Restaurant review: Here's why The Oliver Plunkett has some of the best 'pub grub'
The Oliver Plunkett. Picture: Billy macGill.
In all honesty, I never expected to write anything remotely resembling the following: As I walked into The Oliver Plunkett one Sunday evening in March for dinner….
In the 80s, the same premises was home to Zoe’s, a nightclub and live venue. Music policy was reasonably decent, including some cracking live bands but you gauged a body’s state of inebriation by whether or not they consumed the chicken supper, included in the price of admission. And, no matter how drunk you were, you only ever tried it once in a single lifetime.
In the 90s, Zoe’s became genuinely cool with the advent of a pop-up Mór Disco club night, put on by the dynamic duo of Joe Kelly and Denis O’Mullane (now co-proprietor of Liberty Grill) who soon outgrew the venue. After that, I lost interest entirely for quite some years until I realised it had become a giant ‘traditional’ pub offering visitors, especially tourists, that existential Oirish party spirit known to all and sundry as the ‘craic’.
Though I can party with the best of them, I was never much of a ‘craic’ head myself and when I met an old friend there for lunch several years ago, the venue very much of his choosing, it was against my better judgement. I reluctantly joined him in a repast, and the best I can say is to say nothing whatsoever at all.
So why am I back? One reason only: chef Fred Desormeaux. Regular readers of this column will have seen reviews of Desormeaux’s cooking in other establishments down through the years and I am a long time fan of his classical French cooking, Hibernicised by over two decades in Cork.
When we arrive, a lone troubadour on stage with an acoustic guitar, is dragging The Cranberries up the mountain by its hind leg and back down the other side. Each to his own but it wouldn’t be my preferred dining ambience and I almost balk at the first hurdle — but a sectioned-off area by an open fire reduces volume to a background hum that gradually fades from consciousness entirely.
Surrounded by other young families, there is a marked conviviality while we peruse menus and watch on one of several TVs as local hero goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher becomes a new Liverpool hero in the English League Cup final.
La Daughter loves her juicy, tender chicken wings, while we kick off with a balanced dish of Crispy Goat Cheese Bonbon, with roast beetroot mousse, candied walnuts, salad leaves, mango and sweet chilli and lime yoghurt. Cheekily deconstructed vol au vent features pan fried inner chicken fillets, wild porcini mushrooms and little triangles of puff pastry. Again, execution won’t startle the horses but the flavours and texture are perfect. Southern Spice Crispy Baby Squid, with basil and lime mayonnaise, is impossibly addictive, tender, tasty and vanquished in mere minutes.
Current Wife orders a superior take on old-fashioned fish and chips, beer battered monkfish goujons, pea and mint pureé and authentic tartar sauce, while No 2 Son braves a beast of a double bacon burger, potato bun, good, well-seasoned meat, melting cheese, smokey ketchup, hand cut chips.
But ultimately what brings me to TOP is the promise of one of Desormeaux’s French traditional bistro classics. Boeuf Bourguignon features superb Irish ingredients cooked with love and attention. Beef cheeks, braised for hours, then carrots, leeks and turnips braised in the same meaty liquor, which is then reduced to a sweet, savoury demi-glace that glistens like jade. The veg is then panfried in garlic butter just before serving, all in all, a healer for body and soul. It demands a bottle far better than available on TOP’s wine list but chocolate bitter notes of a pint of plain are a worthy substitute.
Though Desormeaux has in the past cooked dishes of a much more elevated order, especially sublime takes on Irish seafood, he refuses to let ego interfere with his job description here: delivering pub grub, where no main course exceeds €20; all extraordinarily good value.
Desormeaux can cook at Michelin star level, but this is ‘pub grub’, plain and simple — but it’s better than some of the more upmarket ‘gastro-pub’ fare I’ve endured elsewhere, and that Boeuf Bourguignon is a dish for the ages, French bistro with an Irish accent.
I wouldn’t have it high on my list for any romantic candlelit wining and dining but service is friendly, efficient and easygoing and it’s a good shout for watching a match while lining the stomach for the session that often follows.
What’s more, the next time I encounter a cash-strapped young tourist or student in need of a right good feeding followed by a large transmission of the ‘craic’, TOP will be a most rock-solid recommendation indeed.
8
7.5
10
7 (higher if you are especially susceptible to the ‘craic’)
€140 (Including wines, beverages and mocktail, excluding tip)
- The Oliver Plunkett 116 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork
- (021) 422 2779; theoliverplunkett.com
- Opening Hours: Breakfast, from 9am; lunch, 12-4pm; evening dinner, 4-9.30pm
