Restaurant in Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Serious Southeast Asian cooking in a retail park.
My Kitchen sits inside a Carrick-on-Shannon retail park but serves Malay-influenced cooking — built around galangal, coconut, cumin and star anise — that has no real equivalent in Connacht. Book it for a special occasion if you want something genuinely distinctive rather than another Modern Irish bistro. Booking is easy; the room is intimate and the food makes the setting irrelevant.
The most common mistake visitors make is dismissing My Kitchen before they reach the door. The address — a retail and business park on the Sligo Road outside Carrick-on-Shannon , does nothing to suggest what's inside. Correct that assumption immediately. My Kitchen, under Sham Hanifa, serves Malay-influenced cooking that you will not find within a reasonable drive in any direction. If you are in Connacht and want something beyond the familiar Irish pub-bistro formula, this is where to go.
For broader context on eating in the area, see our full Carrick-on-Shannon restaurants guide.
Walk through a retail park car park, step inside, and the room recalibrates your expectations almost immediately. The physical setting is compact and unfussy , this is not a room designed for theatrical dining. It is a room designed to let the food do the work. Seating is close enough to feel convivial without being cramped, and the scale keeps the atmosphere personal rather than performative. For a special occasion in this part of Ireland, that intimacy is a genuine asset: you are not lost in a large room, and the focus stays on what arrives at the table.
The editorial anchor here is seasonal rotation, and it is relevant. Malaysian and Southeast Asian cooking draws on spice combinations , galangal, star anise, cumin, coconut , that are not dictated by Irish seasonal produce in the way a Modern Irish kitchen would be. That is partly what makes My Kitchen worth a visit at any point in the year: it is not hostage to the short Irish growing season in the same way that, say, a hyper-local tasting menu would be. What changes is the surrounding context. Visiting in summer when Carrick-on-Shannon is busy with river tourism means the town is livelier and tables are harder to secure at short notice. Coming in the quieter months , late autumn through early spring , typically means easier access and a more relaxed room. If the beef curry built around Malay spice aromatics is representative of the kitchen's output, the cooking rewards a visit in any season; the question is logistics, not ingredient availability.
For reference on how Irish restaurants with a strong sense of place handle seasonal cooking, Aniar in Galway and Liath in Blackrock offer a useful contrast , both are tightly tethered to Irish produce calendars. My Kitchen operates on different logic, which is part of its appeal in this region.
My Kitchen works well for a date, a low-key celebration, or a meal with someone you want to impress without the formality of a tasting-menu room. The experience is personal rather than ceremonial. If you need a full-dress special occasion with wine list depth and front-of-house choreography, you are better served by Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin or Terre in Castlemartyr. But if the occasion is about genuinely good, distinctive food in a comfortable setting , and you are already in Roscommon or Leitrim , My Kitchen earns the booking.
Solo diners are well accommodated in a room of this scale. You are not conspicuous at a table for one, and the cooking is interesting enough to hold attention without company. For solo dining elsewhere in Ireland, dede in Baltimore and Homestead Cottage in Doolin offer a similar balance of quality and informality.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy. No phone or website is listed in our current data, so confirm current contact details locally before visiting. The address is Unit 12 Sligo Road, Cortober, Carrick Retail & Business Park, Co. Roscommon , allow for the fact that it sits on the Roscommon side of the Shannon, not in the Leitrim town centre itself.
If you are making a trip of it, pair the meal with accommodation in Carrick-on-Shannon using our full hotels guide, or explore the wider area through our experiences guide and bars guide.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Ease | Leading For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Kitchen | Malay-influenced | Not published | Easy | Distinctive cooking, local value |
| Oarsman | Traditional Irish | €€ | Easy | Casual, reliable pub dining |
| Aniar, Galway | Modern Irish | €€€€ | Moderate | Serious tasting menu, seasonal produce |
| Bastion, Kinsale | Progressive American | €€€€ | Moderate | Creative tasting format, destination dining |
Yes. The room is compact and personal, which means solo diners do not feel out of place. You are there for the food, and the food , Malay-influenced cooking built around spice combinations you will not find elsewhere in this part of Ireland , is interesting enough to make a solo visit worthwhile. Pricing is not published in our current data, so check locally before you go.
