Eating Dublin

While I did plenty of walking in Dublin, Ireland , I also ate and drank plenty. The city, as any urban hub does, had a variety of options, including more than a couple Tex-Mex/Mexican restaurants. I could not bring myself to try any Tex-Mex from Ireland though.

On Sunday morning, I was alone, just finished attending Mass, and in need of coffee. I found a lovely little coffee shop on Lord Edward Street called Bittersweet (all Flash site , their Foursquare page). The baristas were nice, the space was cozy but still enough space to work. It is right on the main drag and opened at 7 am. On the weekend, I realized that many of the coffee places opened later and Bittersweet saved my day. My only complaint is the sandwiches take an unexpectedly long time to make.

For coffee and baked goods, there were some places close to us, in addition to Bittersweet, that were nice. The Queen of Tarts had a beautiful selection of baked goods. They were also pretty popular, so plan accordingly. A block away from our apartments, Caffé Comino was my day-to-day go to for a flat white on my morning walk.

We visited this fantastic Japanese restaurant, Yamamori Izakaya, which had an expansive menu, great service, and wonderful food.

We visited a few others places, including a lovely vegetarian place, Cornucopia.

In Ireland, though, you don’t think of coffee shops or sushi. You think of Irish food and Irish pubs. We tried plenty of them, including Brazen Head, which claims to the oldest pub in Ireland from 1198 and hosts a lovely story telling session, an Evening of Food, Folklore, and Fairies.

Arthur’s Pub, across from St. Catherine’s on the way to Guinness from the city centre, is a nice pub playing Irish music, lacking TVs, with both traditional Irish favorites and even a salad or two—had to offset the rest of the food and beer from the week.

For breakfast one morning, we had a “Full Irish Breakfast” at O’Neill’s Pub, across from the Molly Malone statue. For O’Neill’s, the full breakfast included pork sausages, bacon, black and white pudding, grilled tomato, baked beans, mushrooms, fried egg, toast and jam, coffee, and a Dublin potato cake.

We had a nice dinner of boxty pancakes at the aptly named Boxty House. Jet lag hit me hard this night, so I barely made it through dinner without falling asleep and skipped out early to call it a night.

We went to a pair of pubs owned by Galway Bay Brewing, Against the Grain and the Beer Market. The beers were top-notch with good pub food.

I even ended up with a hot dog.