Terre at Castlemartyr Resort

Recently winning a Michelin star, after only being open for a few months, Terre restaurant at Castlemartyr Resort is easily one of Ireland's most exciting new dining destinations. The esoteric food, friendly and knowledgable service, beguiling wine list and journey-like dining space make this a meal to remember and relish. Sitting within the grounds of the resort, Terre makes the ultimate foodie getaway, just a short drive from Cork. 

What’s the draw?

A luxurious sprawl of old and new on 220 acres of grounds that includes an 18-hole golf course, Castlemartyr Resort is a luxurious getaway in every sense of the word. Being spread across the original manor house and a more modern add-on, the commitment to seamless integration of interiors is admirable – and no small feat when dealing with such differing design styles. No matter where your room is, you can bet it’s going to be a goodie: entry-level options are bigger than suites in most other hotels, encompassing enormous bedrooms, separate dressing spaces and a bathroom big enough to raise a small family in.

Cod with caviar and white rose petals

Chawanmushi with parmesan broth

The food and drink

While the hotel itself is lovely, and the lush surroundings are an effective tonic for city life, the thing that raises Castlemartyr Resort a cut above the rest is its relatively new restaurant, Terre, from chef Vincent Crepel. With an impressive CV that includes stints at San Sebastián’s Arzak and Switzerland’s Hotel de Ville Crissier, Crepel has been given full reign over Terre, turning this corner of the Castlemartyr manor house into a thoroughly modern and exciting restaurant that will undoubtably go stratospheric, and quickly.

The meal begins in the bar, a secret little hideaway through a maze of corridors that quite literally requires a chaperone by the way of general manager Fergus MacDevitt to reach. Once settled, things kick off with a glass of fizz, before you’re led down a pickle-and-ferments-lined corridor to the kitchen. There are vague parallels with recent horror-satire The Menu – a synchronised welcome where the chefs all clap in unison to signal your arrival, an ageing chamber where a series of animals are strung up to dry and the realisation that you’re a good kilometre from civilisation. But starting the meal with snacks in the kitchen is a stroke of genius, no least because it gets you up-close and personal with what you can expect from the meal. Quite literally, in fact: after a series of snacks, a member of the kitchen team will walk you through the various dominant ingredients to follow and their provenance.

This is seasonal cooking at its best, so while the core elements of the menu will no doubt change over the year, what will remain is a deeply elegant menu that speaks to both immense finesse in the kitchen, but also a deep understanding of balancing flavours. Take, for example, the turbot. The piece of fish was cooked to perfection, and bathed in a vermouth beurre blanc sauce, with delicate artichokes and caviar on top. There was a hint of acidity to balance the richness, while the unctuous sauce perfectly paired with the silky turbot without overwhelming its natural flavour. Or the chawanmushi egg custard, which combined a series of punchy ingredients – dashi, foie gras, eel, wagyu ham, and 46 month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano – into one dish which, in the hands of a lesser chef would have been an abomination. But this is Crepel and, thus, the dish was perfection – a synchronised and beautifully complementary partnership.

Wines, meanwhile, were thoughtfully paired by sommelier Filip Palfi, with an intriguing array of drops that range from the classic to the experimental but were always delicious, intuitive accompaniments to the food. This was the best meal I had all year, and easily two-Michelin-star standard. While going straight to that honour is uncommon, if anyone was going to do it, it would be Crepel at Terre.

What else?

The hotel is home to a sizeable health club, comprising a gym, pool and spa – perfect for working off the previous evening’s meal. Take a sunrise stroll around the grounds to watch the early morning light dapple the ruins of Castlemartyr Castle – a 15th-century tower that sits to the side of the main resort building – or grab your clubs and try your hand at the expansive golf course. Outside of the resort itself, Castlemartyr town is small but cute, with a pairing of great pubs – the kind that encourage having one too many pints of Guinness and enthusiastically befriending the locals. Just down the road in Midleton lies the Jameson Distillery, which offers a range of tours and tastings and gives great insight into the significance of the whisky industry in this part of the country.