Food shopping in cork city centre

candlegrease

Where do you go and for what? The tesco in Paul street is lacking I find, especially since there is no fish counter.

Is the English Market very expensive? I don't have much experience of it.

evilivor

candlegrease wrote: »

Where do you go and for what? The tesco in Paul street is lacking I find, especially since there is no fish counter.

Is the English Market very expensive? I don't have much experience of it.

Tesco is poor, why not go to Supervalu in Merchants Quay. Nice store, nice staff and you have M&S nextdoor with even nicer staff. The dungeon like Dunnes on Patrick st isn't too bad - they have a handy delivery service too.

The market is terrific for individual great things like meat, fish, nice veg and stunning fresh products. It's worth exploring over time for breads, cheeses, cold meats and lots of very yummy things. It can be a bit slower and more expensive than a supermarket shop but it's money that stays locally.

candlegrease

evilivor wrote: »

Tesco is poor, why not go to Supervalu in Merchants Quay. Nice store, nice staff and you have M&S nextdoor with even nicer staff. The dungeon like Dunnes on Patrick st isn't too bad - they have a handy delivery service too.

The market is terrific for individual great things like meat, fish, nice veg and stunning fresh products. It's worth exploring over time for breads, cheeses, cold meats and lots of very yummy things. It can be a bit slower and more expensive than a supermarket shop but it's money that stays locally.

Thanks, never really considered supervalu or M&S.

pwurple

I see what you meam, but I disagree slightly on the cost thing. English market isn't more expensive unless you deliberately buy the top end stuff. Loads of choice, competition and special offers on meat and fish. How many places in there sell veg... 4? There are a couple of discount-type shops there for your everyday things like tins of tomatos or rice. Plus, you can haggle in some of them.

You need to do a bit of exploring the first couple of times you go in to find what shops suit you best, but after you do that, it's the best place In The World to shop for food. Bar none.

Dermighty

English market:

For chicken go to O'Sullivans, it's beside the indoor fountain, on the patrick street side, beside the chocolate shop. €5.40 for 4 medium fillets, corn fed, great quality.

For red meat go to Coughlans for mince, always good quality it's right in front of the ABC bread shop.

For fish go to O'Connels, their Hake and Cod is always fresh in my experience.

Places I avoid are "the chicken inn" and the butchers directly across from it.

leahyl

Dermighty wrote: »

English market:



Places I avoid are "the chicken inn" and the butchers directly across from it.

Indeed the chicken inn is not a place I would frequent....but you say the butchers across from it - I think that's Bresnans? They have lovely meat, my mum used to always get lovely tail end from them anyway. Might not be the best for other meat though so you might be right

Dermighty

leahyl wrote: »

Indeed the chicken inn is not a place I would frequent....but you say the butchers across from it - I think that's Bresnans? They have lovely meat, my mum used to always get lovely tail end from them anyway. Might not be the best for other meat though so you might be right

No not Bresnans....might be O'Driscolls or something. 100% not Bresnans, (though I've never bought anything in Bresnans)

candlegrease

Dermighty wrote: »

English market:

For chicken go to O'Sullivans, it's beside the indoor fountain, on the patrick street side, beside the chocolate shop. €5.40 for 4 medium fillets, corn fed, great quality.

For red meat go to Coughlans for mince, always good quality it's right in front of the ABC bread shop.

For fish go to O'Connels, their Hake and Cod is always fresh in my experience.

Places I avoid are "the chicken inn" and the butchers directly across from it.

Any particular reason you recommend these places? You have just found the quality to be good from experience?

Dermighty

candlegrease wrote: »

Any particular reason you recommend these places? You have just found the quality to be good from experience?

O'Sullivans sell 99% chicken and 1% other stuff like kangaroo, quail eggs etc. Their meat looks good, has good value, and they are friendly to deal with. I buy 4 fillets a day there, about 5 days a week, so I like chicken and I go to the place I feel it's best.

I like Coughlans because they do very lean mince. It's around €7 a kilo for their steak mince.

The best place for red meat is O'Mahonys, which is the last shop at the Grand Parade side, closest to Hillbillys. Their steak mince is €8.50 a kilo, and usually excellent. Their steaks are massive, and really nice. They're happy to accommodate people too, such as cutting fresh steaks if you don't want what's on display.

