Oar Restaurant & Rooms — Restaurant in County Clare

Dear Diner, this one’s worth reading; we got shouted out of the dining room by an irate and rambling maître d’.

We arrived at Oar 20 minutes late and with one extra person .. and so begun one of my family’s most unforgettable dining experiences.

The food was amazing, beautifully presented well thought out and delicious. The starters were very nice albeit quite small. The main courses were wonderful. Our water and wine was filled once after that we were left sitting with empty glasses for the entire night, having to take replenishment duties into our own hands.

The service was downright strange, from the moment we arrived my girlfriend felt uncomfortable with the way the waitress would give her dirty looks, and soon the rest of the table were getting filthies as I and my cousin ordered 3 courses but wished to have two starters instead of a dessert. This seemed to peeve Roxy (the waitress).

At this point it’s important to note that our party of 5 was hungry - having spent the day out cycling through the wonderful Clare scenery.. not an unreasonable circumstance to find oneself in at a restaurant. It’s also important to note the dining room was almost completely empty and filled with a hushed eeriness that wasn’t conducive to a pleasant atmosphere.

Having waited 1hr 30 minutes for our microscopic starters to arrive we requested more bread and butter, this was our third offence of the night. The bread arrived back promptly and was unenthusiastically delivered by Roxy.

Having finished this bread, during the long intermission before our main courses arrived we boldly requested more bread, not knowing how much longer it would take, this visibly annoyed Roxy and she returned to inform there was no more bread.

A short while after Roxy returned to swiftly scrape the crumbs off the table, pointing at a heel of crusty bread left on the table and sternly enquiring ‘are you are finishing that?!’ From my aunt who so happens to be the owner of a travel agents in California. Given the short supply she didn’t hesitate to eat the bread and quickly recoil as Roxy finished scraping crumbs aggressively from the white table cloth.

With that the main courses arrived, and to be fair the food was tremendous, complements to the chef, wonderfully thought out dishes, with beautifully balanced flavours.

‘The Oar grand finale’ Roxy returned to the table after our plates were cleared to enquire if we wished to enjoy a post meal coffee, a cappuccino was ordered, I asked for an affogato.. “We don’t do affogato” I was told abruptly.. ‘ok do you have vanilla ice cream?’ I replied “Yes” I was told, I concluded saying “okay well would you mind putting a scoop of the ice cream into an americano please”. With this the waitress stormed off.

When she returned she threw the coffee down in front of me, almost spilling the hot coffee all over the table and I. Having never seen such disrespect for a customer or their safety I challenged her with “there is absolutely no need to throw the coffee at me”.

At this point Roxy became irate, shouting at me and our table calling me a “smart a…” (stopping herself short) then the maître d’ arrived over shouting at me and then the whole table; “how dare we change his menu”, “disrespect his house” “we don’t serve affogato!” He inform us that the coffee request had Roxy crying in the kitchen .. ranting at our table about his menu and how terrible we were as customers, we stopped to point out the sub standard service, the poor attitude of the waitstaff and that we were barely even fed at the end of it.

No matter the rambling continues, becoming more aggressive and unhinged.. we firmly requested the bill and insisted we leave before the situation went any further.

€506.00 later we have a great story, ate some delicious food and had an abysmal dining experience that culminated with a few packs of crisps on the way home.

I look forward Kieran to your snarky, condescending and bad...

