A sublime country house
Returning for the first time since it was awarded its Michelin star, once again, Lucinda O’Sullivan was blown away by the service, style and cuisine at the Lady Helen, Mount Juliet Hotel’s fabulous fine-dining restaurant
Mount Juliet, to my mind, is the quintessential country house — its Georgian wisteria-clad portico and frontage never fail to impress me on arrival. It’s grand in a sense, but it’s not so big or overtly ostentatious as to be intimidating and, although a hotel for many years, it’s never lost the feel of still being a home, a rather posh home.
It’s a real-life Downton Abbey experience, where solicitous members of staff look after you, just as they might have in the days when it belonged to the Earls of Carrick and, subsequently, the McCalmont family. Now owned by Tetrarch Capital, which numbers The Marker, Mount Wolseley and the Powerscourt Hotel among its portfolio, the house has had a superb refurbishment, and 90 extra bedrooms are being added in the Hunter’s Yard.
I’ve dined in the beautiful Lady Helen restaurant on many occasions and the food was always very good, but not on a seriously competitive culinary scale. However, three or four years ago, there was a noticeable drive and ambition emanating from the kitchen, under the baton of then Head Chef Cormac Rowe and Sous Chef Ken Harker, their efforts being acknowledged in 2014 with their first Michelin Star. Rowe departed Mount Juliet last year for the bright lights of Dubai, and Ken Harker is now head chef.
It was clear, as I returned for the first time since the Lady Helen recieved its prestigious award, that it was on point on all levels — from service, led that evening by Eoin O’Neill; to the exquisite food.
A Signature Tasting Menu of seven courses was €75, with wine pairings available at €42 per person; while a Chef ’s Signature Surprise Nine-Course Tasting Menu at €99, had wine pairings at €58 per person. We chose instead from the table d’hote, with two/ three-courses at €65/€75, including scallops; veal sweetbreads; and quail starters; plus mains of rabbit and langoustine; rose veal; and Challans duck.
Mind you, we were so spoiled with little ‘amuses’ and ‘finishers’, it was a tasting experience in itself. A creamy cheese cracker was followed by a sublime sweet and ‘foresty’-textured white onion panna cotta, which was topped with Asian beech mushroom and crispy toasted sourdough cubes.
My superb king crab starter, in two elements, had the Alaskan delicacy contrasted with colourful fine ribbons, spools and blobs, involving fennel, tomato, yuzu, cucumber and radish, with a yuzu pouring sauce. A second plate had the crab encased in a tomato jellied essence. Brendan had foie gras, which was equally beautiful, with dabs, quenelles and splashes of apple and almond, and a Pedro Ximenez jus. I followed up with rolls of black sole, gnocchi lozenges, brown butter, caper emulsion and chicken jus, each element meticulously embossed, or browned, to within a millimetre of the desired shade of perfection.
Brendan’s suckling pig — a vision — was served with pork belly, charred octopus, soya-apple balls, shitake mushrooms and folds of dark-green cabbage leaves. I finished with a vibrant plate of ‘citrus textures’ with all manner of avocado, Champagne, Tokaji essencia and orange muscat, by way of foams, sorbets, and ‘lacquered’ panna cottas.
Would we have coffee and petits fours? Of course we would. More heavenly artistic treats, by way of a gold chocolate bar, a pink marshmallow knot, studded nougat, lime jelly, a red macaron…
With a delicious, fruity Domaine des Lauriers Viognier 2014 (€40) and optional service, the bill came to €198, which, at this level of dining, was superb value. Lady Helen Mount Juliet, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. Tel: (056) 777-3000 mountjuliet.ie lucindaosullivan.com