Tasting Malarkey's at Rebel O'Connell's New Kingdom Base

Tasting Malarkey's at Rebel O'Connell's New Kingdom Base. 

Amazingly substantial 6th course of Tasting menu; amazingly delicious too!

It’s hot in the kitchen at Malarkey, the Killarney restaurant just opened by chef-patron Seamus O’Connell, best known for his years of good food, fun and frustration in Cork’s Ivory Tower. 

Pilsner from 9 White Deer

Service is in full swing. Probably just as well the restaurant, with its eye-catching decor both upstairs and downstairs, is not packed. The staff are extra busy though because they are also showing their new beer garden to the trade in Killarney and serving boxty and bubbles to their many guests.

After a superb meal, I take up an invite from one of the staff to have a look out back and am surprised at the overall size of the premises that Seamus has taken on and at how much work has already been done here.

Before I go, I get a chance to saw hello and have a brief word with the man himself. And he tells me that his biggest problem in these early months is the lack of staff, especially chefs. Seamus himself just has to work harder but there is no sign of the kitchen pressure on the plates. We have just enjoyed a superb 7-course Tasting Menu.

Choices are amazing here. Our Tasting Menu (Tasting Malarkey) is €50.00 each and he has a different Tasting Menu (Fusion De Luxe) priced at €70.00. There is a set menu (with lots of choice) for what seems good value at €30.00. And if you really want choice, just take a look at the A La Carte where you’ll have to allow extra time to make decisions; there are no less than 19 starters listed, including four of boxty.

Wild Salmon cured with Alder smoked salt in herbs

Wood pigeon, with beetroot

The finalé at Killarney's Malarkey. Toffee Apple crumble with smoked treacle ice-cream.

Nettle and Knotweed Soup (duck and orange centrepiece)

Crubeens with smoky onion poitín

Halibut with lobster sauce. And it is, but there’s some delicious bits of bacon and cabbage as well.

O’Connell’s Ivory Tower. Fusion but No Confusion

O’Connell’s Ivory Tower 

Fusion but No Confusion

Mackerel

One day in the late 60’s, I inadvertently disturbed a blonde American draft "dodger" hiding behind a couch in an upstairs artist's studio in Princes Street. Another fair-haired artist, chef Seamus O’Connell, works here these days and there’s no disturbing him in the kitchen of his first-floor restaurant, the Ivory Tower, Ryanair’s destination restaurant of 2011.

Open Thursday to Saturday 19:00 ’til late, the Ivory Tower currently offers two menus, a three course Market Menu (€33.00) and a seven course Tasting Menu (€50.00). Watch out also for special menus. Probably the best place to keep up to date with the Ivory Tower (where Seamus has been chef for over 15 years) is their Facebook page here. 

Dumpling

Though all ingredients are bought fresh each weekend and sourced locally in Cork, the cuisine is influenced by many countries, especially those in the far east and in central and southern America, not to mention those closer to home. Both menus (they change each week) are peppered with references to Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia and so on.

Take the Tasting Menu (seven courses), as we did, and you'll start with Mackerel, lime & shiso sunomono. The fish is beautifully marinated and admirably paired with the sunomono (a Japanese vinegar-ed cucumber salad). We were nodding affirmatively to each other across the table as we nibbled this one.

Tempura

And it just got better. Next up was the Korean Beef Dumplings with the Cantaloupe Kim Chee, another perfect match. More nodding. The palate was well and truly alive now, ready for anything!

And an Irish-Japanese duet emerged next: Kerry Chanterelles and Asparagus Tempura, delicate and delicious. 

And now soup. In the middle of a meal? Why not? Especially when it is his fantastic Duck, Carrot and Orange Soup. The crispy duck bits come in a separate dish and you just sprinkle them in. I had taken a spoon or two of the soup first and found it excellent but it just got better with the duck. Seems to be a particular magic of O'Connell that he can put two and two together on a plate and come up with five stars!

Soup

We were well on our way to a strong finish here in this first floor restaurant where one large window overlooks Oliver Plunket Street. We weren't admiring the view though, admiring our plates instead as the Octopus Risotto Nero Niçoise arrived. It looked dramatic and was yet another winner. Again, a superb combination. The risotto was amazing but each of the main parts would have been lovely on its own.

Octopus

And now for the meat, the Wagyu Beef Steak adoborojo. The last word there, I think, refers to a Peruvian treatment and the Wagyu, from Cork, was all the better for it. Purple potato too. The steak was cooked to perfection and could have cut with a plastic knife, no bother. Not a bit left.

There would be a sweet finalé, of course: Flourless Chocolate and pecan cake, accompanied by Scandi liquorice ice-cream. We had no worries about the quality but, in advance, were wondering if there’s going to be too much! But, no, the chef had also judged the quantity to perfection and we enjoyed the crisp topping, the crunch of the nuts, the soft centre and the coolness of the ice-cream and flavours of the dish as a whole. Quite the finish to quite a meal.

Wagyu

We enjoyed a few glasses of wine too, a couple of Cotes de Rhone and a crianza as well. The Ivory Tower has quite a selection, about 40 in all, with three of each colour available by the glass. 

Service, by the way, was excellent throughout. A change to the menu was notified at the start and we got extra info on each dish as it arrived in a rather grand, if somewhat faded, room. Babel may have been a tower of confusion; just food fusion here though. Very Highly Recommended.

Dessert