Roundwood, Co. Wicklow.
Woods Restaurant is in Roundwood, Co. Wicklow. The restaurant is situated at the Glendalough end of the town in a newly refurbished stone building. Inside you will find Byrne’s bar at one end and Woods restaurant at the other. The décor is contemporary and of a very high standard, with the restaurant finished with polished floorboards, large antique cabinets decorated with artisan food products and large well spaced tables and very nice leather upholstered chairs.
They are open almost two years now, but recently there has been a change of management, with Joe Hanway - who until now just had the bar, taking over the restaurant with two young chefs who have cooked in Charter One amongst other good spots. It is still a very comfortable room, and we were seated with our menus and some good homemade bread with tapenade and pesto. We visited on a Saturday, so the menu on offer was the A la Carte, which list about six starters and probably twice as many main courses. There is also a value menu which has two courses for twenty and three for twenty five.
We could choose from starters such as Dingle Bay crab meat, goat’s cheese in kataifi pastry, a fresh and smoked haddock and leek tart, warm chicken salad with bacon and green beans and a special of rabbit terrine with toasted brioche. The prices are reasonable, with the starters ranging from €5 to €8.
Main courses included a choice of steaks, pan fried cod with creamed leeks, roasted Barbary duck, linguine with wild mushrooms with tarragon cream and a trio of pork. Specials included loin of Wicklow venison and monkfish with baby gem and Puy lentils. In the end, I was the only starter, and I chose the rabbit terrine, while for mains Deirdre had the risotto, Abigail the oven baked salmon while I had the trio of pork.
First up was my terrine, which was very nicely made, with chunky pieces of rabbit meat that were well flavoured and seasoned without being overly salty. The ladies, who both declined a starter, had a taste and Abigail polished off some of the toasted brioche. We were off to a good start.
The main courses were very successful, Deirdre had ordered the butternut squash risotto, which is an unusual choice for her, but she loved this one. It was very light and fresh, and had enough complex flavour to keep her interested until the end. Abigail got a large piece of perfectly cooked salmon, which was very nice, but I think I got the star here. The trio of pork was a surprise. Served on a large platter it featured cheek, roast belly and sliced loin, all laid out beautifully, with a fondant potato and celeriac puree. The cheek was like butter, and just as rich; the belly had the intense flavour that you expect while the loin was tender and succulent.
We finished with a shared dessert – chocolate and orange tart, with kumquat compote, which our chocolate expert thought delicious. Woods has changed, but the food is as good as ever. If you heard they were gone, well now they’re back, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
