Scathing criticism for four-star Irish hotels

The food writer behind the best-selling Bridgestone Guides has launched a scathing attack on modern four-star hotels, calling them "the nursing homes" of tomorrow.

"Irish tourism is under threat from bad-taste destinations, dodgy tourism developments that litter the coasts, and places that deliver facsimile experiences at fearsome prices," John McKenna said at the launch of this year's guides in Belfast yesterday.

"The country is filled with new hotels that are nothing more than the nursing homes of the future. Four-star hotels abound which are lavishly tarmacadamed up to the door with a brightly lit fountain that doesn't work, inappropriate decking beside the helipad and more marble in the bathroom than Michaelangelo ever chiselled," he said.

The Bridgestone accommodation guide criticises the "four-star joints that sit high on the top of a hill, without a tree in sight", which "have mushroomed under the blessing of millions of euro spent without a thought to good taste or subtlety".His comments follow a family trip to one such place in Co Clare where he said the service was "appalling", the food "awful" and the decor "tacky".

"The staff pestered our kids to order more soft drinks and during my time there I didn't meet one person who was in charge or seemed to care about the guests. Then when I got the bill for our one-night stay it was €484."

Another four-star hotel he visited recently in Co Donegal charged "over the odds" for a menu that featured only a minimal amount of food that was cooked from scratch. "I want to know who decides to give four stars to these places that are clearly not four-star in service, in decor, in food or in value," he said.

Asked to comment on the criticism last night, a spokeswoman for Fáilte Ireland said there had been "enormous and welcome investment" in the hospitality industry in the last five years of about €2.2billion.

The annual guides, now in their 15th year, are compiled by John and Sally McKenna.

This year's restaurant guide still has no place for Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin, regarded by many as the finest in Ireland. "The criteria we judge a restaurant on are good atmosphere, good food, good service, good value and good fun. We still don't find that at Guilbaud's. Fine dining is a concept which as far as we can see is just petit bourgeois snobbery," Mr McKenna said.

Outside Dublin, the winners include restaurants in Co Tipperary. The county has more entries than usual. For foodies, Tipperary is "a county to watch", said Mr McKenna.

In...

Among this year's new entries are:

Eden, Dublin
Town Bar and Grill, Dublin 33
The Mall, Waterford
Deane's Brasserie, Belfast
Rathmullan House, Donegal

... Out

Among those that do not reappear are:

O'Donovan's, Midleton
Peploe's, Dublin
Halo at the Morrison, Dublin
Tea Room at the Clarence, Dublin