Ten years of good cooking, in three different locations in and around Kinsale, has been the story for Pearse and Mary O’Sullivan and their much-loved Toddie’s restaurant. Happily housed in the classic bar space of the Bulman, Mr O’Sullivan’s cooking has probably never been better, pulling in all of his international influences from a young life spent in both Trinidad and, ahem, Surrey – Trinidad-style crab gratin; Dublin Bay prawn soup with chilli, lemongrass and coriander; skewered chicken with wasabi coleslaw – and his solid-sender super hitters that come out of the classic textbook – char-grilled rib-eye with Parmesan mash and onion rings; lobster risotto; Oysterhaven mussels with smoked bacon.
This is good, smart cooking from a chef with a true touch, and being able to cook for both the bar, where the food is more informal, and then to step up for the restaurant menu has liberated the chef’s best instincts, and the food eats deliciously, from the battered fish and chips in the bar to the grilled wild fish catch of the day in the restaurant, from the seafood chowder to the Ummera smoked salmon with brown bread. Excellent.
