Mara Restaurant Waterford City Centre

What an incredible experience from start to finish. A special mention has to go to Gaston, who looked after me throughout the evening. He was warm, attentive, knowledgeable and struck the perfect balance between being professional and friendly. His passion for the food and wine really enhanced the experience.

I chose the tasting menu with the wine pairing and every course was beautifully presented. The standout dish for me was the prawn raviolo, which was simply outstanding and one of the best things I've eaten in years. The mushroom course was packed with flavour, the cod was cooked perfectly, and the duck with rhubarb and daikon was another highlight. Even the bread course was exceptional.

The wine pairing was excellent, with some fascinating selections. The Oloroso sherry was a real surprise and something I'll remember long after the meal.

The desserts and petit fours were the perfect finish to an unforgettable evening. Every course felt thoughtfully crafted and beautifully executed.

Mara has fully lived up to its reputation. A superb dining experience from beginning to end, and I can't wait to return.

We had an outstanding meal at the this wonderful gem of a restaurant in Waterford. The food, the service , the understated decor allow the food to be the centre of the show where it should be.
It is so wonderful I want to keep it a secret but that would be unfair. I highly recommend you visit and experience this wonderful
restaurant.

Catherine

Flawless tasting menu with the perfect pairing of wine. A must try!

We ended the dinner feeling happy, satisfied and not overly full, which is always a risk with this type of food experience.

We found the pace to be perfect. We never had a dull moment. There was a perfect cadence of: bring the wine, explain the wine, allow a few minutes to enjoy it, bring the new course, explain the course, taste the course, clean, bring the new glass & restart.

Toward the end of the dinner we started noticing how they adapted seamlessly to the pace of every table so that it felt they always left exactly the same time in between stages while they clearly weren't. Very smooth.

Luis has great storytelling and a very good sense of humor that brought lightheartedness to the dinner, something that we always like and made us feel super comfortable.

In fact, while it's clear there a lot of work went into preparing the dinner and then in serving it, I would never call this a "fancy dinner". It just didn't feel so, which means bonus points for me.

All the 7 wines served were very interesting and tasty. Some were even surprising (like the first, which was a sweet wine!).

All the courses were an explosion of flavour, often presented in surprising ways and the base ingredients were clearly very good.

If I have to call out one single area of improvement, I think the finale could be improved. I found the mini madeleine of the petit-fours underwhelming. I then lacked a strong taste to end, something like coffee as they don't have decaf (they said they are getting a new machine) or a spirit (I think they only have wine & dessert wine)