When I first learned that there was a place called Dingle in Ireland, I knew I had to go there. If you’re not familiar with the urban dictionary definition of “dingle”, I won’t bother elaborating. If you are, I can assure you that while the name of the town is hilarious, it’s also an incredibly amazing place.

Dingle is one of the few places left in Ireland where Irish (or Gaelic) is commonly heard amongst the town folk. Walk into a pub (I suggest Dick Mack’s Pub. No really. Its like nothing I’ve ever seen) and you’re just as likely to hear the old language as you are to hear English. Plus you can hike into the hills above town, away from the tourists and run buck ass naked with sheep. Errr..Umm…I mean… write poetry.

On a cold, misty night, I found shelter in Kiya’s Café and Tandoori Nights. The owner of the small restaurant asked me to sit at any table. So I did. Then he immediately asked me to change tables. And while I may have misunderstood his accent, I think he asked me to move cause “that table is reserved for the Pope”.  Later on during the meal 2 people sat at that very table and he said nothing. Neither of them appeared to be the pontiff.

I ordered a sweet lassi (since they had no mango option), and it was horrible. Normally, I don’t order lamb but decided that there’s something to be said for using local ingredients. Having just finished a 4-hour jaunt in the hills above Dingle, it was obvious that lamb was in fact, local. I ordered Lamb Rogan Josh and while the texture of the lamb was fantastic, the rest of the dish wasn’t even close. In fact, it was like they forgot to purée the tomatoes. There were half cooked/raw tomatoes in my dish. This would have been okay had I ordered a lamb salad, but really, the chefs missed the boat on Rogan Josh. The rice was the best part of the meal. Sad.

It looked like at one point, there were a number of curry houses in Dingle, including one called “Tikka for the Irish”; but Kiya was the only one still operational. I’d really hate to have seen the quality of the food at the other places if this was the only successful Indian restaurant in town.

Kiya gets a 4/10.

Not at the Restaurant:

Rating: