The Byerley Turk

The well-endowed K Club hotel is a golfing and spa establishment, expansive, calm and civilised, and decorated throughout with bold, vivid colour schemes. As well as golf on the doorstep, a thoroughbred racing theme pervades, and the flagship Byerley Turk dining room is named after a legendary thoroughbred. With walls upholstered in rich brocade, and marble columns to surround you, the tone is certainly grand. A pianist plays to accompany dinner, tableware is of the highest quality, and the mood is sealed with a jacket-and-tie dress code for gentlemen diners. The cooking is modern Irish, and seriously impressive, making the most of some of the Republic's natural bounty, and achieving an awe-inspiring degree of technical proficiency. Luxuries abound. Start with seared Dordogne foie gras, accompanied by a marbled terrine of the same, with celeriac foam and a five-spice tuile, and continue perhaps with a heavenly risotto containing Périgord truffle. Beef Tuach is a signature dish of beef fillets with wild mushrooms and mead sauce created to commemorate the holding of the Ryder Cup golf tournament in the grounds here in 2006. An assiette of chocolate variations should round things off in style, and there are also pedigree Irish cheeses with home-made chutneys.

30 minutes from Dublin. From Dublin Airport follow M4 to Maynooth, turn for Straffan, just after village on right

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