The address is the most disorienting thing about it: a retail park on the Sligo Road is not where you expect to find cooking of this character. Arrive without preconceptions about the setting. The food is Malay-influenced, built around spice combinations like galangal, coconut, cumin and star anise. It is the kind of cooking that has no real equivalent in Connacht. Booking is easy, and the room is small enough that coming without a reservation on a busy summer weekend carries some risk.
No specific dietary information is published in our current data. Given that the kitchen works with Southeast Asian spice profiles , including dishes built on coconut milk bases and spice pastes , anyone with tree nut allergies or specific intolerances should confirm directly with the restaurant before booking. Contact details are not listed in our current record; check locally or via the Carrick-on-Shannon area for current phone or web details.
It works well for a low-key celebration or a meal where distinctive food matters more than formal service. The room is intimate rather than grand, and the cooking , Malay-influenced, with a strong sense of identity , gives the occasion something to talk about. If you need full ceremony, a long wine list, and front-of-house theatre, Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin or The Oak Room in Adare will serve you better. But for a meaningful meal in Connacht without driving to Galway, My Kitchen is the strongest option in its category.
For traditional Irish cooking in Carrick-on-Shannon, the Oarsman is the reliable local option. If you are willing to travel, Aniar in Galway offers a serious tasting menu rooted in Irish seasonal produce , a different format but a higher level of ambition. Campagne in Kilkenny and The Morrison Room in Maynooth are worth knowing if your route takes you south or east. None of them replicate what My Kitchen does with Southeast Asian spice profiles.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in our current data. The room is described as compact, which typically means limited bar or counter seating. If eating at the bar is a priority , for solo dining flexibility, for instance , confirm the layout directly with the restaurant before visiting. For bar-focused dining in the region, our Carrick-on-Shannon bars guide covers the wider options.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| My Kitchen | — | |
| Patrick Guilbaud | €€€€ | — |
| Bastible | €€€€ | — |
| Bastion | €€€€ | — |
| LIGИUM | €€€€ | — |
| Host | €€ | — |
What to weigh when choosing between My Kitchen and alternatives.
Yes. The compact room and counter-style informality make solo dining comfortable rather than awkward. For a single diner who wants to eat well without ceremony, the format works — Sham Hanifa's Malay-style cooking rewards attention, and there is no pressure to perform as a table of two. Booking is rated Easy, so securing a solo seat is not a problem.
The address will look wrong — a retail and business park on the Sligo Road in Cortober — but don't turn back. Inside, the kitchen produces Malay-style cooking built around spice combinations like galangal, star anise, and coconut that you won't encounter at most restaurants in Connacht. Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so you can usually plan last-minute, but confirm current contact details locally before visiting as no phone or website is currently listed in our data.
No specific dietary policy is documented in our current data for My Kitchen. Given the Southeast Asian menu focus — dishes built on spice pastes, coconut, and proteins — it is worth checking directly before visiting, particularly for allergies to common aromatics or shellfish-based sauces common in Malay cooking. Confirm contact details locally since no phone or website is currently listed.
Yes, if you and your guest are comfortable with informal surroundings and want the food to do the work. The retail park setting is not the venue if you need white tablecloths and a wine list to mark the moment, but for a low-key celebration where the cooking is the point, Sham Hanifa's Malay-style menu delivers something genuinely difficult to find anywhere else in the region. Price range is not currently documented in our data, so confirm current pricing locally.
For a more conventional Irish restaurant experience in town, options along the river in Carrick-on-Shannon offer more familiar formats. If you are willing to travel into Dublin, Bastible in Portobello or Host on South Great George's Street cover similar ground in terms of ingredient-led, serious cooking without formality. My Kitchen's specific draw — Malay-style spice cooking in a rural Irish retail park — has no obvious direct substitute in Connacht.
No bar seating is documented in our current data for My Kitchen. The room is described as compact, and the setup appears to be table-only dining. If bar or counter seating is important to your visit, confirm current layout details locally before booking, as no phone or website is currently listed in our data.
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