Restaurant Review - Aniar and Kai - Galway
Tuesday 13 September 2011
We can expect to see mini ‘Noma’s’ popping up worldwide faster than High Street copies of Catwalk designs! Rene Redzepi’s Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen, voted the San Pellegrino World’s No. 1 Restaurant for 2010 and 2011, has dazzled chefs as no other. It is to chefs what Dior’s post war “New Look’ was to Designers back then, and they are all hopping on the gravytrain to be born again Redzepi clones! Redzepi’s ethos is terroir based, matching foods with the natural elements surrounding them in the wild. At weekends the kitchen crew go out foraging together - foraging of the seashores and woods not just a run down to the local park or letting suppliers do the foraging for them!
Anyway, what people want nowadays are different offerings by way of dining out. Small and funky, quirky and cheap, the days of fine dining with fine white table cloths and flunkies have lost their lustre. Three such funky new restaurants have just opened in Galway – Aniar, Kai and Rouge. Aniar is owned by Jp McMahon and Drigin Gaffey of Cava Spanish Restaurant, with Enda McEvoy, formerly of Sheridan’s on the Dock as Head Chef. McEvoy recently spent a month at Noma. Aniar is all dickied out in cool aqua Nordic café colours. Five each starters, mains and puds, were on offer by way of an ultra hip staccato listing of each dish’s ingredients - not specifying that ‘oyster’ or ‘smoked potato’ might be by way of a foam or a sauce - as explained by our sweet waitress. From the starters €8.50/€10.50 I had Scallop, oyster, dillisk,woodsorrel, smoked potato…..geddit? Three seared scallops (€10.50) entwined with wood sorrel set on dillisk were bathed in an oyster foam, succeeding in imparting a delicious raw taste of the sea. Sir had pig’s cheek croquettes (€8.50) involving hazelnut, apple and cucumber - also pretty and delicious. To follow, pink tender tranches of lamb loin (€29.50) were centred with a finger of crispy lamb belly, and turned ‘barrels’ of turnip, all on a ramson (wild garlic) puree, liberally scattered with green peas and landcress. The perfect finish on this for me would have been a ramson vinaigrette to add sharpness and sweet moisture to the dish. Sir had a cracking sizeable, meltingly tender, braised beef cheek (€23.50) showered with beetroot ‘barrels’ and apple slices. mustard and sprigs of woodruff. He then had a heart stopping elderflower and gooseberry parfait (€8.50) enhanced with a deep honeycomb crisp, pink petals and strawberries, whilst I nibbled at dark rye crispbreads with four cheeses (€8.50). With a 50cl carafe of Sauvignon Semillon 2008 (€16.50) and Montepulciano 2009 (€21) our bill with optional service was €138.50. Genuine enthusiasm and buzz here.
The second spot is Kai, owned by New Zealand chef, Jess Murphy. Retro funky décor with rusty 1950’s outback style light fittings, horizontal floor and skirting board walls, is the setting here, in a neighbourhood area surrounded by charity and local shops. A great atmosphere, but the lunch menu was disappointlingly short and basic– soup and four light offerings on the blackboard. They wouldn’t take a telephone booking for lunch – I don’t know why – there were only two others there on arrival and not many more to follow. Eschewing pepperonata on sourdough and yellow lentil dahl, I kicked off with a thick beetroot soup (€4.50) with gorgeous chunky bread. Smoked mackerel and cheddar quiche (€8.50) however was a modest enough slice with greenery and a smigeon of pepperonata, whilst Moroccan Roast Chicken Salad (€9.50) had some shards of middleaged chook on a pile of greenery with two bits of roasted red pepper, a cherry tomato and a flower, but a light sprinkle of a spice on the chicken skin didn’t lift it from being a very ordinary if pricey dry and stringy chicken salad. With a bottle of O’Hara’s beer (€5), bottled water (€2.50) and coffee (€2) the bill was €35 with service. Ouch!
Kai is so cool it aches….
Aniar Restaurant,
53 Lower Dominick Street,
Galway
Tel: (091) 535947
Kai Café & Restaurant,
Sea Road,
Galway.
Tel: (091) 526003
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2011.