The Castle Cafe. An excellent and friendly neighbourhood restaurant in the bailey of Cork's iconic Blackrock Castle.

The Castle Cafe. An excellent and friendly neighbourhood restaurant in the bailey of Cork's iconic Blackrock Castle.

Cauliflower

You won't be dining in the castle's grand hall at Blackrock’s Castle Cafe – but that's not a bad thing. The cafe itself is a bright, airy separate building just metres from the castle steps, with glass walls letting the light pour in. You may not have your regal robes on but you will get food fit for royals, the only difference is that you pay for it!

The Cas­tle is a fam­ily friendly neigh­bour­hood restau­rant. Old and very young were enjoying lunch when we called there last week. The food, which features the best of local produce, was excellent as was the welcome and the service was friendly and efficient throughout.

You can combine your visit to the café with a stroll through the nearby village, maybe drop into the castle itself  and see the Observatory and there are kilometres of walks in the immediate area. The Cas­tle restaurant is a pop­u­lar venue, just out­side the city centre. It is open Tuesday to Sunday.

We had quite a choice of starters including Rosscarbery pork belly, miso maple glaze, spring onion, sesame seeds, Ballycotton smoked fish gratin with toasted sourdough ,  and Glenbeigh mussels in a white wine cream sauce, with toasted sourdough. Our pick- we shared - was the Cauliflower bravas with tahini ketchup, tumeric aioli and coriander. Absolutely enjoyed this slightly spiced dish, an ideal starter. Very Highly Recommended.

Chicken and cabbage......

Sandwiches and Platters also feature here at this time of day and the one that caught my eye was the Turkish platter of grilled Toonsbridge halloumi, white bean hummus, beetroot egg, sweet onion pickle, cous-cous, house flatbread and harissa aioli.

But we went straight to the Mains. Again, there were quite a few, including a Seared fillet steak on  flatbread, Seared Hake fillet, a Slow-cooked Crowe’s bacon collar with a honey and mustard glaze, Fish and Chips, and more. 

There a couple of chicken options including CL’s choice of Roast marinated chicken, maple and thyme root vegetable, white cabbage with caraway butter, mashed potato and gravy, pretty much a Castle classic and served here for quite a few years. We could taste why, even the cabbage was a star. You can bet on this one!

One of a selection
of local soft drinks.
Wines, beers,
cocktails too.

Mine wasn't as traditional, at least not in these parts.  I took a punt on the Balinese Nasi Goreng of shredded Skeaghanore confit duck, chilli, soy and ginger rice, pickled fennel, cucumber and scallions topped with a fried egg.  With the high quality Skeaghanore duck at its centre, this Indonesian Fried Rice dish was an intriguing melange of textures, flavours and well-judged spice. It was polished off, down to the last grain of rice! And not a scrap of that pickled veg was left.

No room for dessert, though. Hard to leave their famous Marmalade and Vanilla Bread & Butter Pudding behind. Next time! 

The Castle is one of the five restaurants in the Market Lane group, the others being Market Lane itself, ORSO, Elbow Lane (with its micro-brewery) and Goldie. The group is a huge supporter of local produce and suppliers and you may see the full list here. 

Balinese Nasi Goreng

Sustainability is very much on the agenda. All five restaurants are Food Waste Charter Members. Market Lane, in conjunction with others, are creating a native tree forest. Their honey comes from urban bee hives. Coffee grounds go their vegetable growers to be turned into compost. Their fleet consists of electric or pedal powered vehicles. Their takeaway containers are biodegradable. They have solar panels on the roof of the city centre restaurant, with more to follow. The list goes on. They practice what they preach.

More on the Castle Café here. Check out the menus and opening times and order gift vouchers.

Blackrock Castle

Come to Table. The café in Brown Thomas Cork

Come to Table.

The café in Brown Thomas Cork

If you are in Cork City centre outside Brown Thomas and someone asks you the location of the restaurant in this store - there are two possible answers. If the visitor is from the US, Table (the name of the restaurant) is on the third floor, if he or she is from the UK, Table is on the second floor*. No confusion though about the quality at Table; it is excellent as we found out at a recent lunch.

We were in for lunch. After a smile and a welcome, we were shown to our table and the menu handed to us. It was headed Brunch but all the dishes listed were lunch items - no Eggs Benedict or Smoked Salmon and Eggs.

It was quite a tempting selection in any event, soup or chowder to start with (if you wished), then lots of salads, a more substantial cod dish, chicken supreme also, there were a few veggie options (including a sweet potato and red lentil dhal), a Bacon Cheeseburger plus a Tex Mex Chicken Burger.

I had put my eye immediately on the Salmon Nicoise, Marinated Green beans, Baby Potatoes, egg, crispy croutons and green leaves. And, after a hesitation or two, that was what I ordered. Very happy with this large plateful of tasty fish and veg (those green marinated beans were a standout).

CL picked the Falafel and roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Salad, lemon tahini dressing (vegan). This dish had just been added to the menu and our friendly server told her the chef would be looking for feedback. And he got a good one. Another dish packed full of flavour and not a little colour. The Kemp sisters, owners of the café, are indeed noted for light and colourful dishes, just like the modern art prints around the walls.

We took up the option of having a cup of soup with the mains. The soup of the day was Sweet Potato and Coconut. It was really top notch and so too was the brown bread that came with it. They have a short list of wines here, some bubbles too. But we went for the juices and got two very good ones indeed. CL had a generous glass (all portions are fairly generous here) of just squeezed orange juice while I hit the jackpot with a bottle of Rhubarb and Ginger Lemonade (produced by Limerick’s Wild Orchard).

Finished off with a cup of coffee and a Apple and Cinnamon Crumble with Vanilla Ice-cream from Featherbed Farm. Again that dessert was quite large; more importantly, it was also top notch, the real thing!

Table is run by sisters Peaches and Domini Kemp, who started off their joint food business about 20 years ago with “one employee, one small van and a helluva lot of prayers”. Their first venture was to introduce bagels to Ireland. More recently, they are also to be found in stores such as Brown Thomas, under the Little Museum of Dublin in Hatch and Sons, and in the Irish Museum of Modern Art. What a long way they have come!

. 

Table 

Brown Thomas

19 Patrick Street

Cork

021 480 5555

* Apparently, the Americans start counting from the ground floor while the UK and Ireland start from the floor above the ground level. But, with the globalisation of the English language, there’s bound to be some confusion.