Goldie Sure Has That Swing. O🐟ial!

Goldie Sure Has That Swing. 

O🐟ial! 

Pannacotta

You can have the best produce. The best equipment in the kitchen. The most comfortable seating. A stellar wine list. All those won't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. 

And Goldie’s Aishling Moore sure has that swing. She gives it everything she’s got and her food sings. Cool or hot, the rhythm is on the spot, taking customers to a different level every single visit and each and every dish.

Just a few years on the scene in the heart of Cork City and Goldie has built a unique reputation for the quality of its fish dishes. But it is not all fish here. There are some very tempting vegetarian dishes and those desserts strike, well let us caress, those sweet spots. Even Michelin agrees. Goldie has a Bib Gourmand and is also on its latest list of the best places to go for seafood in Ireland.

Aishling is quite a conductor, often composing as she goes. The menu changes daily. “Whatever the small boats bring us, we take. We forage on the local coast for sea vegetables and seaweed.”

And there’s some singing in the background too. West Cork’s Singing Frog Gardens are prominent on the menu. Lots of herbs, even wasabi on the cured plaice. That wasabi is of course local and other local suppliers include Rossmore Oysters, Churchfield Community Gardens, Cuinneog (Mayo), East Ferry poultry, Bushby Strawberries, St Tola cheese, Achill island salt and more..

Our server has a warm welcome for us and gives us an enthusiastic run through the menu, highlighting the Red Mullet Anchovies in the Snacks, the Cured Plaice in the 5 Small Plates and the three fish in the 5 Mains.

Schnitzel 

We take our time as we make our choices. The Rossmore Oysters for me and the Cod Tail Schnitzel for CL along with a glass of the Angel Stout and Elbow Lager (both made across the road by the Elbow Lane microbrewery, part of the Market Lane group as is Goldie). 

Aishling tells us the beers chosen are just perfect for the small plates. Small? In quantity, I suppose the word fits. But the quality is stratospheric! Those oysters, with the Singing Frog lemongrass and ginger granita, are the best I have ever tasted. Quite a beginning, zing and swing.

Monkfish

Stout

And CL’s Cod Tail Schnitzel is also out of the usual orbit, that soy-cured egg yolk, along with a celeriac and gherkin remoulade, enhancing the flattened cod. I got a taste,  delicious flavours, stole another and had to stop at that for fear of retaliation!

Now for the mains, not too easy to relegate the Pan Roast Turbot with Churchfield herb panisse but we choose the Pan Fried Plaice and the Panfired Monkfish.

CL’s Plaice came with Singing Frog Courgette and a chicken and miso butter sauce. Again, everything was just perfect, the courgette a surprising enhancement along with the sauce. Not forgetting some of the shared side of Sea Salt Shoestring Chips (say that quickly!).

Plaice

Panaeng is a lovely mild curry named after tropical Penang and that was what my Monkfish came in, along with a tasty sunflower seed relish. The Panaeng can be spiced up with chillis but this was perfect as it was and the whole dish was another hit from the Goldie repertoire. Just to mention that those fries were also top-class.

Desserts are often an afterthought if they are thought of at all, in many restaurants, and you often have the usual suspects to choose from and nothing innovative in sight. Not here. Even though the list is short, just three, they are rather special.

A duo of sweet beauties highlighted the finalé, with Rosscarbery fruit growers, Bushbys, featuring deliciously in both. Mine was the Singing Frog basil pannacotta with Bushby’s strawberry sorbet and meringue. What an ensemble! And CL’s was another hit from the Goldie playlist, a beautiful combination of the St Tola cheese ice cream, with Bushby raspberries and beetroot molasses. 

We relaxed, serene in foodie Nirvana. Very Highly Recommended. Very well priced also, by the way. Put it on your list and put this song on your playlist!

St Tola

“Yes, it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing

Well, it don't mean a thing, all you got to do is sing

It makes no difference if it's sweet or hot

Just give that rhythm everything you got”

(It Don't Mean a Thing by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills)