Last Updated on March 2, 2024
The Doyle Hotels Celebrate their Irish Heritage in Style
There are three Doyle hotels in London – we know and love them all. The Bloomsbury is home to the Dalloway Terrace – a charming cafe and restaurant where it’s easy to let brunch drift into lunch drift into afternoon tea and then to dinner. The Marylebone Hotel is home to 108 Brasserie and Bar, a chic and elegant restaurant where the ambience is as good as the food. And, The Kensington Hotel is home to the Town House, a glorious space that somehow epitomises Kensington style with well-filled bookcases, comfy chairs and sofas, stylish lighting and stunning floral displays
Founded by PV Doyle in 1959, the Doyle Collection of hotels embody the best of Irish hospitality. There are now eight hotels in England, the USA and Ireland, including the Westbury in Dublin and the three London hotels. Rather than just picking on one day of the year, St Patrick’s Day, to celebrate their Irish heritage, the London hotels are offering a special Irish menu all month. We went along to try for ourselves.
This is a place where it’s equally good to go for a meal or for drinks and cocktails. We started off the evening with a glass of Rathfinny English Sparkling Wine and noticed that the drinks list includes plenty of wines by the glass and some delicious cocktails.
At £29.50 for two courses or £34.50 for three, the Irish Heritage menu is something of a bargain – AND there’s Guinness bread to start – a dark, almost cake-like creation, full of earthy flavour and umami notes. Served with Abernethy butter, made in small batches in County Down it was an excellent way to start the meal.
Our starter, a warm salad of asparagus with Clonakilty black pudding and a soft poached egg was an excellent mixture of flavours and textures. I love black pudding and was surprised that it paired so well with the delicate asparagus and the creamy poached egg.
Braised Hereford beef in Guinness with herb dumplings, carrots and colcannon was a classic Irish dish. I did feel it might have benefitted from longer cooking but this was a hearty and filling dish that was perfect for a chilly March evening. Colcannon is a glorious mixture of mashed potato and cabbage that tastes so much better than it sounds and that I can eat by the spoonful.
The third course was a choice – but for us, we both opted for the Five Farms affogato (ice cream with a very special Irish cream liqueur. Five Farms is a true farm-to-table product, crafted from single batches of fresh cream that are combined with premium Irish Whiskey within 48 hours of collection to become authentic Irish Cream Liqueur. It really didn’t disappoint, with the liqueur adding a delicious creamy kick to the smooth ice cream.
The alternative, Cashel Blue with honey and walnut soda bread is something that I can recommend without having tried it, simply because I always add Cashel Blue to my own cheeseboard when I can. It’s a truly excellent blue cheese that was first created in the early 1980s by Louis and Jane Grubb, artisan cheesemakers in Tipperary who were aiming to showcase the outstanding quality of the local grass-fed milk. It’s become a real chef’s favourite and, in the hands of the 2nd generation of cheesemakers, it’s still made by hand on the same farm in Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
We finished our meal at The Kensington Hotel off with coffee and homemade fudge. An elegant and relaxing experience that I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat! The set Irish menu is available until the end of March at all three hotels.
The Kensington
109-113 Queen’s Gate
London SW7 5LR
T: +44 (0) 207 5896300
kensington@doylecollection.com
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