Irish Food: Quays Restaurant and Oneils Pub
- Big Changes are Coming! New Job, Dublin, and Auckland Marathon!
- Dublin Marathon 2013 Trip Introduction
- Flight Dublin-Sydney Update – 11 hours in Lufthansa New First Class!
- Layover at CDG, The Louvre and iPass Lounge CDG
- The Louvre in Paris
- Diverted Flight and First 24 hours in Dublin
- Dublin Marathon 2013 Expo and Packet Pickup
- Temple Bar, Guinness Factory, Old Jameson Distillery
- Cheap Eats: Hot Wok and The Italian Connection
- Dublin Marathon 2013 Race Day and Review
- Irish Food: Quay’s Restaurant and Oneil’s Pub
- National Museum of Ireland
- Clarion IFSC Dublin Hotel Review
- Clarion Dublin Airport Review
This post summarizes the local Irish food I found in Dublin. There were mainly served in pubs. At first, a good Irish restaurant was a bit hard to find online but there were a few:
Quay’s Restaurant:
The restaurant is bigger than it looked from the outside. It is on the second floor. The main room (not picture) had a number of tables along with the bar. There was another area (picture) just to the right of the bar where there were additional tables. There were mainly single tables on the right side of the room (same side as the picture) while there were tables of 4 on the left side of the restaurant.
I had a pint of Smithwicks before the meal. This was the last Irish beer on my list. It was very good.
The appetizer was a pan fried spring onion and bacon boxty cake. It was good. For the entree I got bangers and mash. It was very good. The gravy was very nice. Not too salty but also had some good flavor that complimented the mash potatoes and sausage well.
I usually don’t get dessert but I wanted to try everything at the restaurant. I went for the Quay’s Famous Brown Bread and Bailey’s Ice Cream. It was very good. The Bailey’s Ice Cream was great. The brown bread were just crumbs that was mixed into the ice cream. It sounded odd but it was very good. Its just like cookies and cream but instead of the cookies, it was brown bread crumbs.
Oneil’s Pub
I actually went to the wrong one twice, and both times it was closed so I wasn’t sure what to think. Eventually I went to the other Oneil’s Pub and found out that I was going to the wrong location all along,
This place is set up like a carvery. There is a pub on one side while the sandwich counter and hot food counter was on the other side of the pub. You order at the counters and pay there. You can take the food anywhere inside the Pub.
Sandwich bar in the first picture, and a tap at the table on the right. I can’t be sure if it really worked.
Carvery in the first picture. Most of the entrees and sides were under the glass with the chunks of meat to carve in the area between the glass areas.
I ordered the Guinness Beef Stew. They had to get it from the back. The rest of the sides were piled on top of it, which didn’t look appetizing. The dish was still very good. I skipped some of the vegetables so it wasn’t as messy.
I also ordered a side of the black and white pudding. The white pudding was good while I found out I just don’t like black pudding at all. I had it a few places in Boston and here. Oneil’s Pub black pudding was supposed to be very good and I still didn’t like it.
Irish breakfast at Brick Alley Cafe:
I was walking around Temple Bar area and this was rated well and looked like a decent place for breakfast. I stopped in to get an Irish Coffee and a traditional Irish Breakfast.
This was a nice cafe with some flyers for local music, film festivals and other shows.
The Irish Coffee was very good. The breakfast was good as well. The white pudding was good and the eggs were cooked well. I ordered my eggs over easy.
On the walls are paintings for sale. I would guess that they were taken by local photographers. There was a woman who were rearranging the pictures.
Summary
I managed to find local food in Ireland. I would need to make a second trip to try some other traditional Irish dishes. Usually the best rated restaurants serve what they call modern Irish cuisine, which means it’s expensive. I may want to stick to the traditional Irish dishes.