Delicious vegetarian food with good wine in a relaxed environment. What more do ya want?
We last ate in Cafe Paradiso while I was pregnant and so many of the dishes which I wanted to order were out of bounds due to some of their ingredients being soft, unpasteurised cheeses. So, I was delighted when Teresa and Craig suggested it for a meal out on their latest visit to us.
So, off the 4 of us set after leaving our 5 darlings in the capable hands of Auntie Fiona, babysitter extraordinaire! I must admit, it did take us a long while after moving to Cork to make our initial foray to this restaurant. As both myself and Conor are confirmed carnivores, I was a bit apprehensive about whether we’d really enjoy a totally vegetarian meal, and had preconcieved ideas of a hippy atmosphere,lentils galore and a mediocre night out. We needn’t have worried.
The restaurant was almost fully seated when we arrived at 7 and there continued to be a good ebb and flow of customers all night whilst we were there.
After much hmming and hawing over the menu, I finally settled on a caramelised red onion tart with Bluebell Falls cheese and watercress pesto and olive crushed potato to start, as did Craig. Conor ordered a ginger and sesame broth that had purple sprouting broccoli, green tea noodles and a pumpkin dumpling. Teresa went for a beetroot mousse with orange scented yoghurt. All of which were delicious.
The mains ranged from eggroll pancake of spinach, walnuts and Durrus cheese with balsamic beetroot sauce and chive and mustard mash, to panfried couscous crusted aubergine with spiced pistachio filling and sweet pepper salsa and wilted kale.The flavours were fabulous and all at the table were very happy.
We opted for 2 red wines to accompany the food. Initially a New Zealand Pinor Noir - Murdoch James Blue Rock which I would recommend. Alas a different second bottle was ordered as we had just quaffed the last bottle of the murdoch james.
Excellent desserts and coffees followed.
The only minor quibble we had all night was an apparent lack of knowledge of the waiting staff of the ingredients of the dishes on the menu and wines to recommend to accompany the dishes.
We’ll definitely be back and would recommend this fab restaurant to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
Check out its website for sample menus, wine lists etc.
Comments 2
I’d be with you on the positive Café Paradiso comments, Catherine. I’ve had long, deliciously drawn-out lunches there a few times with friends and bottles of great NZ wines - it’s the best NZ-focused wine list I’ve found outside the country itself and not exorbitantly priced. Have you any of Denis Cotter’s books?
Posted 16 Feb 2007 at 10:53 am ¶Hi Caroline,
You reminded me that yeah, we do in fact have the first Cafe Paradiso cookbook. From the inscription, I see that Conor got it in May 2000. To be honest, I haven’t tried any recipes from it, but Conor (the cook of the house) has made the beetroot mousse, which was a success. I’ll definitely be now having a good look at it and selecting some to do in the next couple of weeks.
On the wines, I’m usually a white wine woman, particularly fond of NZ Sauvingnon Blanc, so it was great to find a wine list which featured so many NZ wines. Will be on the lookout for that red in the future.
Posted 16 Feb 2007 at 3:07 pm ¶Post a Comment