Restaurant Review - Barrows Keep
Wednesday 16 March 2022
With a culinary background that goes back to Paul Rankin’s Roscoff in Belfast, plus One Pico and Chapter One in Dublin, you know you’re in for something good when Stephen McArdle is at the stove. With an incredible eye for detail, there are no short cuts with this man. Add sommelier Morgan VanderKamer — who is President of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers — and you have an alliance made in heaven.
As you can gather, I’ve had McArdle’s food on more than one occasion — in Dublin, when he had his restaurant The Arch Bistro in Churchtown, followed by Stanley’s of St Andrew’s Street. After that, with rising rents in a city dominated by the big boys, he took to the country, initially relocating beside the River Barrow in Graiguenamanagh, before finding his ideal location in Thomastown.
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First Published In The Sunday Independent