Fermanagh’s 28 At The Hollow has been named ‘Grub Club Best Restaurant 2022’, beating restaurants across Northern Ireland for the prestigious accolade.

The longstanding exclusive private dining club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, travels across Northern Ireland throughout the year to find the very best restaurants with points given for food, wine and hospitality.

In March of this year, Fermanagh’s only Grub Club member Dr. Mahen Varma invited the club to dine at 28 At The Hollow which founded by husband and wife duo, Glen Wheeler and Zara McHugh.

“Each member nominates a restaurant, and then we have food and wine at the restaurants and then mark it out of 10. The one that gets the highest points gets the award,” said Dr. Varma, adding: “I’m the only Fermanagh member so on my turn, I brought the club to 28 At The Hollow in March of this year and they beat all of the restaurants in Belfast.

“They got the highest mark at 9.1/10. The next closest was 8/10.

“I think it’s great for Fermanagh,” he told this newspaper.

The Grub Club returned to 28 At The Hollow on Tuesday, December 6 to present the restaurant with their award.

Delighted to receive the Grub Club Best Restaurant 2022 award, head chef Glen said: “To be crowned Grub Club Best Restaurant is a massive honour. These guys eat all over the North and get together after and score each restaurant out of 10. Lucky enough we got the highest score this year.

“It’s a nice award for our walls and it’s good recognition for all the hard work that the guys do her as well.

“It’s a very prestigious award and it’s a very exclusive club to be part of. It’s not something that you can apply to get into, it’s something you’ll be asked to do,” he added.

Following the presentation of the Grub Club award to Glen and the team at 28 At The Hollow, the club members enjoyed an exclusive 10 course tasting menu cooked by the winning chef, which included dishes featuring local pheasant from Fivemiletown and lobster from Kilkeel.

“It’s very much the food style that I want to cook upstairs in Glen At The Hollow [the chef’s new venture]. So it gave me a chance to do it down here in 28 At The Hollow.

“It’s very good for my staff as well to give them a change, something different,” Glen told The Impartial Reporter.

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