I flew over from the UK to spend the weekend in Cork and had to head to the number one-rated restaurant in the city for breakfast – but one thing surprised me from the plateInside the popular Sin É pub in Cork
Cork is the ideal place for a plastic paddy like myself to soak up the flavour of the old country. But man cannot live by Guinness alone – I’ve tried – and after a long evening in one the city’s many atmospheric pubs you’re going to need a decent breakfast to set you up for the following day.
The SpitJack, on Washington Street, comes highly recommended on TripAdvisor, being ranked number 1 out of 630 restaurants in the city with a 4.7 rating. So what is it actually like?
The substantial fried breakfast at the SpitJack includes Irish pork sausages, crispy streaky bacon, black pudding, white pudding, eggs, means, mushrooms and toast. For €16.99 you’re definitely well-fed. I believed for a while that the white pudding was a hash brown of some kind. It didn’t taste of much and I thought maybe it was off. I was afraid to actually ask for them to bring me another one, because I’d never heard of it before and didn’t know if I’d actually eat even a perfect example.
Not the worst breakfast you’ll ever have, but sadly not the best either(Image: Michael Moran)
Several other dishes on the SpitJack’s wide and varied breakfast menu included “bacon dust,” an absolute umami sensation which I’d certainly never had before and would certainly have again.
It is, as the name suggests, a delicious crumbly topping made of crispy bacon, and I’d happily have taken a bag home with me. Overall, though, there was a distinct lack of flavour to the SpitJack’s offering, from the somewhat anaemic-looking toast to the pleasant looking, but disappointingly-bland sausage.
It’s by no means a disastrous start to the day, but breakfast at the SpitJack represents a more impressive effort by the interior design and marketing teams than from the kitchen.
Every breakfast should include a little sprinkle of bacon dust(Image: Michael Moran)
And there was one particular thing that surprised me from the plate – the curious shortage of beans. In most of the UK, a fry-up comes with a veritable lake of baked beans: they’re a cheap ingredient that fills a plate well. But here, there was a teeny egg-cup perched on the corner.
What that does mean is that there’s plenty more room on the plate for pork-related products.
Given I was in Cork for a few days, I thought I’d try other spots for breakfast as well and may have found somewhere a good deal better.
The Spitjack is deceptively spacious inside(Image: Michael Moran)
A better breakfast?
Lab 82, in Cork’s somewhat down-at-heel Victorian Quarter, offers a similar full breakfast to the SpitJack, at a broadly similar price. But while the Spitjack’s big fried breakfast certainly has the sheer volume to soak up the impact of a big night out, it’s a little under-seasoned.
By contrast, Lab 82’s standard full breakfast is full of flavour. The mysterious white pudding was a very different animal this time: it’s basically a giant sausage. Like all sausages, it’s wisest not to ask exactly what’s in it but it certainly tastes fine, especially paired with some baked beans.
Lab 82’s breakfast is hard to beat(Image: Michael Moran)
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, perhaps on your second visit, it’s worth trying Lab 82’s Spice Bag breakfast. It’s literally a brown paper bag filled with a well-seasoned mixture of potatoes, sausage, chorizo and fried egg that absolutely needs to be tasted to be believed.
But where Lab 82 really left all of its rivals behind, though, was in sheer force of personality. There’s an old Irish tradition that anyone who kisses one particularly inaccessible stone in the walls of Blarney Castle – about 20 minutes away from Cork itself – will be rewarded with “the gift of the gab.”
For the more adventurous breakfaster – a spicebag(Image: Michael Moran)
Lab 82’s owner Ritchie appears not to have kissed the legendary stone so much as had it surgically implanted in his body. The irrepressible Irishman was a veritable fount of information about his city, his cafe, and practically anything else you could think of. All you have to do is sip your coffee and listen. It’s a great way to spend a morning.
In a short visit, it’s impossible to sample every bar and restaurant in a huge, thriving city like Cork, but here are a few additional recommendations:
Market Lane is a great spot – remember to book ahead(Image: Michael Moran)
Hotel
The Dean, sited a short walk from the city centre, hits the sweet spot between comfort and affordability. The downstairs reception area has a lively, vibey atmosphere in the evenings that provide an ideal soundtrack for pre-drinks ahead of a big night out or perhaps a wind-down cocktail at the end of the evening.
Mercifully, though, none of the banging music is audible in the rooms themselves. There’s also a more sedate penthouse bar that serves a near-perfect pint of Guinness and also offers a crispy onion ring bar snack that may well be one of the most addictive substances on Earth.
The rooms are a little on the small side, but well-supplied with a little Smeg fridge full of tempting drinks and snacks.
Restaurant
Market Lane, right in the centre of town on Oliver Plunkett St., is a great choice for a slightly upmarket evening meal that doesn’t completely break the bank.
There’s a range of dishes to suit all tastes but I went with the most ‘Irish-sounding’ offering – bacon collar, parsnip and scallion mash, and braised hispi cabbage. The cabbage could perhaps have been braised for a minute or two longer but overall the Market Lane experience was a perfect blend of traditional fare and fine dining.
Make sure you reserve a table a day or two before you arrive in the city though – it can get quite busy!