Restaurant review
Our food critic dines at The Glass Curtain
Fun fact of the day: the Swiss roll produced by the old Thompson’s Bakery in Cork city was once so popular that its dedicated factory produced a mind-boggling mile of the stuff a day. Established in 1826, Thompson’s closed in the late 1980s, and its iconic building on MacCurtain Street now houses a hotel and a number of other businesses, one being Brian Murray’s The Glass Curtain, which takes its name from a distinctive 20th-century addition to the 19th-century original.
Murray, a Cork native who worked abroad in Dubai and San Francisco, and also as a private chef on fancy yachts (bet he has a few Below Deck stories), says he had no clue what he was doing when he moved back home. “It was a bit of a shock to the system,” he says, “I’d never run a restaurant before.”
Opening in December 2019, Murray initially planned something casual, but the pandemic offered a chance to re-evaluate. Now customers have a choice between an €80 tasting menu and an a la carte. The food may be elevated, but The Glass Curtain is cheerfully notions-free, and service is nicely friendly.
In charge of front-of-house is another returned local, Wesley Triggs, who used to manage Brawn on London’s Columbia Road.
Tuesday evening and the restaurant is full and buzzy. Maybe I’ve lived a sheltered life, but I’ve never been offered a cocktail listing cheese as a component before, so it’s a dirty martini made with Method And Madness gin, Belsazar dry vermouth and a gordal olive stuffed with Cashel Blue for me. Does it work? I’m not convinced — it’s not cold enough for one thing — but full marks for trying.
We opt for the a la carte over the tasting menu, kicking off with a brace of jambons. Our server sells them as a Cork signature, though, to my mind, they’re a more widespread Spar/filling station/deli-counter indulgence.
Murray’s riff on this national treasure is a delicate little cheesy gougere — today he’s using Hegarty’s cheddar — on a puff pastry base topped with a sliver of lardo and a morsel of dill pickle. There’s a little cumin in here too and it makes for a delicious mouthful. Our server tells us she’s also partial to the version from the Aldi freezer.
Scallop crudo is beautiful to look at but, much more importantly, a joy to eat. Murray seasons sliced scallops with lemon salt before covering them with an airy, lavalike saffron-yellow sabayon; there’s amaranth for toasty nuttiness and texture, soft sprigs of dill and chervil, pretty spring flowers (wild garlic and primrose foraged by chef Epi Rogan), and droplets of oil made from blood-orange skin and Korean chilli. In other hands, this could be overwrought; here, it is pure class.
Murray dresses his tartare of hand-cut rump, the pieces larger than is traditional, in a ravigote, a reduction of meat jus with herb oil, capers, mustard and vinegar. There are warming spices too — paprika, cinnamon perhaps — along with puffed barley and some pretty pink radicchio leaves. It’s very tasty.
The fish options sound so good that we choose both over the alternatives of duck, lamb and celeriac, and in preference to the carnivore’s dream of a sharing beef chop we see heading in the direction of another table.
The fish comes from Glenmar in Union Hall and Ballycotton Seafood in portions more generous than you might find elsewhere. The sauce with the turbot and violet artichokes starts with artichokes braised in olive oil. Murray adds aromatics, cream, butter and a little dry sherry. It’s rich, subtle and very good. John Dory comes with smoked leeks and a chicken butter sauce. Sounds simple, tastes magnificent.
There are smoked potatoes and good leaves with a flurry of Cáis na Tire; Murray says he is spoilt for choice by local growers such as Horizon, Cork Rooftop and Kilbrack Farms. For pudding, I think The Glass Curtain may be missing a trick in not offering its take on a Swiss roll, but a classic choux with praline and hazelnut ice cream is no hardship.
Murray has a painter’s eye; his food is vibrant and colourful. But it’s not a case of style over substance. The fact that the grill (rather than a sous vide) is at the heart of the kitchen makes it clear that his priority at The Glass Curtain is flavour. With that dirty martini, water and a carafe of the Maison Ambroise Bourgogne Aligote (€32), the bill for two comes to €188 before tip.