Loam – Galway

On July 25th, we headed west after leaving work early. We were doing part of the Wild Atlantic Way, beginning in Galway and ending in Sligo. Our first destination in Galway was dinner in Loam, one of the two Michelin star restaurants in the city. We had been meaning to visit for years because we had heard the seasonal nature of the menu was a huge selling point. They only use what’s in season so the menu changes quite often. The last time we were in Galway, it was booked out but this was a Wednesday evening so we had no issues.

After chatting to food critic Leslie Williams at an event a few weeks before, he recommended going while it was still summer to get the brightest experience before the winter vegetables kick in.

The food was stunning, easily the second best in Ireland after Chapter One in Dublin. I haven’t written about Chapter One yet as I’ve only been once and despite having a mouth infection which seriously affected my sense of taste, it was still the best food I had ever had. Loam is close in terms of food but it just lacks the cosy atmosphere of Chapter One. Another thing is that they only seem to serve wine. I saw no evidence of beer or spirits in the restaurant or on the menu. To me, that misses the mark when it comes to a gastronomical experience. Wine and food make a great pairing but beer is just as good and even better than wine in certain instances.

Rant about lack of beer over, we did of course opt for the wine experience with the tasting menu. This gave us a small glass of wine with 5 of our 6 courses. Why one course was missing, I’m not sure. It was a dessert but I feel a port or possibly a sherry might have worked nicely here.

My overall thought about Loam as this. Go for the food, not for the atmosphere. There’s no real atmosphere in Loam, the hush is like that of a library. The building has an industrial feel. There’s no real warmth in the place. The staff are knowledgeable and our wine sommellier was clearly an expert but also entertaining.

The food is the hero in Loam. It seems simple on the face of it but what arrives is anything but simple. One note about our menu is the second course. Described as squid, shiitake and egg, this was an orgasmic experience. The squid had been turned in to a thin pasta. I imagine the calamari rings were placed in a pasta machine and rolled out to make them long and thin. The broth was just exquisite. I’m only sorry I didn’t take a photo of that dish as it was my overall favourite and I could easily have enjoyed a large portion of it as a main course.

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I was in Waterford this weekend for my very own stag. There were only 6 of us and we are all at an age where keeping things civil and relaxed is our preference. I booked Bodéga and La Bohème, two of the best restaurants in town for lunch and dinner respectively. Lunch was at Bodega and I can heartily recommend it. Their food is delicious and unpretentious and satisfied us all. I can’t comment on what it’s like for dinner but I imagine it’s very good.

I had booked La Bohème for the Saturday night dinner but when my friend and I arrived on the train in to Waterford on Friday night, we were met with Indian restaurants and uninviting hotel restaurants along the quays so we turned a corner and there was La Bohème so we decided to try and get a table which luckily we were able to do.

I have to say, while we were both famished, we didn’t want a massive meal so we skipped a starter and just ordered main courses. I went for the rib-eye because the makings of a good restaurant is how well they do their rib-eye. Thankfully, mine arrived cooked to perfection, exactly as I ordered it. The meat was tasty and I was happy with my choice. It also meant I could indulge a little more the next evening. My friend for some reason decided to play it safe and ordered the free range chicken breast. He said it was lovely but at the end of the day, it’s chicken and I know what he means. No one ever gets excited about chicken in the food world, though I personally get excited about a well roasted chicken or good chicken wings. That’s different though, that’s a more primal excitement than a snobby foodie excitement.

I have to say, we both felt completely under dressed  at La Bohème. We were in jeans and t-shirts with back packs. In fact, my t-shirt had the word Beer printed in large letters. It goes on to say makes the world go round. We also didn’t order wine which is the done thing in a fancy restaurant. Instead, we ordered local Metalman beers. I ordered Heatsink, their smoked chilli porter as it would pair well with my steak. My friend went with Equinox, their wheat lager which would work very well with chicken or white fish.

After this, we moved on to the recently opened Metalman Bar down the road which I absolutely recommend.

The next evening, six of us arrived in for dinner at 6:30, though actually it was closer to 7 since we were across the road in Tully’s bar finishing off the Ireland vs France rugby match so needless to say, we arrived in to the restaurants in high spirits after Johnnie Sexton cemented his name in sporting history with a last second drop goal to win the match.

I was very tempted to order the pork belly but that’s what I had for lunch so I decided to try something else. Simply because it sounded interesting, I ordered the Trilogy of Creme Brulée of local Crabmeat, House Smoked Salmon, Citrus Gravadlax, Sweet Potato Waffle. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get but when it arrived, I was happy with my choice. I might only question the waffle as it really didn’t add anything to the experience and just seemed odd. It also slightly cheapened the look of the dish I thought.

I had already decided the night before that my meal that evening would be Barbary duck. I was asked how I would like it and said medium-rare but added that I would take it however Chef recommends. The duck comes with a lovely braised red cabbage, a little poached pear and a ginger and honey sauce. I should also add that all main courses come with a selection of seasonal vegetable and potato of the day. I skipped dessert and had an Irish coffee instead.

After we were finished, it was back to Tully’s for a few before going back to the Metalman Bar until closing time.

