Photo courtesy of No. 35, Courtesy image
Editorial Review
No. 35
The Atmosphere
“A family-run Kenmare dining room that rears its own rare-breed pigs a mile up the road.”
Kenmare has more good restaurants per street than any town of its size in Ireland, and No. 35 is the one we send people to first. The Brennan family run it on Main Street, and the pork on the menu comes from their own pedigree Saddlebacks on a farm a mile away, which is not a marketing line but a supply chain you can drive past. The room is stone-walled, warm and busy, the cooking is seasonal without lecturing you about it, and the service is the kind that remembers what you ordered last year.
The long version
A stone-walled room on Kenmare's Main Street that rears its own rare-breed pigs a mile up the road.
Kenmare has an absurd concentration of good restaurants for a town of two thousand people, and the effect on a visitor is paralysis. No. 35 is where we tell people to start, partly because the cooking is consistently good and partly because it is the one whose sourcing you can drive past.
The Brennan family run it, and the pork on the menu comes from their own pedigree Saddlebacks on a farm a mile away. In an industry where the word local has been worn smooth, that is a fact rather than a claim.
What to order
The pork, first. It is the reason the farm exists and it tastes like an animal that had a life. Beyond it, the menu moves with the season and leans on Kenmare Bay shellfish and Kerry lamb.
The room is stone-walled and low-lit, busy in the good way, with staff who have worked here long enough to have opinions worth asking for.
The practical details that matter
It opens Friday to Tuesday and closes Wednesday and Thursday, which is the kind of detail that quietly ruins a two-night stay if you find it out on arrival. Children are welcome at the early sitting only.
Booking through the restaurant's own site in advance is advisable, particularly between June and September and over the October bank holiday weekend.
Where it sits in a Kerry week
Kenmare is the right base for the Ring of Kerry and the Beara, and the town is small enough that everything is a walk from the Park Hotel's gate. That makes an evening here entirely car-free, which after a day of coast road is worth a great deal.
Pair it with a long lunch at the Boathouse on the water rather than a second full dinner. Two heavy evenings in a row in Kenmare is a rookie error.
The farm is also the answer to a question American readers ask often, which is how to tell a real sourcing claim from a marketing one. Ask where the animal was raised and whether you could drive there. In most of Ireland the honest answer is a county. Here it is a mile, on a named road, and the family will tell you which field.
If you are in Kenmare for three nights rather than two, the sensible order is this room first, the water second, and the third evening left entirely unbooked so the town can decide for you. There is enough good cooking within four streets that an unplanned night is a pleasure rather than a risk, provided you have already secured the one table that matters.
What we would not pretend
The closing days are inconvenient and the room is tight and warm, so a large party will be sitting close together. It is a village restaurant with a farm, not a hotel dining room.
How we would use it
The first Kenmare dinner, walked to from the Park Hotel, with the Boathouse booked for lunch the following day.
Insider Intelligence
How we would book No. 35
The table to ask for
Book dinner on the night you sleep in Kenmare. Main Street is easy on foot.
Paste this into the booking request
We are staying in Kenmare and would like a dinner table. What is local on the menu this week?
Book direct with the restaurantGround truths
- Kenmare is a small town with a serious food reputation. Reserve before you arrive.
- Ask what is local that week and order around it.
- Pair it with the Ring of Beara rather than a second Ring of Kerry day.
Public guest perspective
What guests consistently notice
Guests praise warm family hospitality, seasonal Kerry produce, and pork whose farm-to-table story is unusually literal.
The honest caveat
The compact room and limited weekly schedule make spontaneity risky in a busy Kenmare season.
Guests return for
- Own-farm Saddleback pork
- Friendly, informed staff
- A cosy stone-walled room
How to order
Order the pork when it appears, then listen to the team's steer on seafood and seasonal sides.
Before you book
Check current opening days and reserve the early sitting when dining with children.
Rooms Worth Requesting
What it actually feels like.
Open Friday to Tuesday, closed Wednesday and Thursday, so plan a Kenmare stay around that. Children are welcome at the early sitting only.
Why we recommend it
A space that justifies the journey.
It is a walk from the Park Hotel's gate, it is genuinely local in a way most tourist-town restaurants only claim, and the pork is worth ordering.