We were lucky enough to have the use of holiday home recently in a tiny village called Keshcarrigan. Warning- its not easy to find, its approx. 10 miles from Carrick-on-Shannon on the way to Ballinamore. It consists of two pubs (Gertie's does great Guinness) and one
shop and now this fab restaurant. It's trade depends mainly on the passing cabin cruisers which have the facility to moor nearby.
The menu has what I would call a Indonesian/Malaysian theme with an emphasis on fish but also caters to the meat eaters and veggies. We arrived at 8pm and were greeted by a very pleasant waitress. We were automatically given a jug of iced water and a basket of warm rolls and delicious ginger flavoured brown bread. We chose a Chilean Cabernet from the Maipo Valley, Tarapaca (€15)which was excellent.
The biggest difficulty we had was choosing from the menu . Everything sounded great! I went for the set menu (€33 each). I opted for scallops, bacon, melted cheese, scallion wrapped in a filo parcel with a curry mayonnaise dip on a bed of mixed lettuce leaves in a tangy dressing. My husband had prawns, glass noodles, shredded raw veg wrapped in rice paper with a bar-b-que dip.
The second course was a vegetable soup or mix of sorbets but we had spotted a very delicious sounding hot and sour seafood soup from the a la carte menu. There was no problem substituting and we asked them to add the difference to the bill. (1euro each) The main courses were equally good. I opted for corn fed chicken, marinated in turmeric on a bed of angel hair noodles. My husband had beef rendang with jasmine rice. This all came with potato dauphinoise,baby potatoes, crispy veg-courgette, carrot, cauli, broccolli sprinkled with scallion and garlic. It made a change from Dublin restaurants not to be charged extra for these.
The desserts were sublime. My sticky toffee pudding came on large plate floating on a sea of caramel with homemade ice-cream. My husband had rhubarb and apple with mascarpone cheese in filo pastry. Our 3 year old son just had a side order of rice, some cheese followed by strawberries and ice-cream. Granted 3 year olds do not eat all that much but were not charged for him. The total bill came to €83 not including optional service charge. We were the last in the restaurant and the chef/owner came out to say hello. We wished him every success in his new business (He is open just 6 months).