Food

Michelin Bib Gourmand 2022 awards include Cork pub, Galway wine bar, Waterford restaurant

Three Irish restaurants have been accorded Bib Gourmand status for the first time

Table Forty One, Gorey, Co Wexford. Photograph: Patrick Browne

Marie Claire Digby
Fri Feb 11 2022 - 00:00

Three restaurants in the Republic of Ireland have been accorded, for the first time, Bib Gourmand status in the Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland 2022, which will be published next Wednesday.

Cush, in Ballycotton, Co Cork, Everett’s in Waterford city and Éan in Galway city are among the 16 new additions to the guide, in the category that highlights restaurants “offering good food at competitive prices”.

The current, 2021 edition of the guide, published online only, includes 18 restaurants in the Republic of Ireland and two in Northern Ireland that have the Bib Gourmand. They will have to wait until next Wednesday’s publication of the 2022 edition to learn if they have retained the awards. There are a total of 122 Bib Gourmand restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland in the 2022 Guide.

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Cush, Ballycotton. Photograph: cush.ie

Today’s announcement describes Cush in Ballycotton as a “smart, modern restaurant [that] sits in a pretty coastal town; there’s also a traditional pub and stylish, comfy bedrooms, with views out over the rooftops to the fishing boats in the harbour.”

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Chef Dan Guerin heads the kitchen where “regional produce features in hearty, seasonal, modern dishes, with locally caught seafood naturally to the fore: choices might include grilled fillet of haddock with leeks, haddock fishcake and Ballycotton Queens in seaweed butter.” Front of house gets a mention too, as “guests are well looked after by the friendly, welcoming team,” the Michelin inspector reports.

In November, Cush was included in the Irish Times 100 best restaurants in Ireland list. “Chef Dan Guerin’s food philosophy is the more local, seasonal and sustainable the better, and his menu takes classic component such as croquettes, fishcakes and jus, and spins them into something that overdelivers on the menu description.”

Éan in Galway is owned by Enda McEvoy and Sinead Meacle, whose other restaurant in the city, Loam, has a Michelin star in addition to a green star for its sustainability credentials.

“So it’s no surprise to see a similar approach to seasonality, sourcing and sustainability at this artisan bakery-cum-café, which morphs into a wine bar in the evenings,” Michelin says.

Christine Walsh is the chef at Éan, and in her review of the restaurant last October, Irish Times restaurant critic Corinna Hardgrave said: “There is nowhere quite like Éan in Ireland. It is the perfect wine bar, where you can take your time, order at will and not feel rushed.

Michelin mentions “confidently executed dishes like squid toast with white miso and bonito, or lamb shoulder with cider carrots, designed for sharing. A natural, biodynamic and organic wine list completes the picture.”

Everett’s in Waterford city is the third new addition to the Bib Gourmand ranks in the Republic. “This unpretentious, welcoming bistro in the heart of the city is run with great pride – and so it should be, given the care that they take with the cooking and the generosity with which it is served,” Michelin says.

Chef Peter Everett opened Everett’s in April 2018. “Sit in the characterful downstairs room under a vaulted brick ceiling to enjoy confidently crafted, flavoursome dishes like Castletownbere crab and gazpacho or braised shoulder of Comeragh mountain lamb with coco beans, carrot and smoked almond, which showcase the best of the Irish larder,” Michelin says.

The Irish restaurants that currently have a Bib Gourmand and must wait till next week to learn if they retain them are: Volpe Nera (Blackrock); Spitalfields (Dublin); Table Forty One (Gorey); Goldie (Cork), which earned them for the first time in 2021, along with Richmond ; Pigeon House; Uno Mas; Pichet (all in Dublin); Sha-Roe Bistro (Clonegall); Courthouse (Carrickmacross); Thyme (Athlone); Aldridge Lodge (Duncannon); Tartare and Kai (Galway); 1826 (Adare); Morrisseys of Doonbeg (Doonbeg); Land to Sea and Charthouse (Dingle); Deane’s at Queens and Home (Belfast).