Lautrec Bistro

My 3^rd helping of fish and chips since in Ireland. Best so far. Excellent mushroom soup. Friendly owner.

The scene: it was a girls weekend away, we had been stuck in traffic for HOURS on a friday evening trying to get from Dublin to Kilkenny. It had been nearly eight hours since we had eaten, and had finally arrived to Lautrec after checking into our hotel. Needless to say, we were starving! I think the waiter may have noticed, as he quickly served us after being seated.
The menu was so large, and I was so hungry, I just kept gazing at everything thinking, «yes, I’ll take that. And that. And that. And that…» Eventually we all decided and ordered. Luckily for us, the food came out very quickly! We had the bruchetta, patas bravas, potato gnocchi, the squid, the cod, with (of course) lots of wine. All of the food was fabulous. The entire dinner itself was a bit of a blur with the speed at which I was consuming food. But everything I do remember was fantastic. Although, I may try to go a bit less famished next time.

Super cute bistro located down a lane way full of character in town of Kilkenny with great curb appeal. Great ambiance, candles lit, dim lights and cozy and intimate setting but not too small. I was with two friends and could not decide what to order off of the menu because everything looked amazing. Between the 3 of us we ordered a handful of tapas and shared. Bruschetta, stuffed peppers, calamari, cod, sweet potatoes, duck salad, gnocchi with chirozo. I must be missing something, but what i can say is each and every tapas was delicious with no fault. Not only was the food affordable, but the wine was a great value as well. I wish I had room for dessert, but we were too stuffed to even finish what we ordered as the portion sizes were quite generous. Although there are tons of fabulous places to eat in Kilkenny, I can confidently say I will eat there again when I visit next!

Had a great night here recently with friends. Great food and good service. Very reasonably priced too!

During a recent short trip to Kilkenny, I enjoyed a meal at Fleva’s. For a couple of Euro less, you get a three course at Lautrec Bistro (St Kieran’s Street). Portions are probably bigger here (not that they are small in Flevas) but quality is high. I enjoyed my braised lamb and the unusual dessert of orange tasting semolina with blueberries. They also do a Plat du jour for € 21.00.
Wines at each establishment started around € 5.75 per glass but the best glass of wine I had was at the big Left Bank Bar, down by the Castle. Most of the bars here are small but this highly decorated bright place has soft sofas and a roaring fire and bamboo plants growing to the high ceiling. I took my six euro glass of Merlot over to one of the sofas and didn’t leave for an hour, a very enjoyable hour indeed.
It was a quick and enjoyable visit to the place that bills itself as Ireland’s Medieval City — not quite true. Officially it may well be a city but many towns are as big and you do have to work to find the medieval bits. The population is about 22,000, not much more than that of Douglas. It is about the same as the non city of Tralee and much less than non city Dundalk (35,000)! But obviously the Cats won the argument some time ago! Same as they’ve won so many hurling titles — now you can’t take that away from them!
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