Homestead Cottage Doolin review: ‘I loved everything about this cosy Co Clare restaurant with a Michelin star and a tasting menu’

Our critic is wowed by husband-and-wife team’s destination dining spot in north Clare

Homestead Cottage in Doolin, Co Clare

Katy McGuinness

One of the Irish good news stories from the launch of the new Michelin Guide earlier this year was the award of a star to Homestead Cottage in Doolin, a new restaurant from husband-and-wife team Robbie and Sophie McCauley. The couple — he’s Scottish, she’s French — met some years back when they worked alongside one another at Gregans Castle nearby.

When Robbie left Gregans last year, he and Sophie took the lease on a former pizza restaurant in Luogh North, a little outside Doolin. (If you’re staying in the town, you’ll need to drive or book a taxi — we found John of atlanticwayexcursions.ie, who also does tours of the area for visitors in a swanky new minibus, very helpful.) They made it their own in a very short space of time, opening in June 2023. The couple don’t have backers so did all the work themselves with the help of friends, determined to keep as much of the character of the original building as they could. Somehow they managed all this with a new baby and a toddler, to which the only possible reaction is ‘chapeau!’