Comments on: Review of Hardwood Restaurant, Cork, Ireland

By: blow-in

blow-in — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:59:00 +0000

I’ve enjoyed brunch there on Sundays. Good food and good value. Easygoing atmosphere as befits a brunch and cheerful staff. Based on this my wife took her colleagues from UCC there for an evening meal/girls night out. Iffy food/expensive enough. So. Lack of continuity perhaps?

By: Michaell

Michaell — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:57:33 +0000

meowwww……

By: Damien Mulley

Damien Mulley — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:39:55 +0000

Ah Frank, don’t hold people know up to your own social standards.

By: Frank Hannon

Frank Hannon — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:52:05 +0000

Was there myself recently on a tuesday evening with my wife, they had a special €20 for 3 course inc. glass wine. I had the steak in that deal. Beautiful! Great deal all round! No complaints, staff too were nice as was Jerry the Manager. Must just have got everyone on a bad night there Damien! Or were you all perhaps well on? Tech people can be very tetchy after a few!!!

By: tony vanleeuwen

tony vanleeuwen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:08:14 +0000

it is a pity that i have never visited the hardwood ,but will put it on my list were i ever go to cork.

it seems damien has an attitude and nothing could ever make him consider a second chance .

that seems to prove that his voice is not the voice of the patron’s that did have good experiences .

what qualifications does he possess ,that would make me believe ,he is a serious critic ?

By: aodhrua

aodhrua — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:34:55 +0000

i found the service in hardwood pleasant. i find the notion of four people walking into to a restaurant and expecting to be accomodated and to sit where they choose crazy.
like the resaurant, feel the review was unhelpful. when is it ever fun to eat with so many people?

By: barry

barry — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:01:56 +0000

For fuck’s sake Damien calm down, can’t you recognise a joke when you see one? I was actually trying to be ironic, the ‘day stuff’ is great, the restaurant reviews are great too, but rants aren’t….OK??

Best, Barry

By: Damien

Damien — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:24:47 +0000

Barry, is it just my reviews of restaurants you want censored or everyone’s? Do you want to censor other things I say and do too? Luckily for the world, people like yourself don’t control most of it so we can enjoy free speech. Do not tell me what I can and cannot say, this is my space that I pay for. It’s unsettling that you want to dictate what people can say online.

By: barry

barry — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:17:11 +0000

Clarification accepted.
I have lived a lot of my life outside Ireland and although that is often seen as a ‘here we go again, Ireland is crap’ start to an input it is my experience that the restaurant trade in Ireland has a pretty contemptuous view of the audience (with a significant number of exceptions…, the Paradiso mentioned in this thread being one of them….). The fact that the chef and manager answered illustrates well what most non-Irish owners/chefs/managements would normally do. In most countries being a waiter/chef/manager in the food sector is recognised as a solid, professional, job, less so in Ireland.
Criticism withdrawn Damien, but the day job is better…..

By: Conor O'Neill

Conor O'Neill — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:02:57 +0000

Barry, when we arrived we thought we were going to be 9 in total. The restaurant was 100% empty and we had close to 2 hours to eat before the next sitting.

The group did eventually become 17 but we all ordered in batches at different times to minimise the load on the kitchen. e.g. some people ate and left to catch a train before others had even started. So effectively we were a set of tables who just happened to know each other.

Any decent restaurant that turns away a €500 bill when they are empty during a recession should be shut down. To be fair to Hardwood, they didn’t do that. I got no sense at any point that the kitchen was under pressure since the food was decent and arrived promptly. All of the problems discussed above were centered on front-of-house and, based on the feedback from Hardwood, shouldn’t happen again.