The Sea Hare Restaurant – Philippa Duff and Sinead Foyle
No shortcuts, no excuses – this is real slow food.
The Sea Hare partners with local Connemara producers to bring you some amazing tastes from the west. The food they produce is either grown locally, caught in the waters surrounding Cleggan or foraged from the shoreline.
Serving “hyper-local” and home grown produce like seaweed butter peas, horseradish crab, freshly caught fish from the pristine and bountiful waters around Cleggan.
Phillipa and Sinead bonded over food and thus the Sea Hare was born. Both live locally in Cleggan and are
hospitality goddesses. Phillipa has a food library which is a source of envy, cookery tomes you’ve never heard of with cuisines which are tantalising and innovative. Sinead is front of house, directing, guiding, cajoling the Sea Hare to greatness. This pop up began in 2019, being mobile the restaurant has moved for the last two years to on the pier in Cleggan. The cuisine is intensely local with as much as possible coming from within 10k, the coffee proved a bit of a challenge but it comes from Galway cheerfully delivered by . The vegetables and the flowers, oh the flowers, are from Cleggan Farm up the road, Lewis turning up every day with his bounty, honey from Tom. They could walk themselves to the restaurant. Every Saturday lobsters are the speciality. They are served with a pint of the black stuff or a glass of wine and must be booked beforehand, so popular they are. On Sundays your day of rest but not theirs, mussels make an appearance with the same gig, plate of same plus pint of the black stuff or glass of vino. Johnny King provides these kings (ha ha) of the sea. There is 
something special about supporting such localness. The vibe created by the quirky interesting things that these two compadres present to their guests, is special. Given that two of their three years have been in the middle of a pandemic and they didn’t know whether they were open inside, outside, inside and outside, limited by three weeks open here and two weeks open there, the Sea Hare has managed to create lots of interest. Their use of social media is quirky and different.
Do these two put their feet up when they close for the seasons. , you bet not. In winter the famous long tables take place. In various locations in
the area a limited number of diners are treated to a fantastic night of great food and drink, convivial convos and very late nights/early mornings! It’s a bit like a secret society where, by the end of the evening, there are no secrets left.
And then there’s the tamarind sauce, the Sea Hare Tamarind Sauce to be found in exclusive food shops throughout Ireland. This is a dark, rich, unctuous savoury to be used with, well everything. It makes cheese sing, your bolognaise is raised to new heights, poached eggs just roll over for lashings of it, put it on bacon, ham, add it to a boeuf bourguignon, a coq au vin, this bad boy does everything. Just slather it anywhere and enjoy.
“Fabulous evening at the long table dining. Good local fresh food in a great atmosphere with good company. The rich flavors are even more memorable knowing that it’s all sustainably sourced.”
