Have now been a couple of Have now been a couple of times separately for coffee, brunch and most recently dinner. Have to say the decor is fabulous and in general a great addition to the village. However on each occasion I felt core elements of the coffee / food offer left me and my fellow guests underwhelmed. ( There’s undoubtedly better coffee in at least 2 other village venues) The dinner menu feels a bit pretentious and unfortunately the 12-hour Braised Beef Short Rib I was served was whilst tasty - simply cold. My wife had pork belly and had the same complaint. I really hope the team get it right as it would be shame that after such significant investment and thoughtful design that the core offer fails to impress. I’ll wait for a few months before I go back in the hope that Clermont gets it right !

Beautiful surroundings - food needs to improve Made a last minute booking for Saturday evening.....restaurant is decorated beautifully, no doubt about it. We were brought to table but I could not say we were greeted warmly by what seemed the senior waitress. The menu was more expensive than I expected for Blackrock but I would not have minded if food had matched the price. We had seafood chowder, it needed better mix of fish, crab claws, think the portion was 7, not enough for price & bruschetta which was tasty but too expensive @ €10 ..... like seriously!
Followed by carbonara was very poor, couldnt eat it. Steak pizza which I think cost €18 but I had to look for pieces of beef on it & there was too much coriander. Fish & chips was fine, but hey can u go wrong cooking that. Overall we said we were glad we tried it but we wouldnt rush up again.....well not until they introduce an early bird for diners willing to eat at 5 or 6pm.

Needs Service Improvements I have visited this location once for a family event. Sadly I won’t repeat this. Brought family members here for Sunday lunch, as I have done many times when occupied by previous owners.

I am taking into consideration the teething problems as new staff learn where things are, but hey the customers are at the tables that’s all that’s important. What I experienced was the most disorganised display of table service I have ever witnessed. The number of inexperienced floor team is simply too concentrated and there is no leader.
Too much to rant on for one discrete experience so summarised below.
[This is feedback for management not individual staff members]

Stop
Staff walking through restaurant with open laptops, and setting down on customer seating to work. This is our dining experience, not your office.
The insane process where food is carried down from kitchen area on a huge tray and both nowhere to set it down, and staff to relieve the waiter of the dishes. This for me was the most telling of what was going on here, great effort put into decor, but nobody has checked how this current space can serve food effectively. Terrible lack of process.
Collecting glasses from table when not finished, please help the staff understand how little or often this is needed.
Bringing out the soup and main course at same time. No apology as simply inexperienced staff did not suspect anything wrong with this.
Service charge. Increase your dish prices if need be, as the food is tasty, but your service is extremely under par.

Start
Hiring an experienced staff member that can build a team into a min level of organisation.
Ensuring proper table management that parties of people can sit together, joining large round tables together does NOT count especially when restaurant half full.
Following up after each course for the next, ensure customers don’t have to chase down your staff for tea/coffee/desserts. Staff not confident in approaching tables to do this.
Team needs to communicate - Your staff all have mics, but they don’t communicate effectively. This is evident when we have to ask for service repeatedly.
Sunday lunches have a certain min expectation nationally. I’m happy to eat gnocchi on a Sunday, but you need a menu to appeal for folks who require more traditional dining.
Portion sizes are particularly small across the whole menu, this is quite noticeable and is sadly unnecessary on sides.

Continue
To deliver nice tasty dishes.
Invest in the local area.

Terrible - service, process and management of same.
Average - tasty, but dishes small and menus extremely limited.
Rating - Poor

All style but poor menu and food Decided to try the new Clermont recently and having waited to allow teething problems to fade.
The premises are attractive and the staff polite but the menu is very limited for all courses. Our mains had a couple of issues, with request for no dressing/sauce ignored and steak well below the well done requested. The person who ordered steak also said it was tough and stringy - it didn't even look like a striploin cut. Pork belly was cold. No veg seems to be standard unless ordered as a side and even then the char roasted broccoli was laced with chilli which we were not warned about - nobody ate it. The accompanying chips totalled 8 chips!
Overpriced for sure when you see what little you get - particularly as a main course.
If you want cocktails and a pizza then head for the Clermont but if you want a decent selection on a menu and tasty food, there are many more options in Blackrock and Dundalk.

The Chairman’s Room - simply amazing My wife and I visited the Chairman’s Room upstairs in the Clermont last Saturday and it was simply amazing. This is basically a Michelin Star restaurant that no one has heard of. It seems primarily focused on beef which comes from the owner's farm. Let me tell you it’s well worth a try. A rich amuse Bouche was followed by addictive sweet warm bread, simple and light starters followed by the main event which was amazing! The service is great with professional staff who know their wine’s and gave us an excellent recommendation. 5 stars all the way.

The meat is excellent If you want a safe place to get out of the house and feel normal again - this is right for that. In simple terms the are getting it right and seem very aware of peoples fears. Good job to the team there. I must say the meat is excellent. Worth the price and a nice place to sit. Will be back!