Great to see Mayfield's Old Bank Café is back in action

Great to see Mayfield's Old Bank Café

 back in action 

Chicken Sandwich

Our local café, The Old Bank, has just recently reopened, having been closed for the duration of the pandemic. Great to see it back in action with a nice bit of buzz there when I called for lunch last week.

And the good mood was extended as I tucked into my Open Warm Chicken Sandwich (grilled warm chicken, pesto, leaves and tomatoes on sourdough, and served with chips and an excellent salad). It was a very pleasant dish indeed. The chicken was perfect and the sandwich was enhanced, flavour and moisture wise, by the pesto and the tomatoes. Cost was €11.95; I could have added bacon or cheese for a euro or, to make it close to a dinner dish, a half-soup for three euro.

Butcher, Deli, Café. Under one roof

CL picked the Warm Chicken Salad (12.95) - chicken features a lot on the menu! Her grilled Mediterranean chicken came with black pudding, potato cubes, and was served on a bed of mixed leaves, balsamic reduction and topped with Parmesan cheese. The black-pudding was a little over-cooked but everything else was perfect.

Other choices on the menu included Soup of the Day, a Toasted Special, a Buttermilk Chicken Burger, an 8 ounce Angus Beef burger in a brioche bun, Roast of the Day, Cormac’s Cold Meat Salad, plus a warm goats cheese salad. 

Chicken salad

When Friday comes around, you may have Seafood Chowder and also Fish and Chips. They also have a Kids Menu. It is part of the O’Connor Meats Butcher and Deli complex on the Iona Road in Mayfield, so most of the meat is at hand.

We didn’t have time for something sweet on the day but there were quite a few tempting cakes in the cabinet along with cookies. And the coffee is good here. 

Service is friendly and efficient. All in all, a nice little interlude just a few minutes from home.

They offer a full breakfast menu as well and that includes porridge, The Butcher's Fry, pancakes/waffles, Eggs Benedict and Omelettes, available from 9.00am to 12.00pm. Lunch is served 12.00pm to 4.00pm.

Contact details:

The Old Bank Café, Colmcille Avenue, Iona, Mayfield, Cork.

Open: 8.30am to 5.00pm Tuesday to Saturday. Check Facebook for updates.

Tel: (021) 453 0541

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oldbankcafe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoldbankcafe/

My Breakfast Roll

My Breakfast Roll

Pancakes at the Crawford Café

I don’t often go out for breakfast but had a few opportunities recently, including one top hotel, one well established café and two new cafés: Hayfield Manor, Crawford Gallery Café, Old Bank Café and the Good Day Deli. Quite a variety of food, everything from the Full Irish to a Veggie Benny.

Pancakes, American style, are very popular. And very good also. Take those in the Crawford, for example: American style buttermilk pancakes, with delicious bacon, yogurt, blueberries and bananas and Maple syrup of course. Amazing flavours and textures. Simply irresistible! 

Full Irish at The Hayfield

Over at Good Day Deli, in the gardens of the Nano Nagle Place, they do superb Poached Pear Pancakes with coconut mascarpone and a drizzle of Irish honey. Another morning winner from this sustainable foods champion. And, while there, do try a glass of the delicious Mealagulla Apple Juice.

Mayfield newcomer, the Old Bank, were just bringing their pancakes on to the menu so I didn't get to give them a proper test but they looked promising and, with their excellent Lemon Curd, could well be a very satisfying combination.

Orchids, at the Hayfield, has an outstanding selection of fruit and also some interesting breads. Hotels, as you might expect, will always have the Full Irish and the Hayfield’s is excellent, the bacon and black-pudding (by Rosscarbery Recipes) a tasty feature. Then there’s cheeses and salamis, their own granola; croissants, muffins and more from their bakery and an eye-catching full size honeycomb.

Veggie Benny at Good Day Deli

Along with pancakes, various “editions” of Eggs Benedict are to be found in all menus. The Crawford’s Eggs Royale, poached eggs and Frank Hederman smoked salmon on sourdough toast with Hollandaise sauce, is very delicious too.

Over at the new Good Day Deli, the Veggie Benny is a must-try: two organic poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on sourdough, with organic kale, and tomato, topped with nut dukkah. I’m sure their Salmon Benny, also with Hederman’s smoked salmon, is excellent too.

The House Dish, well loved at the Old Bank

In Mayfield’s Old Bank, their Eggs Benedict has proven so popular that it is on all day.  The Old Bank Café style sees poached eggs come on sourdough toast with hollandaise or with salsa verde and is further enhanced by a choice of slow roast tomatoes, sauté spinach and roast button mushrooms or home cured bacon and slow roasted tomatoes. 

And another breakfast dish, simply called the House Dish, has also gone all-day. This includes crispy home-made potato hash, smoked ham hock, smokey baked beans, poached egg and salsa verde or hollandaise. That hash, the potato is done rosti style, is excellent and lots of flavour come through from the other ingredients.

So there you, just four calls and lots of good stuff available. Do you have a favourite breakfast venue? A favourite breakfast dish?

* Fish rarely appears on breakfast menus. When it does, I usually go for it. Ballycotton Bay is noted for its plaice and it is a real treat to enjoy the view and the plaice at the Samphire Restaurant in the Garryvoe Hotel.

The Old Bank Café. New Eating and Meeting Place in Mayfield

The Old Bank Café

New Eating and Meeting Place in Mayfield

Cork suburb Mayfield has a lovely new meeting place. The Old Bank Café, that the O’Connor butcher family opened last month, is quickly becoming the place to eat and meet in the area. 

It has the field to itself as, amazingly for a place of its size, there is no other café in the area. Why Old Bank, you might ask. Well because the new building stands on the Iona Road site occupied for many years by the Permanent TSB bank. 

O’Connor family member Sinead manages the Old Bank and is open for business from 8.00am. We arrived much later than that to try out the lunch menu! The café was quite full about 12.45pm and, as the first wave of diners left, they were immediately replaced by others. And, as we ate our excellent and well-priced dishes, we could see why it has taken off.

We could have had their excellent Roast of the Day, the healthy House Salad, or their highly regarded honey glazed ham, but we had been tipped off on two dishes in particular.

One, my pick, is their take on Eggs Benedict. The Old Bank Café style Benedict poached eggs come on sourdough toast with hollandaise or with salsa verde and is further enhanced by a choice of slow roast tomatoes, sauté spinach and roast button mushrooms or home cured bacon and slow roasted tomatoes. 

I went for the hollandaise, spinach and mushroom version. It is absolutely superb, terrific flavour and textures, well executed (eggs perfectly poached) and presented. And excellent value at €7.50. Both this and CL’s choice below are available all day (8.00am to 4.00pm).

CL meanwhile was tucking into her modestly named House Dish (again great value at eight euro). This includes crispy home-made potato hash, smoked ham hock, smokey baked beans, poached egg and salsa verde or hollandaise. That hash, the potato is done rosti style, is excellent and lots of flavour come through from the other ingredients.

We were feeling pretty satisfied after that  - they are both large dishes - but were tempted by the pancakes, newly added to the menu. These are American style and are made in house and served with cream, maple syrup or lemon curd. Delicious, with a beautiful texture, and, with a cup of well made coffee, we had no bother in finishing them off. Happy out!

* In the same building as the café, the O’Connor family also have a butcher’s shop and a food hall. See more on the complex here. 

The Old Bank Café

Iona Road

Mayfield

Cork

(021) 453 0541