Lunch at Oscars!

So, on Saturday I met my friend Gemma in town for lunch and we decided to try somewhere new for a change. There are quite a few new restaurants/lunch spots popping up in Cork City recently (which can only be a good thing) so Gemma suggested Oscars on Cook Street (formerly Streat).

We arrived to quite a busy cafe, which is nearly always a good sign in my opinion, and were lucky to get a table. The menu is simple with a good number of breakfast options (which appear to be served all day; another customer was ordering the “Wild Boar Fry” when we arrived), seasonal soup of the day, 2 salads and a number of sandwiches “from the grill” or just plain if you’d prefer.

After much deliberation as to which grilled sandwich to get, as they all sounded pretty good, I opted for the Turkey Swiss Melt and Gemma decided to try the Toonsbridge Buffalo Mozarella. We ordered at the till and were served by a very friendly guy (perhaps the owner?) who told us to take a seat and he would drop over the tea.

Menu is displayed casually on blackboards suspended above the counter

Having caught up on our weekly news and taken in our surroundings, we were still waiting, 15 minutes later, for our sandwiches. They eventually arrived and we were relieved and hungry! The first, most obvious, thing about the sandwiches was the way they were served – in a white, blue-rimmed pottery-style dish – a nice touch and less formal than the current “en vogue” slates that you find in so many other restaurants these days.

I think I speak for both of us when I say that the sandwiches were very tasty. Evenly grilled arbutus bread, golden brown with a buttery flavour, plenty of turkey and Swiss cheese in mine – the only thing I would say is that it would have been even better if there was a bit of lettuce and tomato in the sandwich also (normally there would be,even if it didn’t say it on the menu). Gemma’s sandwich also looked generous with the fillings – toonsbridge mozarrella (cartoon bridge ;-)), lettuce, tomato and pesto.

Overall, I was impressed with what Oscars had to offer and I would definitely return; my only suggestion would be to perhaps speed up with the serving of the sandwiches as a lot of people coming in would be on lunch break and would only have limited time to relax and enjoy their meal. Price wise, they were perhaps a bit overpriced (6.95 for the sandwiches) but then most places in Cork are nowadays to be honest (and I’ve had a lot worse for the same price!).

I wish the owners the best of luck and hope Oscar goes from strength to strength! 😉