Showing posts with label The Sultan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Sultan. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2019

The Sultan Cafe: Cuisine of North Africa on a Cork Quay


The Sultan Cafe: Cuisine of North Africa on a Cork Quay
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Stopped in off Penrose Quay on a bitingly cold March night walked through the portals of The Sultan and landed on the balmy coast of North Africa, a warm welcome and a treasure trove of exotic dishes available to us at Taoufik Hammami's restaurant. On the way in, we pass the  Shisha Lounge, which doubles as reception and waiting area, complete with traditional pipes and a display of herbs and aromatic spices that are used in the cooking.

Under a tent-like ceiling, with long lengths of colourful material hanging loosely overhead, African music playing, the cuisine of that long coast, particularly those of Morocco and the Lebanon, are detailed on the extensive menu. Dishes such as Kaftas, Shish, Kofta, Kebab, Cous Cous, Shawarma, Salads, Baba Ghanoush, and Falafel all feature. Spices are used but more to impart flavour than heat.

It takes us a while to make up our minds. I’m looking at everything, the hummus, the vine leafs, the falafel, the sharing Mezzes, the Tabbouleh. In the end though I pick the Fattoush: mixed green salad, tomato, cucumber, parsley, onion, sumac, with pomegranate and oil dressing and cracked bread (7.95). Packed full of flavour and an amazing dressing, took a while to get through it.

We would find out that dishes here are very generous indeed. CL picked the Moussaka (a vegetable version), aubergines cooked with chickpeas, tomatoes, mixed peppers and spices, served with pitta bread. Again a generous mix of flavours and textures for 6.95. 
Moussaka

The Morrocan selection on the mains is based mainly on tagine variations. Authentic Moroccan tagine (16.95) is a slow-cooked stew like dish, served in a traditional Moroccan clay pot, served with a choice of rice, couscous or bread. CL picked the couscous and the bubbling stew did come in the clay dish and was terrific, the couscous (a very generous helping again) served in another dish alongside. She had a choice of beef or lamb and picked the latter. It was cooked on the bone, Generous and delicious too. Lots of pieces of sweet fruit mixed in here, even a spud in the stew!
Fattoush

Meanwhile, I was happily making my way through a Lebanese dish. I had quite a few to choose from: Kafta Lahem (lamb mince), Taouk (chicken breast) and Dawood Basha (spiced meat balls) to choose from. I settled for the Mixed Meat Shawarma (14.95), pieces of chicken and lamb marinated in a lightly spiced garlic and onion mix, grilled on skewers and served with mixed salad, garlic sauce, pitta bread and a choice of rice or chips (rice for me!). Tender, tasty, slightly spiced and overall delicious.
Shawarma

Baklava features strongly on the desserts and do watch out for the Almond finger baklava soaked in honey and topped up with Pistachio. If you can’t manage it at the end of eh meal, don't worry they’ll wrap it up for you and you can enjoy it later on at home. And if want more sometime, don't forget they have a shop in McCurtain Street (near the Met) where they also sell Turkish Delight! And you’ll more than likely see a Sultan stall at various markets and festivals.



5 Penrose Wharf
Penrose Quay
Cork
(021) 241 4272






Friday, December 9, 2016

Let's Glow Downtown. Street Fun. Street Food.

Let's Glow Downtown. 
Street Fun. Street Food.
The Sultan  is beaming. A big welcome for customers and passerbys alike. He and his team are enjoying the atmosphere under the Big Wheel, the eye-catching feature of the Cork Glow Festival, on every weekend (Friday to Sunday) until December 18th.

His board catches my eye: Greek Burgers with tzatziki sauce (also a vegetarian version), Breakfast Calzone, Falafel Wrap, Lamb Souvlaki Shawarma, Chicken Souvlaki Shawarma, and more. The stall also displays lots of baklava and Turkish delight. 

We go for the Lamb and the Chicken and take them, along with a glass of his excellent mulled wine, to one of the nearby tables. Hard to find a space even though it is early in the evening. But we sit, eat and have a chat with fellow diners. Nice bit of grub and good value too at €6.50 each.

There are quite a few others stalls around, including Wok ’n Roll, Flynn’s Gourmet Sausages, Crepe Man, Fish ’n Chips, Bad Boys BBQ, Taste Cork (with local producers) and more. All doing business. Queues are building for the food and especially for that Big Wheel. Families are wandering in and out of the small park where Narnia is the theme this Christmas. 

