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Irish Times
08-05-2025
- Irish Times
The Pullman review: Is this restaurant on a train carriage travelling towards a Michelin star?
The Pullman Address : Galway Telephone : 091-519600 Cuisine : International Website : Cost : €€€€ There are, in theory, many ways to spend €130 on dinner in the west of Ireland. You could eat bog butter from a scallop shell or endure a 12-course 'textures of hedgerow' menu. Or you could board a train. The Pullman reopened in March after a restoration, overseen with the kind of obsessive commitment usually reserved for vintage watches or papal funerals. Leona (1927) and Linda (1954) – two Orient Express carriages at Glenlo Abbey Hotel outside Galway – have been restored to brass lights, marquetry panels, 1960s crockery and pressed linen. The chef in the kitchen is Greek-born Angelo Vagiotis, whose CV includes Noma , Manresa and Terre in Castlemartyr , where he helped the team land two Michelin stars in 2024. Joined by Terre pastry chef Linda Sergidou and Shauna Murphy, Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2023, he's not playing it safe. He has made no secret of his Michelin aspirations. A bill of €130 for seven courses puts it firmly into tasting-menu territory – you expect technique, precision and at least a nod to theatre. What you do not necessarily expect is a lone, suspiciously cheerful diner with a French accent, who chats with waiters, orders the full menu, and finishes with pour-over coffee. Vagiotis does a walk-by. Sergidou personally delivers dessert. Is he a Michelin Guide inspector? Who knows. But the kitchen isn't taking any chances. READ MORE The meal opens with bitter leaves, herbs and edible flowers from Bullaun Ark, tied like a posy over a sharp foam of cider vinegar. A smart, seasonal opener. Enrico Crippa does something similar at Piazza Duomo in Italy's Alba. Then a Rockfield cream puff – a gougère: light, delicate, filled with assertive cheese mousse. Goatsbridge trout follows – three thin slices alternated with golden beetroot beside horseradish cream and trout's roe. The first hard test comes with Jerusalem artichoke and monkfish liver – a course with nowhere to hide. Ankimo, the foie gras of the sea, demands precision, and Vagiotis meets it. Two agnolotti filled with artichoke mousse are flanked by cubes of liver. A clear broth – poured from a teapot – carries roasted artichoke flavour, lifted by a shimmer of lemon verbena oil. A separate artichoke fritter adds textural sharpness. It is an intelligent, tightly composed course of serious confidence. Tension rises with the turbot – cooked in brioche butter, resting in a glorious Champagne sauce. Connemara mussels bring salinity, and steamed spinach provides ballast. The dish could close with authority – but does not. A purée of what might be black garlic or olive paste muddies the line, and a lone morel distracts. General manager Rónán ÓHalloran and chef Angelo Vagiotis in The Pullman. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy Rainbow trout from Kilkenny, beetroot and horseradish Turbot with Champagne, Trompette mushroom and mussels from Connemara Then the duck – Skeaghanore breast, probably cooked sous vide and finished in the oven. The skin lacks crispness, but the meat is pink, rested and tastes right. A leg-and-offal sausage is gently gamey, slightly salty. Red radicchio sits over preserved berries, with a quenelle of puréed celeriac to finish. Dessert steadies the course. The Colonel, a sharp rhubarb sorbet, is served with a dimple in the centre, into which a neat pour of Redbreast 12 Year Old is delivered at the table. Two ingredients, instant classic. The parsnip and apple finishes the meal with its nerve intact – a light mousse over a sweet purée, topped with a crisp Arlette and Velvet Cloud sheep's milk ice cream. It resists the temptation to overcomplicate and lands with clarity. The wine list is where the Pullman's ambition dips. One page of white, one of red, and a page of wines by the glass. Smart picks – some Burgundies, a few Bordeaux – but too narrow for a kitchen pitching for Michelin. An €80 wine pairing is offered – serviceable, though it needs the bold curation shown on the plate. We go for a bottle of Château Haute Carizière at €42. Across seven courses, the menu shows its hand – quietly confident, technically sharp and largely well-paced. The best dishes show real intent. The pastry is particularly strong. Even when the kitchen falters, the missteps are slight rather than structural. Service keeps a cool head: precise without theatre, unfussy without drift. It makes for a dinner that feels earned rather than staged. [ Sea Shanty review: Quietly rewriting the rules of seafood in south Dublin Opens in new window ] If the cheerful stranger was an inspector – and the suspicion holds – they will have found a kitchen cooking with purpose and ambition. They will have seen the cracks too. A wine list this cautious does not match the kitchen's reach. A handful of the dishes would benefit from a stricter edit. None of it fatal. But if the Pullman means to join the sharper end of the guidebooks, the margin for small lapses is narrow. Dinner for two with a bottle of wine was €302. The verdict: Sharp, confident cooking on track for its Michelin goal. Food provenance: Achill Lamb, Glenmar Seafood, Goatsbridge Trout, and vegetables from The Bullaun Ark, Burke's Farm, Galway, and Bia Oisín, Claregalway. Vegetarian options: Vegetarian tasting menu, €130; no vegan option. Wheelchair access: No accessible room or toilet. Music: Atmospheric vintage hits. Pullman Restaurant, Galway.
