Restaurant review: A properly delicious night out at Arundels by the Pier in wilds of West Cork
Arundels By The Pier in Ahakista, Co. Cork. Pictures: Eddie O'Hare
Down on Sheep’s Head, in West Cork, just about the best hospitality take on al fresco dining during The Covid was and remains Arundel’s by the Pier, snugly tucked away in a clement little cove, a leeward shelter protected from prevailing Atlantic weather that scours the far westerly side of the peninsula into an infinitely more bleak and blasted wildness.
There are canopied picnic tables aplenty outside the pretty pub but across the road is the ‘beer garden’ — a rolling patch of green garden that leads down to the sea. Its few picnic tables are insufficient for the excess punters who are usually content to sit with pints and even plates on the low stone wall or the grass, Dunmanus Bay and Mizen Head on the opposite shore providing some of nature’s finest eye candy. To the left is Ahakista pier where local boats bring in crab, langoustines, shrimp and scallops, much of it for Arundel’s menu.
