brian clayton

I called into Fenn’s Quay in Cork to meet my sister for dinner this evening. Despite living in Cork for most of my life I’d never even been in the place before.
The restaurant itself has a charm that reminds me of the small French restaurants you find on side streets in Paris. Small, simply decorated, dedicated to the task at hand. No pointless nonsense.

We were shown straight to a table and bread and water were brought straight to the table, with no need to ask. Next up we got the menus – or literature as I came to think of them. There’s the a la carte menu, the daily specials, the early bird menu and a comprehensive wine list. Interestingly, the suppliers for the ingredients are listed on the menu. We read through all of them and went with the a la carte. We both chose the fillet steak welly style*, medium with house cut chips. We ordered a carafe of red wine – an ’07 Malbec supplied I believe by Bubble Brothers. It was a good choice – lovely and fruity but not over powering. The steak was just about perfect – you never quite know how the chef interprets customer requests like “medium” but this was done just as I like to think I’d do it myself.

I met Kevin Crowley recently at a wine tasting and while we were talking he mentioned that they do a desert called vice cream – sherry over vanilla ice cream with home made biscuits. I was intrigued, to put it mildly, so I tried it tonight. Fantastic. Jane had the chocolate mousse – which was made french style and was also lovely. A nice coffee and we were about ready to hit the road.

Then Kev appeared out with a bottle of Australian tawny port for us to try. I don’t think I’ve ever had port before, bar the occasional hot port. This was a lovely smokey smooth tasting port – it reminded me of a smooth whisky in a way. Lovely to drink and quite a revelation. I’m not usually one for a digestif, but this was a lovely way to round off a great meal.

So – cracking service, lovely surroundings, excellent food and wine. I whole heartedly recommend Fenn’s Quay. I’ll be back.

* welly style. done as an homage to beef wellington – a side dish of shalottes and mushrooms in sauce, in a pastry bowl.

Tags: cork, fenns quay, restaurant

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 22:11 and is filed under food and drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.