Restaurant Review

Eamon Barrett visits Forde's in Wexford

Forde's is a stylish place and, where the food has always been good, things seem to have been raised a notch. The addition of a cream leather couch at the entrance hallway makes for a comfortable waiting area. There are fresh flowers and reading materials and every corner of the place is spic and span.

I started with a crabmeat and roast vegetable salad with basil and roast pepper oil. There was no pretension about this, just loads of fresh crabmeat laid over some roasted veg and a good salad. That's it - it was perfect. Jules had the ravioli of brie with smoked bacon and saffron cream - a sumptous dish, heavy and rich, the portion amount perfectly judged.

The golden sauce with its gorgeous saffron strands just too good to leave behind - well that's what they give you the spoon for. There was a lovely homemade brown bread to go with these, and kirs were served in the most highly polished glassware I have ever seen. Again there is an allusion there for this whole restaurant, it is polished. The staff make it seem effortless, they are not rushed and they know their stuff.

From ten different meat & game main courses I had guinea fowl breast roasted with garlic and rosemary garnished with a ballontine of guinea leg, sage jus. I coundn't say there was any great gamey flavour from it but, as the waitress explained, the season was just starting for wild game and the menu will change to reflect that. It was, though, perfectly cooked, lovely and moist, the ballontine particularly was full of flavour with a great stuffing.

Jules had rilettes of monkfish sautéed with fresh prawns and scallops with a roast garlic vin blanc - great fish cookery, the monk perfectly trimmed and gleaming white, the scallops just melted in the mouth. The accompanying spring roll of mash potato is a great signature, the bowl of stir fried veg just right. This is cooking that excites, animates, that doesn't tie itself up in complexity and which is more impressive for that. A baked white chocolate and passion fruit cheesecake served with vanilla anglaise was cheesy and heavy, maybe a mite too heavy but I'm nit picking. A lemon berry meringue roulade was the opposite, almost ethereal in its lightness, just the lemony hit to snap you out of floating away. Good coffee to finish and wonderful wonderful service.

Value in Forde's is worth a mention too: the crab starter €7.50, the ravioli €8.50, the guinea fowl €22.50 and the monfish & scallops €24.40. Desserts € 5.60 and espresso €1.95.

I envy the people of Wexford this restaurant.

Forde's Restaurant, The Crescent, Wexford Tel: (053) 23832