I regularly get asked if I get rumbled when I visit a restaurant, and the answer is usually no. I book anonymously under a fairly innocuous name so I don’t attract attention. If it’s in a hotel, I stay elsewhere. But there are a few front-of-house people in the industry who know all the critics. Once you’ve arrived, all the kitchen can do is their very best. If the food takes a while, it’s probably because a dish has been pulled at the pass and started again.
Let’s say my alias is Madeleine Baker (not one of my real pseudonyms) and I’m just about to pull the door closed in our camper van to head to Westport to visit Black Sheep, the restaurant in the newly opened hotel The Grace. After a few missed calls and texts, it emerges the restaurant is closed for refurbishment on the day I’ve booked because of a glitch in the booking system. They couldn’t be nicer nor more apologetic, even offering a complimentary dinner in their other restaurant for the inconvenience. It is all sorted when I discover that the restaurant will reopen on the final night of my stay in Westport.
When I arrive, I’m expecting a big “Hello, Mad Baker”. We’re practically besties by now. The greeting is enthusiastic, but no one calls me Madeleine from that point on. I suspect my cover has been blown.
The opening of The Grace Hotel, backed by the Hughes family, is big news in Westport. When Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, visited Aughagower, the Mayo village where his paternal grandparents were born, he stayed there. Its ambition is to become Mayo’s second five-star hotel, after Ashford Castle.
The restaurant is a large, plush room. The bar sits to the left of the reception desk at the entrance. Beyond it, leafy trees break up the diningroom into booths and smaller tables. It feels warm and a touch moody, with muted burgundy leather banquettes, echoed by a darker tone on the ceiling. Wide-planked oak flooring, teal leather chairs and a wall of mirrors keep the darker palette from becoming heavy.
Executive chef Martin O’Donnell, formerly of Blackrock Cottage in Salthill and The Twelve Hotel in Barna, brings considerable experience to the kitchen here, delivering a menu that is strong on meat and seafood, marrying classical technique with local produce. It has been a hot day, so we opt for fish, choosing a Gorgorita Verdejo (€38), a crisp white wine from Rueda in Spain. It’s a food-friendly list, including wines with an Irish connection – Les Deux Cols and wines from Ballyhaunis-born Master of Wine Róisín Curley.
Six oysters (€21) from Padraig Gannon’s oyster farm nearby are served hot and cold – tempura style and with a Vietnamese dressing. The three hot oysters are plump in a light batter; a splash of ponzu on the side wouldn’t go amiss for a hit of citrus. I prefer the raw oysters, slicked with a Vietnamese-style dressing of ginger, cane sugar, fish sauce and Tosazu vinegar, then topped with pea shoots and crisp threads of deep-fried shallot and chilli.
Atlantic whole sole (€46) is served on the bone, perfectly cooked and dressed with a beurre noisette of baby shrimp, capers and herbs. The side of triple-cooked chips (€6) is very good and arrives hot and salted.
And then there’s the lobster (€48), hauled by small boats off Achill, delivered directly to the kitchen door and poached in butter. It’s served out of the shell, with the whole tail and a claw over a large smoked squash raviolo, alongside two rounds of squash in a creamy bisque. The lobster is beaut…