Restaurant review: This Kenmare eatery nails the produce, but falls short of precision

La Daughter (LD) and I are on the lam in South Kerry when we decide to hole up for the night in Kenmare.

Lagom Restaurant & Townhouse is named after a Swedish word — and lifestyle concept — that translates as, ‘not too much, not too little, just right’. 

The decor, too, reflects a becoming Scandi restraint, evening sunlight streaming through the windows into a long narrow room of clean lines, slate and timber floors, and bare wooden tables. 

Almost every one of our fellow diners is an overseas tourist someway north of 40 and the atmosphere bubbles along nicely. It’s actually all very pleasant, very … yep, ‘lagom’.

A serving of house-baked breads includes a good brown soda bread although that rarely interests me as much as a properly leavened loaf and the accompanying sourdough is more than excellent: soft, spongy crumb with a faint acidity and a crust craggier than Robert Mitchum, quite delicious when piled high with Glenilen butter.

My starter is citrus-cured cod, crisp wild prawns, pink grapefruit, herb aioli (€14). 

The prawns, in a crisp filo pastry parcel, are exceedingly more-ish, their savoury crunch offering all the illicit allure of fast food flavours and textures in a fine dining delivery and they relish the company of emollient aioli.

The cod is immaculately cured, near buttery in texture, but partnering grapefruit segments, torn in half, present as a rough afterthought, not entirely integrated into the overall dish, and could easily use a little more precision and finesse to achieve maximum impact as contrast.

LD’s Atlantic coast crab croustade, cucumber and apple, dilisk, with citrus dressing (€14.50) has that precision and finesse in abundance, as easy on the palate as it is on the eye, gorgeous meaty crab, refreshing cucumber and apple, the salty umami of dilisk and a bright lemony dressing, a great opening shot.

Black sole on the bone, garlic and caper butter, roast lemon (€38) arrives on an alarmingly hot plate that has me swiftly stripping out the bone and laying it down on the plate as a barrier between plate and flesh to arrest any further cooking of the fish.

The fish itself is gorgeous, fresh, almost sweet, but to get to it, I have to first deal with the garlic and caper butter sauce. 

A brilliant verdant green of wild garlic, always wonderful with butter, includes mussels, plump, juicy, flush with marine flavour. 

In such a dish, the caper is invariably an ideal companion but with an eye to keeping their potent briny tartness well in check — with capers, less is always more. 

Tonight it looks like my dish might well trigger a caper shortage in all of Munster. Though I scrape most of them to one side of the plate, their potency still over-infuses the sauce, also rendering redundant the acidity of roast lemon.

LD’s dish of roast garlic and parsley gnocchi (€26) is an assemblage of sound individual components: very good gnocchi, pillowy, light and herbaceous; Garryhinch mushrooms sautéed to a lush meatiness, in a buttery rich sauce of the same verdant green as my fish sauce; and smoked cauliflower, roasted to a blackened char. But, such dense, heavy flavours all coming together in an ensemble overpowers the palate within a couple of mouthfuls. 

One element alone would be sufficient to anchor any dish. Even the gentle acidity of a creamy buttermilk curd falters around such domineering flavours.

Nonetheless, a Burgundy (Domaine Gueguen Bourgogne Cotes Salines, €52) holds up well, structured, balanced and muscular, its concentrated clarity offering a long crisp finish of honey streaked with salinity.

Desserts are our highlight of the meal, playful, joyous takes on old school favourites. Rhubarb ‘iceberger’ (€8.50) is a divine ice cream sandwich between crisp gingerbread biscuits and topped with champagne marinated rhubarb, just tart enough to complete a great dish. 

Warm cherry Bakewell tartlet (€8.50) is a pretty little package of sweet raspberry and almond in a cracking pastry shell with Longueville Apple Brandy ice cream bringing adult sophistication to a childhood favourite.

Service is pleasant, quietly efficient and blessedly unobtrusive and we have a delightfully relaxed evening. 

When it comes to matters edible, it was more than possible to read between the lines to divine that standards on the plate are more usually met across the board.

A glance into the kitchen suggests a skeleton crew — so common these days when staffing levels remain such a chronic problem in Irish hospitality — which may explain a certain amount of the issues. 

Chef and co-proprietor Brendan Byrne is a good cook, with a real empathy for the excellent produce he sources with aplomb. 

Some pause for thought when conceiving dishes and then a little more precision in their delivery, and Byrne would be guaranteed to nail it every single time.

Just like a Swedish Goldilocks — not too much, not too little; just right.

• Lagom Restaurant & Townhouse
• 36 Henry Street, Kenmare, Co Kerry
• lagomkenmare.com
• Dinner and wine for two, excluding tip: €162.50