Collective, creative and curated were the pre-pandemic signifiers of hipsters, and while I can fall quite heavily for a collective, curation is a thing I expect to see confined to its natural habitat. It has no business swanning around menus acting like it’s some higher form of list writing.
Hen's Teeth in Blackpitts is an exception. Opened in November 2019, after a collective raised the necessary Kickstarter moolah to fit-out a 2,600sq ft new-build premises. It is the glorious home to a contemporary studio, art gallery, shop and cafe, proving itself to be quite the fitting dwelling for those much abused "c" words.
Creative juices were obviously in full flight when the €55 pay-in-advance Feed Us menu was hatched, with a €45 vegetarian sidekick. And in what I can only assume is an artistic objection to the aforementioned list writing, the Feed Us menu has no Read Me counterpart. It’s all going to be a surprise, with the chef sending out dishes as they are cooked, which considering I’ve paid in advance is a minimum expectation.
Some 30 minutes after we arrive, our first bite, a plate of blistered padron peppers, lands on the table. Warm buttered crumpets assuage some of our peckishness, and are every bit as enticing as they sound, with just the right amount of chew and tanginess from a sourdough starter. One of them is topped with whipped cream cheese, cod’s roe and Goatsbridge trout caviar, while the vegetarian version is slathered with horseradish cream and scattered with chives. Fumbally sourdough bread with lava salt butter follows next.
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Good as the crumpet was, its reappearance 20 minutes later diminishes the novelty somewhat. This time it is dotted with a spicy gooseberry preserve, but this makes, effectively, three bread courses in a row for the vegetarian menu. The €55 line-up fairs better with a delicious Connemara oyster, chopped ceviche style and dressed in a vibrant dill and sorrel juice.
All of the dishes that follow, and which slowly (sometimes very slowly) make their way out of the kitchen, are extremely good. Watermelon juice is poured over a small salad of goat’s cheese, chunks of tomato, melon and cucumber, bringing a salty/sweet balance; while across the table, smoky lumpfish roe tops a tidy pile of tomatoes, tomatillos and avocado.
Our dishes continue to arrive at 30-minute intervals. Fried octopus on a bed of spicy morteau sausage ragu is earthy, zinged up with stripes of tomatillo and avocado puree, while the deep fried artichoke in the vegetarian option is on Romesco sauce, topped with shaved fennel. A squash tartlet to follow is sweet and fragile in a bric pastry shell, while the mussels on the €55 menu are cooked in a perfectly judged nduja broth.
It’s 11pm, three hours in, and our bottle of Aphros Loureiro (€37) from a short but reasonably priced wine list has been drained, so we enlist the help of Austrian winemaker Judith Beck, sipping a glass of her Blaufrankisch (€7.50) as we tackle the last savoury dish. We find it hard to do justice to the sizable portion of free range, barbecued pork belly with sides, or the vegetarian roast vegetable salad. But dessert is light, a delicious coconut rice pudding with chamomile ice cream and poached rhubarb. Then the bill is called for and we finally take flight.
I have sat through tasting menus for many hours as up to 36 courses, many of them just one bite, land on the table, but I did not expect to spend 3½ hours here, eating a considerably shorter menu.
In reality, the tasting menu here is a bit of a mismatch with the casual vibe and the erratic service does it no favours. Faster service and a reduction in the size of that last savoury course would make it less of a slog, but really the solution is to skip the tasting menu and go with the flexibility of the a la carte option. There is real talent in this kitchen, where the chef Killian Walsh draws on his experience from Michelin starred restaurants in the UK and his time spent in Melbourne. There is an ease and lightness to how he cooks which is hugely pleasing.
Add that talent to an amazing space with the edginess of London, the HiFi lounge and Klipschorn speakers, and you’ve got a combination which I hardly need to say, is as rare as ... Okay, I’ll get my coat.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine and two glasses of wine, was €152.
THE VERDICT 8/10 Great food in a great room, all it needs is faster service
Facilities: Smartly minimalist and clean
Music: Blondie, 1970s sounds and jazz.
Food provenance: Glenmar Seafood, Connemara oysters, JJ Young Butchers, La Rousse and McNally's Farm
Vegetarian options: A €45 vegetarian tasting menu. Most of these options are available on the a la carte, for example squash tartlet, and vegan options include the roast vegetable salad
Wheelchair access: Room is accessible with an accessible toilet.
