They are sure doing the good stuff in The Ice House, and the crew have patiently taken their time since they opened to get the details right in this benchmark address. Set hard by the banks of the River Moy, a few minutes’ walk from Ballina town, the building is visually stunning, which it has to be to rival the views down-river. Manager Dara Cruise oversees an excellent team – motivated, excited, creative – and in the Pier Restaurant Gavin O’Rourke is producing elegant, 100-Best-Quality cooking, and his cooking is particularly eye-fetching, with starters like tempura of monkfish with black ketchup and salsify dazzling you with its good looks before the tastes of the combination dazzle you one more time. Mr O’Rourke knows that we eat first with the eyes, and so halibut with saffron and a ragout of creamed leek with mussels and smoked salmon is perfect to look at and to eat, whilst a plum tarte tatin has pitch-perfect pastry. The rooms are gorgeous, and everything in The Ice House is just perfectly chilled.
