Bramley Lodge

If you are visiting Cobh/​Fota/​Middleton be sure to pay this place a visit. All meals throughout the day are excellent. Service is very good and they welcome children. They also have a deli. I would highly recommend their Bakewell tart. If you have a crowd (6 – 8) and want some space ask for the (only) table upstairs

Le restaurant est très sympa, les serveurs très accueillants et ils sont toujours près à répondre à vos attentes. Le menu est réalisé avec des produits locaux et les plats sont excellents. Bön rapport qualité/​prix

If you’re heading to Fota, I’d definitely recommend stopping off here for your coffee and cake fix. Lots of well-​sourced Irish goodies (it probably helps that Fitzpatricks is just up the road), delicious food and nice coffee. If the weather is especially good, they have a nice terrace out front.
Oh, and some goats. I guess if you’re neighbour is Fota Wildlife Park, you need some animals of your own on-​site.

Ok so I might have been hoping to see some Giraffes roaming around seeing as we were next door to Fota, but it was not to be. Bramley Lodge is set in a very scenic part of Cork and is a great place to stop if you are visiting the wildlife park. Think Avoca style café with Avoca style prices.
I had the quiche of the day with side salads and it was pretty damn good. Paired with a glass of wine for € 12.95 it was definitely the best «bargain» on the lunch menu. Well more like the only bargain. If you are into cakes and tea I reckon this is the place to come. They look huge and inviting and it seemed everyone in the restaurant apart from me had ordered one.
But the best bit thing about Bramley Lodge,…no its not the food, the wonderful décor or the lovely staff… it’s that they have baby goats in their car park, yes baby goats! Giraffes are so over rated anyway

Amazing roast. Slow service but very friendly.

Lovely spot on the way to Fota.
Great food — especially gluten free cakes, etc.
Good coffee.

Know this place well. Like the concept of it, and it’s certainly popular, but the food is overpriced and the quality is hit and miss. My biggest problem with this place is that the customer service is often extremely poor: very brusque/​indifferent attitude at the cash desks (where you’re often left standing for ages before anyone deigns to take your money); some of the waiting staff are also offhand and will frequently leave you sitting for ages without taking your order, or take ages to deliver your order.
The shop is also overly expensive, and the car park is far too small (and people parking their cars all over the road is causing chaos).
Such a pity that this place has such poor customer service and bad attitude.

BRAMLEY LODGE 21.01.11
Regularly make a call to Bramley Lodge if I’ve been to Fota. Did so again the other day but time was short and couldn’t stay long enough for lunch. Did the next best thing and raided their freezer.
Settled for Chicken, Leek and Smoked Bacon Pie (€ 9.95) and that didn’t last too long in our house. Added some green beans and had a delicious main course. Had started with Bramley’s own Seafood Chowder (€ 7.95), an excellent creamy creation and loads in the container for three to four servings.
Dessert also came from the Lodge though initially from further afield. Bought a pack of beautifully wrapped Amaretti Virginia (€ 3.95), special biscuits from the heart of the Ligurian Region. Enjoy them with a sweet wine, urged the blurb, and in the Pfeiffer Rutherglen Muscat (Karwig Wines), we had just the match.
Spotted another import on the Bramley shelves: Spanish Carbonell Vinagre de Vino Blanco, 350 ml, (€ 2.10). Haven’t tried that yet. The shop, alongside the busy restaurant, carries a good range of local produce. I was tempted also by the Ardsallagh Goats Cheese Cranberry Roulade but had to put it back when I noticed that it was out of date. Forgot to mention that on the way out.
BRAMLEY LODGE
Bramley Lodge, a café cum country food store, opened about a year ago and has been attracting costumers galore since.
It is well situated, just off the main Cork-​Waterford Road (N25) on the way in to Cobh, on your left just before you cross the first bridge (to Fota).
Location no doubt has something to do with but it also has a top class product. Called in there (about 12.30) yesterday for lunch and it was already filling up; indeed, the car park was full but there is more room on the road.
I choose the Fish Cakes, two big ones, enhanced with lime and sweet chilli. They were served with a decent salad and sweet chilli sauce. No shortage of fish in the cakes (salmon and cod). All in all, it was gorgeous and most of the other dishes on the menu also looked good and tempting.
So tempting in fact that, on the way out, I bought one of them from the fridge: dinner enough for two plus a bottle of wine for less than € 15.00. Prices at the restaurant itself, which opens at 7.00 for breakfast, are also quite reasonable (the fish cakes came to under € 12.00). Service is good, friendly and efficient, and there are two bright rooms, one a conservatory which looks out over the bridge and part of the estuary.
All in all, there is an emphasis on good quality local food and that is also seen in the shop where I also bought some goats cheese and Bramley’s own marmalade.
Bramley Lodge is proving extremely popular with visitors to the attractions on Fota (Wildlife Park, Fota House, Hotel and golf) and to Cobh (where you may enjoy the Heritage Centre, more golf, quayside walks, art galleries, Farmers Market on Friday, visiting liners and much more).