← All events
food-drink · Saturday 15 August 2026 · 6:00pm 
VQ Shared Table - Cork on a Fork Fest 2026
At MacCurtain Street · MacCurtain Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
At MacCurtain Street · MacCurtain Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
Once a year, MacCurtain Street closes to traffic and opens as Cork’s longest dining room. The VQ Shared Table is the headline event of Cork on a Fork Fest, seating 500 people elbow-to-elbow down the length of the Victorian Quarter for a four-course communal dinner cooked by 20 chefs. This is the kind of evening where you arrive a stranger to the people beside you and leave having shared dishes, poured wine back and forth, and argued pleasantly about which Cork restaurant does it best. It suits anyone who loves food cooked seriously, served generously, and eaten in good company.
Ten of Cork city’s most respected restaurants collaborate on the evening: The Glass Curtain, The Metropole, Greene’s, Paladar, The Dean, Isaacs, The Address, Da Mirco, Thompson’s, and The Shelbourne Bar. Each kitchen contributes to a four-course sharing menu, so the table fills with plates that circulate rather than sit in front of one person. The evening opens with a welcome drinks reception - Birra Moretti, PepsiCo, and West Cork Whiskey are among the sponsors - before the food begins in earnest.
New for 2026, the whole street is covered by a stretch marquee, so there is no anxious glancing at the sky. Previous years saw the event pushed indoors to The Metropole Hotel when conditions turned; that fallback still exists for severe weather, but the marquee means most guests will dine outside on the street as intended. Capacity has grown from 400 diners in 2025 to 500 this year, a mark of how much demand the event generates.
The VQ Shared Table runs on Saturday 15 August, in the middle of Cork on a Fork Fest week (12 to 16 August 2026). Tickets sell out well in advance.
Cork city is straightforward to reach from most of Ireland. The M8 motorway connects Dublin directly, and Bus Éireann runs frequent intercity coaches on the same corridor. Irish Rail operates several services daily from Dublin Heuston to Cork Kent Station; the journey takes roughly two and a half hours. Kent Station itself is a 10-minute walk from MacCurtain Street - cross the river at Brian Boru Street and you are there. City buses from the centre serve the street regularly. Parking in Cork city centre has ample multi-storey options; on a Saturday evening, spaces open up as offices close, though the riverside car parks near the Opera House fill quickly.
The Victorian Quarter is one of the livelier parts of the city at the weekend, and MacCurtain Street is worth a stroll on any evening for its mix of restaurants, bars, and the Everyman theatre. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to MacCurtain Street in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.