Right beside the lovely old stone hump-backed canal bridge, Pat Keane’s well known bar and restaurant is full of charm and draws regular customers from a wide area.
The cosy bar is welcoming in traditional tones of red and green, with a stove for chilly evenings, twinkling fairy lights around mirrors and large candles set on the bar – all creating an atmospheric setting for a good night out.
No bar meals are available, this is a place for a proper dinner and food is only served in the restaurant - a pair of attractively rustic rooms beyond the bar, where bare-topped wooden tables are set up for the comfortable enjoyment of good food, with linen napkins, good cutlery and glasses, but no salt and pepper; this may seem an odd omission at first but, in the Guide’s experience, care in the kitchen means that extra seasoning is not required.
Iced water and good homemade bread topped with freshly cut triangles of butter arrive promptly, a sign of the good service to follow. Although famed for their steaks a wide menu is offered, with daily specials chalked up on a large blackboard in the bar.
The main menu is fairly traditional, offering popular starters like seafood chowder, panfried Clonakilty pudding & apple or goats cheese tartlet, and an emphasis on good meat dishes among the main courses (lamb shank, perhaps, alongside a range of steaks), but the specials may include some surprises – anyone for fillet of kangaroo to start? – and poultry or well cooked fish dishes are good choices too.
Imaginative (and plentiful) side vegetables will probably include very good chips, and perhaps a crunchy stir-fry mixture too.
Finish with Irish cheeses, or a tasting of the night’s dessert selection (which may include a gorgeous tiramisu) and very good coffee.
The wholesome food served at the Hangman’s is complemented by a wine list that’s well chosen to match the food, the surroundings are atmospheric and the prices are fair – no wonder this place is so popular.
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