Already well known for their popular Galway patisseries/delis, Fintan and Michelle Hyland have also owned and managed the Gourmet Tart Co. restaurant opposite the church in Salthill since 2010.
As well as an all-day cake and bread shop at the entrance, the restaurant – which is a day-long operation serving breakfast, lunch and dinner - has an open-air pavement café in summer.
In a starkly minimalist room – bare white walls and tables, dark wooden floor, black cushionless chairs, plain cutlery and glassware, paper napkins - the emphasis is clearly on the food, which is very good indeed and, for the most part, locally sourced.
An all-day breakfast menu combining high quality with great value is offered from 7.30am; lunch is based on soups, cakes and sandwiches, all homemade and keenly priced; and a four-course ‘Bistro Menu’ is offered from 6.30pm ‘til late’. At just €25 with side orders of salad, vegetables and potatoes only €2.20 extra, this is is a steal – and à la carte is also an option.
This Galway Restaurants menus are commendably seasonal, but starters might typically include Chicken, apple and black pudding sausage, Barbecued smoked salmon, Wild mushroom risotto, Potato gnocchi, and an interesting dish of Rossaveal crab, served with chorizo aioli, mussels and sourdough toast.
A sorbet of the day may be an unexpected high point of the meal - an outstanding mango, perhaps, unctuous and yet sharply refreshing.
Typical main courses range from Chicken supreme with champ to Sea Bass with herb salad; Beef fillet with fries and a choice of peppercorn sauce, garlic butter or béarnaise and a vegetarian dish of Stuffed Aubergine with pine nuts, herb crust and green salad.
Pork fillet might come with Serrano ham, cabbage lentils and mustard sauce; Duck breast with barley pilaf and sour cherry jus; or Ocean Trout , with almond & orzo salad, caper butter. All display imagination and technical know-how; sauces, though sparse, are excellent as are original flourishes such as almond and orzo salad and barley pilaf.
One would expect desserts of high standard in such an establishment and so it is with the likes of Apple Tart Fine, Sticky Toffee pudding, and Passion Fruit cheesecake and their accompaniments of rich homemade ice creams.
Service is well organised and the staff are eager to please - and you may expect very good coffee and tea to round off your meal.
As with the décor the wine list is pared to a minimum: 13 wines, French, Italian and Spanish, several by the glass from about €4.50, bottles from around €18.50 to a maximum of €25 for a Rioja Lacrimus Joven 2007, organic wine: intense and spicy.
Although some diners may feel that the ambience could be improved, the cooking and service here out-perform many more expensive restaurants and the four course dinner for €25 is probably the best value in town.
: Seats about 70. Open daily, from 7.30am-‘late’. 4-course D, €25. Dinner reservations recommended.