You like cheese cake?
Something sweet? We had already tasted a small sample from Charly’s Cheesecake . So he was the choice for “dessert”. Chocolate? He had a half dozen different types of chocolate cakes and lots of fruit ones too. We took the Toblerone and the Terry’s Orange. Nice stuff!

Time then for a stroll up the Parade and up North Main Street where Mick O’Connell MW of the WineMason  was holding a tasting. 
Mick O'Connell (left) and yours truly

He had a couple of comparisons for us. One featured Tempranillo. The first was a light and fruity unoaked organic, Merinos 2015, from la Mancha. The other was Finca Emperatriz 2012 Crianza from Rioja. This, with oak, was the more familiar style. Both were good, maybe for different occasions, the organic more for summer perhaps, the Rioja for now!

And then we tasted two Niepoort Ports, one a tawny, the other an LBV 2012. These divided opinions with some preferring the tawny while others (including myself) plumped for the LBV. The tawny was introduced just for comparison; Bradley's don’t stock it but they do sell the other.

But, for me, the best came first. I really enjoyed the two whites. Riesling is a favourite of mine, especially European Riesling, and the Wagner Stempel, dry with ripe fruit and sharp acidity,  certainly fitted the bill. Not too often you come across Roussane and Marsanne, other white grapes that I like, in the one bottle but that is exactly what the Turner Pageot 2015 blend, fruity and medium dry, provided.

It was a lovely “excursion” downtown and highly recommended. Not too sure where there’s a tasting of wines or beer next weekend. But if you do venture to Glow and are looking for something else to do, either before or after, why not check out the many choices detailed in the December edition of Whazon Cork! Enjoy.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Taste of the Week

Taste of the Week
Baklava from The Sultan



Best of luck to the Sultan who officially opens another new enterprise in McCurtain Street today. This shop, close to the Everyman, is called the Sultan's Delight. It is full of sweet things and also sells flavoured teas and coffees.
I popped in on Saturday and bought myself some baklava. This is also on sale at the Sultan Restaurant on Penrose Wharf and at their market stalls. Quite a variety of flavours available.
Pistachio (bottom left), Almond and Cinnamon (right), Fig and Date (top) caption
I enjoyed my Almond and Cinnamon and found that the Pistachio variety, my Taste of the Week, goes very well indeed with a drop of sweet Chaume from the Loire. The Fig and Date is not in the usual Filo but is also very enjoyable. You may also buy Turkish Delight here in the very area where Hadji Bey once operated.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Top restaurant posts 2013

Top restaurant posts 2013
Aubergine & Roast Pepper Parcels at Chapel Steps

For the second year running, Bandon's Chapel Steps tops the restaurant charts. This year's post didn't score quite as high as the 2012 review but still, thanks to the many fans of this lovely restaurant, came out ahead. Good performances too from newcomers like Brendan Cashman's Gallo & Galettii in Wilton, Finn's Table in Kinsale, and the Greenroom at Sage in Midleton. Electric is tops in city centre, Cafe Gusto is leading cafe while the Sultan is best ethnic.

Top Drinks Posts
Kinsale's Black Pig Wine Bar is the place to go for a glass of wine (and a meal), the newcomer quickly establishing itself at the head of affairs. This was the Year of the WineGeese and great to see the visit of Cullen Wines to Cafe Paradiso featuring as does the series' opening night at L'Atitude 51. The rise of craft beer is underlined by the popularity of the post on the Cotton Ball, Cork's newest micro-brewery; this post, just up a week or two, is gathering in the hits even as I write.

Most popular restaurant posts
1
Speciality Nights at Bandon's Chapel Steps
2
Brendan is back
3
Electric. Easy to Book. Hard to Leave.
4
Magic at Myrtleville
5
Al Fresco dining at the Titanic Bar and Grill in Cobh
6
Old Friend's at Finn's Table
7
The Sultan of Penrose Wharf
8
Tapas in the Greenroom
9
Grazie Cafe Gusto

Most popular drinks posts
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The Black Pig Wine Bar in Kinsale
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On the tapas trail with Campo Viejo
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Cullen Wines at Cafe Paradiso
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Wine Geese Heading Home
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Happy New Beer at the Cotton Ball
6
My Curious Case

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Sweet Intro to Excellent Sultan Meal

