Rates: From $407; dinner tasting menu is $205 per person, not including drinks
A welcome warm and sincere; a seat on a handmade sofa swathed in Irish linen overlooking a garden of native flowers; a glass of crisp pet-nat and a volume of Seamus Heaney poems on the table beside me: I felt the care behind Ómós from the moment I stepped through the door.
Once part of an 18th-century estate, Ómós sits alongside an old millpond edged by sheep fields on one side and forest on the other. It’s hard to believe that the imposing brick home that is now an intimate, 15-room guesthouse lay in ruins only a few years ago, so thorough and thoughtful has the transformation been. More than restored, this is a property regenerated, where everything—from the heritage grains that go into the restaurant’s bread to the slab of Kilkenny limestone that acts as a bridge to the sauna—feels intentional.
Although Ómós opened in July 2026, the idea for it has been fermenting in the mind of its creator and co-owner, Cúán Greene, for years. As a young chef working at Noma in Copenhagen, Greene dreamed of applying the restaurant’s ethos of time and place to his home in Ireland.
Chef and co-owner Cúán Greene spent years imagining Ómós before opening the country-house guesthouse and restaurant in Abbeyleix in July 2026.
Photos by Shantanu Starrick
In 2020, he began writing about the country’s culinary culture in a Substack, also called Ómós (the word means “homage” in Irish). At that time, he had no realistic path toward creating the kind of restaurant he imagined—one that showcases Irish ingredients while reflecting Irish identity and contributing meaningfully to its surrounding community.
That changed after a chance encounter a few years later with the founder of Stripe, whose Midlands estate included a ruined house he was looking to turn into a luxury guesthouse. “I had never envisioned opening a hotel,” Greene said. “But having worked in three-Michelin-star restaurants, where detail and guest experience is everything, it was a natural progression.”
There was hardly a handwrought doorknob or an acorn-shaped ceramic sugar bowl I didn’t want to stuff in my bag and take home. Ómós is luxurious, but its luxury lies in well-made things with stories to tell about the people and place that made them. As Greene told me while we looked across the vegetable garden to the sheep beyond, “I wanted to create a place that could be nowhere else.”
Who’s Ómós for?
Ómós is a treat for both gourmands and devotees of craft, whether in the form of handmade textiles and ceramics or a beautifully prepared galette. With its emphasis on Irish culture (even the elevators speak Gaelige), it’s an ideal place for a heritage immersion. But with soothing lounges outfitted with fireplaces and honor bars, pond-side gardens and woods, and scattered books begging to be picked up (each one a staff member’s personal favorite), the property is also ideal for anyone looking for a relaxing day or two in the country.
Who it isn’t for
Ómós, a grown-up retreat, is not for children. And with only the fine-dining restaurant on site, its dining options aren’t designed for longer visits. The kitchen can prepare a picnic hamper for guests who want to extend their stay, and there are a couple of good restaurants in town.
The location: Abbeyleix, Irish Midlands
Ómós stood in ruins just a few years before its transformation into a guesthouse and restaurant.
Photo by Shantanu Starrick
Abbeyleix is a 75-minute drive southwest from Dublin. Most guests arrive by car, but the hotel, which is located on the outskirts of town, can easily arrange pickup from the town’s bus stop or from the train station at Portlaoise, nine miles away.
Once home to the factory that wove the carpets on the Titanic, Abbeyleix today is a thriving little town with both a bakery and a bistro that Greene recommends highly, as well as Morrissey’s, a 250-year-old pub so atmospheric he held part of his wedding celebration there. The surrounding countryside is lined with walking trails, including boardwalks through the Abbeyleix bog, once harvested for peat and now being restored through a community conservation project.
During the years it took to renovate the house and build the restaurant, Greene and his team explored the country’s larder, establishing collaborations with small organic farms, fishers, and cheesemakers.
The rooms at Ómós
Irish craftsmanship runs through the guest rooms, from locally woven linens to hand-glazed tiles and Kilkenny limestone.
Photo by Shantanu Starrick
It is in the 15 bedrooms, spread across the main house and the courtyard coach house, that Ómós’s attention to detail comes into sharpest focus. Earthy tones of sage and oat, cocooning bedframes, smooth oak wardrobes, Kilkenny blue limestone sink tops, hand-glazed tiles, and throws in crisp linen and soft wool generate a sense of profound well-being. My courtyard suite featured a handmade clay soaking tub and—almost as thrilling—an edition of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
Artisanal touches such as hand-carved tables and bedside tumblers blown by glassmaker Róisín de Buitléar (Greene’s mother) ground each space. Amenities are just as considered, from the seaweed-infused, custom-scented Dulcie shampoo and slender pencils from a historic Czech company to a crumbly Ómós version of the classic Nice biscuit and coffee from Dublin artisanal roastery Farmhand, packed in ingenious single-serve pour-over filters.
The food and drink
Ómós was designed as a place for gathering, with communal spaces woven throughout the property.
Photos by Shantanu Starrick
Omos’s expression of Irishness speaks most clearly in its light-filled dining room. During the years it took to renovate the house and build the restaurant, Greene and his team explored the country’s larder, establishing collaborations with small organic farms, fishers, and cheesemakers; foraging in the woods for wild herbs and mushrooms; and creating a pantry of cured and pickled ingredients. They also built a sourdough bakery on site and put in an already lush kitchen garden whose caretaker, Marycy Gasz, grows produce varieties the chefs can’t get elsewhere.
On the night I was there, the 13-course tasting menu started with a punchy anchovy and tomato jam tart and progressed through courses that showcased the surrounding bounty while playing with Irish identity: a delicate egg custard with fresh leaves and berries that riffed on the country’s classic Mammy salad, which Greene described as “a hard-boiled egg, some coleslaw, and a bit of ham if you’re feeling fancy,” while a pearly grilled sea bass with sea buckthorn and chard purees took on the colors of the national flag—unwittingly, he swears.
The most memorable dish: a single humble potato. Grown on an organic farm 15 minutes away, it is steamed, then boiled with lovage and mint, and served with heaps of butter. With that simple presentation, Ómós not only elevates Ireland’s most iconic ingredient but taps into the beauty and tragedy that surrounds it.
Staff and service
In both the hotel and the restaurant, the service is smooth while still being relaxed enough to make guests feel at home; general manager Patrick Healy’s gracious welcome set the tone for my stay. I dined alone at the restaurant, and seemingly every server (and more than one chef) came over at some point in the evening for a bit of craic. It was just the right amount of attention to keep me entertained without ever feeling overwhelming.
The service, for all the graciousness, never slides into obsequiousness, and the staff blessedly still have a sense of personality. When sommelier Niall Flynn started me off with a spot of port to match that opening anchovy tart, he wryly admitted it was an unusual pairing. “I start,” he said with a wink, “where others end.”
The staff also look great: I coveted the wool jackets, custom made by Stable of Ireland, that constitute a key part of the house uniform.
Accessibility
Two rooms in the coach house are wheelchair-accessible. One, a suite, is also dog friendly.
