Box'd! Drive Thru Coffee in Cork

27/07/2026: Firsrt for the good news. Food was all good. No complaints about that whatsoever. Service was EXTREMELY slow. When I rang to make a booking while travelling to Cork, I was directed to make a reservation on their website. There were only a few options left at that stage so I chose 6:30 pm. Booking confirmation stated that the table had to be vacated by 7:55 pm. Got to the restaurant at 6:20. Spotted that there were a number of empty tables and we were directed to a table for 2. Things went rapidly downhill from here. Our order was taken about 20 mins later. We had not ordered a starter but two main courses. While we were waing we noticed that there seemed to be too few waiting staff. The kitchen was obviously under pressure as different tables were not receiving their orders with the same time relative to when they placed their order. When we asked when could we expect our main courses. We were curtly told "It is being plated up" and arrived on our table at 7:35 - no word of apology. At this stage it was over an hour since we sat down. There was no way that we would have been finished before the advised vacate time of 7:55 p.m. It was delicious. Again no sign of any staff once we had finished to clear away the table until we manage to accost one 20 mins later. I reckon that ordering desserts would create more delays so just opted for coffees instead. At that stage I decided to go to the till and pay the bill. I asked if they were under pressure do to unexpected walk-ins. It was confirmed to me that all the tables had been allocated by their reservation system. This should have shown exactly how many staff should be rostered to cover busy periods. This indicates to me that there reservation system is flawed. The worst case interpretation is that insufficient numbers of staff are employed as policy. This experience has made me question if I will return as there is no guarantee of how long service will take before I sit down. Eating out is not about the food but the overall experience for customers as well. This not intended as a rant, just constructive criticism. Spending over 2 hours to just have main courses and coffees IS excessive, when you could probably have turned over the same table within that amount of time. This is ultimately costing you money in the long run.

24/07/2026: Wow! Absolutely amazing. Get the burrata! Also everything else on the menu lol.