{"id":5001,"date":"2025-08-17T13:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/5001\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:37:13","slug":"the-best-places-to-eat-and-drink-in-kenmare-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/5001\/","title":{"rendered":"The best places to eat and drink in Kenmare \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no shortcut to Kenmare<\/a> \u2013 you\u2019ve got to earn it street by street. Past the houses still marked with an \u201cL\u201d over the door \u2013 the Lansdowne estate symbol \u2013 past the dates carved into granite lintels, past the shops run by the people who live above them. The Co Kerry<\/a> town shaped by continuity, where the line between home and business is often a staircase, and where almost everything worth eating is made by someone who lives within shouting distance of the kitchen. <\/p>\n

Karen Coakley\u2019s Kenmare Foodie Tours is the best way in. The stops change depending on the day, but what holds is the format: a short walk, a direct introduction, a story and a lot of food. <\/p>\n

The Brennans are first. At Brook Lane Hotel, it\u2019s a husband-and-wife team. \u00dana runs the floor and Dermot does the food \u2013 not just in the kitchen, but on the land. Their saddleback pigs are raised a few kilometres away, free-range and fed seaweed for immunity. They\u2019re slaughtered locally, and Dermot processes the meat himself \u2013 the white pudding, the sausages, the terrines. The tasting on the tour, hosted by their daughter, Megan, includes slow-cooked pork ribs, a sausage roll \u2013 rich, flaky, pork\u2013heavy \u2013 and a warm slice of pudding with a house\u2013made brown sauce. At their town restaurant, No 35, the same pork turns up as burgers, roast joints and black pudding salad. <\/p>\n

The next stop is Heidi Ryan\u2019s, a food shop named after the owners\u2019 grandmothers \u2013 Heidi and Ryan. Sabine von Burg is Swiss and Aidan Slevin is from Tipperary. The shop began as a farmers\u2019 market stall. It\u2019s now one of the best food shops in Ireland, in terms of both sourcing and simplicity. Vegetables come from Billy Clifford and from Mary, a grower in Killarney. There are duck eggs, foraged mushrooms, apple juice from nearby farms and vinegar by Fionnt\u00e1n Gogarty, who left architecture for fermentation after the crash. Charcuterie is by Olivier Boucher, and cheeses by Gubbeen, Coolea, Durrus and Lost Valley Dairy. Everything is sold by weight or portion \u2013 minimal packaging, no waste. If you want a wedge of cheese, you say how much. <\/p>\n

Then to Maison Gourmet. It\u2019s a small, daytime cafe with highly coveted outdoor seats and an indoor seating area to the back. It looks like a French patisserie because it is \u2013 started in 2016 by Emma and Patrick Peuch, who moved to Kenmare when their sons began working at The Park Hotel (one a chef, one in training). <\/p>\n

They launched with one French pastry chef. Now, during high season, the team runs to more than 20, with a full rota of overnight bakers and counter staff. The croissants are laminated with French butter \u2013 they tried Kerrygold early on, but it was too soft to hold structure. The starter for the sourdough is kept alive daily \u2013 even taken on holiday. Cakes, tarts, brioches and patisserie are made fresh on site, and there is a tantalising array of millefeuille, pear amandine, strawberry tarts and eclairs in the glass display shelves. <\/p>\n

From pastry to chocolate. Benoit Lorge, from Lorraine in France, and his partner, Yolanda Serrano from Madrid, run a tiny chocolate shop, Lorge Chocolatier, farther down the street, offering some of Ireland\u2019s best small\u2013batch chocolates. They are produced less than a kilometre from where they\u2019re sold. The tasting includes milk chocolate with local cream, dark chocolate with tonka bean, and black garlic praline that is intense and balanced, not at all gimmicky. Lorge uses beans from west Cork roaster Dave Barber and Beara sea salt in his caramels. The hot chocolate is made from couverture and draws swimmers and walkers year round. <\/p>\n

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Blasta Cafe is run by Martin Hallissey, in the house where he grew up. His mother is Maura Foley, one of Kenmare\u2019s most renowned chefs. She headed up the kitchen at The Limetree before moving on in the 1990s to open Packie\u2019s. Hallissey subsequently took over as chef there. It has since closed, and his new environment is filled with pastries \u2013 savoury and sweet \u2013 from pork and leek swirls in puff pastry to rhubarb crumble tartlets and bread-and-butter pudding with raspberries. Cakes include old\u2013school favourites like lemon drizzle cake, rhubarb and almond, and chocolate biscuit cake. There are a few seats outside, perfect for people watching as you eat. <\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick and Emma Puech, who came to Kenmare to visit their son seven years ago, and never left, opening Maison Gourmet on Henry Street. Photograph: Valerie O’Sullivan \"ChocolatierChocolatier Benoit Lorge at work on a giant Easter egg. Photograph: Andrew Downes \"MartinMartin Hallissey at Blasta cafe <\/p>\n

