It can be a bit saddening to go away for a weekend to a beautiful hotel only to find that the food in their restaurant is nothing more than an offering of generic terrible fare that could be served up at the wedding that is happening in the adjoining marquee or function room. Thankfully, there are a couple of exceptions to this, none more so than The Lady Helen restaurant in the beautiful manor house in Kilkenny's Mount Juliet Estate. 

The Lady Helen is a fine dining restaurant serving modern, light and refined food using seasonal produce, some from the estate,  to create interesting and clever dishes. Our 6 course surprise tasting menu had some delightful offerings, including cod with cauliflower purée, which was lightened and elevated with the addition of a lime gel. Perfectly cooked quail with hazelnut and truffle was delicious and moreish. A crispy suckling pig with octopus was another pleasing and noteworthy dish. The best dish of the meal was one of the most memorable desserts we had in Ireland this year; slightly toasty and surprisingly light sugar tarte was extremely elegant and refined.

The cookery in The Lady Helen is very polished and it would be rare to find any major errors here. On the whole the servings are uncluttered with each dish well composed, but a serving of scallop, carrot, fennel, smoked eel and yuzo felt a bit like two dishes colliding with too many components on a plate. A nice finishing course of strawberry, white chocolate and green tea was delicate, summery and fragrant but maybe missing something to bring it all together and may have been better served before the sugar tarte instead of after.

The dining room is elegant and the service is friendly, whilst remaining professional. €99 euro for a 6 course menu (advertised as a 9 course menu, but that includes bouches, pre-desserts and petit-fours) is a bit on the high side, but you always pay a bit more in fine hotels. 

The Lady Helen is serving classical, but modern food with some clever little touches that elevate it to something a little bit interesting. The restaurant is an excellent example of what some of Ireland's best hotels get wrong: having a quality restaurant that lives up to it's surroundings.

L'Ecrivain on Dublin's Baggot Steet has been a stalwart among Dublin's top restaurants for more than two decades. Established in 1989 by Chef Derry Clarke and his wife Sallyanne, it has been a hallmark for quality ever since. However, over the last couple of years the restaurant was starting to go a little bit stale. The food was still very good, but it was safe, a little bit dated, the whole experience was a bit unmemorable and you got a sense that the kitchen and front of house were just going through the motions.

Perhaps fearing the same and so he could commit more time to his other pursuits, Clarke brought in Tom Doyle as head chef near the start of the year and with him came a new energy throughout the restaurant. Doyle, who was getting some acclaim for his work as head chef of Mulberry Garden, quickly imparted his own style and modernised the menu.

Clarke and Doyle's food style is quite different and there may have been a concern that this may have led to an incoherent menu, with dishes from both chefs trying to sit side by side. There is still a bit of a crossover at times, but a dish of foie gras, which has been a regular on Clarke's tasting menu, has been changed slightly. Now served with pickled cherries and gingerbread, it has been lightened and enhanced to be one of the best dishes on the tasting menu and shows that the two styles can align. The same can be said for a serving of smoked salmon, served simply with dill and horseradish, lightly smoked under a cloche.

The food in L'Ecrivain is now lighter, not heavily relying on butters or creams, but instead using oils and foams, (flavoursome foams done properly, not those bland types that collapse as soon as they are looked at), to add the moisture to a dish and making great use of acidity. The food is natural and the dishes are uncluttered with the quality of produce allowed to shine through on the plate. A serving of beautiful cooked quail with green beans and kale oil epitomised this pure, almost vegetal, style of cookery. 

Fermentation has started to appear on the menu giving an interesting depth to dishes. A serving of cucumber and fermented cabbage was delicious and it would be interesting to see fermentation explored further as, when done correctly, it has the potential to create a whole new flavour.

A dish of cod with smoked eel and beach herbs was dry, a bit dull and lacked cohesion; the one disappointment on an otherwise excellent tasting menu. Desserts are high quality too, the best being a beautifully light dessert of fromage blanc with apricot which imparted a subtle sweetness which worked well with the salty unami from the fromage.

The changes in the kitchen seems to have created energy and enthusiasm in the dining room too. The young service team are welcoming, knowledgeable and engaging with the right level of formality. L'Ecrivian's 6 course tasting menu for 75 euro represents excellent value for this quality of food.

L'Ecrivain is now a very interesting restaurant again, it has regained some of the relevance it has lost. When a restaurant has a Chef Patron like Derry Clarke, one of Ireland's greatest, and a head Chef like Tom Doyle, the next generation of top Irish chefs, then it already has a lot going for it and we will be watching to see if there is further progress to come.

Not long ago we were sitting in a restaurant in the south west of France eating a completely delicious and memorable meal. This wasn't a progressive, innovative, twenty course affair like some of the great meals we have had on our travels. This was three courses of classical French food delivered perfectly by a talented chef. We are talking the sort of food that they teach at the Cordon Bleu and that every French chef must master before delving into innovation. Noisettes of lamb, pink and tender, with moreish creamy potoato dauphinoise. Potato gratin with goats cheese. A simple but elegant gariguette tarte. When this food is done properly it is the sort of food you crave, the sort you look to when you have a bad day and need something comforting. We both remarked at the time that it such a pity that there is no restaurant in Dublin doing classical French food this well.

However, Campagne in Kilkenny city centre is doing so with aplomb. Chef Garrett Byrne, previously the head chef in Dublin's Chapter One, left the world of smears, foams and emulsions to go back to his native county and you get the impression he is cooking the food that means more to him.

Campagne uses seasonal and local ingredients to produce classically cooked and hearty dishes. Byrne utilises the whole of the animal and it is heartening to see under-used, so called, lesser cuts, some of which are not easy sells, appearing on his menu. Such as a first course of slightly crisp on the outside, but soft and tender in the middle, sweetbreads with pearl barley, it was rich and warming great first course. As was a ham and comte raviolo with creamed broad beans with a light mustard sauce. that cut through the natural saltiness of the ham. Main courses were hearty and indulgent, but everything was well executed. Perfectly cooked pigeon, peas a la Francaise with ham hock and potato boulangere was extremely moreish. A classic combination of duck, pink and tender, with cherries was decadent served with a creamy swede mash. 

Desserts were light and extremely tasty. An indulgent but airy chocolate souffle was not overly rich like many can be. Baked lemon cream with raspberries, not too sweet as to kill the lemon cream, was light and a refreshing end to the meal.

Restaurants like Campagne, cooking classical, comforting food are needed as much as progressive and innovate establishments, but for some reason they are few and far between in Ireland and most attempting it are not doing it right. Sadly, there is none, that we know of at least, doing it this well in Dublin.

If you read the review, over a year ago, of our last meal at Campagne you may have noticed that we were not as complimentary about it then. That is because the mains were very poor on that occasion and this food, if not executed properly, can quickly become ordinary. Thankfully there were no such errors on this years visit, but consistency may be an issue.

The service is casual, but professional, friendly and very welcoming with a hospitable neighbourhood feel. The value isn't bad either and is helped by a very reasonable wine list.

Campagne is a restaurant serving comforting, indulgent, generous, classical food, cooked with love and care by a talented chef. We left Campagne well fed, well watered, satisfied, nourished and happy, which is exactly what this restaurant is all about.