- Chocoholics taking the N4 (Westport road) up to Mayo or Sligo should make a point of building in a caffeine fix (and some healthy home-made food) at Ruth McGarry-Quinn’s relaxed modern café in Longford Town.
For not only do they feed you well and stock a super range of in-house and branded speciality foods, but (very good) chocolate is the speciality - so you can leave well fed and with a well-filled bag of real treats (the ‘iPhone’ is especially cute.)
Behind the smart white modern frontage lies a warm and friendly room, where informal seating, servery and foodhall blend seamlessly into each other, making it very tempting to have a browse through the shelves and displays laden with home-made and carefully sourced foods and foodie treats from Ireland and abroad while waiting for your order. (It’s an ideal place to find an unusual gift, including wines and hampers.)
Menus offered vary through the day, beginning with an appealing breakfast menu from 9am then, later, a great range of salads, sandwiches, panini, wraps and bagels plus a nice anytime offering of substantial dishes - try the delicious farmhouse paté with toasted ciabatta and mixed leaves, or tasty chicken & mushroom pie with salad and wedges – plus a blackboard specials menu.
Real food for kids includes ham and cheese soldiers (€4), the home baking is irresistible (not to mention the chocolate treats), and there’s a nice coffee and tea menu to go with it – and how refreshing to find an imaginative choice of cold drinks, including traditional lemonade, apple juice, ginger beer, iced tea and sparkling elderflower.
Despite the relaxed atmosphere, this is an exceptionally professional, operation, serving really wholesome, carefully-sourced homemade foods with a smile. If only every town had somewhere like it.
Outside catering and takeaway orders are available, also cakes made to order.
