EATING OUT:The Stephouse is making a mark in Carlow's culinary wheel - Borris

BORRIS, by the River Barrow, nestling at the foothills of Mount Leinster, has thankfully changed little since my childhood. Mere mention of the village triggers a host of fond holiday memories for me, many of the surrounding food. Memories of sharing just-caught trout, spit-roasted on the river bank at dawn; savouring garden peas we shelled, blanched quickly and served with a knob of local butter; or being moved to enthusiastic exaltations, as much as a 10-year-old can be, by tender spring lamb, slow-roasted and served simply, in its own juices with gobsmackingly fresh vegetables. Those memories remind me of how amazing Irish produce can be, and how lucky we are to have a land as green and fertile as we do.

Borris Lodge, the guesthouse where we used to stay with the wonderful Curran family, is now a nursing home, but a smart new hotel sits proudly on the Main Street. The Step House Hotel is a befitting addition to the village, and is run by the Coady family, who have lived and traded in the village for five generations.

Spring was in the air at the Step House as we entered; the heady scent of early cut daffodils and smouldering turf wafted through the room. We took our seats in the 1808 bar for an informal, yet civilised, Sunday lunch. Chef Alan Foley, another disciple of Ross Lewis from Chapter One in Dublin, mans the kitchen and his menu is short and simple, yet enticing. I had hoped to try his more complex endeavours in the hotel’s Cellar restaurant, but sadly it was closed on this particular Sunday. It typically opens Friday and Saturday nights, as well as Sunday afternoons, and I have been informed that it will be open each Sunday from here on in.

The deal on a Sunday is €25 for three courses, €20 for two, or a main course only for €13. We decided to go for the three courses. To start, the Step House salad: Reggiano and olive oil with garlic croutons, lardons, olives and feta. This was good: fresh leaves, high-quality extras and a subtle, yet perceptible dressing. Our other starter, gravalax of salmon with an orange vinaigrette and fennel salad, worked well too, the citrusy orange accentuating the flavour of the salmon beautifully. All good clean flavours.

The star of the main courses was my dining partner’s roast sirloin of beef with lentils and smoked bacon. The beef was stellar, perfectly cooked, pinkish and as tender as one could hope for. The lentils were cooked perfectly too, melt-in-the-mouth, with the flavour of the smoked bacon blissfully enveloping the mélange. My main course of pan-seared hake with a ratatouille of fine vegetables and roasted garlic was also very good, punctuated with bold dollops of grapefruit purée that pierced the garlic’s intensity – a wonderful coupling that enhanced the hake’s rounder flavour with ease, yet never overpowered the fish.

A pint of stout went very well with the home-made brown bread - loaves of the bread are available to take home at €3 each, and worth every cent.

For desserts, we had a very good chocolate fondant, presented in a graphic 1980s style, and a vanilla parfait with bold raspberry sorbet, also moreish and slightly new romantic in look.

Sunday lunch at The Step House, then, comes recommended in a charming corner of the country that is at its spring best just now.

Step House Hotel, Borris, Co Carlow, 059-9773209, stephousehotel.ie