Farmgate Cafe

Grotesquely overrated. A tiny overpriced menu, and always crowded. This place is a tourist trap trading on its location in the English Market. Avoid.

The English Market is worthy of a visit or two. I did just that on my recent trip to Cork.
Most of the food comes from producers in and around the County Cork. If you are looking for a restaurant then this is not the place to go. It is a wonderfully loud and busy Market– almost too much for the eye to take-​in. Yet it is great!
You have a choice of café or cafeteria style, I chose the cafeteria both times and am glad for that decision.

Farmgate is well worth a visit and is the focal point of one of my favourite things about Cork — The English Market. You can overlook the hustle and bustle of the market while you enjoy some delicious local produce. It’s a great people-​watching spot.

Made a coffee call during the week to the Farmgate Café in the English Market. I was meeting up with Italian food journalist Vittorio Castellani. He was delighted with the choice of sweet things available and was more than pleased with the lemon tart slice (served with a large dollop of cream). I also went for that and the friendly staff served it up with a smile. I’ve rarely eaten cream at that hour of the morning and didn’t over-​indulge here but must say, in agreement with expert Vittorio, that the lemon tart was done to perfection.

Over-​priced and over-​rated. The food is good not great. It’s a bit of an institution that’s trading on an era when mediocre food was the norm and it stood out from the rest, but thankfully things are changing. If you eat here you’ll get decent food but nothing exciting.

This restaurant does have a nice atmosphere being situated in a pleasant indoor market. It being Ireland (well… the UK basically) and traditional food served up is typically bland and overpriced.
I had the tripe, onions, and dresheen (an irish blood sausage) because I was craving tripe and had never seen it available in the west before (they get the second star purely because it’s on the menu) and I think they really need to learn from the Chinese about how to prepare it. blan-​diddly-​and. My mum and dad both had the corn beef in mustard sauce which was reasonably flavoursome. 3 specials change daily.
There’s an area for self service and another for table service. Our waitress was of course Polish and she was very friendly and efficient. I was very pleased with the enormous pot of tea she brought just for me.
There was also a 200 year old man playing piano and chatting up my 70 year old gran (that’s another star).

I went here for lunch with my vegan friend. The food was delicious and the atmosphere relaxed. As I tucked into my
Clonakilty black pudding savoury tart my friend had a vegan pastry. The food was marginally overpriced but nevertheless decent.