Rediscovering Cork’s many food and drink delights!

I came across a grim little statistic recently: in the first half of 2025 alone, 150 restaurants shut their doors across Ireland. That’s a sobering number for a country our size. A few days later though, I spotted another article, this one about all the new places opening.

The truth is, hospitality is a revolving door. Tastes change, rents climb, insurance premiums make you weep and it can be challenging running a food operation. But Cork is still punching above its weight as it has a food and drink scene that’s gloriously alive.

And last weekend, I had the perfect excuse to dive back in with our visitor from Canada, the wonderful Lewanne. (I’d already eased her in gently with a midweek pint at Rising Sons, for research purposes only of course).

We started civilised, with afternoon tea at the Metropole. Then we decided to corrupt all that wholesomeness at Cask. Lewanne picked a Speak of the Devil, while I went for Gourd Vibes Only. Both cocktails were dangerously good.

But Cork nights are long, and so is my list of favourites. Off to Paladar we went, where I met my new true love: the Rey Dorado cocktail. I could have happily stopped there, but curiosity (and bad influence) made us try the San Patricios and the Carmen as well.

Hungry at last, we demolished an empanada and pork tacos that tasted like holidays. From there, we climbed to Monk, above Franciscan Well. I had The Bell Jar, Lewanne ordered… something. I genuinely can’t remember. That’s usually a sign of an excellent evening.

If Friday was cocktails, Saturday was wine. We kicked things off at Old Brennan’s with a delicate rosé for me, a bold red for Lewanne, both perfect.

Food-wise, we shared the butter board heaven for butter and bread lovers; I love both, duck bon bons, and shaved cheese to keep us quiet for a good five minutes (I guess it was more like 30 seconds though as we never ran out of conversation ideas!).

It was hard to move on but I wanted her to also see L’Atitude51 where I also went for a rose while Lewanne opted for Eaux de Vie (a rather weird choice but she loved it). I was raving to Lewanne about Simone Kelly’s cooking in L’Atitude and she ordered mussels but I went straight to the Basque cheesecake.

Sadly, a lift home fell through and our grand tour was cut short—we didn’t make it to Arthur Mayne’s, McCurtain Wine Cellar, or Moody’s.

But Lewanne is here for a few more weeks, so those delights are still to come.

We rounded off the evening at home with a cheeseboard, crackers, a bottle of Marqués de Riscal, and the stove lit in the garden while planning our next visit to Cork city.

Honestly, I loved rediscovering some of these places as much as showing them off. Cask and Paladar, it had been too long.

Cork may lose restaurants, but as long as it keeps making weekends like this possible, I’d say the food scene is doing just fine!