Irish Independent
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Lucinda O'Sullivan's restaurant review: Is chef Angelo Vagiotis on track for a Michelin star with the exquisite Pullman?
Having caught them by surprise on her previous visit, our critic goes back aboard the Pullman carriages at the five-star Glenlo Abbey Hotel & Estate Whirling up to the magnificent five-star Glenlo Abbey Hotel in Galway last September while on my own Poirot mission as a judge/hotel inspector for the Gold Medal Awards, I didn't quite discover a murder on the Orient Express in the Pullman carriages of their eponymous restaurant, but I did unearth one of the best-kept culinary secrets of 2024. 'How did she know I was here? I'm not ready for her,' chef Angelo Vagiotis, was reported to have said. Truth was, I didn't know he was there, I just got lucky, scooping the story of the new journey he was embarking upon — a journey that would take place in the two historic train carriages that were once indeed part of the original Orient Express travelling the rails of Europe in the early 20th century.
Irish Independent
25-04-2025
- General
- Irish Independent
Plans for holiday lodges in Galway hotel get the green light despite objections
The construction of seven holiday homes at the Glenlo Abbey Hotel in Bushypark has been approved by Galway County Council. The project would see the new houses front onto the N59, to the right of the existing access gate. After being put forward back in July 2024, the plans faced a number of objections which raised concerns over the impact on traffic as well as the environment, as the plans would require the felling of trees. An objection from Gus and Noreen Kelehan said: 'No consultation with the neighbours was entered into by the developers that might have resulted in a mutually agreeable proposal.' They added further concerns over traffic safety, saying: 'This section of main road is consistently flagged as having limited sight visibility. 'We consider the proposed development as increasing the intensity and danger at this section of road if permitted.' Another resident, John Connell, also said that the development could pose a safety risk to the road, as he cited the increased speed limit from 50kmh to 60kmh along the section of road and said: 'The development would likely result in an increase in traffic which, in turn, would heighten the risk of collisions on the N59.' Meanwhile Martin and Orla Hughes raised concerns over the environmental impact, citing wildlife such as the barn owl and bat population as potential victims of the development. The objection read: 'While there has been a substantial environmental impact survey submitted with this planning application, all the surveys were completed after two mature trees were felled in the area of the proposed development. The felling of these trees would alter findings of any survey carried out the following month and were not noted in the environmental reports. 'Barn owls have been noted in the area but are omitted from [the report]. Was the walk for the bird species carried out during the day, as there is no date or time listed for this survey? No nocturnal species other than bats have been noted in the report and species that have been seen in the area are on the Red List and are species of huge importance.' ADVERTISEMENT Galway County Council have greenlit the plans under including adherence to construction mitigation measures set out in the Natura Impact Statement and Ecological Impact Assessment in order to protect the site. One condition also stipulated that developers provide a traffic management plan 'in the interest of the proper planning and sustainable development of the area and in the interest of traffic safety'. In total, the council attached 19 conditions to the approval of the development.
