La Serre Restaurant: The Village at Lyons

Recently my sister and her family came home from Oz for a flying visit. They were only home for two weeks but they brought the weather with them and the two weeks were spent in a haze of sunshine, swimming and eating out. She also came home bang in the middle of our family birthday season and so got the chance to celebrate mine and the mother's birthday. For the mother's mini surprise birthday (she picked the venue as a family dinner, she didn't know we were bringing cake!) we all went to La Serre which can be found in the very beautiful surrounding of the Village at Lyons.

 

La Serre is the restaurant part of The Village at Lyons and it is, without doubt, in one of the prettiest settings I have ever seen. The dining area is in the original Turner designed conservatory and the room is filled with light and the scent of the fig plants that adorn the walls. La Serre is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but is open for both lunch and dinner. We were there for lunch on a Saturday and were availing of their €25 set menu. This a great value menu with wonderful options on it and is very far removed from a typical set menu. The staff are also very open to accommodating any allergies that anyone may have.

Since there was such a large group of us I think we nearly ordered everything off the menu. For starters we ordered a variety of dishes, two of which I only have pictures of as the others got stuck in too fast! So the two starters were:

Irish Goats Cheese, Pickled Beetroots, Mixed Greens, Candied Pecans

Cured Salmon, Fennel and Apple Salad, Lemon Créme Fraiche, Lavender Jelly

Both the starters were wonderful. They were light and a perfect starter size and were filled with unexpected flavours such as the candied pecans or the lavender jelly.

For our mains we ordered the following dishes:

Cod, Cauliflower Puree, Green Beans and Lemon Butter

Salmon, Crush Potato, Wild Mushrooms, Puy Lentils and Champagne Cream

Prime Irish Rib Eye Steak with Seasonal Vegetables, Potato, Red Wine Jus

Tagliatelle Pasta, Truffle Vinaigrette, Wild Mushrooms, Shaved Parmesan

The nephew's dairy free cod dish (photo taken by him :-)

All the mains were stunning with a plethora of flavours running through each of them but which all worked wonderfully with their individual components. The only dish I wasn't totally enamoured with was the steak. It was still great and perfectly cooked for those that ordered it. It was just a bit ordinary compared to all the other dishes on the menu though I can imagine it sells very well there. I think the best thing about the courses is that they had a wonderful summery feel attached to them with their use of seasonal ingredients.

Our lunch was finished off with a mixed berry tart from the Hansel and Gretel bakery in Navan. Hats off to the staff who managed to conceal it from my mother, put it in a fridge and bring it back in with candles. They didn't have to do it but it made a lovely lunch even more special. 
 

We then finished up our meal with some coffees, a wander around their gorgeous grounds and a walk by the canal.
 

A lunch in La Serre is a wonderful way to spend a birthday/family get together. We didn't expect it to be as fabulous as it was as it was only for lunch, but the food, the staff and the setting made it a very special place to spend the day. I only have one thought in my head now ... if that was lunch, I wonder what dinner would be like?!