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Restaurant review: Kinsale is so lucky to have a dining experience like Rare

Rare dazzles with culinary treasures

Sun, 15 Dec, 2024 - 11:08

Leslie Williams

In my early 20s when I first developed an obsessional interest in food, the word Kinsale conjured up exoticism and fine dining, a world of lobsters, oysters, and béarnaise sauce. There have always been good restaurants in Kinsale and while there was a less interesting period in the late 1990s, Kinsale is very much back on top now with so many places to talk about that I’d have to beg for a second page for this review.

Rare is open a couple of years now but has recently been included in a certain red food guide so it was about time I visited.

The dining room has a modern feel with blond wood tables and comfortable padded chairs. Set on two levels, the bar is in the lower area, but we were soon very pleased to have been seated in the upper room. We had noticed a large window with a drawn blind and once our pre-dinner drinks were served, the blind was raised to reveal a kitchen lit like a cross between a stage set and a laboratory. Both laboratory and stage proved accurate words for what followed.

A selection of snacks was first to arrive, brought to the table by head chef Meeran Manzoor who is originally from Chennai in Tamil Nadu, as is his team. Meeran studied in London and cooked in the UK and in Belgium before moving to Kinsale. The beauty of the tiny snacks on equally pretty and tiny bespoke pottery dishes (made locally) brought smiles to our faces.

A rich beignet filled with Macroom cheese, spice, and topped with trout caviar was followed by idli (soft rice cakes) which had been stuffed with a generous helping of sweet local lobster topped with a tangy preserved lemon sauce and light spicing. Steak tartare with pickled mushrooms was creatively served in a crisp shell made from dashi and oyster water and topped with tandoori aioli and soya jelly — tasting both briny and sweet at the same time with intriguing complexity from the spicing. An extraordinary explosion of flavours in each bite.

Next some trout cured with lemon and lime zest intermingled with a pickled chilli mustard, a speciality of Tamil Nadu. A tamarind and date chutney added further complexity and this was topped with a beetroot gel, a lattice pastry top, a generous dollop of Royal Belgian caviar, and then a coriander and mint sauce — the vibrant green a pleasing contrast to the gel and golden pastry. A complex dish possibly a tiny bit overwhelmed by the acidity in the pickled mustard but still a pleasing riot of flavours that somehow did not overwhelm the trout.

A sort of deconstructed chicken kebab was packed with meaty intensity with a topping of crispy potatoes and a sabayon made from chicken tikka. On the side came a creamy chicken keema made from minced chicken and miso accompanied by a crunchy crispy dosa pancake made with koji rather than fermented rice or lentils.

For our fish course, a pristinely cooked piece of halibut had been cooked in citrus butter with local squash and topped with a nutty coconut foam. Fish momo dumplings on the side were filled with lobster, clams, and mussels, cooked in lemongrass and ginger. These were probably my favourite flavour of the meal among many highlights.

Venison fillet had been cooked in a water bath so was rather too soft for my liking but I didn’t much mind as the saucing was once again complex and layered, the jus infused with a Kinsale Mead reduction to add local character. A flaky paratha on the side stuffed with pickled mushrooms and with a spicy venison jerky crumbled on top was another triumph.

Rare’s wine list is a good length with lots of choice and is sourced mainly from Cork based suppliers like Curious Wines. My glass of Boeckel Grand Cru Riesling (€16) was textured and complex, while my guest’s specially created ‘Raspberry Bitter Surprise’ (€11) mocktail was refreshing and beautiful to look at.

For dessert — given the season, we had flavours of Christmas with a full on subcontinental influence. A take on the Indian falooda layered dessert with traditional apple and citrus mincemeat with a mulled wine jelly, eggnog sabayon, and topped with pistachio and nuts. Finally some mint tea and we managed to squash in some petit-fours, all with a Tamil Nadu twist.

Dining at Rare felt like opening a magical box filled with ancient and modern Indian food treasures. It is extraordinary. Lucky Kinsale.

Verdict