I had lunch yesterday in the new(ish) Mills Restaurant in Lyons village.

This seems to be a bit of a joint venture between chef Richard Corrigan and millionaire business man Tony Ryan.

The place has a marvellous selection of “Things”, it is a bit like walking into the set of Hearst Castle as depicted by Orson Wells in Citizen Kane.

There are wonderful 17th century Aubusson tapestries, a superb French fireplace, certainly removed from a chateau, a huge sliced section of Agate shields you from the kitchen and a resident waterfall just outside the dining room window provides the background noise.
I got the distinct impression that the designer had a brief to display certain items, whether they harmonised or not.
There were a few obvious lapses of taste, huge embossed Boys and Girls signs over the toilets and an incongruous shelf of books, by the yard, in the bar but the place was definitely fun.
I just hope that was what was intended.

The meal was a veritable curates egg.
We did start with the good, in fact the very good.
Just why the Salmon was a “Feminine Delight” the good lord knows but it certainly delighted this male.
This was a wonderful timbale of moist raw salmon in an intense tomato and saffron soup. Perfection.
The next course was perhaps the least successful.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to inject some toffee into some cubes of Foie Gras,then roll these cubes in toasted almonds and then serve this on some apple jelly, with a further garnish of sweet caramel sauce.
The lasting impression was of eating a bag of toffees.
Foie Gras does have a certain sweetness but this was a stunning overkill and the liver lost the battle, badly.
The next course was the Curates Egg.
The pigeon was superb, tender, pink, moist, flavoursome, perfectly cooked
(where does he get them) but they were accompanied by the “wet garlic”.
This was exactly as described, un cooked and unprocessed it killed every other flavour on the plate if touched. All the people on my table pushed it discretely to one side.
The next palate cleanser of granita and Apple jelly (our second jelly, is there a certain house preference here?) worked nicely.
Next course, a “Sugar Snap Tower” did not to my relief contain any peas but instead some more jelly. It was a clever clear tube of sugar stuffed with the jelly and some pear mousse. I rather liked it and loved the Piece de Resistance of the meal which was on the side.
This was a spoonful of marvellously intense mint ice-cream, certainly worth the journey.

The Petit Fours were declared by my neighbour to be the best ever and the coffee was excellent.

In a way the meal very much reflected the décor and was a mixed bag with some terrific touches.
Maybe it just needs time to find its feet.