A self taught chef who trained as an artist, Kevin Murphy hasn’t looked back since he moved from Ballydavid into Dingle town’s ‘restaurant row’ in 2014 - and it seems fitting that Dingle’s most innovative young chef should have set up shop in pleasingly informal premises just across the road from the town’s original restaurant, Doyles.
Here, as well as bringing his followers with him, he’s introducing a whole new audience to a unique, deeply local and seasonal, style of cooking that has French influences at its heart but never stands still.
Local meats and seafoods star, with seaweed and other foraged foods playing great supporting roles in memorable, artfully presented dishes.
Menus move with the seasons but there are some signature dishes to look our for, and plenty that you won't see anywhere else. There's an extraordinary broth of foraged land and sea vegetables and wild herbs and Ballyhoura mushrooms (plus an optional Glenbeigh oyster at a small supplement), for example, and highly unusual vegetarian dishes such as 'Five preparations of the Allium family', with organic barley, nasturtia, charred baby leeks, chive oil and Pommes Anna.
Desserts are more classic - an apple terrine with pickled apple and Teeling whiskey ice cream, for example - although there will be some surprises there too.
The artists' eye is very much in evidence, with carefully selected pottery showing off the individuality of each dish - and a very nice final touch is the way the bill is enclosed in a menu 'envelope' so you have a memento of your meal to take home.
A must-visit restaurant for food lovers coming to Dingle.
