Ireland's finest hotel and restaurant

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Wicklow

The K Club is too exclusive to be considered.
Wicklow may now have the title ...we will be getting more tourists now that ...The Ritz-Carlton is open to the public and getting good reviews ...and celebrity publicity.
The Irish Times
Ritz-Carlton hotel at Powerscourt to open in October.
The €200m hotel has 34,900sq m (375,550sq ft) of space, 200 rooms, spa and conference centre while the ballroom can host 1,000 for a reception, writes Fiona Tyrrell

With Gordon Ramsey's name over the restaurant, some of the biggest and most expensive hotel rooms in the country and the Sugar Loaf providing a dramatic backdrop, Ireland's first Ritz-Carlton hotel in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, is designed to impress.

Close to 700 construction workers are putting the final touches to the five-star hotel in advance of a grand opening on October 1st.

The hotel is being developed at a cost of €200 million by Treasury Holdings, which has a long-term lease from the Slazenger family who own the Powerscourt Estate. The Ritz-Carlton group will run the hotel.

A hotel at Powerscourt has been on the cards for almost 10 years following a deal between Treasury and the estate.

A variety of different schemes were proposed, including a three-star hotel and an aparthotel.

Towards the end of 2004 Ritz-Carlton became interested in the project and a deal was finally struck with Treasury in 2005.

The time is right for a Ritz-Carlton in Ireland, according to Andrew Nasskau, general manger of the hotel. "After 10 years of economic growth Ireland is a whole different country," he says. He anticipates that 35 per cent of the hotel's business will come from the domestic market, 30 per cent from the US and 25 per cent from the UK.

To date the hotel has received over 600 enquiries from couples looking to book a wedding and 22 are confirmed. The first big event at the hotel will be the Childline Charity Ball on October 5th.

As hotel settings go the 1,000-acre Powerscourt Estate is second to none. The estate pulls in over 500,000 visitors a year. Nasskau is confident that some of these will translate into hotel guests. The 34,900sq m (375,550sq ft) hotel boasts 200 rooms, a conference centre, a 2,790sq m (30,000sq ft) spa and a fitness centre.

The 558sq m (5,959sq ft) ballroom can seat 450 for dinner and host 1,000 for a reception. The room overlooks a private three-tier sunken formal garden.

A major coup for the hotel was signing a deal with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to open his first Irish restaurant at Powerscourt.

The restaurant, on the second floor of the hotel, has floor-to-ceiling windows offering uninterrupted views of the Sugar Loaf. The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating for 140. Two private dining rooms will cater for a further 30 guests.

Food will also be served in McGills pub, the Sugar Loaf lounge and a cafe in the spa.

The Ritz Carlton Club, an elegant private lounge on the fifth floor, is designed for guests seeking "an extra level of privacy" at an additional cost of €80.

Of the 200 hotel rooms, 133 are suites with a minimum size of 65sq m (700sq ft). Making the most of the hotel's beautiful setting, many rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows and terraces.

The Ritz-Carlton brand is synonymous with luxury and style, and service at the new hotel will be provided by no less than 260 staff. The sumptuous modern Georgian-style interior is by German company Hotel Interior Design. All suites feature walk-in dressing rooms, large bathrooms with mirror/TVs and touch-panel controls to manage the air conditioning, electronic curtains and lighting. Great play is made of the fantastic views of the Sugar Loaf from all parts of the hotel - a mountain view is even incorporated into the sauna.

The attention to detail and luxury touches are reflected in the hotel's rates. The cheapest room in the hotel costs €295 - for the first 10 days this room is priced at €255.

At the top end is the 234sq m (2,500sq ft) presidential suite. Priced at €5,000 a night, the suite has two bedrooms, a private dining room and kitchen. The bathroom has a steam room and sauna. A rooftop garden can comfortably fit 80 people and a separate terrace has a hot tub.

Standing seven storeys on one side, the 'Spanish Palladian-style' building is an impressive sight.

A number of architectural devices or tricks were employed in the design to make the building look much smaller from a distance, according to John Hogan from James Toomey Architects who were responsible for the design of the building.

From a distance it looks like three storeys but up close the full seven storeys are visible. Wicklow-based landscape architects MosArt are responsible for the sunken garden and the informal heritage gardens, which feature unusually coloured plants and playful lighting schemes.
© 2007 The Irish Times

Top chef Gordon Ramsey has opened his first Irish restaurant inside
Outrageous prices... but Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt should have top chefs worried
By Chris Lowry of the Indo
Wednesday October 10 2007 Legend has it that Gordon Ramsay sends his children to holiday in Butlin's each year to ensure they don't get too big for their boots.
If this bizarre but worthy plan has had any success then Gordon's kids might be uncomfortable in his newest restaurant. Gordon Ramsay At Powerscourt is very, very posh.

It's the sort of place where your sparkling water is kept in an ice bucket and brought to you before you even realise you're thirsty, so that you're no more likely to have to do the actual pouring than the Queen is to wash her own dishes.
Then again, the surroundings lend themselves to poshness. The floor-ceiling windows offer a world class view - the Wicklow Mountains, in all their purple-headed glory.

This is better still if you can sit outside, as we did, savouring the sort of dazzling sunshine that July forgot to deliver.
The terrace looks on to the Sugarloaf, the view only slightly marred by the low-level deforestation necessitated by the as yet unfinished building of what looks like a driveway. It's rumoured to be a helipad, which, if true, would be a regrettable reminder of the sort of conspicuous consumption that may come to characterise the Ritz Carlton hotel, in which Ramsay's restaurant is housed.
That said, conspicuous consumption was what we were there for and, in that regard, the new eatery did not disappoint.

We began with a prawn-themed amuse bouche, a light and crispy morsel that could only have been improved upon by means of the F-Word, ie fork. The lack of same meant we had to eat with our fingers.
The starters proper were equally tasty, and this time accompanied by the appropriate cutlery. I had a scallop - yes, singular, but it came with a mouthful of pork belly and taglioni carbonara.
My better half had lobster ravioli, though technically it should have been called raviolo as, again, there was only one of them. But it was as good as my scallop had been.
Disappointingly, the Tipperary beef was not organic, so I opted for a main course of roast partridge, simply because I'd once been clay-pigeon shooting in Wicklow.
The thought process may have been strange but the result was a winner - the most flavoursome game I've enjoyed recently.
My girlfriend had no qualms about the beef but perhaps should have. By the high standards Gordon claims to set himself, this was only so-so - a little tough, a fraction overdone and with a slightly underwhelming flavour.
Things went back into top gear with the "pre-dessert dessert", an elaborate variation on rhubarb and custard that was both literally and metaphorically cool. It was even better than the desserts we actually ordered, though these - chocolate fondant and pannacotta - were excellent in their own right.
The most impressive aspect of the meal was the perfect sense of satisfaction it left us both feeling - the mark of cooks who really know their trade.

As you would expect, the cost was outrageous - though not as outrageous as several establishments on Dublin's Southside. With starters around €20 and mains about €40, Ramsay's restaurant is cheaper than half a dozen of its rivals.
There were even some bargains on the menu, eg the coffee, which came with chocolates that alone would have justified the €5 price tag.
The success or otherwise of restaurants is hard to predict but if I were Patrick Guilbaud or Kevin Thornton, I'd be glad Gordon Ramsay's new venture is an hour's drive from Dublin.

DAMAGE: €175 for two.
- Chris Lowry

The design of the hotel blends in surprisingly well with what is a tourist landmark ...and antiquity of Ireland.
I will be there in December for a 2 day business meeting.

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