Restaurant review: This Adare café nails each dish every time — I left a very happy diner
Joe McNamee: "There is nothing radical about the Cafe Logr menu but chef/owner David Hayes (along with partner Petra Hayes) sources with aplomb and then nails each dish every time, commendably precise in his delivery of some very tasty food."
Bone-deep cold and spiteful, spitting rain all make for as miserable a Monday morn as January can muster, so The Gambler and I are fleeing town. We arrive in Adare, in Co Limerick, to find that self-same miserable morn lounging insolently in wait.
It is still there when we re-emerge from the pharmacy, stocked up on potions for an emerging ailment that has all the hallmarks of man-flu, so we abandon a planned walk and head to Cafe Logr.
Adare is a curious spot, quite unique in an Irish context. The main drag through the village is a melange of architectural styles: 19th century picturesque artisans’ thatched cottages; Tudor revival village hall; Victorian courthouse; an 19th century institutional stone schoolhouse that began life as a fever hospital in 1830; and the genuinely gorgeous Detmar Blow-designed Arts & Crafts cottages, from the early 20th century.
It is all very easy on the eye and quite a tourist attraction, especially popular with Irish-Americans, although you’d wonder if they appreciate the irony: it is all essentially a creation of that same colonial class that forced their forebears to flee the country in the first place, constructed as an estate village that looks more English than Irish by staunch Conservative and Unionist Lord Dunraven.
He added further to that palette of architectural styles with his own residence, the Gothic Revival Adare Manor.
These days, the nearest thing to a local ‘Lord’ might be billionaire businessman JP McManus, the contemporary owner of Adare Manor, whose multi-million makeover has turned it into one of the world’s top five-star hotels, including a very fine Michelin-starred restaurant under chef Mike Tweedie.
The rebirth of the Manor appears to have had a positive trickle-down effect on the manicured and pristine village, and there should be more bounty to follow next year when Adare Manor hosts the 2027 Ryder Cup.
Even in the depths of winter, Cafe Logr shines like summer. Well, perhaps not the full heatwave but the creamy white-themed interior is bright, warm and welcoming and immediately starts restoring a little heat to our bones.
That shiver-inducing cold is why we first order cups of soup (€4.50). Roast butternut squash, it is hearty, wholesome and healing, and while I’d have welcomed some judicious spicing to add a little more intrigue on the palate, that is more observation than prescription. Mopping up the comforting broth with thick buttered slices of Novak’s sourdough makes for mighty medicine.
On such a day, so soon after Christmas, it is hardly surprising that the early weekday menu at the quietest time of the year is a fraction of the weekend offering, when we could also have ordered, for example, Turkish eggs or even an extraordinarily decadent brioche French toast, with coffee anglaise, chocolate cremeux and whipped mascarpone.
A delicate flower, however, especially when it comes to breaking my fast, preferring to do so long after rising and then in small quantities, I’m not really a great man for the hefty dinner masquerading as lunch. That, however, cuts no mustard with an editor demanding a review so The Gambler and I agree to share the two primary choices.
Buttermilk chicken burger (€18.95) is an impressive looking creation: deep-fried, Southern-style, the rugged coating of batter is tricky terrain, all crannies, crevices and spiky crags but it is a flavoursome, even peppery crunch, through to some of the most tender and flavoursome fried chicken I’ve eaten in some time.
Served on a pristine brioche bun with gem lettuce, and slathered in the house burger sauce, it is a cracking assemblage. Judging by the rate at which we put our respective portions away, it seems I can manage the occasional lunch after all.
Alongside are a portion of skinny fries, crisp, salty and sinfully good — I’d eat these in my sleep.
There is a choice of toasties. The grilled cheese contains Dubliner cheddar, Hegarty’s and ‘Irish Gouda’ (which turns out to be delicious Burren Gold) but two cheddars sounds like repeating yourself and, anyway, Dubliner comes a poor second in my book to the top-notch Hegarty’s.
The only cheese in The Reuben (€11.95) is Dubliner so after a bit of horse trading, essentially substituting the Dubliner with Hegarty’s, we opt for that instead.
It’s as well we’re not paying by the yard, for I’ve seen mid-sized trawlers smaller than this immensely generous toastie. Crunching through crusty, toasted bread sprinkled with grated parmesan, we hit tender, spiced McCarthy’s piquant pastrami, succulent and warm.
Melting Hegarty’s is a gooey, salty-sweet, rich cream, sauerkraut slashing through the fatty mouthfeel, with pickled cornichons on the side for more snapping contrast and tart vinegary bite.
The grace note is a superb Thousand Island dressing — and I normally avoid the stuff — that trills with the bright, cleansing anise of dill. It is another excellent dish, but we can only manage a quarter each, a feat in itself after all that has gone before.
We are done, can eat no more — so I order carrot cake (€5), Bakewell tart (€5) and a smashing coffee (3FE beans), while The Gambler plumps for a rum hot chocolate (€6.20), but then he is a gentleman of leisure.
Actually, after a morsel or two of decent if not divine carrot cake, it follows the (very good) Bakewell into the doggy bag along with the remainder of the toastie.
We roll out the door, very happy diners indeed. There is nothing radical about the Cafe Logr menu but chef/owner David Hayes (along with partner Petra Hayes) sources with aplomb and then nails each dish every time, commendably precise in his delivery of some very tasty food. Seems I can do lunch after all — as long as it’s as good as this!
- Lunch €60.80 (including drinks)
- cafelogradare.com