I just wanted to add one other thing about Waterford. The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and had a wonderful breakfast at Hook & Ladder. After this, we walked down to the Viking quarter and came across this giant, wooden Viking sword which has been carved from an entire tree. It’s absolutely massive and even has the base/roots still attached. I highly recommend taking a look if you are in Waterford.

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Image from l’Ecrivain website

Being a fine dining restaurant, I didn’t feel it appropriate to be snapping pictures on either of my two visits there with one exception. I took a picture of my tasting menu last year so I could recall what I was eating. The good thing about l’Ecrivain is that there seems to be an ever present deal available on certain deal websites. I made use of one such voucher in April last year and took my now fiancé to dinner.

The tasting menu above is what I had last year and it was delicious in almost every way. It was my first time in a Michelin star restaurant at the time and the attention to detail by the staff was clinical. Without being obtrusive, they were there every time a glass needed filling or if I left crumbs on the table, they were there to clear it up. Everything from the food  to the service was clinical.

Both myself and my fiancé then won gift vouchers for l’Ecrivain a few months ago which totalled €300 so we decided to bring her sister and fiancé for dinner on Tuesday gone. It was the first time meeting my future brother in law and we had a great time. On this occasion, we opted for the regular seasonal menu and it’s a shame I didn’t take a picture of it. While the tasting menu is €90, the regular dinner menu is only €75 and to be honest, it was actually far superior. This worked out because the €300 voucher would cover our 4 dinners in terms of food so all we would need to pay for is drinks.

To start, I ordered a lobster risotto. Now, I don’t actually like lobster very much. I find the meat too sweet for my palate but I do like risotto so I gave it a chance. I’m glad I did because it was outstanding in every way.

For my main course, I bucked the steak trend everyone else went with and ordered the Sika deer. It was melt in the mouth perfection. Of course I tasted the steak which was also fantastic but this was without doubt, the most tender deer I’ve ever had.

My dessert was a cheese board which I paired with the leftovers of my Paddy Borthwick Pinot Noir and then a bottle of Westmalle Dubbel and Lagavulin 16 year Scotch. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening. It’s also worth noting that in between courses, we were given little palate cleansing dishes. One was a steamed oyster which was lovely, then there was some kind of raspberry sorbet and at the start, there was an amuse bouche which I don’t recall I’m afraid.

One thing I did notice, and perhaps it was just me, is the service. It wasn’t as clinical as last year. There were delays this time. Now, we are not talking the sort of delays I would unfortunately expect from the average Irish restaurant, merely that they weren’t quite as on the ball as my first experience. They even served the wrong starters between the sisters. No big deal of course, it was rectified after a few moments but perhaps that’s the kind of thing that could potentially lose you a Michelin star?

To be clear, the service was exemplary both times, it was just slightly less so on Tuesday.

Overall, l’Ecrivain is a fantastic restaurant in Dublin and one that is worth the odd visit, especially if you manage to get a meal deal or are lucky enough to win a gift voucher.

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I was kindly invited along to the launch of the new Morelands Grill on Westmoreland street. It’s actually beside/part of the Westin hotel but also serves as its own entity rather than simply being another hotel restaurant. It has its own separate entrance which highlights that point.

Inside is tastefully decorated but since I was at the launch where all of the seating was in use when I arrived, I spent my time standing. The first two images are media images from the press release to help highlight the food and interior.

The highlight of the restaurant is the Spanish style josper grill, yeah I had to google it. Apparently it’s some kind of indoor BBQ which is like a combination of an oven and a grill. It chars meat at up to 500c which apparently encloses all of the flavour. The end result is a mouth watering experience, or so all of the spiel says. It looks like the Morisson hotel also has a josper. Above you will see the menu of small bites that were floating around. I had the tiger prawn skewer, salt aged steak and mini burger along with the sundae. All were delicious but the steak blew both myself and Pauline away.

It’s rib eye that has been aged for 30 days on Himalayan salt. The salt removes the excess water and allows the enzymes to do their work and break down the tissue. The result is usually expensive but juicy and delicious.

The steak is sourced from McLoughlins Butchers in Ballyfermot, an award winning butchers since 1965. They in turn source it from Peter Hannan in Northern Ireland. Pat was there himself explaining the ageing process that Peter uses but rather than relay it third hand, here’s a link to their website which seems to explain the process.

There’s an excellent wine menu available and we were treated to a couple. The red was Domaine de Valmoissine Pinot Noir which according to their menu is €43.50 per bottle. It was a bit on the fruity side for my taste. They also served a decent Chardonnay which seems to be €39 per bottle. Both of these wines came under the brand of Louis Latour. They were also doing gin cocktails but I didn’t venture over to get any as I was happy with the wine choice. I didn’t come across any beer options which is a pity. As far as I’m concerned, any restaurant that’s not promoting beer to match their food is missing out but I’ll gloss over that since this is a pretty much beer free blog. If you want to read my thoughts on beer, go to taleofale.com

Now, something to add here. Since we were only getting small bites, essentially samples of items on their full menu, we didn’t feel like we had eaten a good dinner so we left and headed to Marco Pierre White’s for some, you guessed it, salt aged rib eye steak. Marco’s steak was delicious but we both agreed that it actually wasn’t as good as the small pieces we were served at Morelands so we definitely want to go back there and try a full dinner as that steak was just amazing.

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