Lunch at the Quay Co-op, Cork, Ireland

We spent two weeks in Ireland and used some of that time to do a short tour along the coast. Heading west from Dublin, our first stop was Cork. It’s a small town, with a nice vibe and some great vegan offerings.

Vegan Treats at the Quay Co-op, Cork, Ireland

One of the first places we checked out was the Quay Co-op, a large health food store with a restaurant upstairs. In the shop, we saw lots of vegan treats, including Neapolitan ice cream (you know, three neat lines of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry all in one container) by Swedish Glace. It looked amazing but we didn’t buy any because we had no place to store it. A friend told me it’s not really that great, and the individual Swedish Glace flavours are better, but they were probably just trying to make me feel better.

Jammy Wheels Cookies

Jammy Wheels Cookie

We left the Quay Co-op without any ice cream but did buy a pack of Jammy Wheels. This was our first encounter with vegan jam cookies. They were gluten free, and a bit crumbly, but we still enjoyed snacking on them in a nearby park.

Vegan Burger

Vegan Burger

For dinner, we picked up some organic and locally made spicy bean burgers. We paired them with spelt rolls, veggies, hummus and fresh dill. We served them with steamed broccoli and two leftover yam and chickpea nuggets we brought with us from Dublin.

Cork, Ireland

We cooked the burgers on a BBQ with our Couch Surfing host, who lived on a beautiful property, surrounded by nature and lots of free roaming birds and animals.

Lentil Burger with Peanut Sauce, Potato Wedges and Salad

On our second day in Cork, we went to the Quay Co-op for lunch. After we decoded their menu, we chose one of their house made lentil burgers, smothered in peanut sauce, potato wedges and a shredded cabbage, carrots, ginger and sesame salad. This cost us €6.95 Euros ($8.58 USD).

Quay Co-op

Vegan Carrot Cake

We shared the lunch and had a bit of room left for dessert. The Quay Co-op restaurant’s dessert options were more expensive than the takeout sweets downstairs, and the only vegan option they had was a fruit crumble. We paid a little more than we would have for a slice of pie and bought a loaf of vegan carrot cake for €4.50 Euros ($5.55 USD). The carrot cake was quite dense, full of dried raisins and coconut. John thought the icing was the best part and ignored the last few bites once he polished off the sweet topping.

Quay Coop
www.quaycoop.com
24 Sullivan’s Quay
Cork City, Ireland
Tel: 021 431 7660

The Good Food Shop, Cork, Ireland

Another health food store in Cork is the Good Food Shop, which is located inside Cork’s English Market.

Meat Substitutes, The Good Food Shop, Cork, Ireland

At the Good Food Shop, we found a ton of veggie meat substitutes. There were too many to read all of the labels but most of them were vegan. We were tempted by the novelty of vegan haggis for two whole seconds before we decided it was disgusting and we didn’t want to risk our health with a discounted and expired lump of seasoned soy.

The Good Food Shop, Cork, Ireland

Other than meat substitutes, the Good Food Shop carried a lot of vegan sweets and some tasty looking pasta and vegetable pies.

The Good Food Shop
Cork English Market
30-36 Grand Parade
Cork City, Ireland

Natural Choice, Cork, Ireland

Natural Choice, was the last health food store we visited in Cork. Most of the store was dedicated to vitamins, supplements and body care products but they did have some interesting sweets. We picked up a bag of Sonnentor‘s vegan gummy bears and a Dove Farms chocolate chip crispy rice bar. The gummy bears were quite expensive, €2.50 Euros ($3.08 USD), but the rice bar was only €0.60 Euro ($0.74 USD).

Natural Choice
Upstairs, Paul Steet Shopping Center
Cork City, Ireland
Tel: +353 (021)4251714

Tesco Groceries

Before hopping on the bus and leaving Cork, we stopped in at Tesco and picked up some snacks and food for our next stop: Kinsale, Ireland.