ruen thai

ruen thai

Patrick's St. (across the lane from the Bank of Ireland)
Cork

Tel +353 21 427 6127

this was a 50% restaurant. the chicken with cashew, onion, peppers and spring onion was great. the pad thai was weak. the spring rolls were just okay.

wouldn't go back, despite the service being friendly.

the crêpes guy

at the book fair, south mall, cork
apparently also at the coal quay on normal saturdays

i thought the price was a bit steep but then i saw the size of them!

there was a great variety of savoury and sweet crêpes. carol had a banana and buttescotch, matilda had the fruit one, and i had the hawaiian, without the ham.

three out of three say, 'yummy!'.

i can't wait 'til next saturday so i can try the sweet ones.

tasty tasty.

the horse and jockey

the horse and jockey
horse and jockey
on the road between cork and dublin

i think the 'town' is named after the pub. but that's a bit beside the point. the food is a bit more expensive than you'd expect for a pub, but it's actually quite good.

it's really a place you go when traveling, and mostly as a between cork and dublin kind of thing. it's in a super-convenient location and it's no trouble pulling over, cause it's right on the road. i'm stressing the convenience of the location, because time-wise it wouldn't be worth the trip to it, if you had to go out of your way. it usually takes between 1 and 1.5 hours to sit down, order, get your food and eat. so be prepared to wait for it. i don't really get it, because it's a travel-stop kind of place so you'd think time would be something that they would keep an eye on.

food wise? i would recommend the stuffed peppers, shown below.



the salad that comes with it is nicer than the salads with the other dishes, but you might want to ask for dressing on the side.

sandwiches are nice, and better priced.

so: service: rough. food? nice. location: great... and it's really the best food on the road between cork and dublin.

the ivory tower

corner of oliver plunkett and princes st.
The Exchange Building
Cork City
Tel: +353 (0)21 4274665


i was concerned about going here because i'd heard they serve hedgehog which totally didn't sound vegetarian friendly. turns out they do serve hedgehog, but they also have a couple of vegetarian starters and mains.

i thought the food was fantastic. the set menu is 65€ each, you'll begin with hors d'oeuvres (vegetarian or non, but be careful, if you don't like fish, you might want to mention that as the meat-eating option was fish for gerry), then your appetiser, palette cleanser (mine was a very light and fresh watermelon and tequila sorbet) main course and then dessert and tea/coffee.

the setting is pretty casual funky with a hint of eccentricity. it's basically in one room about the size of a large living room, so i'd suggest reservations. the service was a bit weak, but that could be because one of the two waitrons was in training.

the feeling is that the chef is the manager and he's always in the back cooking, so it can feel a bit disorganised. but it's made up for with the yummy food.

i would definitely go back, because there are dishes yet to be tried!!

my food:
artichoke heart
watermelon and tequila sorbet
frittata
aubergine and couscous bake
creme broulee
peppermint tea

gerry's:
fish (since neither of us eat fish, we don't know much about it, but it was little)
duck and orange soup
wood pigeon
chocolate cake
coffee

3.5 stars