So glad we stopped here for dinner tonight. The food was phenomenal. It's a small establishment so…read moremaking a reservation is recommended. I saw several people get turned away due to not having a reservation.

Heard great reviews about this place. Instead it was very disappointing. Male employee was very…read morerude and arguing with several customers because they just wanted a drink.

Really massive spot with good tasting beer. The bartender wasn't overly friendly. It's a weird…read morething to rave about but their beer garden was gorgeous!

A "proper" pub. Proper meaning that you'll excuse the slightly dingy surroundings because the…read moreatmosphere is so good. It's in a good location too, so if you're looking to sink a few inexpensive pints before a night out, you could do a lot worse than Costigans. There's nothing to recommend Costigans over a couple of other places in the town. It's in that strange twilight zone of pubs that everyone drinks in, but nobody is really a regular.

This was a lovely spot for dinner. Very high end modern interior with a covered outdoor patio. I…read morerecommend a reservation, we did not have one but were fortunate to have a few seats open up at the bar. The Hake dish was fresh and delicious. I didn't enjoy the ratatouille that accompanies the dish, but the fish was well worth it. The filet was also cooked perfectly and had great flavor! The chips were also yummy. Great texture outside and soft interior. Their own soup was also delicious. Great flavor and had a great onion to broth ratio. If in the area I recommend getting a reservation or arriving earlier to snag a table. Great overall

I had a reservation for dinner but somehow ended up in the area two hours early. Luckily, the staff…read morewas kind enough to seat me when I arrived! The fish and chips were good but pretty standard. The mushy peas, though, were some of the better ones I've had on my trip. The crispy chicken torn salad was a bit of a surprise--the chicken wasn't crispy at all and seemed more like cooked chicken that had been torn up and pan-fried. Definitely different, but not what I was expecting. The restaurant was pretty packed, with people constantly coming and going. They also had tons of awards displayed outside, so clearly it's a popular spot in the area. Maybe I should have tried more dishes to figure out what all those awards are about.

My niece did her due diligence when selecting this place. It gets busy so we made sure that we…read moremade reservations. It's a beautiful restaurant and everything we tried was amazing. It began to fill up rather quickly for dinner. In the States we are used to being rushed out the door. Here starters and entrees are spaced out to allow you to sit and socialize.

There is a particular kind of disappointment reserved for a restaurant you expected to enjoy…read more The SpitJack was one of those. On paper, the proposition is difficult to quarrel with: Irish ingredients, rotisserie cooking, an attractive room, and a menu written with sufficient enthusiasm to make a hungry man begin making irresponsible decisions before the waiter has even arrived. Unfortunately, menus are promises. Dinner is where the promises are collected. And ours came due rather poorly. The food was disappointing, not catastrophically bad, which would at least have made for a more interesting story, but simply nowhere near what we expected from a restaurant built so confidently around its cooking. There is a great difference between a meal being technically edible and a meal making you pleased that you ordered it. Ours spent considerably more time in the first category. The greater disappointment, however, was the service. A restaurant can survive an imperfect plate remarkably well when the people looking after you are attentive, engaged, and interested in making the evening work. Human beings are wonderfully forgiving creatures when somebody appears to care. The reverse is also true. When the food disappoints and the service seems equally uninterested in rescuing the occasion, dinner begins to acquire the atmosphere of a contractual obligation. You eat because you have ordered. You wait because apparently that is now your occupation. And eventually you pay because international law still frowns upon simply wandering away. That was roughly the trajectory of our evening. What makes it particularly unfortunate is that The SpitJack has all the ingredients of a restaurant I should have liked. The concept is appealing. The setting works. The menu creates expectations. There is clearly an idea behind the place. But an idea does not cook dinner, and a concept cannot look after a table. Execution must eventually enter the proceedings. Ours apparently had the evening off. This was not an angry experience so much as a disappointing one. I have eaten terrible meals that became wonderful stories. This was not terrible enough to become folklore. It was merely expensive in the currency that matters most when travelling: an evening. Perhaps we caught them on the wrong night. Every restaurant is entitled to one, and the overwhelmingly positive reputation of the place suggests plenty of diners have had a very different experience. We can only review the evening we were actually served. And ours was two stars. One for the promising concept. The other for reminding me that expectations, like soufflés and political careers, are surprisingly easy things to collapse. Would I return? Possibly, but only because Mark Twain understood an important principle of life: "sometimes a man deserves a second chance." Dinner, however, should not require a third.

