Restaurants serve up quality and value
1. The Strasbourg Goose, French Church Street, Cork
Most restaurants offer an early bird menu but it’s hard to beat the value and quality at the Strasbourg Goose. The family-run restaurant offers a three-course dinner for €20 every day with no time limit. It doesn’t charge extra for ordering steak, which many other restaurants do. It also allows customers the option to swap a course for a glass of wine. Each night the restaurant has a number of specials that can be included in the menu and the idea is that people would come in and get what they like without having to pay more than €20.
2. Augustines, Clarion Hotel, Cork
This restaurant which is located at the Clarion Hotel in Cork offers a €25 tasting menu which is available Tuesday to Thursday from 6pm to 9pm and from 6pm to 7pm on Friday.
The fare on offer to guests includes an amuse bouche, salted mackerel, artisan beef bourguignon, vanilla panna cotta and artisan cheese with handmade biscuits. Three glasses of matching wine add an extra €17.50 to the bill.
3. The Commons Inn, New Mallow Road
The selling point for this bar and restaurant is a loyalty card. In 2009 they introduced the “Commons Club” loyalty card, which is a magnetic swipe card that works like the supermarket loyalty card systems. Members receive 5c for every €1 they spend in The Commons on drink, food or accommodation. It has 867 members and The Commons has given back €42,300 worth of drink and food to members since November 2009.
The Commons also has an early bird menu for €20 and for this customers get a three-course meal and a glass of wine.
As well as this The Commons Inn also run bingo nights. Manager Myles O’Neill said they were probably the first location to offer complimentary soup and sandwiches to funeral parties.
“Since then we have become the centre for thousands of families who have had occasion to use us after funeral ceremonies, some sad but many celebrating people’s lives,” he said.
4. Milano, Oliver Plunkett St, Cork
By signing up to receive deals, Milano customers can avail of offers including buy one pizza and get another for €1 or four pizzas for €30.
You can also get two courses for €13.95. To subscribe to the offers, go to www.milano.ie and sign up to the mailing list.
The restaurant also hosts fashion shows and runs children’s parties whereby children can get three courses a three-course meal for €8.60. Also, for €15 per head the children can make their own pizzas along with the restaurant’s chefs.
5. The White Horse,Ballincollig, Cork
This newly renovated restaurant and bar offers a special concert package that includes a starter, main course and concert ticket for €30. The concert ticket allows entry into whatever gig is taking place at the venue.
6. Electric, South Mall, Cork
This newly opened restaurant has taken to Twitter to promote its services, offering free meals to followers. Earlier this year it extended its Dine in Cork menu, allowing customers to get three courses for €25. The early bird menu is available from 5.30pm to 6.30pm daily and customers can get two courses for €20.
Electric serves pinchos, little snacks, in the bar for €1 and offer any two cocktails and five pinchos for €10.
Later in the summer it is having a duck race for charity and will race a few thousand rubber ducks from the weir outside the River Lee Hotel to the weir between Electric and Sober Lane.
It will also soon launch a tapas trail between Electric, The Bodega, The Boqueria and Cafe Gusto on Wednesday nights.
7. The Rising Tide, Glounthaune
This shot to fame two years ago when Lady Gaga popped in for a drink. Deals include a summer BBQ, starting at €14 per person or an early bird (5pm to 7.30pm) menu for €20 for two courses or €25 for three courses.
8. Riverside Cafe, Skibbereen
This venue runs vegetarian nights and last Easter had an “Egg-stravganza” where customers decorated the Easter Tree by designing their own eggs. There was also face painting and an egg hunt. The restaurant then served a lunch of spring lamb. They also have a new early bird menu from 6.30pm.
9. Les Gourmandises, Cork
A very highly regarded eatery, the standard is at a high level. It has a prix fixe menu, two and three courses for €27.50 and €29.50, available all evening Tuesday to Friday and at 6pm-7pm on Saturdays.
A NOVEL “pay-as-you-please” restaurant concept has captured the public imagination in Kerry and the two young entrepreneurs behind the project are thrilled with the excitement — and the business — it has generated.
The restaurant — which has not been given a formal name — has no set charges and customers are simply invited to pay what they thought the meal was worth.
“You’ll always have one or two who will not be very fair and try to take advantage but, by and large, the people have been amazingly generous,” said co-owner Rob O’Reilly.
