There is simply no denying that when it comes to eating and drinking, we are completely spoilt for choice here on this little island of ours.
And don’t go thinking it is only Dublin that is getting all the hipster eateries and fabulous foodie places. Oh no. There are eateries scattered across the land you really need to put on your bucket list – pronto.
Earlier today, the Irish Times released their list of the top 100 places to eat in Ireland, and needless to say, we feel very hungry right now.
Go onto their website to see the full list, but here are just 5 places from this list that, based on the Times’ descriptions, we are dying to eat in soon:
1. Sweet Beat Café
Bridge Street, Sligo. 071-913 8795. sweetbeat.ie
“The narrative that everything good happens in Dublin while the rest of the country is slowly turning to one big Super Macs gets disrupted by places such as Sweet Beat. Carolanne Rushe’s bright corner cafe in Sligo town puts heart and craft into the veg by applying the same principles that work with any other offering: cook it from scratch with the best ingredients. Their chilli hummus is a work of art and they sell it by the tub. Lots of pomegranate pretenders are riding the clean eating wave with joyless sweaty quinoa salads. Sweet Beat is banging a better drum.”
2. Fia
155b Rathgar Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6. 01-441 3344. fia.ie
“I got an email from a colleague about Fia last year. It’s a cafe, he wrote, run by a “quite shy” chef called Keith Coleman, who regularly cooked the Fumbally suppers. It me took a while to get there, but when I did it was heartening confirmation of how good our young cafe scene has become in recent years. Coleman teams great vegetables from McNally Family Farm with Gubbeen cheese and cured meats and Le Levain sourdough. It’s a holy trinity of good eating. And there are daily specials that are worth the trip to this in-between stretch of road between Rathmines and Rathgar.”
3. Bean in Dingle
Green Street, Dingle, Co Kerry. 087-2992831.beanindingle.com
“Justin and Luke Burgess opened Bean In Dingle in June 2015 with a mission to supply Dingle with more options for speciality coffee. Working closely with Cork-based coffee roasters Badger & Dodo, the Burgess brothers and their sister Georgia serve up flat whites and filter coffees throughout the year. The food is limited to hot porridge in the morning, with a DIY topping bar, and plenty of locally supplied sweet treats such as cinnamon rolls from Orla Gowen’s excellent Bácús Bakery, just down the road on Green Street. This is the place for a brew in the Kingdom of Kerry.”
4. East by The Rocket Man
38 Princes Street, Cork. www.therocketman.ie
“Jack Crotty is one of my food heroes. I can’t tell whether my admiration comes more from loving his delicious falafels at East in the beautiful Winthrop Arcade or digging the inventive salads at his first business, The Rocket Man, on Princes Street. Or maybe it’s because of his innovative projects such as Food on Board highlighting issues around food waste at the Body & Soul festival. All I know is if Crotty is involved, I’m into it.”
5. The Green Barn
Burtown House and Garden, Athy, Co Kildare. 059-8623148. www.burtownhouse.ie/green-barn-shop
“A family runs The Green Barn at Burtown House outside Athy and it’s a lovely spot to bring the kids. I would be overstating my parenting success to say they wolf down their greens when they have a view of the spectacular kitchen garden where some (or all of them) grew, but it does help. And the grown ups get to taste the place in a restaurant where the food clocks up minutes from soil to plate rather than miles. Beet and goat’s cheese is a boring restaurant staple in other places, but here it was a rediscovery of why some food clichés just work.”
