Today I was invited to experience the new Ryan Room in the Connacht Hotel and we left feeling utterly spoiled. We were one of the first to experience their delicious four course lunch menu and all I can say is wow. It was just delicious and I just had to share with you.
Firstly, the Ryan Room is just beautiful. It is really open and airy which I love in a restaurant. I am not a fan of dark restaurants that are cluttered to create an ‘atmosphere’! At the front of the room two of the walls are actually floor to ceiling windows and we were so lucky to have the sunlight beaming in which certainly lit up the room.
The menu was just yum. Since I am vegetarian I do sometimes get nervous that there will only be a Portobello Mushroom or stuffed pepper as the vege option so this menu was a great surprise. I went with the potato and leek soup followed by the baked goats cheese and basil pesto filo pastry. I can honestly say that the filo pastries were just delicious, so good that when I was finished my boyfriend finished off what was left!
My other half is not vegetarian and he went for the baked darne of salmon for mains after having the Kelly’s of Newport Black pudding for starters. In a way it is good that we are such opposites as it gives a good overall view of the menu since we always go for different items. There was certainly a clean plate after the starter and he simply loved the salmon.
And of course we just had to have dessert 🙂 I went for a yummy brownie and he went for the apple pie. I certainly couldn’t finish mine and it was yum. We both of course went for an extra scoop of ice cream with them! The only negative of the whole meal was that the Apple pie wasn’t warm – and if that was the only negative you know it was a good meal!! We finished then with some tea and a hot chocolate for me and really enjoyed our lunch.
I have to mention the staff that served us. They were fantastic and literally treated everyone like they were in a 5 star hotel, from the attentive staff that topped up our drinks when they were near empty to the crumbing down service between courses. There was even someone playing the harp in the background – this just added to the whole experience and we really enjoyed it.
Our overall impression as we were leaving was a great one and certainly I will be back to visit again. The Ryan Room feels luxurious and airy and when my parents are down to visit again I will be looking to treat them to a lunch here. I would also like to say a big thank you to the Connacht Hotel for having us and you can check out their website here.