This place is great. It is a pub, not really a restaurant, but lots of enticing food on the menu…read more Lots of beers on tap, and a fun silly atmosphere. I posted a picture of the menu for reference. Technically it is a gay bar, and I am not gay, but no problem, everyone is friendly, it's open to all. I will be back.

Great food and a wide range of drink to choose from. Service was top notch and very sexy. Highly…read morerecommend!

Pigalle was an absolute treat. I loved the ambiance inside and the serving staff were very…read morewelcoming. Never in my life have I had such beautifully prepared cauliflower (the buffalo cauliflower with bleu cheese aioli), I was caught using my finger to mop up the last of it. My lamb was excellent (and locally sourced) and what came alongside it was delicious as well. We loved the dessert so much we all opted not to share. I'd be back in a heartbeat. Parking might be a bit of a trick for some, but we found it easy enough and you could also walk in from town.

From the owner: An innovative provenance lead food menu, great wines by the glass, a selection of draught craft…read morebeers and spirits & delicious award winning craft cocktails. Outdoor space with heated seats and lamps.

We came in here for a drink mid-afternoon and I found the service staff pretty rude. As we weren't…read moreeating they directed us to a bar that wasn't even open. It was just frustrating and left a negative taste in our mouth.

You'll find more cheer at a graveyard than here at 2:00 in the afternoon. Made the mistake of…read moreputting the staff out by existing . But the Guinness was good.

My favorite pub in Cork. Creamy pints of Beamish, good crowd, and lively trad music 5 or 6 nights…read morea week. There's a great vibe inside, warm and friendly, the perfect place to meet buddies for a pint and take in some music. Located right across the way from the old Beamish brewery, this is easily my favorite spot in the city. My best memory here was on St. Patrick's day, 2012. I got here by the late afternoon when the whole country was already sloshed. Although it was packed it was like the happiest place in the world. The tin whistler in the trad band playing at the time was TOOTING HIS TIN WHISTLE OUT OF HIS NOSE! AND HE WAS PLAYING REALLY WELL! An amazing sight to witness.

AN SPAILPIN FANACH…read more (The itinerant labourer) An Spailpin Fanach is a traditional music venue in Cork City; not surprising then that some of its lunchtime food is traditional. Tomorrow it will be bacon and cabbage in this city centre pub but today (Wed 23 Sep) Irish Stew was high on the lunch menu. We had started with a smashing vegetable soup, tasty, straight from the pot and no extra salt added. Then came the stew, a plateful of smashing food. Loved it and finished it off before staying on the trad path with a well made apple tart. A cup of decent coffee rounded off an enjoyable hour or so.

Food and service was amazing! Calamari was ok but not my favourite but the pan roasted hake was…read moreincredible as was the starter of mussels. Friends loved their rigatoni pasta and the flavors were incredible in that dish as well

I came without a reservation, but they were able to seat me outside. I loved the seafood chowder. I…read morealso got the crab roll, but I didn't love that. There's a lot of good people watching outside!

I had popped in here as my companions were in the music store across the road. I had barely walked…read morein, requested a table for 4, and the gentleman/employee at the door just gave off an air of attitude (I'm thinking he was the manager). During our entire stay, as my friends had joined about 10 minutes after I was seated and had already ordered drinks, the employee just kept throwing glances and staring at us the entire time. We were all ordering, so it wasn't like we were holding a table hostage. We did get good service from the waiter, although he didn't come around as often, even when we were out of drinks. Kudos to the whisky sommelier for giving us great suggestions. It's a quirky bar/restaurant, but I'm not sure it would be worth a return trip. The employee with the attitude was really unnerving.

Came here with a party of 11. We dined upstairs where there is a stage with live musicians. The…read moremusic started off with one gentlemen playing the accordion and the other playing the guitar. Next the musicians played the bodhrán, an Irish drum. Finally, the musicians invited about six members of the audience to learn how to play the bodhrán. Overall the music quality was excellent. The food was also satisfying. I had the chicken and chorizo pie which came with a small side salad dressed in honey mustard and a small portion of roasted potatoes. My friends really enjoyed the pork ribs. The waitress was awesome she split the bill for our entire group!