Cork’s Irish Pub

Being a typical American devoid of any Irish heritage, my coworkers and I needed to take it to the next level on St. Patty’s day for lunch. We decided on Corks for the shortest walk and well, they served corned beef (making them the most logical lunch choice for us).
Upon arrival we were seated and looked at the special menus for St. Patty’s day (they had condensed their menus for the day). I ordered the Irish Rachel Sandwich – think Reuben subbing in Turkey and coleslaw for the typical ingredients. My coworkers ordered a corned beef and and cabbage dish and a Reuben sandwich.
The food and experience was an all around positive experience. Although, I do wish I could have enjoyed a beer with my sandwich!

wonderful looking irish pub. staff was friendly. poor beer selection. they were out of the first three beers i tryed to order. food was slightly above average. good protion size. the scotch eggs were a wonderful appetizer. would like to see some more «irish» drinks. but i would go back.

The food prices were fair, food was good. Great bartender, very friendly and helpful. Will stop back again.

This pub could be out of this world — it’s got great décor and atmosphere, and it’s basically got a captive audience of travelers staying at the Embassy Suites. All they’d have to do is tweak the food offerings, just a tiny bit. It doesn’t make sense that the free evening snack bar offered by the Embassy Suits to guests is tastier.

DO NOT EAT HERE! I ate here twice while staying at the attached hotel. My first order, fettuccini Alfredo was a very small portion size for the price and wasn’t flavorful at all also some of the pieces of chicken (which I had to pay $ 5 extra to add to it) were still raw. Despite that we came back later on and I ordered the sliders, they were so burnt I took one bite and it tasted like straight char. I had the waiter take them away and remove it from my bill. The only good thing I had here was the bottle of Redd’s but definitely not worth the $ 7 I had to pay for it.

Cork’s was a nice surprise for a restaurant connected to a hotel!
Born and raised on the East Coast, I haven’t had a lot of experience with cheese curds but after a recent trip to Wisconsin, I was happy to see cheese curds Cork’s menu! Yeah, I’m now a fan of the cheese curds!
The service was very good. Our waiter was friendly and very attentive.
The food was surprisingly good!
Definitely worth a try if you’re staying at the Embassy Suites, downtown, St. Paul.

Bar staff and host were rude and acted like I was an inconvenience. When people come there to eat, it pays your salary, so apparently they aren’t very smart either. Thanks guys!

Save yourself the agony and don’t bother spending any money at this place. We tried some food from here as we are guests at the Embassy Suites where this «pub» is located. We had driven several hours and just wanted to eat and relax. I ordered the «cowboy burger.» I was assured it was fresh, hand formed ground beef. Not sure I believe that. The burger was charred. No «housemade barbecue sauce» found its way onto my dry burger. It came with bland fries that were cold by the time we rode the elevator up to our room. My husband ordered the Reuben and said it was «just ok.» Our child ordered the mac and cheese. We paid $ 9 for a glob of mac and cheese that barely covered the bottom of the take out container. It was also bland. Lastly, we ordered the Irish Nachos. The «housemade» chips were over-​fried so they tasted bitter. Then they threw some cheese on top and overbaked it so it was blended in with the burnt chips. All of this was covered with hunks of burnt bacon and then a sprinkling of scallions.
Sadly, I have come to expect hotel restaurants to be a disappointment and the Cork Pub and Grill certainly lived up to that. A waste of time and money. Don’t bother.

In town for a yearly conference. Have eaten here a couple of times. This time we stopped for lunch.
Corned beef meal was disappointing this time. Mashed potatoes were pasty and without flavor, carrots were seasoned unfortunately, corned beef nicely thick but just OK. Sheppards pie had the same issues with the spuds and the pie itself unfortunately tasted like ground beef alone. Lamb and seasonings had little influence on the flavor.
On the other hand. We have been very happy with this place in the past. Perhaps just an off day?

A passable hotel restaurant. If you’re traveling and staying there, you prolly don’t know any decent places to eat in town. They nod to the «Irish Pub» theme with fish & chips and shepherds pie and other stuff. Fish & chips is mostly greasy breading with at least identifiable fish tubes inside. Shepherds pie has a nice presentation, with gristly ground beef. Almost lost a crown trying to chew it.
At least they have a few UK brews on tap, if you can get the bartender’s attention. Good luck with that.
If you’re staying at the hotel, you can at least count on expensive, mostly edible fare. But there’s a White Castle not far away, which is tastier and a better deal.

Food is actually really good — I had the fish and chips with a bowl of clam chowder one day, then I tried the potato leek soup another day and had the chicken Cobb salad my last day (I was on a business trip). All were very good!

I’m not a drinker so I can’t review the alcohol situation but the food is good here and the setting itself looks like it got flown over from Ireland. Try the fish and chips or corned beef and cabbage. Main caveats are it’s small and the seating is mostly high tops so it’s not great for disabled or elderly people.

Well themed Irish pub. Dark woods, brick, lots of beer and liquor choices. Standard pub fare. Fish and chips, shepherds pie, and Reubens.
We had the fish and chips and pot pie. Pot pie is not your average pie, more stylish and ritzy. The fish and chips were OK, kinda stale and cold. Tartar sauce was good. One thing that annoyed me was the coleslaw, about 2 tablespoons of it in a tiny cup… really?
The worst thing though was that service was very slow. It was busy and our waitress seemed to be everywhere, but there seemed like there was plenty of staff so I’m not sure what happened there. Oh well!

