The Pikeman Bar
Grand Hotel, Denny Street
THE grand old dame of Denny Street, eh?
If you were to ask anyone in Tralee where they were to go to for an absolute ‘safe’ option for lunch, chances are they’d send you to The Grand.
Of course, this is a compliment to the Tralee institution, but for foodies, the word ‘safe’ is that kind of four letter word. Now I make no great claims to being a gourmet, but I do like to try different things on a menu every time I visit a restaurant and I like food with imagination.
Continued below…
The Fillet Steak Cafe de Paris in Darcy’s Restaurant is probably the best steak I’ve ever eaten, but I’ll try every other main course they have to offer before I go for it again.
I hadn’t eaten in The Grand for about a year so I went into the bar area at about 1.40pm on Friday for a bite to eat. The place was jam-packed as usual with almost every available seat taken.
However, I spotted a high table near the bar and, after shouldering an 80 year old woman out the double doors in my efforts to get the seat, I got there on time. Ok, I’m joking…she was only about 70.
Anyway, The Grand has a lot of staff around this time of the day and they need them. Dick Boyle and Co. run a smooth operation and the table was wiped clean and made ready for me in a flash.
You can get almost anything to eat in The Grand but I fancied a choice from the lunch specials. Among the ‘proper lunch’ dishes of the day were, beef, salmon, chicken, sweet and sour pork, bacon and hake, all of which ranged in price from €10.95 to 12.50 and had much fancier descriptions of the dishes on the menu than I just gave.
I went for the ‘pan-fried fillet of hake with leek and smoked bacon lardons’ (€12.50) because it looked amazing on paper. After about 15 minutes the dish arrived and it was well worth the wait.
The hake was the best I’ve had. It seemed as if the chef flipped it straight from the frying pan to my plate it was so fresh.
It was a good size portion, beautifully seasoned and rested on the creamy leek and bacon lardons, which were equally delicious. It came with a roast potato (lovely, mash (average), mashed carrots and parsnips (great) and cabbage (ditto).
I followed it up with a regular cappuccino. Now, I can’t believe the difference in the size of a regular cappuccino in cafes and bars around town.
The one in the Grand wasn’t much bigger than a double espresso (ok, slight exaggeration…slight) but retained its heat, while other places give you almost a soup bowl-full which turns lukewarm after 30 seconds.
Anyway, to finish; not a grand lunch, a great lunch. The bill was €15.
4/5