Lily's Blog

I’d been mulling over the idea of including restaurant reviews on the blog for a while. One of the biggest problem with doing so is that I’m a creature of habit, when I find somewhere I like, I tend to go there frequently. That wouldn’t be much use if doing reviews. Secondly I tend to have a preference for healthy, well prepared food, good value for money rather than glitz. Thirdly reviews can sometimes be boring. I could go on with the list against …

But I won’t. I’m going to include the occasional review. Who knows I might even discover new places

The ‘rents, as youngest mouse calls us, dropped said mouse to friends in Rosslare to go to see the other RENT, RENT the musical on Saturday night.

Lower case ‘rents decided to visit Kelly’s in Rosslare. This is a hotel I’ve heard lots about but had never visited. Its restaurant is one of those included in Zest cookery book. We hadn’t booked ahead as we were unsure of our exact plans and felt we wouldn’t have too much trouble in February, on the weekend after (the madness of) Valentine’s Day.

An article in yesterday’s Irish Times quotes Bill Kelly, the fourth generation of his family to run the hotel, who said they had a successful year last year and made a profit. This is good to hear in these tough economic times for hotels.

The only dinner bookings available were the first (6.30pm) sitting in “la Marine”, which they describe as a modern style French Bistro, tastefully decorated with an Open Wine Cellar serving traditional French and European dishes or the second sitting in Beaches restaurant, an elegant diningroom with a relaxing atmosphere surrounded by many paintings by Leading Artists.

Who says the recession is in Rosslare on a cold February evening. We opted for the later sitting among the paintings.

The bedroom was really nice and clean with all the usual. We didn’t come equipped so didn’t try out the leisure facilities.

The hotel is very family friendly. I love children but must admit that even I got a little bit tired of children running up and down the corridor outside our bedroom before dinner. Mental note made not to come here in peak season. I was almost glad that children were not allowed in Beaches restaurant.

Beaches restaurant was a big L-shaped open room. Oh yes there were paintings on the walls but it didn’t take from the canteen feel. Later I found out it can sit 250 – 300, the biggest dining room in Ireland apparently.

A look around at the clientele made me feel that I was at a Bank of Ireland or AIB AGM. I nearly expected someone to start giving out about the savaging their shares had taken. They didn’t though the shares did!

We were immediately seated. Menus were brought. We were asked what we would like to drink. Drinks were brought and then my next quibble. We were asked for our room number and sign for the pre-dinner drinks. Why could they not have been added to our food order?

With all the earlier talk of two sittings, with all the staff moving fast, with the sheer size of the room, I was beginning to feel like I was in a production process and that feeling never left me all night. An efficient production process but nevertheless a production process. As we looked at the menu, the table beside us was cleared. We were in a line of five tables for two, close together. I said to myself, great, now I’ll have a bit of breathing space. I shouldn’t have bothered. Within about five minutes, that table was re-set and two new operators were soon perusing menus.

We chose our food and menus were efficiently put back in a menu holder on the wall. I glanced around and saw another holder near the next set of tables.

I was beginning to want to jump off the conveyor.

The evening’s dinner menu consisted of a choice of eight starters, eight main courses and seven desserts including a selection of farm house cheeses. We had:

Crab Crème Brûlée with Picked Cucumber

Warm Mediterannean Style Bruschetta with Goats Cheese

Steamed Fillet of Hake with Shrimps and Bonne Femme Sauce

Roast Stuffed Saddle of Lamb with Mint Gravy, with vegetables in between!

Selection of Farm House Cheeses

I forgot to take a picture. As we often do, one of us had cheese and shared.

Golden Raisin Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Denis was really selfish here. He wouldn’t eat his share of dessert, poor me

Overall the food was good, good but not exceptional. The dinner menu cost €45. The high point was the Crab Crème Brûlée. The low points were poor bread selection, poor vegetable selection and they were served in cold dishes so cooled quickly. The three dishes of vegetables were 1) baton carrots and parsnips with three sugar snaps, 2) potatoes gratin dauphinois (lovely) and 3) mashed potatoes. If I’m to be really picky, the fish main course was described as ‘Steamed Fillet of Hake with Shrimps and Bonne Femme Sauce’. The stuffing included lots of crab meat, which hadn’t been included in the description. Since I had a crab starter, I would have chosen a different main course had I known.

By now you’ve guessed service was very efficient. So efficient that while we were eating main course, another chit, this time for bottle of wine, was brought to himself again looking for room number and signature. Said bottle of wine was lovely. A south African Pinotage, made from organic grapes, chosen by himself. Their wine list was very extensive, strong on French wines.

I watched the manager ‘work’ the room like a good politician.

By the end of the night I was longing to be in Fawlty Towers. I felt Bill Kelly (the owner) has the process so ship shape here, he should go and run the health service. I’m being harsh but …

Tea and coffee were served in the Ivy Lounge. I would normally hate this if I were enjoying a meal. It’s done to increase table turnover but since I wasn’t enjoying the ambience of the restaurant, I didn’t much mind moving down the conveyor to the Ivy Lounge.

I tried to have a word in this lady’s ear when passing. She just wouldn’t listen.

The Ivy Lounge had live music going. We ran out of the place.

Breakfast next morning was good, but again not exceptional. At the end of breakfast the chit comes again, ‘What’s your room number … can you please sign here’. This time it was for the Americano coffees we had ordered with breakfast. I queried this on grounds that I felt the rate we had paid for Dinner, Bed and Breakfast, (see below), surely could have accommodated this, plus no one mentioned an extra charge. The waitress looked unconvinced so I said don’t worry, I’d say it to the guy who looked and behaved like the Restaurant Manager. He said no problem.

After breakfast, I had a look at the art. Reception had a listing which was really useful, even if it was a bit out of date. The hotel has an amazing art collection numbering a few hundred pieces, displayed over walls in many rooms of the hotel. Paintings by Pauline Bewick, Louis Le Brocquy, Anne Madden, Charles Lambe, Maurice McGonigal, Andy Warhol, Graham Knuttle, pieces of sculpture by Rowan Gillespie and John Behan to just name a few. I was really sorry not to have had more time to have a better look.

I’ve had read lots of good reviews of Kelly’s hence why I wanted to come. I was underwhelmed. I sometimes think that one’s strengths can become one’s weaknesses. I feel this hotel has mastered the art of good food and service in volume. Therein lies the problem, To do volume one has to have a very efficient process. That very efficiency was the undoing of me. I won’t be back but I can guarantee you, Kellys needn’t worry about that because lots will.

Dinner (drinks not included), Bed and Breakfast for one night cost €275 and that was a special rate. Not good value in my book. Interestingly the €8.80 for the Americano coffees was on the bill, though we’d never signed the chit. Needless to say they removed it, once I pointed it out.

Despite the above, ‘rents enjoyed their short visit to Rosslare and youngest mouse had a great night at RENT.

Has anyone been to Kelly’s?