Cork is where good food is at. With a range of local produce from Artisan cheese to gorgeously crafted smoked fish, there is no question that Cork is recognised as the food capital of Ireland.
More than the deliciousness of its food, something that makes the city more tasting is its pack of great places to eat ‒ from Michelin-star restaurants and local craft-beer pubs to its vibrant English Market, internationally known as a culinary avenue for some of the country’s finest dishes.
And oh! Have you heard its tiny secret? Not only does the second-largest city revel in its reputation for serving the finest dishes, but Cork also regards itself as the country’s only guardian of Celtic culture. In other words, Cork tastes more genuinely Irish than Dublin (Ireland’s capital city) when it comes to culinary tourism.
In case you need more convincing, we give you some of the reasons why there’s no better place to try out the country’s locally-sourced dishes than Cork.
Cork offers outstanding restaurants.
The city has a compact size, which means every restaurant is within your reach. Travellers can actually turn their heads to each corner and find a great place to eat. For foreign trippers, the award-winning Cork and Cork Road hotels are trusted restaurant providers that offer an extremely wide array of local culinary treasures. Have an unmissable experience at these dining places from Café Paradiso that offers only the best vegetarian cuisine with produce that is directly sourced from a farm outside the city to Orso where you can grab a seat for some seafood chowder and local corned beef and lamb stew. A few more getting around and you’ll get to savour places such as the famous Farmgate Café, Liberty Grill, Electric, and Sage, where choices of food revolve around centuries-old, traditional, seasonal, and even those that are nearly-forgotten.
Cork has the best source of produce in Ireland.
For the longest time, Cork has been a county where a truly outstanding range of excellent artisanal produce exists from the pure waters and craggy hills to the green pastures of the western part of the county. Not to mention its very own farmhouse cheese and smoked delights producers that mostly changed the way visitors look at food, building up the county’s reputation for being a gastronome’s paradise for so many years now.
There’s a great food experience at every turn.
Local and foreign travellers don’t need to look further because every turn will instantly take them to some incredible sights, smells, and tastes. There’s somewhere excellent to visit: turn south and you’ll find Kinsale for a well-renowned fish seafood restaurant and cafe; turn west and you’ll explore a great food market and excellent pubs for a no ordinary whisky experience, and turn north if you want to see the home of an award-winning black pudding. As you explore the county, don’t forget to keep an eye on menus for spiced beef ‒ one of the best traditional Cork dish to try out in the entire county.
Cork has its very own special brews.
While Dublin boasts for its world-renowned Guinness, County Cork favours its very own distinct craft beers, Murphy’s and Beamish. These brews are offering a genuine Irish taste that can trace their history back for over a hundred and fifty years, making the traditional black pint a not so popular Cork drink.
Cork boasts for its culinary highlight: English Market
If looking for a serious food trip is what brought you to this place, a culinary highlight in Cork also known as the English Market is one of the best food markets in Europe. Not only does the market provide a vast array of great places to eat and drink but it also epitomises the very essence of the county’s thriving culinary scene. Visit the place to see a real riot of gorgeous gastronomic delights from cheeses to chocolates and from fish to fruit and vegetables.
