“To create simple but refined dishes using only the very best local ingredients” is the philosophy of Cathy and Jane Farrell spacious, informal cafe-restaurant, just off Gorey’s Main Street.
It's a large space divided into two areas, so families with children can be directed to one area and adults only to another. A central desk with newspapers for punters and a wine and cookie store divides the two spaces and the decor is a cheerful mixum-gatherum of unmatched but comfortable tables and chairs, with the kitchen partly in view. A couple of pavement tables are available too, in fine weather.
The Kitchen is open all day from lunchtime onwards, offering everything from an impressive tea menu and homemade cakes and cookies to wide-ranging lunches and dinners, when you can have anything from a light snack, to pizzas (served stylishly on wooden platters from an on-view wood-fired oven), or choices from a short but well-balanced menu.
Here you will find some dishes that offer more formal dining (with a complimentary bowl of olives, but no breads, offered) while others are more casual - the soup, pie, salad, and tart and dessert of the day - and there’s also a children's menu. There’s a daily roast served between 12 and 4, where you might have slow cooked Wexford beef from the wood fire, Slaney Valley lamb, or O’Neill’s dry-cured bacon.
Although the ambience and long opening hours make it popular as a drop-in daytime place, evening meals have finesse, and well-sourced, mainly local, ingredients - such as Wexford beef, fish from Kilmore Quay, Chulchoill goats cheese from Tipperary and Silverhill duck - are cooked with care. Or, for a lighter bite, The Kitchen Sharing Platter includes a delicious savoury selection - Gubbeen Smokehouse chorizo, BBQ pork ribs, Parma ham, Tipperary yoghurt labneh, Dungarvan Blonde beer battered squid - served with a pesto duo and wood-fired breads.
Starters might include the Dungarvan Blonde beer battered squid and McCarrons wood-fired pork ribs, and there’s a good choice of mains - Serrano ham wrapped Irish pork fillet comes with prune stuffing, sautéed green cabbage and oyster mushrooms, parsnip purée and Maddons cider jus, for example,or perhaps Angus chargrilled beef burger with Coolattin cheddar served on a Waterford blaa. Pizzas from the wood-fired oven are special and you won’t find the average range of pizzas here, where toppings include Irish chicken and Gubbeen Smokehouse chorizo with caramelised onion and red pepper, and Kilmore Quay seafood with haddock, prawns, cod and salmon.
To round off an excellent meal, there's a choice of about six desserts including Storm in a Teacup (cheesecake delightfully served in a china teacup) and Pineapple tarte tatin, which is served with Coolhull Farm's coconut icecream. The wine list is shortish, but offers enough choice.
Unsurprisingly, when covering such a wide range of options from the simple to a full dinner menu, the price range varies quite a bit when eating here. However, as both the cooking and careful sourcing of high quality foods are consistent, the value is always good - and, although almost everything is cooked to order, service is prompt and friendly.
A place well worth seeking out.
