Holy Smoke - Cork

The BEST chicken burger in Cork HANDS DOWN! We went to the Mardyke to get Holy Smoke. The old setup they had before, with the entrance around the corner was way better because it was a proper restaurant setting, now it’s mixed in between the bar, bowling and the pool section but other than that, the food was insanely delicious, I haven’t had nice food like that in ages! Our servers were so nice and friendly. Definitely would recommend this place and cannot wait to go back! I’m actually drooling thinking about the food we live in Cork but if you’re visiting you NEED to visit this place

We visited Holy Smoke on Thursday 5th of March for dinner. I 've been in to smoking and BBQ for over a decade and really enjoy visiting different smokehouses and BBQ restaurants I wouldn 't normally bother writing a review but felt I had to for Holy Smoke as it has lots of glossy photos and ads on Facebook and Instagram which make the food look incredible. We arrived at the old brick building which Holy smoke is housed in and was greeted by a classy looking sign and mock fire pit outside which all looked nice. Once inside we were met by the very friendly front of house staff. I cannot fault the interior décor as it 's just what I want to see. Bare brick walls and arched ceilings with exposed steel work all painted black. The lighting is nice and low and easy on the eyes, this is provided by old fashioned bulbs hung from meat hooks which is cool. We ordered drinks (glass of Merlot and a coke) the Merlot was very sour but this wasn 't a problem as the waitress was more than happy to replace it with a fresh glass. We ordered 3 starters for €17.50 which were the BBQ chicken wings, Mac n cheese bites and the Nachos. They were all delicious. The BBQ sauce on the wings was great with real depth of flavour. The Nachos were real quality! Perfect portion with lots of cheese, chicken, guacamole even the Nacho chips themselves were really good quality. As for the Mac n Cheese bites we could eat these by the bucket load! This is where the review takes a downward plunge. We really were looking forward to tasting quality smoked meat and some great sides. We ordered the €35 BBQ Blowout so we could sample all that Holy smoke had to offer. We were sat at the back of the dining room with a great view of the kitchen and pass and could see the chef 's at work. I saw one of the team putting our order together under the pass lights and realised it was taking quite a while to do considering there was about 8 to 10 people in the dining room. Once the order was completed it sat for a further 10 mins with no one touching it. Eventually the bell was rang for a waitress to collect our order. The tray arrived at our table and I was straight away underwelmed. I knew that the glossy pics on social media were just that glossy well touched up and edited pictures to draw people in. The truth in fact was limp dry looking food with not even a hint of smoke flavour or smell. The brisket burnt ends turned out to be something akin to roast beef from a pub carvery. I know burnt ends and have made them plenty of times and these were not burnt ends! The Pulled pork again resembled roast pork with very little flavour and zero smoke flavour or even colour. I 've smoked maybe 30 pork butts and this smoked pulled pork was very poor quality. Now on to my favourite food on the planet smoked babyback ribs. These made me very sad as they were without a doubt the worst ribs I have ever eaten. The meat was chalky and dry with very little flavour. I could not see even the slightest hint of a smoke ring on the meat (a pink layer of meat under the surface caused by a chemical reaction between the gasses in the wood used to smoke and the pigment in the meat) which is a tell tail sign if a piece of meat has been smoked or not. The ribs were drenched in a mediocre BBQ sauce which did little to lubricate the dry meat. The chicken was just meh. Dry with that tacky texture like the meat is gripping the teeth while chewing. It was just boring. The smoked sausage was ok. The meat was to heavily spiced and had sat in a warm oven for to long making the skin tough. The cornbread was so dry that when I picked it up to take a bite to crumbled to dust in my hands it really was just horrible. The only saving grace was the celeriac slaw which was very pleasant with a lovely floral flavour. We had a side of mash and gravy which was again lackluster with lumpy mash and limp (bisto) gravy. Our desert of snikers cheese cake was really tasty but I 'm guessing it 's bought it. While I was eating I watched to kitchen staff as they worked and not one of them looked as if they really wanted to be there. They seemed more focused on cleaning the kitchen including pulling out and cleaning behind the ovens than putting effort into the food. I know the hours are long working in a kitchen but cleaning like that should be done once service is finished and the dining room is closed. I do not have a bad word to say about the front of house staff. Our waitress was very friendly and nothing was to much trouble. I feel that if kitchen staff put in as much effort as the front of house then this place could be so much better. If you 've never had smoked/BBQ American style meat before please don 't be put off by this review as you may not be as critical as me. We won 't be visiting Holy smoke again anytime soon.

The starters were delicious and quit big and filling. Had a platter for two of different types of meats which was really good and abundant. Could easily be shared between 3. Meat was wonderfully cooked and tasted great! The environment was lovely, and it was the perfect place to spend Halloween quietly.

We are from Dublin and have a good few BBQ places round, so based on comparison I was surprised that they didn’t have any homemade lemonade nor sauces other than mayo and ketchup! The price wasn’t to bad I did enjoy the meat and I know it can be a challenge to get everything right. The only issue with the meat was the chicken was a bit dry. But I did love the brisket and pork! Mash was nice, gravy a slight bit bland. Nice atmosphere and quite Cosy if you haven’t been I would recommend.

What a pity that the wonderful food at Holy Smoke was let down by the poor service we got on our visit last weekend. Having been to Holy Smoke before, and really enjoying it, I was really looking forward to a return on Friday night last. I'd expected it to be full but it was actually half empty. So it was a real surprise to us that our food took so long to come 40 minutes from the time of ordering! When it did come, however, it was truly delicious. Mouth water, soft meat falling off the bone and the fries were pretty good too. The decor is also very cool and it has a nice atmosphere. However the service.... it took more than half an hour before we were told about the delay to our food. When I ordered a beer, I was waiting 15 minutes only for the waitress to come over and ask if we needed anything... when I reminded her of the beer, she went and got it saying the delay was due to changing the keg, when she had clearly just forgotten my order by asking if we needed anything. At no stage were we asked if everything was ok, our water was not refreshed and our table was avoided for the rest of the evening, all on a night when the place was half empty. Very poor experience.