The first time we heard about Geoff Jones’s cooking, was when a friend sent an urgent note raving about the soup they had enjoyed at lunchtime in the bar. If you are the sort of conscientious cook who pays notable attention to the soup, then you are a focused chef, and Mr Jones is just that. His cooking is notable for a particular love of fish - wisely sourced from the brilliant Rene Cusack – but his skill and imagination runs throughout the menus, and he can jump from bacon and cabbage to an authentic sizzling fajita to a dish of trout with mustard and spring onion beurre blanc without a jot of self-consciousness, and with each dish revealing his confident technique and judgement.
The fish isn’t the only evidence of smart sourcing – there is Tipperary Piemontese beef to be enjoyed, and wonderful Tipperary cheeses on the cheeseboard.
A nice blazing fire and a rustic ambience in both the bar and the more formal restaurant sets just the right tone for this ambitious contemporary cooking, and The Fairways has the wind in its sails.