The last stop on the tour is the Tom Crean Brewery. It\u2019s run by Aileen Crean O\u2019Brien and her husband, Bill Sheppard, and is named after Aileen\u2019s grandfather, the Antarctic explorer. The beers are brewed on site, powered by solar, and infused with story as much as flavour. Their Expedition Red Ale marked the family\u2019s own journey to South Georgia. Kerry Surf & Turf is brewed with seaweed and boiled turf to give an ancient taste of Kerry. Six Magpies Stout and St Brigid\u2019s Lager both picked up national awards. All the beers are additive\u2013free, vegan and brewed in small batches in a modest space behind the restaurant. The taproom is open 5pm\u20137pm and Saturday tours run at 3pm. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the loop. And it\u2019s not just a trail of independent producers \u2013 it\u2019s a mirror of the town. Nearly every stop is run by a couple, or is a generational handover, or someone who came here once, fell for the town and simply never left. <\/p>\n

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Across the street from the Tom Crean Brewery, the Lansdowne Hotel is where you stay if you want to be in the middle of it all. Patrick and Aileen Hanley took it over in 2024. It was where Patrick grew up; his mother used to cook in the hotel when he was young. There\u2019s no spa, no pool \u2013 just good rooms, a relaxed cafe and the Shelbourne Street restaurant, which has a separate entrance from the street. <\/p>\n

The Nead, the light\u2011flooded hotel cafe, serves an impressive full Irish breakfast using quality produce and has an all\u2011day menu. The outside terrace \u2013 which captures the sun early in the day \u2013 is particularly popular. <\/p>\n

The Shelbourne Street Restaurant is quite a step above what you might expect \u2013 more town restaurant than hotel diningroom. On the menu you will find dishes such as chicken liver p\u00e2t\u00e9 with Heir Island bread (Aileen trained there), Tom Crean lager\u2011battered cod and a particularly good smoked bacon chop with charred cabbage. It\u2019s the sort of unfussy food that you often want to eat on holiday, and clearly there\u2019s a competent chef in the kitchen. <\/p>\n

\"DiningDining at the Park Hotel, Kenmare <\/p>\n

Across the road, Park Hotel Kenmare changed hands<\/a> in late 2023, when Bryan Meehan acquired the property from the Brennan brothers. Since then the art collection \u2013 which is being added to on what seems like a daily basis \u2013 immediately signals a big change in direction. Gone are the ancestral portraits and in come Dorothy Cross, Sean Scully and Theaster Gates. The first piece to go up \u2013 The Rose by Michael Craig\u2011Martin \u2013 replaced a Victorian portrait, a relic of English rule. More than 80 works hang throughout the hotel, with a guided art tour running daily. Gates\u2019s powerful work, made from repurposed fire hoses of the kind once turned on civil rights protesters, and Dorothy Cross\u2019s foxglove bronze, cast from her own fingers, are prominent in the lobby. <\/p>\n

The fine-dining restaurant, The Landline (which is open to non\u2011residents), takes its name from a Scully painting and matches the tone with its food. Dinner might open with a seaweed tart filled with crab. Local prawns are paired with confit chicken, and a pea velout\u00e9 is poured tableside over the ham hock. A lamb dish includes rump, sausage and shoulder inside a morel, and the meal finishes with a beautiful raspberry souffl\u00e9 with cr\u00e8me Anglaise and ice cream. <\/p>\n

\"BrendanBrendan Byrne at Lagom Restaurant, Henry Street. Photograph: Valerie O’Sullivan \"SheenSheen Falls Hotel, Kenmare <\/p>\n

Just around the corner, Brendan and Liz Byrne run Lagom. The name comes from the Swedish word meaning \u201cjust the right amount\u201d \u2013 a guiding principle here. The space reflects it with pale woods, birch saplings, soft light and clean lines. The menu is short, the food cooked almost entirely on a Big Green Egg. A squid ink crab croustade with cucumber and dillisk is sharp and theatrical. Goat\u2019s cheese tortellini arrive in beetroot borscht. A lamb rump is oak\u2011seared and plated with cannelloni and roast apple. Vegetables get equal billing \u2013 miso\u2011glazed carrots, baby broccoli and great roast potatoes. Dessert is a semifreddo with Champagne\u2011marinated rhubarb, served as an \u201ciceberger\u201d sandwich between slices of gingerbread. A wonderful way to finish. <\/p>\n

