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Ireland Info · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 18 Home Country: ireland

FOOD & DINING IN IRELAND

GENERAL

Irish cuisine isn't very fancy. There's no frogs legs or any of that stuff. The only way to describe Irish food is as traditional, healthy, farm style home cooking, made up of hearty soups and stews, home made breads and of course, potatoes that come roast, fried, boiled, mashedevery way imaginable.

Popular Irish dishes include Bacon and Cabbage, Dublin Coddle, Irish Pheasant, Dublin Bay Prawns, Crannach (seaweed) along with every kind of seafood under the sun. The west of Ireland, produces excellent seafood, most of it caught by traditional methods dating back centuries.

Ireland's best known whiskies include Jameson, Paddy and Bushmills. Guinness, Ireland's most famous stout, is often used as an ingredient in Irish recipies. It's also particularly popular with Oysters. The Clarinbridge Oyster Festival held in County Clare every year is an incredibly popular event.

Ireland has become a multicultural nation that draws its culinary influence from nations all over the globe. Along with traditional Irish food, there's every kind of international cuisine available here.

Local Specialties

• Dublin Bay prawns.

• Oysters (served with Guinness and wholemeal bread).

• Irish stew (traditionally made with mutton or old sheep, now mostly made with lamb or juicy beef, this dish is usually served with potatoes, stock, onions, carrots and garlic).

• Crubeens (pigs’ trotters).

• Colcannon (a mixture of potatoes and cabbage cooked together).

• Soda bread.

• Soufflé made with carrageen (a variety of seaweed).

DINING IN DUBLIN

Ireland's largest city is also the nation's culinary capital. From the lowliest greasy-spoon diner serving the kind of deep-fried food that your arteries will resent, to the fanciest Michelin-starred restaurant where eating is a veritable culinary journey, Dublin is a glutton's delight.

Interesting Places

L'Ecrivain
Many foodies consider this the best restaurant in town. It's the prime place to experience sophisticated French cooking matched with high-quality Irish ingredients, served in a surprisingly laid-back setting. Expect lots of seafood - wild Irish salmon, Dublin Bay prawns, baked rock oysters - innovatively prepared and beautifully presented.

near Merrion Sq
Southside
109A Baggot St Lower
tel - 661 1919
Open: Mon-Fri 12:30-14:00, 19:00-22:30, Sat 19:00-23:00

Ely
Wines from around Europe are what this sophisticated little joint does best - the wine list includes 70 wines by the glass. There's also some very decent rustic cooking to be savoured, like homemade burgers, bangers and mash, and pasta dishes, all of which are prepared with free-range produce from the owner's organic family farm in County Clare.

22 Ely Pl
near Merrion Row
Southside
tel - 676 8986
Open: Mon-Wed 12:00-24:00, Thu-Sat 12:00-02:00 except drinks 15:00-18:00 only

Eden
Eden is the epitome of Temple Bar chic with its trendy waitstaff, minimalist surroundings and terrace onto Meeting House Sq. But the food is the real star with the likes of blackened salmon, pork brochette with peanut sauce and other fusion dishes. The terrace is coveted on summer Saturday nights when films are projected onto the nearby Gallery of Photography.

Meeting House Sq
Temple Bar
Sycamore street
tel - 670 5372
Open: 12:00-15:00, 18:00-22:30

Cornucopia
Cornucopia serves up hearty vegetarian and vegan dishes that change daily. Dine in a relaxed, country-kitchen atmosphere with hot meals that include soups, casseroles and quiches, all served with salad. There's a vegetarian cooked breakfast as an alternative to porridge, muesli and French toast.

19 Wicklow St
around Grafton St
Southside
tel - 677 7583
Open: Mon-Wed & Fri-Sat 08:30-20:00, Thurs 09:00-21:00

Café Bar Deli
In a stunning building housing three separate eateries, this is a new branch of the super-successful Café Bar Deli chain. It offers thin-crust, imaginatively topped pizzas and homemade pastas which are also sold by the family-sized bowl. Good, fresh food at prices that won't break the bank in a buzzing atmosphere. No reservations allowed.

Grafton St
Dublin 1
Bewley's Bldg
tel - 672 7720
Open: 12:00-23:30

Halo
Housed in the slick Morrison Hotel, Halo is visually stunning - soaring ceilings, a wall of mirrors and striking artwork. But this shouldn't distract you from the Ireland-meets-continental Europe fusion fare such as fillet of sea bream and Carlow lamb rump. Critics complain the menu competes with staff for stuffiness; in truth the clientele wins hands down.

Ormond Quay
Morrison Hotel
Northside
tel - 878 2999
Open: 07:00-10:30, 12:30-14:00, 19:00-22:30

Jacob's Ladder
Here's one of the only city-centre restaurants with a remarkable view - and with prime-seat positions over the playing fields of Trinity College, what a view it is. The food is innovative and light, and ranges from grilled goat's cheese to roast quail. The lunch menu is excellent value - and the angel's perspective on the city is free.

east of Grafton St
Southside
4-5 Nassau St
tel - 670 3865
Website: www.jacobsladder.ie
Open: Tue-Sat 12:30-15:00, 18:00-22:00

Roly's Bistro
Roly's is a Dublin institution that's always packed with people and serves reliably good food. There are basics (leek and potato soup) and more adventurous fare (gorgonzola and asparagus tart) but most people come back for the Kerry lamb, the pork stuffed with rhubarb and apple, or the Irish beef. Book ahead.

7 Ballsbridge Tce
Ballsbridge
tel - 668 2611
Open: Daily 09:00-15:00 & 18:00-22:00 except bookings from 12:00

Gruel
Gruel is the best dish in town, whether it's for the super-filling lunchtime roast-in-a-roll - a rotating list of roast organic meats stuffed into a bap with home-made relishes - or the exceptional evening menu, where pasta, fish and chicken are given an exotic once-over. Queue and share elbow space with the table behind you, it's worth the effort.

Dublin 2
68A Dame St
tel - 670 7119

The Tea Rooms
The Tea Rooms resembles a church with its soaring ceiling and double-height windows flooding the room with natural light. An innovative menu marries classic French cuisine and Irish produce: think steamed seabass, iceberg beurre blanc and deep-fried Carlingford oyster, followed by roasted rabbit, Clonakilty black pudding, truffle mash, young leeks and porcini.

6-8 Wellington Quay
Clarence Hotel
Temple Bar
tel - 670 7766
Open: Mon-Fri 12:30-14:45 & 18:30-22:30pm, Sat 18:30-22:30pm Sun 11:00-14:45 & 18:30-22:30[/b]