Going veggie in the village

Although far from the sea, fish is the thing to order at Glasson Village restaurant, thanks to a long-established supply trail, writes CATHERINE CLEARY

A CLAN GATHERING IN the midlands and it is the night before the event in the tent. You can hardly cross a room without stepping over a tumble of cousins. Grabby hands have made the family cat jumpy. My sister-in-law and I are sliding into the calm of the car to take to the country lanes leading to a nice old-fashioned restaurant.

Our destination is Glasson Village Restaurant in Glasson, a chocolate box stone cottage on the side of the road in this Westmeath village. First impressions are good. This looks like a comfy armchair of a place.

There is a dining room with a fireplace at the top and a curved conservatory room at the far end, where we are seated. Candles glow on the tables and the restaurant is half-full. We are easily the youngest diners here tonight. It is unusual to walk into a restaurant and not get a glimpse of kitchen. Open-plan cooking with a flash of flame, serious young chefs, and the hiss and thump of the coffee machine is the usual backdrop to meals out these days.

The other absence is the rest of our generation. We have passed a sign on the road advertising houses with loan repayments of €99 per week. A scan of the menu and wine list shows that dinner for two will set you back at least a week’s mortgage money. There is little sign this evening that young homeowners in the midlands are flocking to restaurants like this one.

I spy a block of Cashel Blue on the cheese trolley as we are led to our table, so my eye is taken by the blue-cheese tartlet starter. An idea is born. How does “the only Veggie in the Village” fare if they choose the vegetarian option for starter and main course?

Trish orders the scallops on a bed of colcannon (€12.50) to start and sea bass fillets (€28.50) for main course. When she asks where the fish comes from she is told Galway, and that the same supplier has brought it for 24 years. I order the spinach and blue-cheese tartlet (€10.50) and a vegetable moussaka (€20) for main course. We get a bottle of rosé, a Daniel Bessiere Syrah (€24), with the promise that we can put the cork in what we can’t finish and take it home.

Nice bread and a jug of water come swiftly. The cheese and spinach tart looks promising. The pears are nicely cooked and the walnuts are fresh. But the pastry case is undercooked. It’s translucent and gives the whole offering the same rubbery texture and flavour. Blind-baking before the filling was added would have made a crucial difference.

Trish’s scallops are delicious, caramelised on the outside and white and firm inside. Simple, good ingredients, well-cooked. The colcannon is tasty, although on the heavy side for a starter, and feels a bit wintry for mid-August.

Her sea bass is great. It has a moreish lemony cream sauce and the fish is perfectly cooked. There’s plenty on the plate for her, but a side offering of a spud with a leathery skin, broccoli and mashed turnip comes along, too. There are no takers for the turnip at our table.

I suppose this is where life gets cruel for a hardworking family restaurant. Is it fair to be judged on the dish that has had the least thought put into it? My moussaka comes in a pub-style earthenware dish on the plate, with a clump of salad alongside.

Under a lid of salty, melted cheddar there is a steaming mush of aubergines and peppers in a tomato and cinnamon sauce. It is so volcanically hot that it seems to defy the laws of physics, warming instead of cooling as the meal goes on. I’ve had meals excavated from a freezer, zapped in a microwave and finished under a grill that tasted like this.

We share a chocolate mud cake with homemade vanilla ice cream (€7.50). The cake is not fudgey enough and the ice cream tastes of cream and little else.

It’s easy to picture the Christmas decorations up and a roaring fire in the grate in a few months’ time, with families treating visiting members to a festive meal out. This landlocked restaurant has proved it can do great fish although far from the sea. A little more work on the ingredients from the soil would complete the picture.

Dinner for two with a bottle of wine came to €103.