My favourite vegetable place is the place right beside Heavens Cakes, I buy Brocolli, tomatoes, carrots and onions there and they're always good. I don't like Superfruit because I feel they are expensive for the quality (of some of their stuff).

I pay for quality and consistency. I find that the places I shop are consistent and friendly so I keep going back. There are other butchers there that I've never even tried, but if it ain't broke don't fix it

I buy everything in the market except household stuff like toothpaste etc.

Regards Tesco, Tesco and Dunnes are great but their meat and veg isn't worth the price (especially the meat, it's terrible compared to the market).

candlegrease

Dermighty wrote: »

O'Sullivans sell 99% chicken and 1% other stuff like kangaroo, quail eggs etc. Their meat looks good, has good value, and they are friendly to deal with. I buy 4 fillets a day there, about 5 days a week, so I like chicken and I go to the place I feel it's best.

I like Coughlans because they do very lean mince. It's around €7 a kilo for their steak mince.

The best place for red meat is O'Mahonys, which is the last shop at the Grand Parade side, closest to Hillbillys. Their steak mince is €8.50 a kilo, and usually excellent. Their steaks are massive, and really nice. They're happy to accommodate people too, such as cutting fresh steaks if you don't want what's on display.

My favourite vegetable place is the place right beside Heavens Cakes, I buy Brocolli, tomatoes, carrots and onions there and they're always good. I don't like Superfruit because I feel they are expensive for the quality (of some of their stuff).

I pay for quality and consistency. I find that the places I shop are consistent and friendly so I keep going back. There are other butchers there that I've never even tried, but if it ain't broke don't fix it

I buy everything in the market except household stuff like toothpaste etc.

Regards Tesco, Tesco and Dunnes are great but their meat and veg isn't worth the price (especially the meat, it's terrible compared to the market).

Great stuff, sounds like you know the market very well!

Ger89

In addition to Dermighty's list, I'd recommend O'Flynn's (sharing a counter, 'round the corner, at the Chicken Inn) for a variety of sausages, Iago's for cheese and fresh chorizos, and both Mr. Bell's stalls for ethnic food ingredients. But The Market can be a ripoff location as well. For example, they sell ox tongues for twice the price as West Cork. Something else that comes to mind is that Durcan's, near the Prince's Street entrance, is the only butchers in my experience in the Market that provides dog bones, sign to me of a serious butcher.

Dermighty

Ger89 wrote: »

In addition to Dermighty's list, I'd recommend O'Flynn's (sharing a counter, 'round the corner, at the Chicken Inn) for a variety of sausages, Iago's for cheese and fresh chorizos, and both Mr. Bell's stalls for ethnic food ingredients. But The Market can be a ripoff location as well. For example, they sell ox tongues for twice the price as West Cork. Something else that comes to mind is that Durcan's, near the Prince's Street entrance, is the only butchers in my experience in the Market that provides dog bones, sign to me of a serious butcher.

Any butcher will provide dog bones, many of them sell scraps as pet food.

Durcans have great stuffed pork chops!

bluecherry74

Dermighty wrote: »

Any butcher will provide dog bones, many of them sell scraps as pet food.

Durcans have great stuffed pork chops!

You'd be surprised... I've been to a few butchers recently who told me that their meat comes in to them already processed so they don't have any bones in the shop. It's almost as though proper craft butchers are a dying trade.

I don't shop in the market all that often but Bresnan's also have a shop in Douglas Village and their meat is top notch. I imagine their shop in the English Market is the same. They have their own farm (in West Cork I think) and raise all their own cattle and sheep. Everything is butchered in store and I regularly get beef bones and chicken carcasses for the dogs. I highly recommend the Moroccan lamb burgers next time it's sunny enough to barbeque!

leahyl

The only 'old-fashioned' butcher I know of that is still going is Looneys in Mayfield - they have none of those trays full of meat etc that you see in most butchers nowadays - they cut the meat there and then for you. My mum used to always go there before but doesn't now - I think they are a bit expensive but they usually have good meat. It's literally just a room with a counter and all the meat is hanging behind it! There are probably others like it but I don't know of any

Quorum

Hi, does anyone know of butchers in the city centre that are open past half five, six? Thanks!

Quorum

Dermighty wrote: »

Places I avoid are "the chicken inn" and the butchers directly across from it.

I've never had any problems with those places.