The Duck at Marlfield House: Our Anniversary Table in County Wexford

1 day ago
4 min read

There is one table in Ireland we book before we book anything else. The Duck at Marlfield House, just outside Gorey in County Wexford, is where we marked our anniversary this year. Every trip back to Ireland we come back, and every summer it holds.

The Duck sits on the grounds of Marlfield House, in a run of restored courtyard buildings that once served as the coach house, potting shed and gardener's tool shed. It is a long stone room with French doors that open straight onto a sandstone terrace, and the terrace looks over the kitchen garden. In summer that terrace is our spot. Ask for it if you can. You eat with the garden in front of you and the manor house beyond.

Most of it is grown a few steps away

The reason the food tastes the way it does is a short walk from the kitchen door. Marlfield grows a great deal of what ends up on the plate: vegetables, soft fruit, a wall of herbs, and beds of roses that are in full bloom by the time we visit. What the garden does not supply comes from close by. Fish from Duncannon and Atlantis Seafood in Wexford, meat from Slaney Valley and O'Neills, poultry from Glin Valley in Cork, cheese from Coolattin, and eggs from the roaming hens of the neighbors next door. It is the kind of sourcing most restaurants put on a chalkboard and few actually live by.

The Duck holds a place in Ireland's Blue Book and is a member of Relais & Châteaux, and it has the awards to match, including Atmospheric Restaurant of the Year from Georgina Campbell's guide. None of that is why we go. We go because it is warm, unfussy and consistently excellent, which is a harder combination to pull off than it sounds.

What we ordered

Lunch is a fixed menu at €39 for two courses, a starter and a main, with a children's menu for the boys. We tend to over-order starters here, and this visit was no exception.

We started with three salads, and calling them salads undersells them. The shredded confit five spice duck salad came with pineapple, pomegranate, radish, spiced cashews and a tamarind dressing, sweet and sharp and built for the terrace. The Asian pulled pork noodle salad arrived with glass noodles, a cabbage and carrot slaw, coriander and a peanut rayu dressing that we would happily eat by the spoon. And the Puglia burrata sat on roast courgette and beetroot with olives, hazelnuts and basil pesto.

For mains, Scott went for the special of the day, pan seared salmon with sautéed vegetables and roasted potatoes, cooked exactly to the point where it wants to fall apart and no further. Thomas took the fish and chips, which is Kilmore Quay haddock in a light batter, and which is the order you make when you already know the kitchen. You cannot go wrong with it, and we never do.

The boys ordered off the kids menu and did the sensible thing: pizza for one, pasta with meatballs for the other. Both cleared their plates, which is the only review that counts at that end of the table.

The drinks list is worth reading twice

The cocktail and mocktail list at The Duck is a genuine highlight, not an afterthought. Scott ordered the Slutty Duck, a vodka-based number that riffs on the house Rubber Duck. Thomas and the boys stayed off the alcohol and ordered from the mocktail menu, which is one of the better ones we have come across. Here is what the table drank:

Slutty Duck (Scott): vodka-based, a spin on the house Rubber Duck
Rubber Duck (Thomas): passion fruit, lime, Pellegrino and mint
No Dazzle (the boys): Wexford berries, elderflower, lime, cranberry and Pellegrino
Secret Garden (the boys): apple juice, lemon, Pellegrino, rhubarb bitters and elderflower

The kitchen takes the no and low list as seriously as everything else, and it shows.

The part that made it ours

We had noted it was our anniversary when we booked. Somewhere between the mains and the coffee, a plate of assorted ice creams arrived that we had not ordered, sent out with the staff's good wishes. It is a small thing and it is exactly the thing, the kind of detail a place either bothers with or it does not.

Walk the garden before you leave

Do not rush out after lunch. The walk through the kitchen garden is part of the visit for us. You will find rhubarb, rows of herbs, lavender, roses and a good deal else, all of it feeding the kitchen you have just eaten from. On the way out, the boys make their usual stop at the field to say hello to the horses, which is how every visit to The Duck ends for us and how, we suspect, it always will.

Before you go

The Duck Terrace Restaurant is on the grounds of Marlfield House Hotel, Courtown Road R742, Gorey, County Wexford. It is open Wednesday to Sunday, and the terrace is the seat to request in summer. Reservations: +353 (0) 53 942 1124 or marlfieldhouse.com/dining/the-duck.