Berry Lodge Restaurant & Cookery School - Miltown Malbay

'Our philosophy is to have you leave us feeling refreshed, knowledgeable and fulfilled,' says Rita Meade, the pioneering spirit behind this family-run country house situated between Kilkee and Lahinch. The whole enterprise now encompasses a guesthouse, restaurant and dedicated cookery school, with weekend courses, programmes and demonstrations running throughout the year.

The dining room is laid out in unassuming style, with country furniture and a conservatory area at the back overlooking the garden. Rita's aim is to serve 'fresh young food' from local sources and her cooking is refreshingly uncluttered. Her four-course dinner menus might open with twice-baked sorrel soufflé and tomato fondue or a roulade of crab and cured salmon with horseradish crème fraîche, ahead of a sorbet or soup (perhaps Malbay mussel with dillisk seaweed and cider).

Main courses focus on modern country house dishes such as slow-roast spiced duckling with red onion marmalade, Guinness and orange sauce or peppered monkfish with apple, honey and date chutney and a saffron mussel cream. Traditional carrageen mousse with strawberry and rhubarb compote or lemon curd tart with marinated raspberries might round things off. A glass of Berry Lodge fruit punch makes the perfect aperitif, and the carefully chosen wine list covers a lot of ground in a relatively small space.