Hinch Brasserie,
19 Carryduff Road,
Ballynahinch,
BT27 6TZ
028 9279 1180
[ hinchdistillery.com/brasserieOpens in new window ]
THE trip from front door to table at the brasserie at Hinch Distillery could hardly have been more impressive.
Friendly, welcoming staff say hello at every stage as you pass through the beautiful building, established by former packaging mogul and now vineyard owner and wine supplier Terry Cross, and opened to the public in December 2020.
The huge copper stills that produce the signature drams tower over you as you reach the restaurant, which, with its mahogany tones and peacock blue leather banquettes, looks just the sort of place to blaze through a cavalcade of ages and cask finishes.
But with everything set up so well, it's just a shame the whole experience of dinner doesn't deliver.
The menu is short and comfortable. It's a restaurant at a tourist attraction and isn't stretching itself.
It's the sort of menu you'd find in every gastropub that's pretty sure what it does well and what most people like. In the main courses, it's done very well here, though in the main it's not so successful.
There's no reason everything shouldn't be as enjoyable as those main courses were, but the disparity between the courses is so pronounced they feel like they're coming out of completely different kitchens.
So rather than get the not-so-good stuff out of the way first or get underway on a high before running into a massive 'but', starting at the very beginning is probably for the best.
There are starters and small plates, though the portion fills the small plate handsomely for the most reasonably priced part of the menu at £2.50 and £3.50.
Three halves of potato are scooped out to leave the skin, which has been treated as it should be. Perfectly, shatteringly crisp.
It's set up for success but trips up over a massive lack of seasoning. The cream they're full of is speckled with herbs but tastes of nothing. The potato hasn't been near a grain of salt either.
The soused mackerel is advertised as coming with a dill and cucumber salad but in reality is next to some naked slices of cucumber and more flavourless sour cream.
Just as the crisp spud was let down across the table, so the fish is ploughing a lonely furrow here. It's beautifully pickled, by far the most difficult thing to get right, sharp and sweet while still tasting of itself with a perfect texture that comes apart flawlessly. Another missed opportunity.
Main courses make the starter mis-steps all the more baffling.
A fine piece of ribeye has been well seasoned, cooked and rested and it comes with on-point green beans and a smooth mash, slicked with a darkly gleaming bone marrow gravy/sauce/jus/whatever, that displays total understanding and the ability to carry it off.
Similarly, pieces of sea bass are pearlescent fish under crisp skin, scattered among sweet prawns and mussels, all cooked just so.
There are coins of potato, lengths of broccoli and little croutons, all in a deeply flavoured cream sauce, dappled with capers for balancing bite.
Bigger croutons would have been nice but that's nitpicking territory. Like the steak, it's an excellent plate of food.
So, things are heading in the right direction, but it sadly doesn't last.
The pave is a decently chocolatey slab of mousse with a thin layer of sponge. It's tasty enough to not prompt regret, but still the sort of ending to a meal that makes you wonder if you could have done better.
The apple crumble is a poster child for 'could have done better'. Mainly because it's not really a crumble. Everything is there. Cooked spiced apple, crunchy sweet crumb, some vanilla ice cream, a little pot of custard.
But while nicely sharp and warmed with spice, the apples aren't cooked quite enough, so haven't given up their juice to sauce themselves.
And the crumble has been dumped on top before the whole thing has been sent out. A crumble that doesn't see an oven is a sad thing indeed. No fusing of fruit and crumb, no lava pools bubbling though the top. None of the entire point of the thing.
The custard gets tipped over everything and you end up with fruit and some crunch and melting ice cream, which is hardly the worst thing in the world, but an actual crumble would have been so much better.
The in-house products unsurprisingly dominate the drinks, with both the selection of whiskeys and their Ninth Wave Gin propping up the cocktail menu, and wines from the owner's vineyard, Chateau de La Ligne, starting at £27 a bottle or £7 a glass.
Both cocktails deliver on the surroundings. For the food to do the same the kitchen should look to their main courses. And for god's sake put that crumble in the oven.
THE BILL
Potato skins £2.50
Soused mackerel £7.95
Seabass £19.95
Ribeye steak £27.95
Chocolate pave £6.50
Apple crumble £6.50
Whiskey Collins £8.95
Bramble £8.95
Lemonade £2.10
Total £91.35
