Is this nine course tasting menu in Cork worth the €405 bill?

Fota Island Resort, Fota Island, Cork★ 7/10
Though west Cork has pulled a lot of fine dining focus in recent years, east Cork does hold its own credentials. Over the past few weeks the five-star Fota Island Resort has quietly reintroduced its fine-dining restaurant, the Cove, with a refreshed offering and a talented young chef taking the helm, so we venture in blind, having not stayed, nor eaten, at Fota Island before.
All white tablecloths, soft lighting, moody statement artwork and set pleasingly away from the hotel’s foyer in its own cosy nook, the Cove cuts a fine figure. However, the mahogany bar, slate stone columns and metal scroll gate cut-outs are a bit dated, pulling you out of the fantasy in nightmares of bootcut dark-wash jeans pooling over leather loafers and wearing tinted sunglasses inside.
There’s a five or nine-course tasting menu option and we opt to go all in for the latter. An intriguing and delicious first bite is a deconstructed Waldorf salad (apple, grape, nut, herb with cubes of blue cheese), the component parts tweezed together on a flat of golden, crisped chicken skin. It’s a great little introduction, paired with a glass of Champagne Pannier rosé, all toasted brioche and almond with ripe berry notes.
Well-made house brioche with a seaweed butter follows, where the pillowy bread could be a touch sweeter and the butter a lick saltier. A mini potato terrine is up next, all stock-drunk, softened layers, pressed, cut to lengths and fried, alongside an aioli that lacks punch and a lavish grating of Rockfield sheep’s cheese. It’s curious — this type of dish is usually a side to a steak or similarly meaty main so the inclusion this early in a tasting menu is slightly odd but still delicious, and the fistful of chives thrust atop would inch on a 10/10 score from @ratemychives.
Then the train suddenly threatens to derail. Why would you serve a heavy risotto early on in a tasting menu after a deep-fried potato starter? It’s well made, just about within al dente territory and rich with a good flavour base and a few pickled wild mushrooms strewn atop, but we do wonder why arborio rice instead of Irish barley or spelt berries? After the third bite the eating experience becomes monotonous and we give up, preferring to save space for what’s to come.
For the most part, across nine courses, the menu does impress and at times elevate itself above the hotel restaurant surrounds, demonstrating skill in balancing difficult flavours to harness in harmony, such as the Goatsbridge trout dish with orange, cauliflower and kale, and ravioli with a gorgeously springy Gubbeen cheese filling, set within a complex red onion and thyme broth with white onion espuma on top.
The dish of the menu for us is the monkfish, so sublimely cooked — supple, bouncy, butter-basted — that it is probably the best monkfish we’ve eaten, served simply amid fine ribbons of confit leek and a white wine and dill-rich sauce, topped (modestly) with oscietra caviar.
The main event, a fillet of dry-aged beef, served medium as guests are instructed, is subdued, needing better seasoning and more caramelisation or even a pan-glazing in the wonderful Madeira jus, of which there’s not enough served either. It’s a crowd-pleasing but uninventive dish, and there’s a link missing that would tie everything together.
A dessert of strawberry baba with hibiscus yoghurt is light, floral and a sweet summer crescendo, served beneath a pretty pink veil adding texture.
Service is warm, charming and well paced by Antonio and Amelia, while wine pairings keenly match, contrast and enliven. The Hungarian-born maître d’ Benedeguz (Benz) Bodnar has chosen exceptionally well, showcasing interesting over obvious bottles and not loyal to big-name châteaux, rather shining a light on smaller producers from Austria, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
Then to the cost. We don’t want this review to linger on price, but you can’t escape it. No doubt online comments will flood this piece aghast at the final bill, which is €405 –– the highest we’ve spent for this column in the past 12 months (caveat: it was also the rare occasion that we both chose the wine pairing as we were not driving).
During that time we have reviewed four restaurants with Michelin stars: Homestead Cottage, Bastible, Variety Jones and Dede at the Customs House. Fine dining by its nature carries a premium price tag, and you would never expect Prada at a Penneys price point so don’t lump the same expectation on fine v fast casual. Fine dining will never be “cheap”, and no one ever promised it would be.
For context, a couple dining at the Michelin-starred Terre up the road in Castlemartyr will spend €400 on the menu before a single beverage or extra is considered. Two could indeed opt for the €75pp five-course option at the Cove and share a bottle of wine for a final bill of about €200 pre-service, but we did honestly find some of the best dishes are on the nine-course.
Is Michelin the ambition here? We would wager this east Cork resort wouldn’t say no to a star, indeed a recent job posting for the head chef role listed Michelin (or equivalent) experience as a prerequisite. The new head chef, 26-year-old Cobh native Eoghan O’Flynn (formerly of Liss Ard Estate in Skibbereen and Bastion in Kinsale), was a finalist in the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year in 2022 and is certainly one to watch over the next five to ten years if this is anything to go by.
Is the service, setting, food and wine on par with Michelin-starred brethren? Not quite, but this is early days of an exciting new iteration of the Cove. It is setting out a fine stall and the quality, skill, technique and provenance on the plate could certainly merge onto the motorway towards it, after clocking up a few more miles in refinement and flavour.
Chicken skin WaldorfHouse briochePotato terrine Wild mushroom risottoGoatsbridge troutGubbeen ravioliMonkfishDry-aged beef filletStrawberry babaWeekly cheese selection
To DrinkWine pairing x 2 (€75pp)Still water €5
Total: €405
Three more Irish hotels with fine-dining restaurants worth seeking out:
West, The Twelve Hotel In Barna, Nathan Hindmarsh serves an eight-course experience for €69pp; westrestaurant.ie
House, Cliff House Hotel Tony Parkin’s Michelin-starred cliffside restaurant in Ardmore serves a seven-course tasting menu for €150pp; cliffhousehotel.ie
Ballyfin Demesne Non-residents can now enjoy the executive chef Richard Picard-Edwards’s eight-course tasting menu for €125pp; ballyfin.com
fotaisland.ie/the-cove, @thecovecork