An attractive, neatly presented stone building in the centre of Blarney is home to one of the area's most interesting restaurants, serving Irish food with a hint of French cuisine.
Top quality seasonal local produce is at the heart of this venture, which is run by twin sisters Martina and Tricia Cronin - both of whom brought valuable experience in hospitality to their restaurant.
Martina is the chef and she has worked in some top restaurants, including Chapter One and The Residence in Dublin, while Tricia's front of house experience includes working at the iconic Jacques Restaurant in Cork City.
Many well known suppliers are listed, especially on the dinner menu - Ballyhoura Mushrooms, Michael Twomey of the English Market (who is their mother’s butcher), Gubbeen, Tom Durcan Spiced Beef, Ardsallagh cheese among them.
Menu choices aren't very extensive - it is a small restaurant - but the quality is there, and there's a good balance.
Tasty dishes on the early evening menu might include a starter of Ardsallagh goats cheese salad with sundried tomato tapenade, chorizo and parmesan crumble, and perhaps a main course of O’Connell’s fresh pan-fried hake with roasted butternut squash purée, pickled Ballyhoura mushrooms and Jerusalem artichoke.
What you get when spending an evening at The Square Table is effectively fine dining in an informal setting. Starters will include a very good soup (mushroom and wild garlic is seriously delicious in early summer) also probably an unusual fish dish like Old Mill House smoked salmon with Irish crab, pickled ginger, avocado purée and granny smith apple among the four or five starters.
Spiced beef (a local speciality) may well feature, perhaps in a rather luxurious carpaccio of spiced beef served with cured foie gras, apple purée and hazelnuts.
Martina's careful sourcing and skilful cooking lifts chicken out of the ordinary - typically in a main course of East Ferry Free Range chicken, served with onion purée and caramelised Gubbeen Salami with a Whitechurch cheddar potato gratin - and diners in the mood for red meat certainly won't be disappointed by a Michael Twomey Aged Angus 11 oz rib eye steak, served in classical style with chips and béarnaise or pepper sauce.
But fish and seafood lovers will also be delighted with the choice of excellent main course fish dishes - an inviting roast monkfish, served with Irish crab tortellini, sweet potato, chilli and lemongrass velouté could be a winner, for example.
Menus (including an Early Bird) will vary with the seasons, of course, but all the food here is of a very high standard and appealingly presented.
Offering 14 white and 15 red, the wine list is good for the size of the restaurant. Most varietals - and both Old and New World - are covered, with prices ranging from house wines at €24.50 (by the glass €6.75), to a splendid Chateauneuf du Pape Lazaret Rouge at €70.
Service is very friendly and willing, right from the prompt greeting on arrival and this, as much as the excellent food, explains the charm of this delightful small restaurant. The Square Table is a great asset to the area and it is worth a detour - but do ring ahead to book, especially during the tourist season.