The business is located in a converted storehouse in Newmarket Lane, Killarney and to launch the venture Rob joined forces with pal, Barry McBride, who had completed a cookery course with Darina Allen.
“I toured Australia by motorbike last year and came across a ‘pay-as-you-please’ restaurant in Melbourne which was doing really well. We decided to give it a go here on a trial basis but it has been so good we now hope we’ll be here in 10 years time,” said Rob who is also a musician with Killorglin rock band Hot Tramp.
Signature dishes in the chilled out, bohemian 20-seat restaurant include chickpea and chorizo stew, home-made pizza and a clever twist on soup of the day that sees the soup served in a hollow bread loaf bowl which can be eaten.
Treyvaud’s, Killarney
This highly rated restaurant is fighting the recession by offering great value for top-class cuisine — and it’s going down a treat with delighted diners.
The restaurant, renowned for its annual wild game and seafood nights, has a big value early bird menu that’s catching the imagination of the public this summer. A two-course dinner for €25 or three set courses for €29 can be enjoyed between 5pm and 7pm six nights a week. Those that prefer to order from the a la carte menu in the same two-hour period can avail of a €10 discount on their food and drinks menu.
“The early bird option is a huge hit and it’s paying off because we have had a much busier May and June this year than in 2010,” said Paul Treyvaud.
Morels Restaurant, Carlton Hotel, Tralee
Morels Restaurant has a great value deal of a four-course dinner plus a bottle of wine for just €59 for two people. Sales and marketing manager Susan Whelan said the offer is proving a big hit.
There is also great value at the Acorn Bar and Restaurant at the Killarney Oaks Hotel, where a recession-busting lunch deal offers a choice of 10 main courses and free tea or coffee for just €10.
Robertino’s Restaurant Killarney
For €19 you can get a starter of either soup or bruschetta, a main course of pizza or pasta and tea or coffee, thanks to a special off-peak promotion running daily from 4pm-7pm.
Harlequin,Stephen Street
The Italian restaurant offers starters from €5.50 and mains at about €10 at lunchtime. Include a glass of vino and you have a meal, on average, for about €20 per person.
The restaurant has been there for over five years but has been under the ownership of Andrea Marchesini and his partner, Roman Moroz, for about two months. Andrea says while “it is not so busy in town now, we have our daily customers”.
The restaurant opens from 8.30am to 5pm on Monday through to Wednesday, on Thursday to 10.30pm and between 2pm and 8pm on Sunday.
La Boheme,George’s Street
The stylish French restaurant in a cellar on George’s Street offers daily two-course meals on its early bird menu between 5.30pm and 7pm for €24. Three courses will set you back €29.
Meanwhile, a four-course meal on its “all-evening-long market menu” from Tuesday to Saturday can be enjoyed for €35 per person.
For the days of the Tall Ships, June 30 to July 2, two courses are on offer for €19.90 and €24.90 for three courses. This menu, which La Boheme’s Stefan says must be finalised, will end at 5.30pm.
Copper Hen, Fenor
Adventurers wishing to go further afield could do worse than checking out The Copper Hen, beyond the seaside town of Tramore.
The restaurant, opened last November by the couple that formerly brought us Banyan in Tramore, Eugene Long and Sinead Frisby, is offering an early bird of two courses for €22. There are starter/mains or mains/dessert options. The three-course option of starter/main/dessert is just €25.
There is a vegetarian option and a curry on the lunch menu, but one favourite is on the “slow roast belly of Fenor Farm pork on sauteed potatoes with roasting and sage jus”.
Sinead says produce is “locally sourced where possible” and “everything is homemade”.
Quealy’s Bar and Restaurant,Dungarvan
Andrew Quealy of Quealy’s Bar and Restaurant is working on “a few strategies” to ensure a memorable dining experience.
Along with the ongoing daily lunch and dinner specials, new summer and a la carte menus, there is a €26 three-course all-evening menu on offer. The two-course option at €21 is now up-and-running.
Outdoor or “streetside barbeque and grill weekends” will be a common thing for July and August, weather permitting.
Kashmir TandooriHigh Street
An early bird menu comprising starter, mains and tea or coffee is €12. The pre-dinner poppadom is free and the rice accompanying main courses is included.
Wongson’s ChineseHigh Street
The early bird is €16.20, though there is an “all you can eat” menu for €20 — the children’s version is €13.50.
EVERYONE is looking for value these days and it’s a case of the early bird catches the worm when it comes to eating out.
