Restaurant review: Smiles all round thanks to delicious food at Moody Cafe Vin Bar
Moody Café Vin, Lower Glanmire Road, Cork
Moody Cafe Vin Bar is on the ground floor of an iconic Cork city building, dating back to 1900. Nestling in a Y-shaped junction at the foot of Summerhill North and Lower Glanmire Road, the charming red-bricked oddity, sporting an elegant little tower capped with lead roof, is shaped like an arrowhead that narrows to a ‘point’, looking back towards MacCurtain St and the city centre.
For decades, Summerhill North served as a boundary of Cork’s ‘bohemian quarter,’ formerly grand old Georgian and Victorian homes of Wellington Road and St Luke’s becoming the flats and bedsits of struggling artists and musicians; Kent Station is just 500m further along Lower Glanmire Road, that neighbourhood long wearing a louche scruffiness peculiar to urban railway stations and their environs.
But Cork is ever-changing, increasingly monied. Those fine old homes in St Luke’s are being converted back into salubrious family homes while the area around Kent Station is now bristling with recently constructed glittering, gleaming commercial edifices.Â
A tapas and wine bar in this neck of the woods finally makes sense. (Moody’s also operates as a daytime café.) We register ample outdoor seating for future al fresco evenings in the sun but, on a Sunday night built for shivering, indoors is your only man.
Gorgeous original red brickwork is exposed; all other walls and ceiling are matt-black — liberally adorned with prints following a vaguely pop-art theme, Banksy featuring prominently, and slogans, epigrams and doodles fill remaining gaps. The overall effect is of finding the ‘fun’ in funky, a cheery space that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Of nine dining parties we register over the evening, all bar one comprise parents and progeny; ranging from our 11-year-old right up to offspring north of 40, some parents into their 70s — a varied demographic speaking volumes about the truly welcoming ambience, all ages thoroughly relaxed and at home.
Meatballs are right up there in La Daughter’s favourite dishes, so she doesn’t look past Albóndigas (beef and pork) with tomato and red pepper sauce, and grilled Manchego cheese. Meatballs are flavoursome though a tad dense, seemingly without traditional breadcrumb to aid aeration, but excellent rich, sweet sauce does heavy lifting and sinful, melting sweet and salty Manchego gets the dish successfully over the finish line, LD mopping up sauce with crusty seeded wholemeal baguette.
Comforting Patatas Bravas are crispy fried potato cubes, smothered in spicy tomato Bravas sauce and more melting Manchego.
Current Wife has Cangrejo y Gambas al Ajillo, toothsome crab claws and meaty tiger prawns, swimming in garlic butter and bravas sauce, to be mopped with baguette.
Chorizo al Sidra is cider-braised chorizo, vinegar-pickled tomato and cucumber offering sharp, tart counterpoint to pungent, meaty chorizo and lush, peppery cooking liquor, with more baguette for soakage.
Pera Caramelizada con Queso Azul, is sweet, grainy, carmelised pear and salty-sweet whipped blue cheese atop toasted, yep, wholemeal baguette. A delicious combination, almost cake-like in taste and texture, but we are beginning to reach bursting point with fibre-dense bread. Accompanying rocket leaves are dressed in redundantly sweet balsamico.
Ensalada de Sandia y Pepino is refreshing: water melon, cucumber and feta tossed with rocket, though again, cloying balsamico adds unnecessary extra sweetness. The Spanish culinary larder is replete with superb vinegars; a good sherry vinegar would have handsomely capped this smart combo.
Heartbroken to hear Gâteau Basque is off the menu, we enjoy good chocolate torte on chocolate biscuit base with creamy orange ice cream.Â
Moody’s Crema Catalana is not unpleasant but the custard is overcooked and grainy, the layer of torched carmelised sugar too thick; what should shatter like fine crystal with a light tap of spoon, instead holds firm, like ice on a frozen puddle.
The beverage list is pleasingly innovative, including craft beers and Cava, though a smart, leftfield wine list can be rather singular, particularly a selection of reds veering emphatically towards full-bodied and tannic. Our Croatian Refosco (Veralda 2016) is far too warm on arrival but, revived after 10 minutes in ice water, reveals itself as a cracking wine of lush, juicy red and black fruit and grippy finish.
Room for improvement on the menu is a matter of small tweaks rather than radical surgery and, we greatly enjoy the overall offering. Only open since December 2020, and interrupted by multiple lockdowns, they are now finding their feet and a far sharper menu is about to be unveiled, including more premium local produce. The wine list is a good start, only needing to expand its horizons, and service is enthusiastic, competent and very friendly. All in all, mark Moody’s down as a real keeper!
Food: 7.5
Service: 8
Value: 8
Atmosphere: 8.5
Tab: Including Food, Soft Drinks, Coffee and Wine, €106 (Excluding tip)
- Tower Building, 1-2 Lower Glanmire Road, Cork City, T23 XWY9
- (021) 241 8041
- Opening Hours: 9am-11pm, seven days a week
- moodycafevin.com
