Darling Tralee

David Norris is a fine cook with a mighty CV, having worked with such masters of the idiom as Gerry Galvin, in Drimcong House, Dan Mullane in The Mustard Seed, and in Wexford's Marlfield House. He brings this mighty pedigree to a new restaurant in Tralee, Restaurant David Norris, on Ivy terrace, across from the Brandon Hotel, where he has assembled a fine team, with Seamus Egan as foh, and his assistant in the kitchen is Noel Enright, who has returned from a spell with the brilliant Richard Corrigan in London.

The menus for summertime are just darling; crisp spring roll of shellfish with chilli-garlic butter; fettucine of wild mushrooms with onion velouté sauce; roast fillet of salmon on buttered leeks; crispy confit of duck with chilli-roasted pineapple; breast and leg of guinea fowl with black pudding and lemon thyme juices; frozen liquorice and lime parfait with poached pears; passion fruit and strawberry crème bruleé.

This is smart, modern Irish cooking, and the menus offer excellent value, with the set dinner menu at @26, and you can have 2 courses with coffee for just £20, which is what some Dublin restaurants now charge for a main course.

Best of all, the restaurant is a major attraction to the town of Tralee, which has never yet a benchmark restaurant. Don't miss it on any tour of Kerry.

Restaurant David Norris, Ivy House, Ivy Terrace, Tralee
tel: (066) 7185654