With Guinness as rich as its landscapes are green — and whiskey never far from reach — Ireland’s charms can be drunk in and eaten up from the moment you arrive. And while its culinary reputation has soared in recent years, nothing quite compares to tasting your way around the island yourself. Over the course of a week on the emerald isle, we set out to discover what truly makes Irish cuisine sing — meeting the makers and sampling the freshest coastal catches along the way.
1. The Cultra Inn, Belfast
Set in the landscaped grounds of the Culloden Estate and Spa, overlooking Belfast Lough, this cosy spot is perfect for relaxing by the log fire and enjoying Belfast’s best fish and chips. Expect lightly battered cod with all the classic trimmings — including triple-fried chips for extra crunch — served with a backdrop of easy-going folk music.
2. Dunluce Lodge, Portrush
Whether you’ve spent the day teeing off at the Royal Portrush Golf Club just next door or exploring the rugged Antrim coast, The Vault and chef’s table at Dunluce Lodge offer an intimate retreat for lovers of fine spirits, wines, and oysters caught along the Causeway Coast. From the smooth richness of a single malt to the layered character of a small-batch bourbon, you’ll find something to tempt your taste buds here.
3. Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen, County Down
Just outside Belfast, by the quiet waters of Strangford Lough, you’ll find Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen — a cosy 17th-century thatched cottage with a come-on-in attitude. Here, you can learn to bake Irish soda bread the traditional way. Before you begin, there’s warm buttermilk bannock from the oven, raspberry and coconut scones, lemon balm tea, or a cup of Tracey’s mulled wine to ease you in. The experience is all about measuring ‘from the heart’. It’s the kind of workshop that feels personal and unhurried, providing you with new skills to take home.
4. The Eddison, Dublin
Tucked into the ‘West Village’ of Dublin, the Eddison Restaurant and Ruby Room at the Dylan Hotel Dublin are worth setting aside an evening for. At The Eddison, the menu ranges from Ars Italica caviar to John Stone beef, finishing with vanilla panna cotta paired with raspberry, rose, and lychee jelly. Afterwards, slip into the Ruby Room — named after Miss Ruby Stokes, the matron of the Royal City of Dublin Hospital in the 1920s. It’s easily one of the city’s most elegant cocktail bars. Whether your glass holds a premium Añejo or a spirited Spicy Margarita, this is a refined setting for coming together with your favourite people.
5. House Restaurant, Ardmore
On this dramatic stretch of coastline in Ireland’s gourmet heartland, you’re perfectly placed to savour some of the country’s finest culinary treasures. At Michelin-starred House Restaurant within Cliff House Hotel, each dish is gently shaped by the elements — local produce, sea air, and a quiet sense of place — all coming together in harmony with your palate. Inside the intimate dining room, washed in soft seafoam greens and warm terracotta, you’ll find yourself ready to relax and settle in. After a day of spa pampering or coastal wandering, the seven-course tasting menu feels like the natural conclusion — a slow, thoughtful way to sink into the rhythms of Ireland’s Ancient East.
6. English Market, Cork City
The English Market is a sensory jolt in the best possible way. The aroma of just-baked soda breads mingles with the salty freshness of the fish counters, where gleaming hake, monkfish and scallops sit proudly on crushed ice. Cork’s famed spiced beef is sold here by butchers who’ve been perfecting their recipes for generations, while West Cork cheeses — Gubbeen, Durrus, Milleens — tempt even the most casual grazer. Wander a little further and you’ll find Hungarian pastries, Middle Eastern spices and small-batch Irish chocolates, all jostling for attention beside shelves of crusty breads and jars of local relishes.
7. Panorama Terrace & Bistro, Cork City
Perched high above the city of Cork, the Panorama Terrace at The Montenotte offers sweeping views of the twinkling streets below, and the gentle flow of the River Lee. As you sip a glass of something exceptional (the award-winning rosé is a good place to start), be sure to order the indulgent chocolate cake topped with a hazelnut crunch and a silky scoop of coffee ice cream.
8. Ballymaloe House Hotel, East Cork
Dubbed the birthplace of Irish cuisine, Ballymaloe House Hotel is the kind of place that invites you to let out your waistband — 300 acres of working farmland, woodland paths, and kitchen gardens setting the pace for everything that happens on the plate. Just a short stroll away, the award-winning Ballymaloe Cookery School — run by the Allen family and rooted in Darina Allen’s farm-to-fork philosophy — buzzes with culinary life. Students wander between glasshouses and dairy rooms, learning the sort of skills that define Ballymaloe’s down-to-earth, confident cooking: baking real sourdough, stirring jams from just-picked fruit, and harvesting herbs moments before they hit the pan.
Back at the house, the restaurant feels like the natural extension of that ethos. Each day brings a new menu shaped entirely by the farm —vegetables pulled from the walled garden at dawn, still-warm loaves from the bakehouse, and eggs gathered from hens that roam the orchards. Dinner begins with the famous hors d’oeuvres table, a generous spread of seasonal salads, homemade pâtés, and delicate pickles that feels a little like stepping into the Allen family kitchen. And then there’s the finale: pastry chef J.R. Ryall’s legendary dessert trolley, gliding between tables with fruit tarts, mousses, meringues and other treats that have become Ballymaloe legend.
All around the house, decades-old handwritten recipes from Myrtle Allen herself hang framed on the walls — gentle reminders of the pioneering spirit that shaped this culinary haven. It’s tradition, innovation and genuine hospitality all rolled into one.
9. Kinsale, County Cork
Kinsale has long worn the crown as Ireland’s foodie capital, and it doesn’t take more than a wander through its colourful streets to see why. Start with the seafood — Fishy Fishy is the town’s unofficial temple to the day’s catch, serving plates that taste as if they’ve come straight off the boats (because they have). Over at Le Bistro, the legendary 24-hour slow-cooked pork belly is the kind of dish people plan return trips around: meltingly tender, lacquered with its own juices, and impossible to forget. And because no visit should end without something sweet, KoKo’s artisan chocolates — handmade just down the road — make a worthy final stop (all just an hour’s drive from Cork).
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