Cafe Paradiso – A Vegetarian Paradise

On a recent visit to Cork City, Cafe Paradiso was one of my must-try restaurants, based on many rave reviews. Even I, as a mostly-vegetarian, was biased that a restaurant solely focused on vegetarian cooking could really be a fine dining foodie experience, since they are often an afterthought. But Cafe Paradiso is more than a vegetarian restaurant – it’s an experience.

When I arrived at Cafe Paradiso a little before 7pm on a Tuesday night, the restaurant was fairly quiet.

But by 8pm the place was packed. The lilting, modern Celtic music that set the mood when I arrived had now faded into the buzz of the room.

From the moment I stepped into Cafe Paradiso with its casually elegant table settings, ambient lighting, and superb service, it was clear this is indeed a fine dining establishment. This impression was confirmed throughout the meal by the excruciating attention to detail.

Not long after I was seated, I was served a complimentary starter composed of chili cashews, fabulous oily marinated olives, and a sort of sunflower seed cracker brittle. I sampled my starters while I perused the dinner menu over a glass of Chablis.

Next was a delivery of a plate of housemade bread served with a pungent, fruity Italian olive.

Cafe Paradiso offers a 2 or 3 course prix fixe pre-theater menu, and naturally I opted for the 3-course menu so I could sample as much as possible.

I started with the creamy Cauliflower soup artistically composed with shiitake mushrooms and encircled with scallions, and black ground pepper. The bisque style soup was so fresh and pure cauliflower tasting.

For my main dish I opted for the Pan Fried Miso Tofu. The charred tofu was marinated in miso and encrusted with sesame seeds and sat on bed of noodles in a sepia-colored miso broth with intense umami flavor. The Cork-made tofu was silky and delicious. Two glasses of French Chablis perfectly complemented this meal.

After all that food, I went for a light dessert – the always tasty Affogato…but with a Frangelico twist. The Affogato came deconstructed on a small platter for me to assemble to my desired taste: vanilla ice cream splashed with espresso and Frangelico – and a side of crunch meringue chocolate chip cookies with nuts.

I found Cafe Paradiso’s food to be an art form – conceptual, flawlessly designed with wonderful flavors and perfect execution. The fact that Cafe Paradiso is niche vegetarian cooking makes it even more special that it attains this level of excellence and a lot of restaurants could learn from their veggie example. If I am ever even remotely in the vicinity of Cork City, I will make a point to stop at Cafe Paradiso, just to relive this wonderful gastronomic experience.