Salt Food & Wine — Restaurant in Cork

Salt is a little cosy restaurant in the heart of the marina in Ballintemple! It is a great restaurant to swing by for brunch or dinner or drinks! Especially before a gig in Páirc Uí Chaoimh!

The Staff: The staff are really friendly and attentive. The waiting staff as well as the kitchen staff are very accomodating if you wanted to make a change to the item that you are prdering. Such as the type of bread or maybe not using sour cream in the item that you are ordering, etc.

The Food: I first started coming here in 2018 and back then the menu used to change daily and with the seasons. When we visited a few times during las year I noticed that it now seems to be a set menu, well at least the "La Carte" menu seems to be set. I ordered the "Anticucho Burger" and my fiancée ordered the "Eggs Benedict". She modified her order by swapping out the toasted muffin for a slice of toasted sourdough instead! I thought that maybe ordering the Anticucho Burger at half 10 in the morning would be too heavy but it was bar far the best thing I have gotten at Salt so far! The chicken was juicy and lightly spiced with beautiful tomatoes, lettuce and a dollop of their homemade Aji Verde! It was accompanied by their homemade garlic and parsley wedges! The Eggs Benedict is always a winner when it comes to a breakfast item and the protions are certainly satisfying at Salt! We highly recommend it if you are feeling something hearty for the morning!

Food Note: Their wedges are really really good and I would suggest ordering them as a side if the item that you are ordering does not come with them! You won't regret it! They also list what options they serve that there is a Dairy or Gluten option available, just look at the menu for details.

Location: Located in the little coner between Victoria Rd. and Monahan Rd. The area is quiet and I think this plays very well for Salt as there is usually parking close by however, sometimes you might have a short walk.

Layout & Decor: The restaurant has an outdoor area to the front of the premises and as you enter there is a number of seats at the front with a little elevated den area as well. The main seating area is located near the front and as you walk throught this area towards the back you will see that there is another outdoor area at the back with more seating. Both outdoor areas are covered with an awning and there is a heater in the rear outdoor area to keep customers warm. The decor is unique with pictures, posters, statues, etc.

Booking Note: If you want to sit inside I would book in advance especially on a busy weekend to ensure that you have a table as the premises is small and can fill up really fast!

Overall Opinion: Salt is definitely a great spot for brunch or dinner and it is also a good location in the Marina for drinks. They serve delicious food with a variety of options and its the perfect place on a warm Summer's eveing for a lite bite and cool drinks! I love it and I highly recommend...

The one star is for the staff & vibe of the place - both wonderful! Really sound staff and the interior design is lovely.

The food on the other hand... left a lot to be desired. My girlfriend and I ordered eggs benedicts but what we got had a bunch of ingredients that were NOT listed on the menu! There were chunks of carrot in with the pulled ham, and I also found a single piece of sweetcorn in mine? My girlfriend's had a big chunk of star anise in hers??? Just bizarre more than anything and really didn't taste good. I think if you're going to be adding ingredients that drastically impact the flavour of a dish that's tried and true like an eggs benedict, you need to be upfront about that to your customers so that they know this ain't like the one mom used to make. Call me crazy but I didn't order an eggs benedict expecting carrots and star anise in it, and had it been listed on the menu I simply wouldn't have ordered it and got something else!

Really a shame because this was a place the both of us had heard a lot of buzz about online and we were always wanting to try it. Don't think we'll be in any hurry back, not when there's ample places in the city that do a decent egg.

Anyway good luck and God bless ye I hope whoever reads this doesn't order the Benny.

edit: I read your comment and I appreciate that, and I really respect that you guys are putting your own fresh spin on the dish. But I do think it would be worth listing the ingredients that you said in your comment on the actual menu, especially for people with allergies - all I'm saying is I wouldn't expect to ask if there was star anise, carrots etc in an 'eggs benedict'. It's different enough from the norm that I feel as a customer I'd have liked to have known before I ordered it that the dish was going to be so different. Wishing ye all the best...

Last Saturday morning I took my friend to the restaurant for breakfast for her birthday. The weather was perfect, and we were seated outdoors, it was the kind of morning that makes you feel grateful just to be there. We ordered coffees and soon after, our food. The food did take about 40 minutes to arrive, but we didn’t mind too much at the time since we were enjoying a relaxed conversation.

Unfortunately, things took a turn. About 10 minutes after our meals arrived, a waiter came over and let us know our table had been reserved for other guests and we would need to leave in less than 30 minutes. He explained that the waitress had forgotten to mention this earlier. There was no offer to move us to a different table. It felt rushed and awkward, I genuinely lost my appetite.

About 15 minutes later, the waitress, who was lovely and very apologetic, came back and kindly offered to move us to the side chairs so she could prepare the table for the next guests. We couldn't go inside because we had a dog with us and we totally understood that. We agreed, but sitting there we no longer felt welcome, and I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the meal. I ended up taking it with me, paid, and we quietly left.

It’s a shame how the situation was handled, it left us disappointed, especially considering it was a...