Sea Salt Cafe

Seasalt is a singular sort of place. It’s a calm, tall room, adjacent to the harbour at Cobh, and it is the café and deli the town has been hoping for, a place with well-crafted, impeccably sourced food from owner Jacquie O’Dea, along with good drinks, and particularly fine baking. Ms O’Dea knows her way around the menus, and she demonstrates a sophisticated culinary intelligence, so whilst the food appears straightforward – flatbreads; toasties; burgers; sausage rolls – it eats delightfully and involvingly, the dishes are nuanced, the flavours are layered, the precision of each offering is razor-sharp. So, the warm beef brisket sandwich with house kraut is a little masterpiece, Ms O'Dea fashions a good pumpkin dahl with basmati rice, and she knows that three cheeses in a toastie – Macroom mozzarella, smoked Gubbeen and Dubliner – make for soulful eating. But make sure to leave room for the sweet treats, in particular one of the best chocolate cakes in the county, and a truly deft and delicious Moroccan orange cake. Good sounds, good service, lucky old Cobh.