The only problem with a holiday which is all about eating is that you end up rarely hungry enough to try loads of dishes. Dr HH and I loved the look of the brunch menu at Mallow, and we’re torn between the sweet and savoury options. Ideally we would have arrived hungry enough for both, but with a fully packed itinerary of restaurant reservations, we had to make some tough choices. We really enjoyed this for a fancy breakfast. In the end, we both chose sweet options.

I got the rhubarb French toast, which was an Easter special. It was a lovely thick, soft slice of bread, topped with Chantilly cream, poached rhubarb, and crumble. It was served with elderflower creme anglais. The Chantilly was so light and delicious. The rhubarb was tart, but not overpowering. The flavour of the creme anglais was really zingy and refreshing. The crumble was tasty and added some great texture. It was a really great breakfast.

Dr HH had the pistachio and cherry French toast. The cherries provided a nice sharpness, and the pistachios on top brought a good crunchy texture – though a bit more would have been nice. The pistachio custard was delicious. The whole thing was quite well balanced and not too sweet. As an observer, I thought this dish was very visually enticing with the lovely red and green colours.

Also, the chai latte was not too sweet, it was nice and spicy. It was a rare hit on the chai latte front for me!

It was nice and quiet on a Wednesday morning (but a reservation always makes sense to me), and service was very friendly and efficient.

Hopefully we’ll come back hungry and try more of the options one day!