Taste Restaurant, Wexford.

Review

At Taste Restaurant, Wexford Town, Warren Gillen, well known chef, winner of National awards and erstwhile of the much admired and missed La Riva in Wexford has come on board, and now the formidable combination of Greg at front of house and Warren in the kitchen will raise the bar not just for Taste, but the culinary experience of Wexford in general.

Taste Restaurant is open in Wexford Town for just over a year now. I admire anyone who has opened a business, particularly a restaurant; it shows a belief in their business and a passion to succeed. Greg Murphy has spent his working life in the catering business and opened up in the middle of the downturn. One year on them have learned a lot, tweaked menus and re-thought some things. The business is now running well, and the future is looking bright -so what better time to raise the game.

As luck would have it I was down with Deirdre Walsh for some shopping and dropped in for Saturday lunch to see what the lads were up to. Taste is situated in the Selskar area of Wexford Town, just beside La Dolce Vita and Jacques. The restaurant is in a large building with plenty of room inside, running as it does through a couple of interconnecting rooms, with a private dining/party area on the first floor. Altogether it seats up to a hundred, but all the tables are well spaced and the interior is very contemporary and comfortable.

The lunch menu is well priced and offers about five starters including soup of the day, seafood chowder, chicken Caesar salad and a confit of duck bruschetta. All the starters are priced under €6.50 so it’s very good value. Main courses include Thai Green Curry, Fish and chips, steak sandwich and a stir-fry. Each day they also have three special, a seafood, meat and risotto of the day. The main courses are all priced around €10 and the specials are priced daily.

While we chose our dishes, we were brought water and some fresh bread straight from the oven to keep us going, and we decided on a starter portion of the risotto of the day from me, while Deirdre decided to forego the first dish and leave room for dessert. We both chose the special for main course; Deirdre picked the John Dory while I had the confit duck.

The risotto came quickly, and was perfectly cooked. On the day it was a prawn and chilli risotto and it was evident there was a really good touch here, really well balanced, just the right amount of chilli heat and still juicy prawns, not the least over-cooked. A really fine dish.

The main courses continued to excite; swirling sauces on both plates with towers of herb mash, carefully balanced duck or fish atop. Deidre’s fish was perfect –light, tasty and perfectly complement with a lemon/ginger sauce and a basil and herb mash. The confit duck came with a bed of Savoy cabbage, mash and a winter sauce. Falling off the bone, it was a perfect comfort dish.

For dessert Deirdre picked the pannacotta with a poached pear in a cinnamon sauce. She ended up sharing half it with me, and we both finished with good coffees. Warren is only there a week now, and Taste is already exciting. Go along and try the food now, it will no doubt keep evolving, and I am already looking forward to dinner either before or after Christmas. Enjoy.

By the way, here is a recipe Warren gave Paolo a few years back, may inspire you, http://www.foodandwine.net/chefs/chef018.htm