Restaurant review: Les Gourmandises, Cork
In the case of Les Gourmandises (LG), three attempts in the last three months and despite ringing what I believe to be well in advance, again, the only sittings to be had are at 6pm or 9.15pm.
A regular habitué of LG informs me weekdays are similar.
We arrive early for the 9.15pm sitting, before our table is cleared, and so peruse menus and wine list.
With the Dearly Beloved (DB) set on glugging white, I enquire after the health of various white Burgundies.
All hale and hearty, it seems, but proprietor Soizic Kiely wonders if we’d be interested in a Portuguese 2012 Vale da Capucha.
Turns out we are very interested in this splendid white wine, bright, fresh and grassy but with a muscular undertow well-suited to our dining intentions. A good start.
Prior to opening LG, 15-plus years ago, proprietors Pat and Soizic Kiely had stellar careers in multiple Michelin Star establishments, at home and abroad, including Dublin’s two-starred Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, where Pat was sous chef and Soizic a sommelier.
Though LG tabletops are shorn of starched white linen and sublime service is deceptively informal, the entire operation remains firmly rooted in the classical French culinary tradition, all apparently suiting the typical LG diner.
With not a soul under 40 and an age profile heading firmly northward thereafter, it is impossible not to register the giddy atmosphere, the sound of contentment operating at full throttle.
My Goat’s Cheese Mousse, served with Pickled Beetroot, is dense, more clotted cream than the anticipated airy mousse and yet that heft is not reflected in the flavour, insufficient ‘goat-y hum of Pan’ for my tastes.
DB, on the other hand, likes it and we swop, she passing over her Prawns in Filo Pastry served with Mango Jelly & Mango Crème Fraiche.
I’d prefer more character and intrigue than is provided by the simplistic sweetness of the mango sidekicks but the crisp, juicy prawns are splendid, my only complaint being they aren’t served in portions of 40 or more.
I probably knew I would order Roasted Fillet of Cod, Carmelised Cauliflower, Morteaux Sausage & Braised Lentils, or some close equivalent ever before I arrived for Pat Kiely is an excellent seafood cook.
This fish is cooked to the point of perfection and no further, a gently teasing fork sending slabs of sweet, succulent cod-meat sliding away from the fillet.
The highly crafted accompaniments are pleasant but an apparently unlisted extra, a quenelle of pureed caper (I think) is all I need for this wonderful piece of fish.
Though I struggle nowadays with the many ethical issues around salmon consumption, farmed or wild, DB dispatches her Roasted Marinated Irish Salmon with the clinical efficiency of a supertrawler.
It is, admittedly, another superbly cooked, very tasty piece of fish.
She then declares her Caramel & Rice Crispies Cream with Caramel & Balsamic Jelly to be overly sweet but it too meets the same fate as the salmon.
My Apricot Pannacotta, with Poached Apricots, is a splendid rendition of this set pudding but you’ll travel halfway around the globe to find an apricot in season right now and these, unsurprisingly, are underwhelming.
For some the locavore movement is a fad or a trend to be slavishly imitated for only as long as it is in vogue but for many top Irish chefs any supposed limitations have actually proven a spur to their creativity and led them to cook tastier, more original food.
Kiely’s cooking remains as technically assured as ever but he still clings to certain tropes of his classical French alma matter: foie gras ever-present on the menu; random tropical insertions such as the mango; regular use of imported out-of-season fruit and vegetables.
His French-born business and life partner, Soizic, and their bank manager might argue, very reasonably, that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and I’ll gladly endure all accusations of dilettantish whimsy for even raising the notion but I just happen to think it would make the difference between a very good restaurant and a truly great one.
: Mon 6pm to 9pm; Tues-Sat 6pm to 9.30pm
€126 (excluding tip)
Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Atmosphere: 9/10 on arrival, 6/10 once the ‘second sitting’ crowd vanishes
“… it is impossible not to register the giddy atmosphere, the sound of contentment operating at full throttle”
Les Gourmandises 17 Cook Street, Cork, (021) 4251959, info@lesgourmandises.ie
