‘The Mustard Seed, with its great tradition of Irish hospitality, is in safe hands,’ says a Guide reader this year of a return visit to John Edward Joyce’s ‘lovely, charming’ restaurant-with-rooms. ‘Under new ownership, it remains an oasis of peace and calm, where it always seems to be summer.’ The ‘delightful gardens’ are ‘full of colour’ in season; all year round, ‘the spacious public rooms exude tranquillity’. Some of the individually decorated bedrooms have views of the vine-hung courtyard garden, others of the orchard and the countryside beyond. ‘Little touches make each visit special: coffee and buttery home-made biscuits as a lovely greeting; a vase of roses in our sitting room; handmade soaps and gorgeous Irish toiletries in the bathroom.’ In the evening, chef Angel Pirev’s ‘well-presented’ four-course dinners use plenty of local produce in season. Typical dishes: poached egg, artichoke and broccoli purée, oyster mushrooms; Ballinwillin suckling pig, white pudding gnocchi, hedgehog mushrooms. Try the smoked salmon at breakfast – ‘it’s delicious’ – then explore the pretty village and its rural surrounds. (Helena Shaw)