The Mustard Seed @ Echo Lodge

Ballingarry
Co Limerick
The Mustard Seed @ Echo Lodge enquiries
The Mustard Seed @ Echo Lodge, Limerick

• Comfortable and charming country house.
• Beautifully appointed and furnished rooms.
• Outstanding gourmet Irish country cooking.

The Mustard Seed restaurant was renowned throughout Ireland for years. It’s original home was in nearby Adare village before it relocated to the lovely historic Echo Lodge, which is a converted 19th century convent. It is fair to say that along with a handful of outstanding properties, The Mustard Seed was at the forefront of this country’s gourmet revolution. We have known it for many years, and our most recent visit proved that it is still one of the shining stars of Ireland’s culinary gems. The house is set on ten acres of mature trees, and is an ideal setting for this renowned restaurant. It is a dream location for an exclusive wedding or small private function.

DINING AT THE MUSTARD SEED

We were looking forward to our dinner, and made sure we were hungry on arrival. We enjoyed a glass of champagne in the sitting-room while perusing the menus, which served to further whet our appetites! The five course seasonal menu offered so many tempting choices that we could have ordered everything based on the descriptions alone. In the end the starters we opted for were Confit leg of duck served with spiced puy lentils and a port and veal jus; and a real zingy oven roasted sea bass fillet with braised bak choi and oriental vegetable dressing. We were then offered soup, salad or sorbet, followed by mains which had a good balance of fish, beef, poultry and vegetarian dishes. We were well pleased with our Fillet of Angus beef with roast mushroom, artichoke and shallot cream stew and red onion compote; and an Oven baked salmon wrapped in Parma ham with the most delicious juicy sautéed scallops and a tomato, olive and aubergine salsa. This was great food, sensational in its simplicity and we devoured every single mouthful while taking generous tastes of each other’s dishes. Service was attentive and serene at the same time, and the deep-blue dining room quietly hummed with appreciative diners.
From the wine list we chose a bottle of Cote du Ventoux, Domaine Des Anges and this worked well with our beef and fish choices and with our Irish cheese board afterwards.

With an imaginative garden vegetable selection, and some mouth-watering petit fours, our diner lived up to our great expectations, and we would continue to herald The Mustard Seed as one of the best restaurants in the south-west.

ACCOMMODATION AT ECHO LODGE

I love the comfortable atmosphere of this house; you really do feel like you are a guest staying at a friend’s home. Proprietor Dan Mullane has been welcoming guests for more than twenty years, and his manner and that of his staff is genuinely warm and thoroughly professional. If you take a walk around the grounds, and within the house itself, you will find many ornaments and furnishings that Dan has collected personally over the years on his travels throughout the world. Each of the bedrooms is individually appointed and furnished, and there are both original and newer rooms on offer. This time we stayed in one of the older rooms with panoramic views over the gardens and surrounding countryside. We had a four-poster bed, antique furniture, lovely bathroom and of course the cosy robes and lots of interesting reading material as well as television. It was a very cold night when we arrived, and we awoke to a thick frost outside but we had noticed nothing, warmly cocooned as we were in our lovely bedroom.
Shortly after our arrival we found ourselves enjoying tea with devilishly mouth-watering homemade brownies beside the open fire in the lounge while reading the papers as we shared the sofa with a very affectionate house cat! It is undoubtedly a wonderful home-from-home, and if you are thinking of visiting real Irish country houses for a taste of great hospitality, the best of home-produced food, comfort and real relaxation, head for The Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge, we say!
The Mustard Seed @ Echo Lodge, Limerick