W2B-007 Music - Restuarant-1.txt
The Roundwood Inn is the perfect place to whet a healthy appetite honed in the fresh mountainous air of Wicklow, writes Tom Doorley
Pub grub to rival haute cuisine

The Roundwood Inn may not be the highest pub in Ireland but it's not far off it. However, it is unique in another way. I can think of no other pub that has such a splendid restaurant attached and there are very few indeed that can rival Jurgen Schwalm's superb and inexpensive bar food.

This is the place to aim for after a trek in the mountains because it deals with healthy appetites honed in the fresh air of Wicklow. The food is unpretentious, scrupulously fresh, sensitively prepared and served in generous portions.

You can enjoy an aperitif in the bar which is wonderfully un-twee, a real hostelry with lots of bronzed mountainy men getting themselves outside creamy-headed pints of Guinness. Then head in to the restaurant.

We arrived on a quiet Thursday evening with a gale blowing outside and the kind of rain that soaks you to the skin in seconds making the billage of Roundwood look like an oasis in a wintry desert.

I had snails, French ones, not the rather rubbery Irish version, served out of the shell (thank heaven), swimming in bubbling, pungent garlic butter and topped with breadcrumbs and finely chopped parsley.

Snails to me don't taste of very much but they are a wonderful way of eating garlic butter. These snails were very good indeed, tender and juicy.

My companion's scallops, were plump almost to the point of obesity, and intense with flavour, just flashed in the pan for a few seconds with some garlic butter. In all its simplicity this dish showed how first class raw materials and a deft hand in the kitchen leave haute cuisine in the shade. We mopped up the buttery juices with chunky, dark brown bread.

My brick-shaped sirloin steak was perfection in all its juicy, pink tenderness and the accompanying peppercorn sauce, while not the best I 've had, was satisfactory all the same. The companion's version - mountains of the stuff - was pleasantly pink in the middle after gentle grilling, moist and surprisingly tender. It came with a dense, dark, wild mushroom sauce which hit the spot.

Our ratatouille, a rather grey, mushy affair, was the only low point. Boiled new spuds of impressive size (not the fashionable little marbles) were put to good effect in mopping up the sauces and braised lengths of celery were assertively flavourful and not even remotely overdone.

A blueberry pancake was unctuous yet acidic enough not to be cloying and my apple and almond pancake was a triumph. It was served flat and it seemed that almond and apple slices were added at the point where the batter began to set, then sugared and put under a very hot grill to caramelise the lot. It was superb and very, very filling. Commercial vanilla ice cream acted as a cooling lubricant.

We hugely enjoyed a bottle of dry Baden white wine from Germany, Martin Schongauer Grauer Burgunder Trocken, actually a Pinot Gris, vinified bone dry and weighing in at 11.5 (£ 16.95). It was excellent and is imported directly by Jurgen Schwalm himself.

As the rain beat against the windows in horizontal sheets we fortified ourselves against the long journey home with Redbreast, the only pure pot still Irish whiskey on the market, immaculately smooth and civilised and infinitely superior to your average trendy malt Scotch. Expresso was temporarily not available but Jurgen brewed up some extra strong coffee in a plunger pot. With a brace of Ballygowans the bill came to £ 77.00
The Roundwood Inn, Roundwood, Co. Wicklow. Phone: 01-2818107/2818125
