Liberty Grill

Restaurant

Cork’s Washington Street has it’s own personality. This is one of the main roads leading into the centre of town, and both sides of the street are lined with businesses, restaurants, cafés and pubs. One of the best is The Liberty Grill, a fashionable eatery owned by Denis O’Mullane and Marian Delaney. Three years ago they found the premises in the raw state, with distressed exposed stonewalls and plenty of light from the large street side windows. Denis saw its potential immediately and knew he wanted to create a laid back casual dining experience that concentrated on proper burgers, grills, and fresh fish. He washed the rustic stone with white paint, leaving the uneven lines of the old building still visible underneath. He introduced modern lighting, dark wood tables, and a menu representative of an American Diner style restaurant. Hence, the Liberty Grill was born, and boy, is it a super addition to the Cork food scene.

The menu here does justice to the word ‘burger’. None of your flat, machine pressed offerings are in sight. Instead, chunky rounds of chopped farm sourced steak make up the Classic Burger served on a soft bun with tomato, lettuce and gherkins. The Monterey Jack Burger is a Classic with American cheese on top, and the Blue Cheese Burger has Cashel Blue melting enticingly over the juicy meat. Denis and his chefs have tried also to focus on the vegetarian and vegan market, and as such, there are a large variety of veggie dishes on offer. Try the delicious Halloumi Burger, with thinly sliced marinated Halloumi served with rocket pesto on the side, or a Falafel Burger with handmade middle eastern falafel balls served in pitta with crispy veg and cucumber raita. Fish lovers can find Crab burgers with fresh crab and white fish, grilled and served with rocket and dill mayo. Lamb, Tuna Chicken and Tempeh, the marinated soya bean burger, all make an appearance. 

Another American idea is the ‘All Day Brunch, served from 8:00 to 17:00. This includes breakfast type dishes like Muesli, Pancakes, the Full American with bacon and eggs on sourdough, or healthy Californian Breakfast with Juice, muesli or porridge, sunflower and rye toast and tea or coffee. Eggs are a big feature for brunch, and the chef here recreates old favourites like Eggs Benedict, served with ham on sourdough, and our particular favourite, the sublime Eggs Florentine, with wilted spinach and creamy Hollandaise Sauce on Sourdough.  For a lighter option the ‘Posh Toast’ range includes French toasted Brioche with maple syrup, and spicy Cinnamon Toast.

Produce is sourced as close to home as possible. Eggs are free range from Bandon, West Cork, bread comes from ABC Bakery, and beef and lamb from Tom Durcan, both in the English Market. Porridge is classic Flahavan’s, and bacon comes from Quigley Meats. Fresh fish, which also features here as Fish of the Day, according to what’s available that morning, or as glamorous Fish And Chips, is from Ballycotton Seafood. In the evening, the menu has a good choice of appetizers like New England Seafood Chowder and Pan Fried Squid with Blistering Sweet Chilli Sauce, or Salad of Tiger Prawns with crispy Cos Lettuce and home made Marie Rose Sauce. Salads like Cobb are named after Roy Cobb, who created this mix of chicken, blue cheese, avocado and bacon for Hollywood’s stars and starlets at Brown Derby restaurant in the 1930’s. Caesar Salad, which dates back to the twenties, is a timeless feast of crisp Romaine lettuce, Parmesan, Anchovies, golden Croutons and creamy Caesar dressing. From the Liberty grill comes meaty Sirloin or Fillet Steak with a choice of butters: Blue Cheese, Black Pepper, Hennessy Cognac or Garlic and Parsley. And after all that, with just a little while to rest between courses, a dessert menu will tempt you to treat yourself, just like we did. We can put our hand on our heart and say the New York Cheesecake topped with blueberries is definitely worth putting on a few pounds for! There’s also Warm Chocolate Brownies, Pancakes with maple syrup, Ice Cream or Sorbet. See what we mean?

A lovely touch here is the cocktail menu. Alcoholic ones like the Manhattan rub shoulders with non-boozy versions, devised specially when Denis’ partner Marianne was pregnant. The Shirley Temple is a handsome looking long drink of Lemonade, Orange Juice and Grenadine, while the Virgin Sea Breeze is a mix of Grapefruit and Cranberry Juices. These prove very popular with families where older kids and teenagers really enjoy the fruity ‘mocktails’. There’s a good wine list too, with certain wines highlighted on the blackboard and served by the glass and old fashioned carafe. Other things worth mentioning specially are the takeaway menu, handy for local offices, shop workers and residents who want to pre order by phone then just pop in to collect, and the very family orientated aspect of this restaurant. Here you really can let the kids indulge in their favourite burger, in the reassuring knowledge of the quality of produce and keen culinary effort that has gone into preparing it. 

To view our sample menu please click here 

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Contact Details

To Contact a Member Directly, please click on the email or website below

32 Washington Street
Cork
Co Cork
+353 (0) 21 4271049
Email: dine@libertygrillcork.com
Web: www.libertygrillcork.com

 

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