With a new chef in situ and a fab Japanese-influenced menu, dining at this superb Michelin-starred Cork restaurant was nothing short of terre-ific, writes our critic
Wicklow sika deer. Photo: Lucinda O’Sullivan.
Unless you’re loaded, the best way to try a Michelin-starred restaurant is for lunch. You may not get a tumbler of caviar or truffles sprinkled at will, but you’ll experience the same culinary skill and polished service. With tasting menus for dinner (€220) and lunch (€110/€145), I applied this mantra and found myself on the N25 heading for Terre, the two-star Michelin restaurant in Castlemartyr Resort, where a new chef, Yorkshire man Lewis Barker, had just been appointed.
Owned by Peng Loh and Dr Stanley Quek, who also have Sheen Falls in Kenmare, Tulfarris in Blessington, and Trinity Townhouse in Dublin, I’d visited Terre on its opening in September 2022. Vincent Crepel was the man to the fore then with Angelo Vagiotis as chef de cuisine. Drowned by beige Nordic Noma-esque influences for the previous decade, I’d particularly liked Crepel’s cuisine, which sang of his native Basque country, his time in Arzak in San Sebastian, and the spices of his years in Singapore.