Soul, Washington Street, Cork
Cork's low rider cooking hits the sweet spot.
Soul is a newish Cork city kitchen diner, joining a strip of mid market, good eating spots all together on Cork’s central thoroughfare, Washington Street. There’s rotisserie in SpitJack, the time-honoured Liberty Grill – and now this Southern Smokehouse Grill.
It might sound oxymoronic to say that what the kitchen team are putting out in Soul is good clean dirty food. Good, dirty, messy, fun, all-in grub, but done with deftness and sincerity.
Just look at the brunch menus: Smoked sausage hash with crispy potato and home-made beans; Soul Benedict where some smashing house pulled brisket comes on toasted sourdough with perfectly poached eggs and hollandaise; pulled chicken and cornbread waffles with blackened corn salsa; the Big Cluck which brings buttermilk fried chicken up close and personal with red Alabama slaw and house pickles on a brioche bun.
Four of us tried these dishes and four of us declared that this was fine cooking, distinguished not just by the notes of grilling and smoking, but more especially by real consideration and care in getting each detail just right.
Southern fried food works perfectly when it’s crisp and cleanly executed, as it is here, with portion sizes that provoke appetite, pretty pictures on the plate.
What is soul? asks the old song. Well, in Soul on Washington Street, it’s funky food, good service, and a buzzing room filled with people enjoying vivid, smart cooking. Okay, so the dirty mac ‘n’ cheese missed the mark – the sauce needed more cheesy heft – but we liked the smart cornbread topping and the shards of bacon and jalapeño. This is a Soul staple that just needs a little tweaking. Mind you, we still finished it. But Soul deserves such attention to detail, because paying attention to the detail is exactly what they are doing. What we’ll definitely go back for is the brisket. One of the hardest acts to master in BBQ, Soul’s brisket is just perfection.
Another reason the room was jammers is the fact that they offer excellent value for your money – that fine Soul Benedict is quite a feast for €14.50. To get food that is so impressive and so enjoyable at these prices is a real find. Plus, they get the fries right, and that tells you everything.
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