Powersfield House

Guesthouse

When you look for bed and breakfast accommodation in Ireland, you wish for comfort, that famous hospitality, lovely surroundings, and a friendly hostess who will always make you welcome - and feed you fit to bust each morning. Eunice Power does that, and so much more! This professional chef, who has been in the business over twenty years, and cooking for a decade, and runs a successful outside catering business as well as being one of the main teachers at Paul Flynn’s Tannery Cooking School, is the perfect hostess with the mostest – and then some. When you hear about all the other things she does besides running this beautiful B&B, you just wonder how she finds time to do it – and not miss a single detail when it comes to making her guests feel at home.

The house itself is a fairly modern build, created in elegant Georgian town house style. It is set in a lovely garden off the main road, only about five minutes drive or so from the town centre, blending the convenience of being near the shops with the feel of the country. Generously proportioned en suite rooms are all individually decorated with Eunice’s keen eye for interior design. Comfy big beds come with gorgeously soft feather duvets and pillows, cool cotton covers, pretty throws, and heaps of squashy cushions to recline on. Antique pieces, and specially chosen table lamps, mirrors and wall pieces add a home from home feel. Shower rooms are spacious and modern, and lovely touches like plenty of fluffy towels and Gilchrist and Soames toiletries are very welcome indeed after a long trip. 

Guests are always welcomed with tea or coffee and cake, perhaps the homemade Lemon or Carrot Cake Eunice is famed for. Those who arrive late, or have had particularly arduous journeys, will always get something extra special, like a baby kilner jar of Eunice’s home made chicken liver pate, or some local cheese with her home made bread and chutney – to keep the wolf from the door. They can take their refreshments in the bedroom, or relax in the lovely cream coloured Sitting Room, which looks out over the front garden. This delightfully peaceful room leads into the Dining Room, a high ceilinged and tastefully decorated space where breakfast is served. This has a finely balanced blend of old and new, with calming, heritage sage paintwork interior, large Georgian windows, luxury drapes, beige linen covered tables and modern high back chairs, and a homely shelf full of food books, which also displays Eunice’s range of jams, chutneys and preserves.

Dinner at Powersfield House is served to guests on request. Being near to the coast, Eunice concentrates on fish – offering a taste of the locality as far as possible. Her style is to make the most of whatever is available and fresher than fresh on the day. ‘If my guests like fish, I just take whatever is fresh and best from the boats at Helvick that morning, and create my menu round that’, she says. There’s no written menu as such. The chef will just appear out of the kitchen and tell you what’s on offer, having enquired as to dietary requirements and preferences beforehand. It’s a lovely way to eat- each plate a delicious surprise, and the cooking executed in faultless style. Presentation is classy but not ‘cheffy’, so you never feel overwhelmed – just well looked after. There’s no wine list as such either - Eunice will choose a wine to match whatever she thinks is right for the food she is cooking. There’s really no energy required to enjoy the experience here – just sit back and let the lovely local food and wine speak for itself.

Dinner on the night we visited comprised of a little starter of homemade smoked mackerel tart in the most buttery rich pastry case, packed with flakes of the locally smoked fish, snips of spring onions and fresh Parmesan in the custard. The tart came with bouncingly lively green raw baby leaf spinach salad, simply dressed with good olive oil, lemon and seasoning – a super accompaniment. That treat was followed with glisteningly fresh hake on Eunice’s Potato Pepperonata, which marries red pepper with tomato, little new potatoes and red kidney beans with a touch of spice and plenty of herbs. Her wine choice for this fishy meal was a classic white Burgundy, Domaine des Cerisiers 2005 – crisp and citrussy with subtle roundness. Meat eaters are well catered for here too – with Lismore butcher Michael McGrath supplying home reared and slaughtered beef and local lamb. 

Dessert was a lighter than light home made meringue topped with fresh whipped cream and some poached rhubarb from the garden outside – the first of the season of which Eunice was incredibly proud. Her garden also provides some vegetables, salad leaves and herbs as the season progresses, so you really are eating from the doorstep! Pud is followed by coffee and maybe even some cheese such as fellow Good Food Ireland member Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese, if you fancy it, and you probably will since Eunice is great at tempting you into it!

Breakfast is much the same in serving style – no menu, just the chef reeling off whatever she has prepared that day. Our choice included the House Porridge with sunflower, linseed and poppy seeds and some more poached rhubarb, or yogurt with fresh fruit compote, followed by the Full Irish, with bacon from local butcher J D Power and sausages from O'Flynns Gourmet Sausage Company, and free range eggs from Kielys, Goat’s cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms on toast from Barron’s Bakery or Smoked Mackerel and Scrambled Free Range Eggs. The thing that makes the breakfast special here is Eunice’s home baking – the smell of it in the oven at 6.30am each morning is actually enough to drag you out of that comfortable haven of a bed in readiness for the feast to come. Her brown bread is to die for. Plenty of freshly squeezed orange juice and tea, or fresh coffee, served in antique silver pots is reviving and refreshing. And you mustn’t miss the fresh scones warm from the oven, with house jams and marmalades, to finish off! What did we say? You are fed fit to bust here! The woman is a marvel to mankind, no doubt about it!

And now Eunice is even "cooking for you" directly, with her excellent catering services; Eunice Power Catering offering first class food. Eunice and her team have many years' experience in catering for a myriad of event types both nationally and internationally. Their experienced and energetic team of chefs and waiting staff provide peace of mind on the day for all their clients, as well as offering an exemplary level of party planning and catering service. Her philosophy requires that everything is hand-made with care and attention, from basic raw ingredients, so you are guaranteed to get a real taste of Powersfield in your own home or event check out www.eunicepower.com for more information.

Contact Details

To Contact a Member Directly, please click on the email or website below

Ballinamuck West
Dungarvan
Co Waterford
+ 353 (0) 58 45594
Email: eunice@powersfield.com
Web: www.powersfield.com

 

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