhood is offering flavourful ambitious food in a convivial atmosphere, just a tiny bit more focus is required to make it perfect.