We got a voucher from my mother-in-law for The Old Post over a year ago and finally made use of it last weekend. It consisted of one night’s stay plus dinner. I’ve previously given it top marks in a review last year and had eaten there several times before, all good.

We arrived up about 4pm and they weren’t fully open yet but some hand waving got us in and up to the room. They had told us on the phone that the rooms are being renovated in the spring and it really can’t happen soon enough. Our room really worn out and the bathroom in particular needs to be gutted. One thing that annoyed me intensely was the broken toilet seat. Not only is it unhygienic, it’d probably only take €30 and 20 minutes to fix. But that seat is my abiding memory of the place which is unfortunate as most other aspects are fine.

We headed down for dinner later and found the place hopping. The building is really cosy and I love the genuine friendly local staff. We had a drink whilst reading the menus and waiting for the table. A good selection of my kind of food with a list of each individual supplier impressed me.

The meal overall was good but I felt it could been brilliant with some more attention to detail. Having said that, they were under pressure in the kitchen with a very full dining room and apologised for a delay at one point with a mini-dessert. To be honest we hadn’t even noticed.

For starters I had carpaccio of beef with a rocket salad. The beef was gorgeous and delicate but overwhelmed by the over-dressed rocket. You should definitely try it but ask for the salad on the side so the meat can sing. D’wife had prawns with a nice onion marmalade.

The champagne sorbet was very boozy but beautifully flavoured.

My main was Peking duck on celeriac which, whilst very tasty, had flabby soft skin instead of the expected crispness. Catherine had a duo of fish on risotto. The fish was lovely but the risotto looked more like long grain rice and had non-diced stringy rocket it in.

Her dessert was three mini creme brulees which weren’t very distinctly different in taste and I had a gorgeous tarte tatin.

Through the meal we had a bottle of Sancerre Dominique et Janine Crochet 2006 which was fantastic and I’d try again.

Being a popular local venue, the portions are seriously big (the side veg was a meal in itself). I always leave there bursting and I need to show some restraint in future!Our room suffered a bit from dining room noise and the place didn’t really quieten down until after 1am. But that’s to be expected. Breakfast the following morning had both fresh fruit and a really tasty full Irish. Service again was top class and friendly.

Once the rooms are revamped, I’d recommend The Old Post. It’s a lovely part of the country and you’ll come away refreshed. Oh and to echo a topic I wrote about on my business blog yesterday, they really need to get themselves a web-site!

The advertising for this programme had me hating its subject before it had even started. It depicted Dylan McGrath, who runs Mint restaurant in Dublin, as an obnoxious Ramsay-knockoff desperate to win a Michelin star. Two minutes into the show I wanted to turn it off. I had no interest in seeing this pompous, arrogant jumped-up little asshole.

Then the rent-a-critics and old men were put to one side and Dylan was allowed to speak. The scales fell from my eyes and I saw a driven, brilliant, witty creator at work. A Ramsay knock-off? You bet - everything that is right about Gordon, I saw in this young guy. Relentless work ethic, constant striving for perfection, inability to suffer fools and a desire to make magical food.

The show focused on his seeming need to win a Michelin star and kept showing clips of other chefs advising him to be patient, build a good business, lose the obsession, stop being so cocky. After a while they got very boring indeed. As Dylan said “this is Ireland after all”. I was thrilled to see the programme-makers really dig into his motivations, demons and formative experiences as a chef. His quips about collecting gooseberries with his Granny spiked the usual nonsense about where a great chef comes from.

His food is highly stylised and for a short while I was reminded of the infamous Conrad Gallagher. I was surprised the naysayers didn’t mention his name in fact. But the thing that struck me about the plates they showed was that they seemed unique and they looked gorgeous. The trip to his salad guy in the UK was a joy. Two obsessives discussing baby salad leaves in the shape of butterflies. Dylan mentioned that the guy had gone bust a few times. You could see why.

And then the highlight of the programme. After little more than a year and a half running Mint, he got his star. A lesser programme would have cut to scenes of the old bluffers looking bashful and apologetic. They didn’t need to, the message came across loud and clear; this guy is going to be huge.

Please please please RTE, make more programmes like this. The desires I expressed in my last review were all fulfilled by this show. Please tell me why it’s only a once off. I guess it is costly to make deep, incisive, educational, moving television. So dump the fluff and make more of these. Now, where’s the telephone number for Mint……