Pleasantly surprised as to how much I enjoyed my dinner at Cork’s! I am not a fan of the Irish, mostly because I am 100% German and have always been envious and perhaps a little spiteful of the fact, they get their own day and we do not!
Nothing can get in the way of my Unilocaling complete honesty in my reviews, however, so I must say, I will visit Cork’s again! We had an entertainment coupon so we got one of our meals free, plus we hit Martini Monday, where Martinis are 50% off, so it was a win win all the way around!
Our martinis were fabulous and a great deal at $ 4! The one with Mint and Baileys went down so smoothly, I am not kidding when I say I could have drank about a dozen of those babies! Delish!
We both ordered Fish and Chips and the fish was perfect. The fries were blehhh… not crispy or hot enough for me, but the fish made up for the boring, limp, fries. The tartar sauce was homemade, I think, and was excellent. I am a huge fan of good tartar sauce or any good sauce for that matter… I am a saucy girl!
Service was perfect. What a nice server we had! She answered all of our questions, was patient, attentive, and she could not have been any better. She is why I bump this to a five star. Because of the limp fries, I would have given a solid four but the excellent friendly service and the very cool bathrooms, bumps this to a five star.

Cork’s is a pretty comfortable pub set in the St. Paul Embassy suites. I’ve had some very good pub food there, including a memorable drunken broil. The big knock I have with Cork’s and the reason for the low rating is the really conservative, limited beer list. The Twin Cities is a microbrew hotbed, but you wouldn’t know it from Corks limited beer selection. I’m not saying Corks needs a huge tap list like some of its competitors, but a few more choices and maybe some rotating seasonal ales would be great.

Why is it that when I call and order I get a pleasant lady. I go to pick it up and I get a moronic 20 something year old male to help me? I asked to pick up my meal and he instead asked the derelict next to me that showed up five minutes after me what he wanted. Penny (lady that took my order couldn’t have been nicer). Thanks Penny.
Asked for the grilled walleye. I got a boiled fish without the spinach they told me it came with.
Disappointing for sure. Stear clear!

Friendly staff, and the dessert is AMAZING. The apple crisp I will dream about for many nights to come. The appetizers were also pretty good but the main courses could use a little tweeting. We ordered a pot pie and it was just a piece of puffed bread with what looked and tasted like a vegetable soup. It was pretty busy most nights but you would never guess by the service. Prompt with refills and food.

Stopped in for a few drinks and ended up staying for a meal. Food was decent and the server was polite but only stopped back to check on us one time. The place was relatively empty as before happy hour but even so the waitress often disappeared for long stretches of time. Best thing about the place is the convenient location at the embassy suites. Often you can get free drink coupons if you ask for a recommendation where to eat in downtown at the front desk.

We had a good sized group here for a work happy hour. There are some decent happy hour specials, and they have Guinness on tap. Our server was friendly and on the ball. The menu is pretty basic. The Scotch eggs, pretzels and chicken wings we ordered were tasty. This isn’t a place I’d go out of my way for, but it’s a solid bar with decent pub grub, as well as the closest establishment to our office. A-​OK all the way.

Stayed at the adjoining Embassy Suites and stopped-​in for a night cap before hitting the rack.
+ Sunken dining area creates nice separation between bar and food patrons
+ Fun little duo singing cover tunes; sounded nice — great background entertainment
+ Decent sized bar; liked the overhead storage/​display cabinets
— Limited tap menu
+ Average bottle menu
+ Prices were reasonable, especially for being in a hotel
+ Bartender was prompt
You could do a lot worse. I didn’t eat here, but the menu looked pretty interesting.

This is one of the cases where I wish I could write a couple of reviews for Cork’s — one from the viewpoint of a guest staying in the adjoining hotel and the other from a local’s perspective. If the former, Cork’s is fine for a hotel bar, especially since there is ostensibly nothing else comparable within a few blocks. However, if you’re not calling the adjoining Embassy Suites home for the night there’s really not a lot of draw.
The service at Cork’s has always been friendly, they have some decent drink specials smattered throughout the week and a respectable happy hour. Beyond that, the food is over-​priced and the menu has consistently been pared down over the years. Everything I have ordered has always been fine, but the menu has been relegated to pretty typical pub grub since the hotel took over management of Cork’s and the prices are reflective of their relatively captive customer base.
As I said, if I were staying at the hotel I’d have a more favorable outlook and would have no problem recommending Cork’s if you weren’t looking to get out and about, but as a local there are plenty of more attractive options nearby (even another Irish bar attached to a hotel that is within walking distance).

Had we been guests at the Embassy Suites, I guess this would have been a nice option for dining, but we weren’t and it wasn’t the greatest choice.
Used our Travel Zoo voucher $ 50.00 worth of food for $ 20.00. Looked online at the menu which looked fairly decent to use a voucher and it was some place new to us.
I ordered the Sea Scallops with Corned Beef and Cabbage– The combination is just weird. I asked our servers opinion and she said people either love it or hate it. I decided to be adventurous. Let’s just say I should’ve gone with the fat and greasy looking bar food that I was initially salivating over. This dish left much to be desired.
Scallops were rubbery with no flavor. The big mound of lentils (which I generally like) tasted weird, and the cabbage and corn beef were blah. Most Irish food is just bland to me anyway, but this was really bland and just a weird combination like whatever was laying around was thrown in. Nothing magically delicious about this dish at all.
J ordered the Potato Crusted Chicken which wasn’t the least bit appealing; presentation or taste wise. He’s not a food waster, but had no problem leaving this behind.
Thank god for the bread and the festive arugala salad blend before hand along with our chicken wing appetizer which was so-​so. Hot wings were better than the BBQ.
Our server Stephanie was delightful and helpful when asking about the entrees.
The food is very average and nothing to write home about at all in tems of the «inventive» section. Sandwiches looked really good.
Service was excellent.