If you’re looking for some nice places to eat in Cork City here are a few we can recommend:
Since 1994 the excellent Farmgate Restaurant has been selling delicious dishes fresh from the neighbouring English Market, served up with simplicity. Its well known owner, Kay Harte, insists on only the best of local ingredients, so the menu changes from day to day in this ever busy cafè. Today’s dozen fresh oysters could be tomorrow’s corned mutton with parsley sauce, making this an experience not to be missed and gaining it much praise from Lonely Planet.
Cork may have a wide range of restaurants to choose from, but Boqueria has now firmly established its place amongst them. The authentic and delicious Spanish tapas served here, in addition to its regular wine tasting sessions, have quickly made it a favourite. The usual Spanish offerings such as tortilla Espanola, patatas bravas and plates of artisan cured meats or smoked fish share menu space with smoked salmon, black pudding and Irish cheeses – their Irish variations. Its sweet red peppers stuffed with locally renowned Ardsallagh goat cheese, as well as its range of 40 superb Spanish wines, sherries and full bar, have earned it much praise from the New York Times.
Update: Unfortunately Boqueria has closed
In 2009 Nash 19 was included in the Bridgestone Guide’s 100 Best Restaurants. When you taste its seafood chowder or fish pie, you will understand why. This simple yet ambitious bakery/cafè on Princes St only sells delicious, locally sourced food. In the morning the mouth-watering smell of scones and bread baking draws people in on their way to work. At lunchtime, specials like Collar of Irish Bacon with Cabbage from the English Market’s butchers draw them back in again. They also serve a decent variety of wines.
Steak on the Stone Special is a specialty of the lively Wilton Pub and Restaurant, located near Wilton Shopping Centre. A tender 10oz. Fillet Steak is served directly to your table where you can cook it exactly as you like it on the sizzling Lava rock slabs. This is just one of the many tasty dishes on offer.
Have you heard of Brown Bread Ice Cream? At the Wilton Pub you will find this dessert which was given to Queen Victoria on her visit t0 Cork in 1849.
Café Paradiso, owned by the great chef Denis Cotter, is one of Ireland’s most famous vegetarian restaurants. Here, pulses and vegetables are given a whole new lease of life, with new and original ideas. His creative talents have earned him much praise from The Bridgestone Guide. A visit here is necessary to see just how many wonders he can create with vegetables, pulses, grains and cheeses. His pistachio, feta and couscous cake with aubergine-chilli rolls is a case in point.
Paul Lewis and Frank O’Connell opened the very cool An Crúibín in 2008, and must have had much fun when putting together the menu. One would have a job on their hands to find marinated seared pinchada of beef, papas fritas, ensalada de tomates and Jimmy McCurry sauce anywhere else. European ingredients are the main influence here, resulting in honest, local food. This relaxed but pleasantly eccentric pub serves delicacies such as goat stew with okra, carrot, pumpkin & pistachios and Rosscarbery black pudding with chickpeas, sultanas and pine nuts all day.
Update: Sadly, An Crúibín has closed
The English Market was originally opened around 1788 as a traditional market, and since has grown exponentially to become one of Ireland’s original gourmet experiences. It houses a host of stalls selling trotters, tripe, drisheen, crocodile and kangaroo steaks, red snapper from the Indian Ocean, Sicilian olives, artisan cheeses and hand-made chocolates.