Unlike bars and hotels where they have to offer extras to attract customers, with the restaurant trade it is very much a case of good value for money.
Early bird menus are now part-and-parcel of the restaurant scene and people’s attitudes have shifted when it comes to dining out. People know there’s value out there and they want it.
Also, initiatives such as “Dine in Cork or Dublin Week”, where restaurants offered a set menu of three courses for €25, have proved very popular.
Towns are playing their part too. A recent initiative from Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce saw consumers avail of a €20 night out. They were given a meal in a restaurant, a drink in a local pub and a taxi home.
The Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) has warned that while there may be value for consumers, times are tough for restaurants. It wants a reduction in the minimum wage, a cut in local authority rates and the scrapping of Sunday premiums.
RAI chief executive Adrian Cummins said: “Restaurants are facing challenging times ahead with the cost of doing business increasing on a weekly basis.”
The RAI said Ireland is the most expensive country in Europe to run a restaurant. It said Irish restaurateurs pay the highest catering wage and highest excise duty on wine in Europe.
RAI president Brian Fallon said restaurants are the “economic engine rooms” creating and maintaining local employment.
“Our industry has sales in excess of €2 billion and we employ 64,000 people” he added.
The Mustard Seed Countryhouse Restaurant, BallIngarry
Owner Dan Mullane says they survived the economic crash by not allowing themselves to get distracted by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger.
“The good times never took us over, we did not go mad opening up new restaurants, but kept investing here in The Mustard Seed,” he said.
While business has dropped 35% over the past three years his team of four chefs are still producing irresistible menus, keenly priced.
Special overnight B&B and dinner package of €107 per person — down from €150 per person three years ago.
A three-course dinner in the famous restaurant is priced at €63.
The Market Square Restaurant, Savoy Hotel
The early bird menu starts at 5pm and runs to 10pm (last orders) Tuesday to Thursday.
The menu is priced at €25 for two courses and €30 for three courses.
Main courses include 28-day-old Irish sirloin of beef, a magnificent seafood combination, a chicken dish and a vegetarian dish.
On Friday and Saturday the early bird commences at 5pm and finishes at 7pm.
La Piccola, O’Connell Street
Lovers of Italian cuisine need go no further than La Piccola, where Alfredo Coppola has welcomed guests for the past 32 years with his wife, Anna.
Customers can avail of night-long early bird menus priced at €25 and €18.
Early birds commence at 5.30pm (Monday to Friday) and last orders are taken some time after 11pm.
The three-course €25 menu features starters including mussels, Italian salad and mixed bruschetta.
Main courses include medallions of fillet beef with a pepper sauce, chicken, pasta, cannelloni and scampi followed by a selection of desserts.
The €18 three-course menu boasting generous portions includes Italian salad and soup starters, main courses which include pork flamed in brandy, lasagna, chicken in cream sauce and a choice of pastas, followed by desert.
Town Hall restaurant,Old Ground Hotel, Ennis
Allen Flynn said the Town Hall restaurant has seen “a significant increase” in business with its recently introduced summer menu.
The popular Ennis restaurant has been in business for the past nine years and Mr Flynn said: “We are very cognisant of the wallets of our customers and we have cut prices by 5%.”
Wild Honey Inn, Lisdoonvarna
The promoting of walking and cycling in the Burren forms part of an eco-tourism initiative by the award winning Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvarna in attracting business.
The venture is the brainchild of chef Aidan McGrath who prior coming to the Wild Honey Inn had worked as executive chef at the five-star Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare and the five star Lodge at Doonbeg.
Gregan’s Castle, Ballyvaughan
The Burren-based hotel restaurant has been packing them in during the recession with word spreading across the country about the dishes being served up by award-winning Finnish chef, Mickael Viljanen. In the past month, the restaurant scooped three of the top six awards at the Restaurant Association of Ireland’s awards in Dublin: Best chef; best customer service; and best hotel restaurant.
Cullinan’s Seafood Restaurant, Doolin
Located in the traditional Irish music hub, the family-run restaurant has been in business for almost two decades.
Co-owner Carol Cullinan said: “We have early bird menus of €24.50 for two courses and €29.50 for three courses and they are proving very popular.
“Thankfully, the recession is not affecting tourists’ spend as much as Irish people and the numbers coming to the restaurant are generally good.
“We are in business 18 years and we have a lot of repeat business.”
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