Le Tire Bouchon, French Restaurant, Wexford.

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Review

Chef Kevin Carley and Maitre d’ Arnaud Clement have raised the bar for Wexford with their fine dining without the fuss restaurant, Le Tire Bouchon. Situated in the heart of Wexford Town, over the “Sky and the Ground” pub, this is one of the best places to experience authentic French classics in Ireland, never mind Wexford.

A recent weekend trip to Wexford gave the perfect opportunity to try it, and so myself and Deirdre toddled along for dinner. You reach the restaurant through the pub, it occupies the first floor. Inside the room is tastefully decorated in creams, with a wooden floor, and crisp white linen covers each of the tables. The effect is restful and very inviting. We have been hearing great things about the food here, and after been shown to our tables, and served with fresh bread and sparkling water, we set about choosing from the menu.

There are about ten starters, and a similar amount of main courses, and the first thing Deirdre noticed was that each dish has a recommended wine to accompany it. I like this on a menu, it shows great thought has gone into it, and when only one person is drinking, it makes the choice easier, just having the one glass with each dish. The starters include French onion soup, wild boar terrine, pan fried breast of pigeon and paprika smoked scallops. The main courses continue in this exciting vein; fresh monkfish stuffed with prawns, sea fricassee and pan fried trout, while the meat choices offer Barbary duck breast, pan seared venison, fillet steak and supreme of chicken with chorizo and lardons. After much debate and not a few “Oh I fancy that’s” Deirdre decided to go with the seafood, and chose the paprika smoked prawns with lambs lettuce and cucumber salad, followed by the prawn risotto - fresh tiger Prawns cooked in tomato and saffron broth.

I chose from the land side of the menu and picked the hand rolled black pudding stuffed with Toulouse sausage and pan seared venison steak with Savoy cabbage. As I was driving I stuck with the sparkling water, while Deirdre put herself in Arnaud’s hand and went with the recommended wines, a glass of Saint Veran Burgundy with the scallops and Borgo Bosetto Pinot Grigio with the prawn risotto. The starters were art on a plate. The scallops especially, presented in a line and dressed with the lamb’s lettuce, they were perfectly cooked and very flavoursome. The black pudding was a successful dish, the homemade ingredients complemented each other in texture and flavour and I enjoyed it. The main courses that followed were equally good, the venison steak possibly the star here, but Deirdre’s Prawn risotto only came second to a brilliant first. We were defeated at this stage as far as desserts went and finished the meal with two coffees.

Le Tire Bouchon is an excellent restaurant run by two young men with passion and energy. I expect it to continue to improve, but make no mistake, it really is very good now. One to try as soon as you can, and almost certainly a star of the future.