The Best Places to Eat and Do in Ireland

A former Victorian coaching inn in the Wicklow hills, refurbished into something you might call shabby-chic Irish country house, without any of the irony that phrase usually implies. The front bar still feels like a proper pub, but the airy dining room runs a menu that skips the theatrics in favor of straightforward cooking, local cod from the Irish Sea, beef cheeks in a bun where another kitchen would just do a burger.

The carriage house and old gardener's store rooms of Marlfield House have been turned into a relaxed bistro with a sunny terrace and a cocktail bar that fills up before dinner. The menu roams freely, landing somewhere between an Irish pulled pork bao and spiced lamb kofta, though the seafood from nearby Kilmore Quay is what gives the place its footing. Casual enough that nobody's keeping score on what you order.

A compact brasserie inside what was once a beloved local bakery, The Glass Curtain has traded loaves for lamb saddle and côte de boeuf without losing the neighbourhood feel. The monochrome room with exposed pipework is sharper than it sounds, and the menu is built for sharing, with portions sized like they mean it. The kitchen keeps things pared back and lets the produce argue for itself, which it does.

Family members who actually seem happy to be working together fill the room at this warm, modern restaurant in Letterkenny's Courtyard Shopping Centre. The kitchen keeps its attention on Donegal produce, whether that's local fish, meat, or vegetables from nearby Ballyholey Farm, and the cooking is clean and unfussy. Desserts tend to be the highlight, with things like salted caramel cheesecake closing things out on a strong note.

Exposed brickwork, old engravings, and worn wooden furniture set the scene at this long-standing Dublin pub that also does a serious sit-down meal. Two spacious dining rooms sit alongside a cosy bar, and the cooking runs to the sort of thing a pub should do well: rib-eye and chips, bread and butter pudding. The service is the kind that makes you feel remembered, even on a first visit.

A tall, narrow townhouse overlooking Trinity College Park, The Pig's Ear is a sit-down Irish restaurant where the menu reads like someone raided a grandmother's recipe tin and a history archive on the same afternoon. The chef digs into old-school Irish cooking without playing it safe, so boxty pancakes and suet puddings show up alongside lobster omelette. Comfort food, but with a raised eyebrow.

Dried flowers and dark green walls set the mood at this Stoneybatter spot, which runs as a casual café by day, coffee and viennoiserie included, then quietly shifts gears into a dinner restaurant come evening. The kitchen leans heavily on seasonal produce and a low-waste approach, pulling influences from across the globe into dishes that tend to look as good as they taste. A neighborhood place that knows exactly what it's doing.

The fish tank behind the bar is your first clue, and the walls covered in nautical odds and ends are your second. This old-school pub in the coastal village of Liscannor has been in the same family forever, and the kitchen leans hard into whatever came off the boats nearby. Lunch is straightforward; dinner gets a little more ambitious. The Michelin Guide has had it on the radar for years.

The name splits the difference between Blackrock and Foxrock, which gives you a sense of the neighborhood. This is a modern Mediterranean restaurant spread over two floors, quieter upstairs and livelier down where the open kitchen adds to the noise. The menu moves with the seasons and isn't shy about mixing ossocollo with shiitake dumplings. The wine list is carefully chosen, and the team actually knows it.

A Neapolitan pizza shop on one of Dublin's more laid-back residential strips, where the dough gets the kind of patient, unhurried treatment that most places just describe on a chalkboard. The menu runs wider than you'd expect, and the sweet-savory combinations sit alongside proper Italian desserts that don't feel like an afterthought. It landed at number 49 on 50 Top Pizza Europe, which the regulars in Rathmines probably already knew.

Foliage and soft lighting give this wood-fired Neapolitan pizza spot the feel of a neighborhood pizzeria that also happens to look good. The team trained under Enzo Coccia, and the modern Neapolitan style shows: classics executed cleanly, toppings shifting with the season. It ranks on the 50 Top Pizza World list, which is about as serious as pizza credentials get. The drink list holds its own, and the staff, many of whom started as servers, treat the room accordingly.

A Galway pizza spot that splits the difference between Neapolitan tradition and something a bit more its own, The Dough Bros sits in Cathedral Buildings and draws a lively, informal crowd that clearly has opinions about dough. The crust is long-fermented, lighter than it looks, and sturdy enough to carry toppings that veer well beyond the classics. Local ingredients and global instincts share the menu without much apology. Listed among 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias.

Canteen-style southern Indian cooking in Dublin 1, where the gunpowder dosa arrives crisp, golden, and carrying enough spice to make a point. Thalis give you the full spread: dal, lamb curry, fried cabbage, paneer, all served together the way a good thali should be. The room is no-frills and the prices match, which means the lunch crowd moves fast. Mirchi bajji, fried green chiles dusted with peanuts, makes a fine opening argument.

A narrow wine bar on Drury Street where the shelves are stacked with bottles from small natural producers and the daytime menu runs a cheese toastie that has no business being as good as it is. After half five it's charcuterie and cheese plates only, which is a perfectly reasonable consolation. The by-the-glass list changes often enough that regulars rarely order the same thing twice.

A halva brownie with a crisp edge and a gooey center is doing a lot of the talking here. Tang is a casual dinner spot leaning into Middle Eastern and North African flavors, the kind of place where smoky mushroom shawarma and lamb kofta in Moroccan tomato sauce land on the table without the bill requiring a quiet moment of grief afterward. The room fills fast, and the menu makes it easy to order more than planned.