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Sheen Falls Lodge sits just outside town, with a spectacular view overlooking the river Sheen. Mark Treacy is head chef at The Falls restaurant, delivering precise, produce\u2011led dishes rooted in classical technique. The large terrace at the more casual restaurant, The Stable Brasserie, is a bit of a secret, so worth heading to on a sunny day when outside tables are perpetually full in Kenmare. Farther afield is The Boathouse Bistro on the waterfront at Dromquinna Manor estate. <\/p>\n

Up early, Bean & Batch is where you go for coffee and breakfast. Jamie O\u2019Connell and his husband, John Hallissey, opened it in 2022. The ovens in their nearby bakery crank up at 3.30am. The egg salad sandwich is delicious in that old\u2011fashioned way \u2013 chopped egg, tomato, onion, and lettuce on white batch bread. Sausage rolls are pork and apple, wrapped in crisp pastry. Lemon tarts layer curd and sponge. John\u2019s mother\u2019s apple tart is always on. Definitely one to order. <\/p>\n

For something old\u2011school and with a view, head to Josie\u2019s, looking out on to Glanmore Lake with a stunning backdrop of the Caha Mountains. There are picnic benches for al-fresco dining, and a south\u2011facing window catches the evening light. The well\u2011priced menu includes langoustines in garlic butter, fish and chips and a memorable dish of Irish stew with deeply flavoured lamb. Dessert is a jelly\u2011heavy trifle, which could do with a further splash of sherry for a truly home-made flavour. <\/p>\n

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Farther west, Helen\u2019s Bar sits close to the water at Kilmackillogue Harbour, with a substantial number of picnic tables on Bunaw Pier. The open crab sandwich on soda bread with Marie Rose sauce and salad is the thing to order. Mussels, scallops, and fish and chips round out the menu. <\/p>\n

From there, head down the coast road to An S\u00edb\u00edn in Lauragh \u2013 a former 1762 coaching inn now run by Katherine Murphy as an atmospheric wine bar and restaurant, with stone walls, wood\u2011burning stove and low ceilings. The menu mixes local with farther afield: house\u2011made ravioli, flatbreads, jam\u00f3n Ib\u00e9rico, braised beef, mussels, and fish and chips. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn Sib\u00edn \"TheThe Buddhist centre of Dzogchen Beara in Co Cork offers stunning views of Bantry Bay. Photograph: Photographicmemory.ie <\/p>\n

For another kind of detour, head to Dzogchen Beara, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat at Garranes on the Beara Peninsula. Set on 150 acres, it has a spectacular view overlooking the Atlantic. It was founded in 1974 by Peter and Harriet Cornish, who donated the property to a charitable trust; it is a joy to know that the expanse of ethereal beauty will be preserved. The vegetarian cafe serves soups and salads made from what\u2019s grown on\u2011site, with freshly made bread. You can stay the night if there are cottages available, or just eat and walk. <\/p>\n

Finally there\u2019s a bottle of vermouth that turns up on several drinks lists around Kenmare \u2013 and on Karen\u2019s tour if the timing\u2019s right. Valentia Island Vermouth is made by Anna and Orla Snook O\u2019Carroll, who began by steeping foraged gorse and orange peel in jam jars in their kitchen. Their flagship white, called \u00d3r for its lovely golden colour, now ships nationwide and many of Kenmare\u2019s restaurants, including Mulcahy\u2019s and An S\u00edb\u00edn Winebar, stock it. Ask for a V&T and you\u2019re in for a treat. <\/p>\n

The vermouth is made with a base of organic Verdejo wine, blended with wormwood, gentian root, heather and about 20 other botanicals. Everything is cold\u2011infused \u2013 no stills, no boiling, no artificial shortcuts. Their small production unit on the Kerry coast beside the Valentia ferry is closed to the public, but they have plans to open a visitors\u2019 centre. Their red vermouth, Rua, is in development, built around rose, vanilla and dark chocolate. <\/p>\n

What marks Kenmare out isn\u2019t just the quality of the cooking \u2013 though that\u2019s high \u2013 but how much of it comes from people who\u2019ve been doing it here for decades: families who breed pigs, bake the bread, ferment the vinegar and cure the charcuterie. You eat here and you taste the hands that made it \u2013 sometimes still flour\u2011dusted, sometimes pouring pints of stout brewed in the shed out the back. <\/p>\n

Walk the streets and you\u2019ll find chefs cooking in the houses they grew up in, chocolate made a kilometre from where it\u2019s sold, sourdough starters with their own passport. It\u2019s not manufactured \u2013 it\u2019s Kenmare. And that\u2019s what makes it better. <\/p>\n

Corinna Hardgrave was a guest of The Park and Lansdowne Hotel<\/p>\n

Where to eat and stay in Kenmare <\/p>\n