With my first introduction to Ireland, I was determined to eat my way across this ancient land. I was on the search for places to eat in Dublin.
Ask someone what they know about Irish food and they will probably tell you about corned beef and cabbage, green Budweiser, or a dozen brands of whiskey. Then there’s always going to be the potato, forever associated with a famine that decimated the Irish population nearly two hundred years ago. They would be wrong of course.
Ireland is covered in a mosaic of partitioned fields and pastures made of dry stone fence and bramble hedgerows. People have been fishing and farming here since a thousand years before the first stones of the pyramids in Egypt were set.
Places to Eat in Dublin: Some Must Haves
Dublin is a party city that gets started at about 11:00 in the morning and stays up until nearly dawn. Temple Bar district is choked with mostly visitors, hopping from bar to bar. A tourism economy, combined with the darker side of urban life, Dublin carries with it a strong industrial scent. Like burnt machine oil. It’s the aroma of chip grease. A good start to finding places you want to eat is by checking Viator. Starting your experience begins with the first step of getting your passport.
Fish and Chips
Leo Burdock has been cooking up world-famous fish and chips since 1913. I took a seat at a table just as they were opening. The Leo Burdock aesthetic is that of a retro 1950s diner from the 1990s, blasting oldies music loud enough to rattle your fillings. There’s nothing like two big pieces of batter-fried cod and a pile of fried potatoes drizzled in malt vinegar to set you right after an overnight flight. I don’t know if the fish quite earned the title of world famous, but they provided a nearly inexhaustible supply of malt vinegar at each table.
The Perfect Pint
A must-have in Dublin is the perfect pint of Guinness, Ireland’s most popular beer. Part of the reason popularity in the States drops off after St. Paddy’s Day might be that it doesn’t travel well. Too much handling, time, and travel can bruise it and leave it tasting very bitter. Many tourists hit Temple Bar Pub for their perfect pint, as it is one of the first delivery stops from the Guinness brewery.
With long waits to get in, I stopped at the Brick Alley Cafe across the street instead. It gets its deliveries at the same time as Temple Bar Pub. The cafe was quiet and well-lit, with only myself, the staff, and a young couple on a first date inside. I ordered a slice of cheesecake with organic berries and a pint of Guinness. Creamy and smooth, it lacked the harsh bitterness I’ve associated with stout. Truly a perfect pint.
The Full Irish Breakfast
Throughout Dublin, you will see signs for the full Irish breakfast at just about every pub or restaurant. Just take your pick. I chose Keogh’s Cafe. A full Irish breakfast consists of everything in pairs: two eggs cooked sunny side up, streaky bacon, pork sausage links, black pudding, white pudding, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes. Two slices of sourdough toast accompany this feast, each with a generous dollop of Irish butter.
White and black pudding are both made with boiled suet, oats or barley, and meat, which is later sliced and fried. The two are similar, except black pudding is made from congealed pork blood. Don’t let that put you off. Both are delicious.
Delicious Baked Goods
Every morning, Bread 41 entices passersby with rows of baked goods lined up and visible through the front windows. Inside, a wave of warm, pastry heavy atmosphere washes over you anytime someone opens the front door. I ordered a sausage roll (pork sausage cooked in puff pastry), pain au chocolate, and a tea to drink while I looked out onto a melancholy rainy morning. For Bread 41’s fifth anniversary, they included a cruffin, which is croissant dough baked into a muffin and filled with either jam or custard.
Coffee or Tea?
Strong, aromatic, and packing plenty of caffeine to get you going, the Irish drink a lot of tea. Tea with milk and sugar costs only two or three euros. If you order tea with a meal, you’ll usually get your own infuser for a few refills. Ordering a coffee gets you one 10 oz. flat white for around four or five euros.
Dublin’s Oldest Pub
On a recommendation for lunch, I stopped at the Brazen Head, which claims to be Dublin’s oldest pub. Like most pubs in Dublin, it was crowded, mostly with American tourists. After a long wait, I ordered a pint of Guinness and a bowl of stew. This traditional stew consists of beef simmered in Guinness and topped with mashed potatoes. My meal appeared sometime after ordering, lukewarm and pretty tough. The pint must have traveled a long way, because it was far from perfect. It might be an in-joke too, since no fewer than three pubs claim to be Dublin’s oldest.
Unexpected Places to Eat in Dublin for Dinner
Deciding to avoid the pubs again for dinner, I ducked into a Vietnamese restaurant. Large cities attract a lot of strikingly good immigrant cuisine and Pho Ta beat the competition of KFC, McDonalds, or American BBQ for international fare. A large steaming bowl of beef pho with spring rolls and hot jasmine tea was what I need after a long day of walking in intermittent drizzle. Comfort food from half a world away.
How Things Have Changed
With long quarantines for visitors and strict travel policies, Ireland took its pandemic lockdowns very seriously. The aftermath was evident in the number shuttered shops, social distancing signs, and derelict sanitation stations that still remained.
Attractions such as the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College required you to purchase tickets via mobile app. Restaurants relied on cut menus, available by scanning a QR code, and bars still provided outdoor seating with infrared heaters to combat the chill. Festivals were just beginning to come back, and the people were just beginning to return to a semblance of pre-pandemic life. Hotels along the coast were booked solid with Ukrainian refugees, who piled onto buses and trains whenever they got the chance to head to the cities.
A New Era of Food Reflects Tradition and Places to Eat in Dublin
Ireland is a country filled with some of the most resilient, fun-loving, and hospitable people, who aren’t too proud to laugh at themselves. Their food reflects ancient agricultural traditions as well as the influence of newcomers to this beautiful country. And I can’t wait to go back.
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