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.

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

Disappointing Restaurant I made a reservation for last Saturday. It was our 6th engagement anniversary ( and Valentine`s weekend). We arrived on time and was seated between a birthday party table and another table of two near the door on the way to the bathrooms.The restaurant was half empty so I politely asked if we could get another table, but I got just a brief cold answer that all the tables are booked. So we took a table, but I felt very uncomfortable so I went to ask the same lady ( tall, short hair, glasses ) if we could eat in the bar. The answer was no as meal is served in the bar till 4.00pm and it was 4.30pm...Fair enough. Well, she didn`t make any effort to make us feel welcomed. I was hungry and didn`t want to spoil our date with my husband ( these days it`s so special having a date just us as we have two small children ), so we stayed. I ordered a steak and my husband a fish. Steak was delicious, but the vegetables raw and peppercorn sauce very watery. We were asked how was everything when paying our bill. I mentioned the above and got a reply it will be passed to the kitchen. Our experience definitely wasn`t value for money. Will not be in a rush to go back. Not to mention when we were leaving most of the tables which were empty when we arrived were still empty...

The new Clermont Restaurant We recently tried out the New Clermont Restaurant, with our friends. We had a drink in the bar while we waited for our table. The young guy that served us our drinks was so welcoming and friendly. We were shown to our table in the restaurant, and the girl went through the menu in detail explaining everything, very helpful. Our meal was beautiful from starters, main course and deserts. The decor throughout is beautiful. Overall a very good experience, looking forward to our next night out in The Clermont.

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.

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 !