Review: Beach House, Tramore
Every time I see the British quiz show ‘Tipping Point’, my mind immediately travels back to summer days in the seaside arcades in Youghal and Tramore, feeding the machines with 1p and 2p coins, all the vain hope of securing a Las Vegas style payout. I’d watch, filled with envy, those people who were flush enough to play the 5p and upwards machines. Who were these people with all this money?
Present day Tramore is still a town filled with hurdy gurdies and home to the excellent Dooly’s Fish & Chips, best enjoyed eaten on the seafront wall watching the sea. Stepping back a short distance from the sea, you’ll come across elegant old houses dating from the 1800s when affluent people traveled to holiday in Tramore.
One such building is home to Beach House, owned by Peter and Jumoke Akintola Hogan, the couple behind Dublin’s ever popular Fish Shop and more lately Bar Pez.
In fact, if you visit the website for each venue in turn, you’ll notice the consistent style that runs across all three, all the while allowing each location to do its own thing. This is typical of the smart style and thoughtfulness that this couple bring to everything they do.
Everything about the dining room says seaside. This has been cleverly achieved without folksy pieces of driftwood or buoys on the walls. Instead, the sense of seaside is conveyed by bright clear light and white walls; a clean neutral background for Jumoke’s cooking. For those seeking a little more intimacy, there’s a little room to the side, home to the wine cellar and darker walls.
Grilled langoustines come with claws outstretched and carpace split open, their sweet flesh ready for extraction and swiping luxuriantly through the melted butter (€19.50).
A mound of Boatstrand spider crab white meat is piled on top of grilled sourdough which has been layered with a richer sauce incorporating the brown meat (€16.00). A squeeze of lemon is all that’s needed to bring the delicate flesh to life. This would be a fantastic lunch in its own right, accompanied by a glass of something fresh, cold and white.
The classic option of fish and chips (fried hake with tartare sauce in this case) did try to attract my attention, but my heart was set on the sole with brown butter (€27.50). Like many Irish people, I had a love hate relationship with fish in my younger years, but in reality, it turns out that I simply wanted my fish served with brown butter. Cue muttering from my mother of “Twas far from brown butter you were reared”.
Perfectly cooked, the sole easily separated from the backbone, and along with a portion of triple cooked chips (€5) and punchy aioli (€3.50), I was in heaven. Perhaps a few capers, some grapes or other accoutrements could have been added for a little something extra, but we’re talking small details here.
Across the table, interloper Dollar Bay clams who had travelled along the coast from Wexford came with turbot, dressed simply with the cooking juices and olive oil (€34). Again, this was another example of the exceptional fish cooking skills in the kitchen. When food is simple, there’s nowhere for mistakes to hide, no big bowsy sauces to mask imperfections.
We wrapped up with a lightly crunchy almond tart with fresh sliced strawberries (€9) and a pot of chilled custard with red wine prunes (€8.50). We chose a bottle of nicely acidic and slightly salty Léon Boesch Riesling (€45) from the nicely curated short wine list, but there is also a longer Burgundy focussed wine list if you’re in the mood. Burgundy people are my kind of people.
The seafood-led, simple, pared back style of Beach House, executed flawlessly by self-taught cook Jumoke, may not quite be to everyone’s taste. A lot of Irish people have sadly never developed a grá for fish. But for those who do, this will be a place they don’t just like, they will love it, perhaps even dreaming of the next time they will return. I know I am.