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.

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.

Click here for a more recent review of Campagne.
Click here for a more recent review of Lady Helen.

We have been promising to get out of Dublin a bit more this year and sample more restaurants from around the country. Well, finally we made a couple of journeys down to Kilkenny to try Lady Helen at Mount Juliet and Campagne near the centre of Kilkenny.

First up was a night in Mount Juliet. We like staycations and take one several times a year, so the idea of going to a beautiful hotel, with one of the best golf courses in Ireland plus the possibility of an excellent restaurant was an exciting prospect.

Driving up the long avenue towards Mount Juliet House it is easy to see that the grounds are being well cared for - something that cannot be said for other resorts of this type in Ireland over the last few years. Mount Juliet House itself still has the old world charm and luxury. Our room was extremely comfortable and well furnished, but with the odd sign of ageing creeping in. The staff throughout the hotel were friendly and welcoming. All this got our hopes up for a great meal when we went down for dinner in the front room of this old Georgian Manor house. 

In a hotel that has kept the feeling of a bygone time, with their beautifully preserved lobby, bar and drawing rooms, you would be forgiven for expecting the food to be traditional and maybe even a bit safe. But the food in Lady Helen Restaurant was more modern than the surroundings.
Many courses were seasonal and, in the main, light, fresh and befitting of a hot summer's night. The first two courses demonstrated this well. An elevated beetroot and goats cheese salad was a great start, but despite being served with some well measured components, maybe needed a little something extra to lift it to more than just a beetroot and goats cheese salad. The next course was just as good, but with lobster that was just a little tough and not as soft as it should be.

The best dish was maybe the most technical and most challenging. Turbot, foie gras and beluga lentils are not easy ingredients to marry. It would be easy for the turbot to get lost with the foie gras and, even more so, with the strong taste of lentils. But the delicate fish with the high quality, almost sweet, foie gras, worked wonderfully with the earthiness of the lentils.

The next dish divided our opinion slightly. We agreed that the duck breast was perfectly cooked and beautifully tender, but it was the accompaniments that had us squabbling. Bulgar wheat, Ras el Hanout and rhubarb was, for one of us, too sharp and powerful for the duck, but, for the other, worked very well. You will have to make your own mind up on that one!

The two desserts on our tasting menu were very good. A baked lemon cream was light and cleansing, served with lovely a goats curd parfait. We usually are not a fan of fruit sorbets with a lemon based dessert, but the raspberry sorbet worked, especially with the yuzu gel. A second dessert of strawberries (farmed and wild) and pistachio was summery and light - a nice end to a meal.

The amuse bouche of lobster veloute and crab cake was just ok. A carrot sorbet and mandarin jelly was clever and the petit fours were excellent.

The use of seasonal regional food was scattered throughout the menu, with beetroot, rhubarb, strawberries, lobster all making an appearance. These combined well with international ingredients like lentils, foie gras, mandarin, pistachio and yuzu. 

In all it was a very good meal without many errors. However there was lack of 'wow' in some of the dishes and we left thinking that it was a little bit reserved. The skill and technique in the kitchen is clear and seemingly abundant, so there maybe still room for the food to be pushed that a little bit further.  But, we will certainly be back.

Our second visit in Kilkenny was to Campagne - a restaurant near the heart of Kilkenny serving French food. The food here ranged between good and poor. The starters, one of Foie Gras and one of Quail were of high quality, with the quail  in particular being perfectly cooked, showing a lightness of touch and finesse. 
The desserts were not too bad either. A passion fruit and chocolate Chiboust was refreshing, but a little bit annoying to eat as the chocolate layer was thick and hard to cut through. It was also large and got a little bit boring after a while. The other dessert of chocolate tarte, vanilla ice cream and raspberries was tasty, but unremarkable.

It was the two very poor main courses that let Campagne down though.  Duck that was overcooked served with tasteless baby turnips and salty cabbage. The dish was redeemed slightly by a very nice duck sausage. The other main was Herefood Beef which was unevenly cooked - ordered rare, but was rare in parts and medium in others. The mains were served with terrible, grainy mashed potatoes - the sort that were served by Irish housewives up and down the country, but shouldn't be seen anywhere near a professional kitchen.

Campagne, at best, is a good bistro with excellent staff and worth a visit if you find yourself in the Kilkenny for the night, but it would be hard for us to return to Kilkenny and not stay in Mount Juliet.