Review of O’Conaill’s Chocolate shop and cafe
December 22nd, 2007
Yesterday was lovely, a typically crisp Winter’s day. The boys all had school but Sibéal had finished pre-school the day before, so herself, myself, Síofra and DH headed into town to do a wee bit of last minute shopping. Thankfully nothing urgent, so all were relaxed and enjoying walking around taking in the Christmasy atmosphere around the shop and festivities.
We decided to go to O’Conaills for coffee/hot chocolate. The shop itself is a chocoholics paradise. So many different varieties of chocolate, so little time. Drinking chocolate packages made up which would make great presents aswell as plenty of standard boxes of chocolates, bars, select your own etc etc. Would highly recommend it.
We headed to the back of the shop which is the cafe. As we had the buggy, upstairs was too much hassle. Luckily there weren’t any other customers downstairs so we got seats immediately.
Lattes for us and Sibéal ordered the kiddie’s hot chocolate. Unfortunately, there did not appear to be any biscuits, scones, buns on sale, just drinks which is a bit of a pain, as Síofra is a smidge partial to a fruit scone every now and then!
Service was pretty slow, the waitresses were more interested in having a chat amongst themselves than serving the drinks, it would seem. After a while, they did arrive and yep, they were worth the wait. The lattes were yummy, warm, not bitter, hitting the spot. All the drinks were served with a tiny paper cup of mini chocolate buttons, a variety of dark, white and milk chocolate. Yummy.
Sibéal’s kiddie hot chocolate was pronounced to be “delicious” and she appeared to thoroughly enjoy it.
Will definitely pop in again, there’s a fine list of hot chocolates and coffees on the menu that will just have to be sampled!
Edited 01/04/08:
I returned there this morning and had a fabulous hot chocolate. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful or attentive as I bought some chocolate goodies on my way out too. Would definitely recommend a visit if you’re in Cork.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, reviews
7 Comments Add your own
1. lette | December 23rd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Merry christmas to you and yours
have a good one 
2. Manic Mammy | December 23rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Cheers Lette,
Nearly all sorted here, though I’ve that niggling feeling I’m missing sommat, probably one of the kids…..
Anyhow, hope you’ve a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2008.
3. Maria Power | February 16th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Slightly insulted by your review.
As one of the waitresses who was working that day I feel obliged to defend myself and my colleagues.
Christmas is our busiest time (and an important one for the business as it’s the time the shop makes the majority of its profit). The shop employs five waitresses in total, three of us were working at the time you visited and had been working solidly in a packed shop for the previous week (I remember the time so clearly because I’d only had a single day off in the two weeks running up to Christmas and no time to tend to my own shopping).
There are two reasons that the business (which is small and family-owned) makes a profit at all. The first is that the quality of our chocolates speaks for itself and people tell their friends. The second is that people enjoy coming to the shop and find us friendly, attentive and polite. In the time that I’ve been working for O’Connaill’s, I’ve never once heard a complaint about a member of staff. Perhaps you were queuing for longer than you would have liked; but we can only take so many orders at once and only make two hot chocolates at a time. I see no reason why we shouldn’t be entitled to have a conversation while doing so. After all, we were run off our feel for eight hours straight. However, if it was quiet at the time you visited, you’ll understand that it was a much-needed break.
I apologise if I sound a bit surly; but as I said, I do find it insulting to be accused of ignoring customers when my workmates and I pride ourselves on the fact that (unlike many others working in retail) we value the importance of being good to our customers and also that as the business is a small one and word of mouth is a powerful thing we wouldn’t like people to have a bad impression of us.
I’m pleased that you thought so highly of our coffee and chocolates. Please drop by again and see if we can change your mind about our manners!
4. Manic Mammy | February 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hi Maria,
We must have just been there on a bad day as you say. The shop was very quiet and I didn’t notice any other customers there before us, so it was a bit irritating and surprising to have to wait a good while for our drinks. We were seated adjacent to the service area. As you can imagine, kids tend not to be very patient whilst waiting for anything and we had the baby and 4 year old with us.
As I said, it was worth the wait and I shall definitely be returning next time I’m in Cork and have no doubt I’ll enjoy the next visit.
Hope you’ve had a bit of a break since the hectic xmas period!
5. Evin | December 1st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
This is such a thorough post about O’Conaill’s - more so than any website I’ve seen.
6. Hot Chocolate at O’&hellip | December 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
[...] spot! There is seating upstairs and the seats and tables are lower than restaurant-height. This is a helpful review (two actually). O’Conaill’s is open Monday though Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Great place [...]
7. Manic Mammy | December 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hi Evin,
Yep, I remember struggling to find any web-info on O’Conaill’s prior to writing this.
I think I was hoping they had a fabulously chocolately website but was disappointed!
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