Terre restaurant, at Castlemartyr Resort in Co Cork, heads a list of five Irish additions to the UK and Ireland edition of the Michelin Guide, which is published digitally, with updates each month. The others are the Bishop’s Buttery at the Cashel Palace hotel, in Co Tipperary; Blank, in Belfast; Fontana, in Holywood, Co Down; and Artis by Phelim O’Hagan, in Derry.
Today’s new entries bring to 12 the number of restaurants in Ireland that have been added since Michelin began its latest round of inspections, in March last year, following publication of the 2022 guide, in February.
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The monthly additions are described as “the Michelin inspectors’ favourite new restaurants” – but they will have to wait until the 2023 guide is launched, on March 27th, to discover if, in addition to being included in the digital listing, they have been awarded stars, green stars for sustainability, or bib gourmands for value for money.
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Ireland currently has four restaurants with two Michelin stars: Aimsir, in Co Kildare; and Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen, Liath and Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, all in Dublin. Along with speculation on which might be the first to achieve three-star status, there is intense interest in the level at which Terre, led by its French chef-patron, Vincent Crepél, will make its Michelin debut.
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Before the restaurant’s high-profile launch, last September, a Terre recruitment notice for a restaurant director sought candidates who could “consistently provide a two Michelin star guest experience”, with the ability “to lead by example with regard to service standards as required for a two Michelin star restaurant”. Crepél’s résumé includes three- and two-star restaurants in Europe and Asia. Aimsir made its debut at two-star level in the 2020 edition of the guide.
In March last year the Dublin restaurant Library St, in the same ownership as Terre, was included in the online guide, followed by the Old Couch Cafe, in Waterford (April), Orwell Road in Dublin (August), St Francis Provisions in Kinsale (October), Kingdom 1795 in Killorglin (November), A Peculiar Tea in Belfast (November) and the OId Bank in Dungarvan (December).
