With its weekly farmers’ market (one of Ireland’s best) and an enviable range of shops and restaurants catering to all tastes, Midleton has become a top destination for food lovers - many of whom beat a path through the gated archway off the long main street to The Courtyard where Kevin and Réidín Aherne's much-missed restaurant, Sage, was a popular destination until 2024. But, while the Ahernes have since followed a different food journey, The Courtyard is now home to another East Cork favourite, with the spring 2025 relocation of chef Dan Guerin and the CUSH team, from Ballycotton to this atmospheric town centre premises.
Staying true to his Euro-Toques ethos, local produce remains at the heart of Dan Guerin's menus, especially fish and seafood from Ballycotton Seafood (who also have a retail shop just along the street) and the superb produce from the rich farmland of East Cork. Murphy's butchers are noted for their dry-aged beef and other valued suppliers credited on the website include La Rousse foods, Redmond Fine Foods, Glenmar, and Clóna Dairy in West Cork.
Careful cooking brings out the best in these carefully sourced ingredients and everything tastes as wonderful as it looks. Appetising sums it up and and every dish, whether meat, fish or plant-based, is appealingly presented without undue fuss and served with efficiency and charm.
The main A la carte (also referred to as the tasting menu, which may be a little confusing) offers a compact but very adequate choice of four starters, mains, and desserts, plus three sides, and there is some overlap between this and the Early Bird dinner, which offers outstanding value.
Speciality dishes may well include a delicious started of Warm natural smoked haddock, leeks, potato volute, crispy hen's egg and royal Belgian caviar - also offered on the Early Bird with the caviar available at a supplement. Other starters may typically be based on ingredients like dill-cured organic salmon; lightly spiced duck leg sausage; or perhaps a slow-cooked pork shoulder and mozzarella croquette, served with classic celeriac remoulade, apple, and pickled walnut.
Mains created around fish like monkfish or south coast John Dory are sure to be tempting, also East Cork lamb or Dry aged beef (for 2, roasted over charcoal), while other imaginative seasonal options may include Grilled gnocchi with new season green asparagus, mussels and dulse seaweed butter.
A short dessert menu offers plenty of temptations too (70% chocolate mousse with hazelnut and garden mint ice-cream ,for example) and there's a carefully selected choice of artisan Irish cheese, with quince jelly, truffle honey and home baked crackers.
To accompany, an extensive wine list offers over thirty whites and twenty reds mostly from European vineyards (some available by the glass) and cocktails, as well as sparkling wines, dessert wines and a few rosés.
Front of house manager James Walsh will also be familiar to guests who visited Cush in its original Ballycotton premises and it's good to see him here in its town centre home, welcoming diners and ensuring that everyone get the most from one of the most enjoyable - and good value - dining experiences in the Cork area.