Well I must admit that I wasn’t going to post a review, but given that the owner has continued to his vent of rage against us even after our departure I feel a little feedback is in order. We initially booked a room and dinner for one night, but asked if we could extend this to two nights, again with dinner on both nights. I offered to cancel the first booking and rebook for two but was assured that everything was ok with two separate bookings. A week or so before our arrival, being a bit OCD, I checked and was told that our one night booking was ok….I went back and reconfirmed two nights. – both room and dinner. On arrival, I was given a key for our ‘one night’. Again, I re-stated all the above and showed the emails that I had sent. We checked into our room, which felt a bit like a student dorm… a bit of loving care is needed- re-painting where its peeled, a decent clean, mould removal and making it feel like it isn’t a storage yard (e.g. someone’s bike was left under the stairs within our apartment). But in fairness it is cheap, so we were fairly happy. We arrived for dinner, and I was undecided between the Sole and the Scallops, so asked the waitress which was more likely to be on tomorrow. She then mentioned that she was fully booked(!) but might be able to fit us in for 8.30pm (we had booked for 6.00pm) both days. I mentioned again most of the above and said that the guy who I had been dealing with felt a bit flaky to me. She clearly passed this on (and some) and he came to our table mid-meal looking for a fight, my wife’s words and not just my view. The couple beside us really couldn’t believe his attitude and wished us the best in our handling of the issue; hoped that we would get a table. When we got back to our room, I wrote an email to the owner (the person in question) saying:

“Hi Kieran,

We really enjoyed the food tonight, but unfortunately our evening was spoiled by the events at our table, so we have decided to cancel our booking for tomorrow night. I’m sure that you will understand why.

Regards, Brian”

Kieran replied, the next day, after we had left with:

“Hi Brian. Glad you enjoyed your food. The reason i came to the table was that you had mentioned to a member of my staff that I MUST BE A COMPLETE IDIOT. Im sure you will understand.

kieran o Halloran”

and so I responded with:

“Hi Kieran,

Ha ha. Actually not the words that I used, but I’m happy to defer to her description; she clearly knows you.

Regards, Brian”

So, in summary, lovely food, and the Romanian Chef, who I understand prepared it, should consider setting up on his own. Front of house is, in my opinion, letting him down badly, and egos are taking over what could be a wonderful...

We had a wonderful stay in their accommodation, and an amazing meal at Oar Restaurant in Doolin.

The starkly simple and relaxed dining room, seemingly forced the focus to be exactly where it should be: on the brilliant food and the hospitality.

From the moment we arrived, Kieran and the team looked after us like we were old friends, there was a warmth to the whole experience, and while feeling informal, the service never missed a beat.

The plates coming out of his kitchen had an ease about them, that belied the technical expertise, considered flavours and fine dining elements. It was precise, and thoughtful, quality ingredients expertly prepared and executed. Can you tell I liked it?

The bread was a sign of the great meal to come. Knowing we were in safe hands, I got a couple of oysters to get things moving.

Our starters included a great beef tartare with horseradish and shimeji mushrooms, a fresh summer salad with Gubbeen chorizo and confit onion. I had the mackerel with Jerusalem artichoke and kohlrabi. The soup of the evening, something I’d normally avoid as a boring option, looked great. The taste I had of it left me wishing I’d ordered it - not that I regretted my choice - but it was very good soup.

For mains, I went with the Hereford Prime Rib Eye, and it was everything I wanted. I cook an okay steak myself, so don’t always order it out, but I was glad I did here. It was perfect and the sides elevated it nicely, the whole plate came together as I moved it - creating delicious different flavour combinations as I went.

The mains were great and I wasn’t sure I wanted dessert - but after a short rest, I convinced myself it was a good idea. We got a rich chocolate fondant with passionfruit and cocoa meringue, and the Irish cheese board with membrillo. The cheese servings were very generous compared to some, and I thought all the cheeses were great. I enjoyed giving them all a go as I finished my wine. The wine list was well curated, the staff recommended some good ones by the glass to get us going. The one I started with, we went on to get a bottle to pair with our mains.

In truth, when we arrived for dinner, I had half-expected Kieran’s denim shorts to be the highlight of the evening. But the real stars were the care that goes into their food and service.

Oar is not trying to be unnecessarily flashy; it is just excellent at what really matters. We loved our stay in Doolin, and like the town itself, Oar is a place that when you are leaving, you are already thinking about when you will be able to return. Highly recommend booking in,...