With its smart blue and white frontage and welcoming signage, it would be hard to drive past Barry and Catherine McLaughlin’s attractive roadside bar and restaurant just outside Bandon.
What they took on way back in 2006 was a typical pub, with the bar downstairs and restaurant above, but - although they retained the best qualities of the quintessential Irish pub - the refurbished bar on the ground floor became a seafood bar (serving food daily) and upstairs they created a restaurant (open late week).
Barry is the chef and, once guests learn that he was previously at the famed Fishy Fishy Café in Kinsale, expectations are immediately raised. And with good reason, as this kitchen has consistently turned out wonderfully flavourful dishes based on fresh local seafood (from Castletownbere and other nearby ports) ever since opening, and they have maintained a great reputation in the locality and beyond for their fine food and hospitality. Top quality ingredients are deftly handled and, even when eating in the bar, the seafood is restaurant quality, both in taste and smartly plated contemporary presentation.
Pride in suppliers and a commitment to using sustainable, responsibly caught fish is seen on a list that outlines their philosophy and details about half a dozen suppliers in Courtmacsherry, Union Hall, Kinsale, and Baltimore as well as Castletownbere, and the same pride of place is seen for meats, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables - and even the wine list will include some Irish bottles if possible.
Fresh crab is cooked, cracked and picked daily (a rarity these days), to be served in house specialities such as crispy Dinish Island crab and prawn cakes with spicy mango and plum salsa, or Castletownbere crab crumble which is served with dressed salad, tomato, coriander & lime salsa, and also features in a West Cork Seafood Tapas Plate, alongside other treats such as calamari with chili dressing and prawn bisque.
Another speciality is a deep dish seafood pie that is comfort food of the first order; dishes like West Cork seafood chowder and, when available, fresh local crabmeat or prawn open sandwiches on wholemeal brown bread are popular with the many family groups who make a beeline for this spot.
Fresh local produce is central to this kitchen, everything is cooked to order and the focus is on pleasing the customer. Steak, a chicken dish and a vegetarian choice is also offered for non-fish eaters, and many dishes are available in two sizes. Vegetarian and coeliac friendly dishes are marked up, and kids can have half portions of almost everything on the menu.
Desserts are mainly of the homely kind - hot sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding, and rhubarb crumble with vanilla pod ice cream are all typical - while the chocolate tapas plate is sure to please chocoholics.
The restaurant upstairs is open several nights a week, with menus that overlap to some extent with the bar meals, and also offer some extra dishes.
Catherine manages front of house and, while pleasantly informal, service under her direction is invariably efficient. The list wine offers an interesting and accessible range of about two dozen old and new world bottles, also some sparkling wines, aperitifs and digestifs; wines by the glass are served from a dispenser, a choice of four or five each red and white, also a rosé.
The Poachers Inn is a great asset to this area, and has earned its place as a key destination for visitors heading in and out of West Cork. Cookery courses are also available.
