Daniel Crewe: executive chef at Cliff House Hotel
Daniel has built his career across Michelin-starred restaurants, luxury hotels and award-winning kitchens.
That mix has given him a broad view of both fine dining and hotel food operations, pairing a strong technical grounding with an understanding of how successful kitchens and teams are built and developed.
As executive chef, he oversees the culinary direction of the wider hotel, including the Oceanfront Restaurant and Bar, which serves lunch and dinner daily with a terrace overlooking Ardmore Bay.
His remit covers the hotel’s entire food offering: supporting the kitchen teams, developing talent and shaping a consistent culinary identity across each of its dining experiences.
The cooking at House
Reinis’s cooking combines classical French technique with Mediterranean influences, while staying firmly rooted in Irish produce.
The Michelin Guide’s inspectors point to the same foundation, describing well-balanced seasonal dishes built mostly on a classical French base with some more creative touches, and singling out local ingredients such as Lismore lamb, as well as a strawberry and hibiscus dessert.
In the dining room, finished in seafoam greens and terracotta, guests choose between a seven-course tasting menu and a table d’hôte option.
For both chefs, the starting point is the produce.
House works with a network of Irish suppliers, with particular emphasis on the south-east, including Michael Down of Ardmore Bay Seafood, McGrath’s of Lismore and Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese.
Daniel and Reinis also forage regularly along the coastline around Ardmore, gathering seasonal ingredients that find their way onto the menu.
It is an important part of their approach, letting the surrounding landscape and changing seasons shape the food in a very direct way, from locally landed seafood to ingredients gathered along the shore.
The aim is food that is precise and technically accomplished without becoming overly complicated, keeping Irish ingredients, seasonality and the restaurant’s coastal setting at the centre of the experience.
Michelin star at House
House opened at Cliff House Hotel in 2008 and won its Michelin star in 2010, with Martijn Kajuiter leading the kitchen.
The star has been retained every year since, through several changes of head chef, taking the run to 17 consecutive years.
It predates both Daniel and Reinis. The 2026 guide, revealed at the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland ceremony in Dublin on Monday, February 9, 2026, was the first time it was reconfirmed with Reinis at the helm.
Michelin currently lists House under modern cuisine, with the inspectors highlighting its cliffside setting and views across Ardmore Bay.
Together, Daniel and Reinis are focused on the next chapter for the food at Cliff House Hotel, respecting standards built over 17 years of Michelin recognition while developing a style and identity that reflects the current team.
