Cork Burger Festival: Electric

As you probably have read by now, Cork Burger Festival is currently running here in Cork, Ireland. Although the festival is only in it’s first year now, it’s looking to be a great start. One of the goals of the festival was to help put Cork on the map a bit more, and to provide some good food entertainment in an otherwise quite boring time of the year. I must say Cork is one of the most active counties I’ve lived in and the amount of festivals is quite vast and big, like the film festival for example or ‘Taste Cork‘, a countywide celebration of the outstanding food & drink Cork has to offer but it does get more quiet around Winter. Festival Cork doesn’t only organise things themselves but they also want to help anyone who has a great idea but needs a bit of guiding or help to get it turned into reality. Ernest from Festival Cork: “We couldn’t be happier with the turnout for our very first Burger festival, with even butchers taking part and restaurants all over the county including Kinsale have turned this into a county-wide festival, instead of just a Cork City event’.”
After my first visit to Yellow Sub on Wednesday I got invited to Electric to discover what they had on offer for the Cork Burger Festival. The setting couldn’t be more beautiful as it’s located right next to the river Lee and close to Grand Parade, the English Market and the National monument. Although I had been to Electric before, I never realised just how big it actually was, as it’s divided into three parts. Downstairs you have the bar, where you can have breakfast, lunch/brunch or try their Cut & Claw dinner menu. The upstairs in Electric, with panoramic views of St. Finbarr’s Cathedral & the historical South Mall, provides the perfect backdrop to the finest quality food to be had in Cork city centre. Apart from their main restaurant they also have a Fish Bar, which is buzzing on Fridays and Saturdays!


Moving on to the food! Each part of Electric has of course it’s own menu, but for Cork Burger Festival there are 4 burgers to look out for:

• Fish Burger
• Wagyu Burger
• Buffalo Cheeseburger
• 6 oz Beef Burger

I started off the evening with the Crispy Haddock Fish burger, along with some Sauvignon Blanc as white wine cause really well with fish. Although I had heard what was in the burger before trying it, I was still surprised with every bite I took as it came with new flavours. The first thing you’ll notice are peanuts, which I originally thought would be a crust but they’re served as a whole instead. It’s such an uncommon thing to find on a burger, especially when combined with carrots and Asian veg and Sriracha Crème Fraiche. The haddock burger came with some parmesan wedges as well, which has a lovely crust and flavour to them and made it a bit more special than the usual fish & chips meal.
After a short break we continued with the Wagyu burger and the 6oz burger, both were served with different salads as well as chips. I had mine with sweet potato (no cream) on the side however, and dear god was that a good choice! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good chip, but as I’m intolerant to white potatoes I’m trying my hardest to resist them. I wasn’t sure what to expect of how the sweet potato would be served but I was really surprised with how well it was cooked. Soft and smooth, and a very generous portion as well!
The burgers themselves were fantastic, which ended up in me eating way too much! I honestly have no clue how I managed to eat all that food but I think i’ll be sticking to salads next week. Anyway, the Wagyu burger came with curried onion, a large baked flat mushroom, tomato, mixed leaves and a toasted brioche bun. I am quite glad that all burgers came with different buns as I’m used to always having the same type of bun. I think the brioche bun is my favourite for sure of all the burger buns I had this week. I never had wagyu meat before, it’s quite the difference from beef I must say but it matched so well with the other ingredients of this burger, it absolutely was a total winner!

Alongside the Wagyu burger came the 6 oz Burger, which came with a crispy bun, tomato, rocket salad, Monterrey jack cheese, soft fried onions, bacon and a lovely dressing with mustard as well as a fennel & carrot & pink peppercorn pickle on the side. I was torn up between whether I liked this one more than the Wagyu burger more or not, cause I really loved the dressing and cheese on this one (and bacon, cause I mean come on, burgers and bacon are a match made in heaven!) and I’m still not sure which one was my favourite meat burger, they were both just so good!
If you are heading down to Electric for burgers, they also currently have a Double Buffalo burger which as created for the festival as well. You can order it downstairs in the bar (where they are very passionate about burgers all year round) and it comes with cheese and bacon! I wish I had tried it as well, but I don’t think I would’ve been able to after the amount of burgers I had the last two days. I’ve heard great things about it though so if you want the chance to try soms sustainable buffalo burger: get your ass down to Electric!

The night was ended in style with Blackberry Sorbet and Crème Brûlée. I was over the moon with my sorbet as it was such a fresh and light ending to the evening, especially as I had it with some peppermint tea afterward. I had a really lovely evening at Electric, and the decor was so gorgeous as well. I had only ever seen the downstairs so I had no idea of the gem that was hiding upstairs. If you are lucky enough to get a seat by the window, you’ll be mesmerised all night long by the view of the city and the river.
I don’t usually pay much attention to the interior of restaurants but I did notice that Electric has put a lot of effort in their design. They had origami on the walls, a very funny looking bird lamp and the interior of the Fish Bar is just fantastic, along with the views I mentioned before.
If you don’t have any plans yet for the weekend have a look at my blog post for more info on the festival or check out festivalcork.com! Many restaurants in both city and county Cork are offering loads of burgers, some which you won’t be able to find throughout the rest of the year as they were created exclusively for the festival.