Sweet Intro to Excellent Sultan Meal


Taoufik, the Chef/Owner at The Sultan, the Lebanese restaurant at Penrose Wharf, told us our starter would take about twenty minutes to cook - “everything is prepared fresh” - but that he had some Lebanese tea to warm us up while we waited. It was sweet but gorgeous and we sipped to our heart's content. At the end of the meal, he treated us to his Arab coffee (containing cardamom, apples and more and sweetened with rose water).
Mezze
He has a great selection of  Mezzes to share and we opted for number two, including Baba Ghanoush, Potato Haro (Spicy Potato), Fatayer Spinach, Fatoush Salad, Hummus, Falafel and more, served with pickles olives, tahina sauce and Lebanese bread. It was quite a plateful - maybe too much if you are going for one of his superb specialities afterwards - but it does serve as a terrific introduction to the type of food you may expect in this comfortable place.
Moussaka
Enjoyed it very much and then I tucked into my main course, the Dawood Basha: Charcoal Lamb meatballs, cooked in a terrific lively tomato sauce and served with a delicious Lebanese rice.


CL loved their version of moussaka, lighter and more flavoursome than the usual Greek version and consisting of aubergines cooked with tomato, onions, sweet pepper and minced lamb and served with that fabulous rice. They also do a vegetarian moussaka. Overall, there is a massive choice here and they also do takeaway.
Dawood Basha

We were too full for dessert but our host kindly treated us to some Lebanese coffee. The coffee was poured from a special pot and then topped up with a little rosewater. Good, but the tea was better! And before we left, we got some of his big selection of baklava. He has quite a lot made with an eye to the Christmas market.
A little rosewater in your coffee?
Overall the dishes are overflowing with flavours, flavours that we locals don't come across everyday, and they are enhanced by the herbs and spices (but nothing too extreme, they don't use chilli, for instance). If you want a change, then do try the Sultan. You'll be assured of a sweet welcome from Taoufik and his staff. 



Monday, September 23, 2013

The Sultan of Penrose Quay

The Sultan of Penrose Quay
Baba Ghanoush (Spicy Aubergines), 
There is a little piece of the Levant on Penrose Wharf, right opposite the bridge, and here you can have Kafta, Shish, Kebab, Couscous, Shawarma, Moutabal, Falafel and more meals from that area of the Mediterranean.

This Lebanese restaurant, called The Sultan, has been open for about five months, with one entrance on the quay and another at the rear but do be aware that the car park in the complex closes early in the evening. In any event, there is a surprise if you enter by the quay as right in front of you is a Shisha Lounge complete with pipes and there too is a display of spices and herbs that they used in the cooking.

The spices, by the way, are not that hot. “Think of our spices as flavours. They are not very hot, we do not use chilli, for example.” Indeed, if you really want to find out more about Lebanese cooking, The Sultan runs cookery courses every Sunday. They also do takeaway and are to be seen at food festivals (they sold out in Midleton last Saturday week).
Lamb Shish 
But we were there to eat in the very well appointed alcohol free restaurant. It is clean and bright and well lit with very comfortable tables and seating (including high backed leather chairs).And if you want help with the menu, it is readily available from the very courteous staff.

We worked our way through the pages of the menu and they pointed out to us that we could take the Early Bird which gave us two courses for just €16.95 and that saved us a few euro. We were indeed early and so too were quite a few others and the place was more or less full by about seven on last Saturday night.

CL’s starter was the Moutabal which is Smoked Aubergine mixed with Tahini Sauce, Lemon Juice and Olive Oil and served with Lebanese bread. My Baba Ghanoush (Spicy Aubergines), a paste of smoked aubergines mixed with fresh pepper, parsley, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and again served with Lebanese bread. Two really palatable dishes, full of light and delightful flavours, and much more substantial that I thought at first sight.

Chicken Kafta 
Very happy also with my main dish called Lamb Shish (13.90). This was grilled lamb cubes marinated in lemon juice and mixed spices, served with mixed salad, parsley, onions, tahini sauce on top and Lebanese bread. Some terrific flavours again, nothing very spicy, and that thin bread was a perfect foil.

The other mains was Chicken Kafta (12.90). This consisted of grilled minced chicken, sweet peppers, garlic and special spices and was served with mixed salad, garlic sauce on top and, of course, Lebanese Bread. This surprisingly was probably an even bigger dish than the lamb. Lots of it there. I took a few spoonfuls of the chicken mix and it was really satisfying and very much enhanced by the blend of peppers, garlic and spices, again overflowing with flavour, but nothing even approaching extreme.

And before we left, we had a surprise when a small plate of their Baklava was delivered to the table, the layers of filo pastry are filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. That sure left a sweet impression as we left the Sultan.
Baklava
The Sultan, 5 Penrose Wharf, Cork. 021 2414272.
Lebanese Take-away and Sit-Down.

The Sultan in action at Midleton Food Festival