Being a slightly-belated celebration of my 34th. birthday, Mary stood me dinner at the Stables Restaurant in Birr, Co. Offaly. I had long heard legendary tales about the culinary excellence of this restaurant, but I'd never had a reason (much less, an excuse) to go there.

The Stables is an old Georgian house, close to the entrance of Birr Castle. The restaurant is located at the rear of the house, and can be accessed by an archway. The house itself contains a small full bar and B&B accommodation, both of which were availed of (is that bad grammar? Sue me...).

For starters, we both had brie cheese fritters in orange sauce. Magnificent! Who'd have thought that orange and cheese would go so well together? OK, apart from the inventor of orange cheesecake... This was the most exciting taste I'd ever experienced since I first discovered doner kebabs. Excellent, excellent, excellent! Mary was ecstatic about it also.

For the soup course, Mary had carrot and orange soup. Wonderfully subtle, so she says. I had french onion soup. If you don't like onions, steer clear of this one. I love 'em, so I slurped this one down with much gusto. Having said that, there isn't really much you can do with onion soup. Still...

For the main course, Mary had medallions of fillet steak au poivre. Mary reckons this is the best steak she's ever eaten; even better than the garlic steak she'd eaten years and years ago in Seasons Restaurant in Kinsale. High praise indeed. I had king scallops and prawns. I'd never eaten scallops before. I'm not really a "fishy" person at the best of times; I don't really like anything with sharp bones and a taste of the sea. Sorry, I know I'm a philistine, but that's just me! Anyway, I was very pleased with my first encounter with the meat behind the Shell logo. Prawns, of course, are prawns...

For dessert, Mary had pavlova, while I had orange and chocolate chessecake. Do you detect a heavy "orange" theme to the evening's proceedings? Orange you observant... Both desserts can accurately be described as "yummy".

All the above was washed down with that old reliable Santa Rita 120 Cabernet Sauvignon. Gimme New World wines any day of the week (and if I'm in the mood, every day of the week).

Service can only be described as excellent; even more so when you consider that the restaurant appeared to be full. No delays, prompt attention, and the young wan serving the desserts was kinda cute, too!

How would I rate The Stables?. Well, only on the basis that there must be some place better than it somewhere else in the world, I'll give it 9.5/10. Of course, I could be wrong...

Sorry, we didn't catch phone or fax numbers for The Stables, but I'm sure you can track it down...

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