Restaurant Review: Ballynahinch Castle's Owenmore raises the standard for hotel dining in the West

"It’s now under the superb and multi-award-winning Danni Barry who was head chef at Michael Deane’s EIPIC, in Belfast, when it earned its first Michelin star in 2016..."

Sun, 12 Nov, 2023 - 12:44

Joe McNamee

The Owenmore Restaurant
Ballynahinch Castle, Recess, Connemara, Co Galway, H91 F4A7
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
ballynahinch-castle.com
Tab: €80 per person (excluding drinks, coffees, tip)

No 2 Son, a hot pot, bubbling rancorously for several hours, finally blows the lid off just beyond Oughterard.

Our drive from Cork to the West has been slow, very slow, the knock-on impact of the apocalyptic flooding of Storm Babet adding delays, and we have been driving for close to five hours by the time we hit the wilds of a Connemara subsiding into arresting autumnal austerity, just as dusk clocks off.

But scenery cuts no mustard with No 2 who abhors car journeys at the best of times and he and I wind up snarling like hyenas as La Daughter throws her eyes up to heaven in the back seat and resumes siphoning off her soul to TikTok, byte by precious byte.

Our destination, Ballynahinch Castle, is drawn into the conflict.

“I should have stayed at home.” (He couldn’t, no one there to mind him; I’m not stupid enough to remind him he is only 16.)

“It’s an old people’s hotel,” he sputters, “there’s literally nothing to do there, no gym, no pool.”

“True,” say I, “but ….” petering off into silence, as I struggle to counter with an alternative list of attractions that might appeal to a cranky teenager.

But he’s still young enough to tap into the Halloween buzz and, finally arrived, a rather eerie drive up a darkened hotel avenue brings morbid cheer.

Once inside, the cosiness factor in overdrive, all open log fires and wood panelling, he really starts to thaw and by the time we sit down to dine in The Fisherman’s Pub & Ranji Room, Ballynahinch’s casual alternative to the fine dining Owenmore Restaurant, he is cracking jokes, and eventually breaks out in a rash of smiling.

The food helps, one of the best casual dining ‘pub grub’ offerings I have come across in a long while, the precision afforded every tiny little detail key to its success.

True, there are none of the usual attractions of a typical ‘family’ hotel to occupy No 2 so we instead spend the next day doing nothing other than walking extensively through glorious grounds alongside the gorgeous lake and river, so exquisitely appointed by a combination of man and nature, that philistine No 2 does what he never does and takes a few photos of the scenery.

And while LD and I trawl through the hotel’s extensive, eclectic and most compelling art collection, he takes baths.

When we’re done with our visual grazing, we too take baths. And it turns out that sometimes you need to do absolutely nothing other than bathe, eat, drink, walk it off, and then press repeat.

By Saturday night, formerly cranky teenager has vanished entirely, replaced by a most delightful dining companion to accompany me and LD to the hotel’s Owenmore Restaurant.

It’s now under the superb and multi-award-winning Danni Barry who was head chef at Michael Deane’s EIPIC, in Belfast, when it earned its first Michelin star in 2016 — which is now to be handed back as Deane announced a change of direction last week that would see the restaurant opt for a more casual dining model — and her recent arrival out West is a serious fillip for the hotel’s already sterling reputation.

Surprisingly, a crab-based amuse bouche underwhelms so the substantial improvement in the starters catches us off guard.

No 2 is a big soup man but was befuddled by the listed partners with a roast celeriac soup. A spoonful alters his thinking pretty rapidly, as he embraces the sugared panoply ranging from a sweet velouté of earthy roasted tuber with a smattering of praline-like candied walnuts, while a tuile cigar of whipped fresh goats curd with tart apple purée on top adds a countering fresh acidity.

Walled garden beetroot tart sees meaty, sweet beetroot crowned with a pretty layering of leaves and petals. Onion jam is a sticky treacle-like affair while lovage emulsion adds acidic astringency and roasted seeds a nutty texture.

Poached smoked haddock is superb, gently oak smoked fish served with slow-cooked egg, plush grilled leek and potato crisp, pronounced flavours yet delivered with an ethereal lightness of touch.

No 2 rarely gets beyond the beef offering when perusing a menu and dry-aged Hereford beef fillet is right up his street, a succulent cut, perfectly cooked and paired with lush, tender braised cheek, smoked bone marrow, and grilled broccoli and carrot.

I have divine wild halibut, blessed with a soft golden mantle of caramelised flesh that falls apart into pearlescent shards, served with muscular roast bone sauce, Jerusalem artichoke, and salty wild samphire.

An under-peckish LD, who has reprised of her fried chicken strips of the previous evening, rejoins us for a trio of desserts: pear and date crumble, whiskey molasses, baked oats, crème fraîche; vanilla and crème caramel, blackcurrant and aniseed jam, brown sugar biscuit; and chocolate gateau, hazelnut meringue, coffee infused cream, and praline custard. All three are beautifully balanced, smartly achieved, and excellent examples of the craft of pastry but it is the baked vanilla ‘flan’ that stands out, a dreamy set custard that is lush sweet velvet on the palate.

As a chef, Barry has never let ego or showboating interfere with her primary mission, the divination of maximum flavour from premium produce cooked to perfection, and though what presents on the plate won’t startle the more conservative horses of a generally older and more conservative clientele, it is rare indeed to find such extraordinarily good food in a hotel dining room, even one as elevated as Ballynahinch Castle.

Even the by now very content No 2 admits that, with fare of this calibre as part of the deal, there may well be some merit to the notion of ‘do-nothing’ weekends away — but, can we travel by helicopter the next time?