GRAZING FOR GIRLS: Grazing at The Ice House

I’m just back from a trip to the West of Ireland having been invited there for a friend’s wedding. We stayed in Ballina, Co Mayo and post-nuptials visited The Pier Restaurant at The Ice House for Sunday lunch. The restaurant is on the coast road to Enniscrone, Co Sligo next to the Moy Estuary and has an interesting history...

Inside the restaurant

A House With History

The Ice House was originally called The Iceland Cottage or Iceland House. And in the nineteenth century huge quantities of fish caught in the area were stored there before being taken in bigger boats and exported to Dublin or Liverpool. As a result a great amount of ice was needed and The Ice House in effect served as an enormous ice store. The filling of the cellars was an annual event and involved every person in Ballina town. During the winter, when the lakes and ponds froze, farmers and quay workers would harvest the ice by breaking it into large chunks with pick axes and sledge hammers. The chunks were conveyed on carts to the ice house, where they were crushed with long handled wooden mallets and thrown into the cellars. With the introduction of mechanical refrigeration, the building fell into disuse as an ice store. Now lovingly restored as a hotel, spa and restaurant, The Ice House opened its doors in December 2007.

View of the River Moy

Drinks on the terrace

Window booth with views of the river

Lunch at The Pier Restaurant

Bloody Mary

Once seated in The Pier Restaurant – fab views of the River Moy is you can bag a window booth - we quickly ordered drinks and tucked into the selection of homemade breads.

Homemade bread

Starters came shortly afterwards – St Tola’s goats cheese and walnut pudding, with organic beets and poached fig in red wine for me, and plum tomato and basil soup for the fella.

Goats cheese and walnut pudding

Tomato and basil soup

Main courses were a huge portion of roast rib of prime Irish beef, with horseradish mash and red wine jus, while I had the fillet of pork, served with sautéed courgette petals, pappardelle pasta and confit garlic. Delicious!

Fillet of pork

Roast rib of beef

Always Room For Dessert...

Passion fruit mousse

With everything from Baileys cheesecake with buttermilk and strawberry ice-cream to vanilla crème brûlée with pistachio biscuits on the menu, there was lots of choice for dessert.

Ice House Assiette

But in the end we settled for a selection of homemade ice creams (the almond and asparagus scoop stood out in the trio served) and the Ice House Assiette – apple square, strawberry and pistachio meringue, watermelon sorbet and passion fruit mousse. Already trying to figure out when we can go back to sample the Á La Carte!