RESTAURANTS AND FOOD: grill

Monday, December 5, 2016

The New Republic in Ballincollig. Plush, Spacious Restaurant.

New Republic in Ballincollig

Plush, Spacious Restaurant

The Republic Bar & Grill, the newly opened upstairs restaurant in Ballincollig’s East End, is plush and comfortable and the food too is of a high standard. Owners John and Darina Gately have also opened a bar downstairs and that is called JD’s.

Visited the Republic last week and was immediately struck by the decor, the comfortable and spacious split-level areas with a small bar in the middle, the views over the main street, the many paintings and the friendly welcome.

Later, my focus would switch to the food and the service and both turned out to be faultless. The grill is emphasised of course so plenty steaks, burgers too. But there is much more in this impressive place. Lots of tables for two but it is also designed to be family friendly both in terms of seating and food - there is an extensive kids menu.

There are no specials here but the menu is quite large. Amazingly, for the third restaurant in a row, we availed of a blue cheese and pear salad but this time a warm one - a very good one too: Warm Pear & Cashel Blue Cheese Salad, withToasted Walnuts (7.95).

Wings

My own choice was the JD Gately’s Famous Spicy Chicken Wings (7.95), with Blue Cheese and Celery sticks. This was a trademark success in a previous Gately restaurant and is as good as ever.

When it came to the mains, I decided to try something from the grill. I picked Wagyu Beef Burger (15.95) with crispy onion stack, french fries and peppercorn sauce. The meat is from Macroom and you have a choice of sauces. It is served on a Brioche bun and is very tasty indeed.

Chicken

Sounds of approval too from the other side of the table as CL tucked into her Oven Roast Supreme Of Chicken (14.95), with Creamy Mushroom & White Wine Sauce, another well presented dish, well cooked with excellent texture and flavour.

Desserts are tempting enough and very hard to resist when the choice comes to your table on a trolley! Our share was the Velvet Cake with vanilla pod cream infused with strawberry. Quite a decadent finish in the new Republic.

Burger

The total, excluding tip, came to €60.80 for two starters, two main courses and one dessert plus a glass of Jameson Crested.

A day or two later, I found the bill in my pocket and saw the whiskey cost €7.50. I got the same for €5.00 in Ballina (Grand National Hotel) in October and for €5.65 in Killarney (Celtic Whiskey Bar) in November. Overall though, we were well pleased with the food, the service and the splendid new room. A fine new place to go in Ballincollig.