Food Producers

One of the latest arrivals, SOMA Coffee Company on Tuckey Street (just across from the Grand Parade entrance to the English Market) is cool, contemporary and has amazing brews made with beans from local micro-roasters West Cork Coffee.

The Food Industry Training Unit (FITU) was established by the Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University College Cork, 23 years ago. This was in recognition of the importance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to the food and related sectors.

A busy bake-house on Rory Gallagher Place right in the city centre, Ali's Kitchen has full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, but is also home to one of the city’s best Bakery Counters with Ali’s donuts in particular fast approaching legendary status. Sit in with tea and coffee or take-out. Chef Ali Honour puts a modern twist on classic bakery fare.

This 500-acre estate and Georgian country house hotel has 30 acres dedicated to growing cider apples for their famous independent craft Cider's and Ireland's only Apple Brandy (Est 1985) – a variety of historical and informative tours take in the walled garden, orchard, cider mill, distillery and the house, and can include tea or lunches in the great house.

Delicious is Ireland's specialist, award winning bakery that caters for food allergies. It produces gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, yeast free cakes and breads.

A short, 15-minute drive from the city centre – the quirky & gorgeous Workshop Tea Rooms is the place that serves “tea and cake at the end of the runway”. In the countryside just behind Cork airport, it’s run by two brothers who converted their dad’s old country carpentry workshop into a café that doubles up as a vintage furniture & curios salesroom. This little slice of joy is one of Cork’s best (or possibly worst) kept secrets.

One of the most popular gastropubs in the city, with an upstairs seafood restaurant and a riverside seating area with lovely views.

Irish Green are the producer of unique food and drink multipurpose natural liquid spices called "Crushes". Flavours include Basil, Ginger, Lemon and soon Turmeric, with plenty of benefits for everybody.

The Ivory Tower is an intimate, quirky dining room above some shops on Oliver Plunkett Street, the busy heart of Cork city centre. Chef Seamus O’Connell is something of a Cork legend, a maverick, an inventor, a supremely talented chef who fuses Irish ingredients with French, Mexican and Japanese traditions. His tasting menus are famous, the experience is rarely less than intriguing and it will almost certainly be a meal to remember.

The Good Things Cafe Cookery School has grown from relatively modest beginnings, under the tutelage of chef Carmel Somers, to become a focal point for food and learning in West Cork. There are short and longer term courses and students will find themselves right at the heart of West Cork’s renowned food culture.