Restaurants: The Spaniard & The Abbey Tavern

Each Christmas, I make a pilgrimage to my friend's house in Garretstown. I say "pilgrimage" simply because it's such a long drive - it is great to see her. Anyway, the last few times I've been, we've gotten into the habit of eating out, the night I arrive. She has the good fortune to be within 15 minutes' drive of Kinsale, arguably the culinary capital of Ireland. And each time we go, we try somewhere new - so it was that we ended up, this time, in an establishment called "The Spaniard".

She navigated - Kinsale is a place that needs careful navigation. The turnoff for The Spaniard turns out to be the slip road between the sea and the road to Cork, and is signposted for The Spaniard. I took this road once before, by mistake, when I was looking for the aforementioned Cork Road. I spent a very long time weaving back and forth before I wearily retraced much of my journey and found the right road at last. At least tonight I was on the right track from the start!

The road snakes around the harbour, and zigzags up the hill, with The Spaniard nestled into one of the bends. There's no dedicated parking, but you should be able to get parking on the road. The building is a long one, and houses both a bar and a restaurant. As we made our way in, we noted the outdoor seating, and the toilets, with outdoor access. We did wonder whether there's an interior door too, but we still don't know, not having needed to access them ourselves.

They've done well with their Christmas decorations. The doors were adorned with Christmassy wreaths, and the inside was delightfully cosy:



We were almost the only customers, and as usual found ourselves the last to leave. The menu is brief, and includes both the wine list, and, on the back page, a brief history of the Battle of Kinsale in 1601/2, when Spanish forces landed there to fight with the Irish chieftains against the English. Catholic Spain was the enemy of Protestant England at the time, and the Irish saw them as a potential ally in their fight for freedom from English rule. Didn't work though, and the English hung around for another few hundred years thereafter. But that's the significance of the name of this establishment. 

I had brie to start, followed by rib of beef. My friend had chowder, followed by steak. (I guess we'd both had enough of the sight of turkey!) The food was generally very good, although I do have to say that my mashed potato was completely tasteless - instead, I concentrated on the very tasty beef. For dessert, we both had chocolate fudge cake - which was good, but didn't actually taste of fudge. Overall, a good meal, although the enormous portions meant we finished neither mains nor dessert - really, you should have seen the slabs of cake we were served! Make sure you have an appetite, coming here..

I was starving today, after the long drive back, and went with my mother to the Abbey Tavern for a bite to eat. We just beat the evening rush, got a parking space right beside the door, and were very well catered for, with great food and friendly service. Oh, and I was delighted to be able to inform them that their delicious mash was much better than what I'd had in Kinsale the day before! (So was the chocolate fudge cake..)

Next scheduled outing - Monday 5th January. Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, which I'm very excited about - it's a place I've been outside of, but never yet inside. Frankly, that'd be enough to get me in the door - but it's also the last night of Winter's Tales, a series of candlelit readings of the short stories of famous authors, by famous actors. That night, I haven't heard of the actor, who gained fame in the theatre rather than onscreen - but the featured author is Daphne du Maurier, and The Birds is to be read, which is the story on which the Hitchcock film was apparently based. Yes, that'll do..