The Observer
Columnist and guest critic Séamas O’Reilly returned to his hometown to sample a restaurant from Phelim O’Hagan, whose tasting menu deftly negotiates the issue of combining multiple courses while obeying the local commandment that “portions must be large enough to stop a horse”.
The result, he said, was a meal of “wee marvels”, whose early dishes included “godly” oysters with chilli jam served alongside barbecued cabbage with roast chicken and bacon, and a “zinging” (if slightly overcooked) scallop on a bed of puy lentils.
A “sensational” middle dish of hen of the woods mushrooms with leek and an egg yolk cooked at 62C, served in a foam of bacon, jerusalem artichoke and air-dried foliage, was followed by “very good” cod, then “very, very good pork”, and lastly the best dish of the evening, “rich and tender” venison with fermented cabbage.
Séamas O’Reilly - 2026-04-05
