Restaurant Recommendation Thread - Anyone for seconds?

We opted for the Montenotte in the end.

Overall it was good but fell short of great or even excellent.

It was very busy for a Monday evening, which was nice to see.

Pork belly was lovely with this sweet glaze. It was a small portion for the price, which was disappointing.

Mrs Pen Rua got the pork tomahawk which she enjoyed - something you don't see often on restaurant menus. I went for the duck which had a great red wine jus.

Dessert portions were bigger than we anticipated and both mine (the mouse) and hers (madeira cake) were perfectly pleasant.

Service is where it fell down big time, though. We asked for the bill (and indicated we would pay by card to save the waiter the trip). 10 mins came and went and still nothing. At this point, the restaurant had filtered out and there were a couple of staff cleaning down tables. In the end, we gave up and went up to pay. Bread had to be ordered and was an additional charge - I would suggest that bread would be a minimum requirement for a restaurant service. Big lags between starter & main, which could be explained away by a busy venue to be fair.

Two well-known Cork businesses close their doors (echolive.ie) -  Bunnyconnellan Restaurant in Myrtleville closing up 😔

Really confused by Moodys, wondering if anyone else had this experience. I might be expecting something different to how tapas works here...

We booked and arrived at 8pm, got a menu and wine list. We ordered a glass of wine each and a couple of plates, At five to nine the food arrived (almost an hour later), and as the guy dropped it off, he told us the kitchen was now closed.

Is it not usual for people to order a few things, they come out fairly quickly because they are small easy plates, maybe order another few? And for spanish food to run later than 9pm for ordering? We were wandering out the door at 9:15 feeling a bit short changed to be honest.

Yeah, didn't expect 1am alright in Ireland. And we don't exactly tolerate the open plates of food on counters here either! :D But I expected to be able to order , eat something, and order another few if we were still hungry. Not just order some patatas bravas and a croquette at 8pm , wait an hour for it, and boom you're done. They were all over us taking the plates away when we were trying to take our time. Felt rushed out the door, and still hungry and looking for another glass of wine! Luckily that street has loads of places, but after going to the effort of booking a table, seemed mad they wouldn't feed hungry people. Why even have tables available at 8pm

It's fallen down big time. Used to be somewhere that we'd go the odd time as a treat but it's like it became too popular and the service has slipped.

Was in The Barn in Glanmire recently for dinner and found it very strange. A couple of us ordered from their online system, took ages to arrive, the others we were with went and got stuff from the carvery counter and were finished by the time our stuff arrived. It's also got massive TV screens facing you which is a distraction. It's like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

What's the online system in the Barn? Not familiar with it... Is it like take-away order and you bring it back to the table from a pick-up area? Or like a waiter replacement where the order goes to the kitchen, but floor staff still bring it out?

Not disputing the speed of it, I guess you'd hope it was faster than needing table service to take the order. Can't remember where we were a few weeks ago for lunch... somewhere out east cork direction anyway, but I was nearly putting on a pinny myself and rocking up to the kitchen with orders and a tray the staff were so scattered. I don't think they got any table's order right.

Carvery is straight counter service, so very hard to beat that for speed at the best of times.

Its contactless ordering like most places brought in for covid. Scan the code,place your order, it gets dropped to the table. Or you order from a server.

Of course carvery is gonna take a shorter time than ordering food from the kitchen..that was kinda silly to think you would all eat together no??

the food is average at best and their desserts are nothing like they used to be. Which is a big shame for me as i can walk to it. Think they need a menu over haul

I could never figure out why anybody would want to open a restaurant in a new (at the time) bungalow, in Mayfield. But still there 40 years+ later. Shows how much I know!!

As soon as I saw they only accept card it was off my list of options to eat. I pay with card mostly but I won't support a business that tries to push a cashless society, it's vital for many still.

Some people are never satisfied

huh?

egg on my face.. major boo boo on my part

Yes, lovely, had a meal there recently - fillet steak, very good indeed.

Speaking of Marina market - the last 3 times I have been there, wanted to eat at PouletVous, but they were closed all 3 times. White Rabbit BBQ is also a new addition (atleast for me)