RESTAURANT REVIEW - CAMPAGNE KILKENNY, VM LONGFORD
Tuesday 20 September 2011
I have always loved watching how the French do Sunday lunch. It is sacrosanct. Extended family and friends of all ages sit around just doing what was intended for the Seventh Day - resting and renewing themselves. Sunday lunch is a great institution in an era when we are all eating different foods at different hours. It is a time when parents get to hear what is really going on in their children’s lives and, for children too, to maybe get to know Grand Auntie Mary or Uncle Jimmy……. It was somewhat edifying then to see similar extended family groups lunching on recent Sundays around the country in both Garret Byrne’s Campagne in Kilkenny and VM Restaurant in Longford where Head Chef is Gary O’Hanlon. There is considerable competition between them when it comes to Restaurant Awards, and considerable discourse on the judging panels on which I also sit. In the RAI/Life Magazine Awards 2010 VM won Best Leinster Hotel Restaurant. In 2011 Garrett Byrne, who was ex Chapter One, pretty well swept the board winning Best Chef, Best Restaurant, and Best Customer Service in Leinster. In the recent Food & Wine Awards, Campagne won Best Leinster Restaurant but was also third overall in the country. Billy Whitty of Aldridge Lodge in Duncannon won Best Leinster chef with VM Restaurant being commended.
In 2008 I reviewed Byrne’s then new Campagne but, three years later, in a Sunday lunch at €23/€28 for 2/3 courses, I probably had one of the most perfect dining experiences I have had in a very long time. Starters included slow cooked rabbit paired with potato gnocchi, broad beans and basil, whilst spiced summer carrot soup had ricotta dumplings and wild garlic oil. A cracking crispy smoked haddock fishcake for Brendan was topped with poached organic egg and an ethereal golden yellow spring onion Hollandaise, whilst a rondelle of wood pigeon sausage, topped with an organic beetroot chutney, surrounded by celeriac puree and luscious sweet golden raisins, was just superb. Mains included slow cooked shoulder of spring lamb, peas, tomato braised carrots and rosemary jus, confit pork belly and sausage with stuffed cabbage, creamed lentils and apple chutney, whilst glazed cod was paired with Chinese cabbage, chicken dumpling, soy and ginger butter sauce. Brendan had “Mary Walsh’s free range chicken, cooked to golden perfection, sitting on a very French style combo of girolle mushroom, lettuce and smoked bacon, which was good enough to silence him for ten minutes! Fillet of sea bream was sitting on lovely salty samphire, with broad beans and a caper Hollandaise. With food so good I pursued with a very generous chocolate pot, in a flat French style brulee dish, topped with a big quenelle of Irish Mist cream and sprinkled with divine caramelised hazelnuts. With a good bottle of Alain Brumont Gros Manseng-Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (€27) our bill with optional service, which was superb, came to €85.05. This menu features also as their lunch menu from Friday to Sunday and also as their Early Bird. Ace.
VM Restaurant is a very attractive stone building on the grounds of James & Beryl Kearney’s beautiful Viewmount House in Longford. Sunday lunch here was €29 iand the food here was rich and rustic. I kicked off with rare breed pork cheek, soft and succulent, sitting on an apricot and apple salad, whilst himself had deep fried mushrooms in herb panko with dressed leaves and garlic mayonnaise. Mains included slow cooked Jacob’s Ladder (ribs) with horseradish potato, greens and truffle essence, Tory Island line caught cod Brandade with butternut squash, a Provencal vegetable lasagne. Brendan had two fab tender tranches of dry aged roast sirloin of Donald Russell beef, with a whopping great balloon of a Yorkshire pud and gravy, whilst I had a copious amount of pink roast leg of Irish Spring lamb circled on a mound of herby stuffing. We finished off with a crème brullee basket with curried icecream. Our bill with a bottle of Broglia Gavi (€19) and a large bottled water (€5) and optional service came to €92.
The autumn leaves are falling - get the family together……
Campagne,
The Arches,
5 Gashouse Lane,
Kilkenny City,
Co. Kilkenny.
Tel: (056) 777-2858
VM Restaurant,
Viewmount House,
Dublin Road,
Longford,
Co. Longford.
Tel: (043) 334-1919
UNEDITED VERSION OF ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 2011.