Blackrock Cottage, Salthill: If you live near this new restaurant, lucky you. It’s perfect for lunch after a walk or sea swim
A hearty bowl of chowder comes with two slices of exceptionally good, warm brown bread. Fish chunks are bountiful – mussels, prawns, white fish and salmon – and I’m happy to discover that the salmon doesn’t dominate, as it sometimes can.
Bacon kicks in with a smoky finish.From the starters/small plates section, Moroccan-spiced Connemara lamb belly is quite substantial. It has been braised slowly so that the cumin, coriander, garlic and spices are gently layered. It’s a fatty cut, but that’s where you get your flavour. Hummus has peas whipped through it, and is dusted with dukkah. The salad on the side could be improved with a dressing, and a bit of pita bread would be a nice addition. Warning number two: do not order this dish as a starter, as it’s closer to a light main course.We had ordered the chicken schnitzel in preference to the McGeogh’s smoked beef burger, thinking it a good idea to try something different, but when we see the handsome burger land on the table beside us we immediately regret our decision. So you can guess what warning number three is: don’t ignore the bleedin’ obvious.D’Olier Street review: This new restaurant has a great team. They should stop being cautious, let rip and enjoy the rideWhile the schnitzel itself, with a salad of chickpeas and fennel, is a bit on the dry side, the home-cut fries are top notch. And, yes, if you order that burger, you get a whole pile of these too. So a bit of bad ordering our end, also driven by the fact that the catch of the day is salmon, which, really, doesn’t float our boat. But the weather has been harsh, and perhaps not much has been landed the day we visit.From the sweet treats, the incredibly light Callebaut chocolate mousse comes with a rubble of intense chocolate brownie, boulders of teeth-gluing honeycomb and three triangles of peanut brittle. It is resolutely of sharing-for-two magnitude, and this should come with a dentist’s warning. It is a heroic example of what you can do with chocolate and sugar. Just watch your fillings. There’s a great team here, headed up by Martin O’Donnell, the former head chef from the Twelve hotel, and there are exciting plans for the future. They will be opening for dinner in March, and installing a large outdoor barbecue for braai-style cooking on their raised outdoor terrace later in the year. If you live in Galway, lucky you, Blackrock Cottage is a few minutes away. If you don’t live nearby, this is one for your list for midterm breaks, bank-holiday weekends and summer holidays. You’ve been warned.Music:
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