When traveling one of our favorite things to do is to try as much of the local food as possible. When we stayed a week in Ireland we indulged in a lot of Irish Food. It can be hard to know what food is truly traditional and local so here are some uniquely Irish food you must try during your Ireland trip.
Want some ideas on where to visit in Ireland? Check out our Ireland Road Trip!
Main Meals
Of course, we cannot all only eat dessert; nor would we want to! Ireland has some pretty incredible main dishes. They have also done some great things with potatoes. Now I love potatoes so the dishes in Ireland are ideal for me!
Beef & Guinness Stew
With a cool, rainy day getting Guinness stew is the way to go! The beef is slowly cooked with Guinness in the gravy. This makes the beef incredibly soft and it falls apart. This beef stew is paired with delicious mashed potatoes. Additionally, to soak up some of the gravy you get a couple slices of soda bread and some incredibly Irish butter. Irish Butter is incredible, go get yourself some!
Cottage Pie
While generally known as Shepherd’s Pie, Cottage Pie is the non-kidney version. Now I’m not a fan of the traditional Shepherd’s Pie, I do love cottage pie! This pie uses ground beef instead of kidneys. The difference is important when you’re ordering food. You may find many places offer ground lamb instead of beef. Of course, the mashed potatoes are deliciously buttery.
Lamb Pie
Unlike cottage pie, this pie does not feature mashed potato. It is a raised pie or hand pie with lamb inside. The lamb is stewed and slowly braised over many, many hours. This makes the lamb incredibly soft and juicy. It also makes the pie even easier and more delicious to eat. The pie also includes some additional vegetables and herbs. Some places might make these pies with Irish Stout.
Bangers & Mash
Other than fish & chips this dish is the other Irish dish I really wanted to try. We went to Darkey Kelley’s and got ourselves some Bangers & Mash. This pub had some great traditional dishes. The bangers – sausages- have a great mild flavor. I do not like overly seasoned sausages because they overpower the meat in my opinion. The best part of the dish is the sauce. The onion gravy is divine and I’d like a pot to bring home.
Fish Pie
Fish in Ireland is a big deal. As an island with a large fishing industry, you cannot get much fresher fish. I love fish and shellfish so I tried as much of it as possible. Fish pie also includes a variety of shellfish as well. The creamy base includes seafood and some veggies topped with creamy mashed potatoes. The potatoes are made creamy with Irish butter (you can probably see by now how much I love Irish Butter in Irish food and all potatoes).
Boxty
One of the foods I was most excited to taste was Boxty. It is like a pancake made with potatoes. We went to The Boxty House in Dublin to try it from the pros. They use the pancakes as a bottom for a variety of toppings. We were between the Garlic Boxty and the Lamb Boxty. I settled on the garlic boxty. I still think about boxty to this day.
Fish & Chips
The main thing I wanted to eat when I came to Ireland was fish & Chips. I had several different fish and chips at multiple different places. Every single one was incredible. An excellent and crispy fish that remained its flakiness as well as wonderfully salty “chips”. The one below had a delicious salad. You can’t have fish & chips without some tartar sauce.
Traditional Irish Breakfast Foods
I love trying traditional breakfast foods. This is weird for me because growing up, breakfast was my least favorite meal. I was particularly excited to try a traditional Full Irish Breakfast.
Soda Bread
Soda Bread is the traditional bread of Ireland. A well-done soda bread is not dense, but slightly crumbly. Many times there will be dried fruit in the bread as well — a nice, thick toasted slice with a hefty amount of Irish butter. While you can totally eat the sliced bread as a breakfast, you’re more likely to eat it as a part of a larger breakfast.
Black Pudding in a Traditional Irish Breakfast
A Full Irish breakfast consists of roasted tomatoes, baked beans, eggs, sausages, black pudding, and hash browns. Usually, you’ll also get a slice of soda bread to go along with it. So full disclosure I do not like baked beans so I didn’t technically get a full Irish breakfast. Larry had one though! Black pudding is a must-try. It is a pork sausage usually made with the blood. Don’t let the blood scare you off.
Smoked Salmon
Love smoked salmon! It is a great addition to breakfast. I had a great Egg Benedict that had smoked salmon in the place of the ham. Smoked salmon is such a big deal in Ireland that you could buy some to go at the airport. As an island country, it makes sense that this is such an important part of Irish food.
Traditional Tea Time
Scones
We had scones several times while in Ireland. I love scones so much that I made some when we got back. The scones in Ireland are soft and fluffy. They are not the overworked, dry scones you might be used to in the States. Scones may come plain or with fruits in them. I prefer them plain. Definitely a must-have in Ireland.
Irish Breakfast Tea
This is a black tea and it is pretty highly caffeinated when it comes to tea. Now that you’re in Ireland might as well have some Irish breakfast tea! In terms of traditional Irish foods, you can’t beat the tradition of tea. We had several tea breaks throughout our travel in Ireland. You can add milk and sugar to your tea to make it to your liking.
Tea Pastries
By far my favorite part of Irish tradition is afternoon tea. I’m pretty sure I said the same thing about Argentina. Why can’t we have tea time more regularly here??
Anyway my rambling aside, the pastries for tea time are 10/10. I love the little cakes and the bite-size profiteroles. The assortments of cakes and pastries make tea time an adventure. We even got a macaroon. We also got some finger sandwiches. The coronation chicken sandwich was my favorite one.
Traditional Irish Drinks
Whiskey
Ireland is known for its spirits and pubs. Obviously, Dublin is a big Guinness town, however; whiskey is a big deal as well. There are several places to learn about whiskey and how its made. You can also taste the whiskey at these distilleries. We tried a flight of whiskey. It is much stronger than we anticipated. But it was fun to try the different local whiskies.
Guinness Beer
Dublin is known for its Guinness beer. No matter where you are in Dublin you can see the influences of the Guinness. No trip is complete without at least one pint of Guinness. Some locals even swear that different pubs have better pints of Guinness than other pubs. Definitely ask people about the best pubs to check out. We highly recommend a tour of the Guinness Factory.
Hot Chocolate
The one thing we learned while in Dublin is that they take hot chocolate very seriously! While traveling around the city we found many different chocolate shops that sold chocolate and hot chocolate, nothing else. We stepped into a cute shop called The Sweetest Thing which had a sign stating they have the best hot chocolate in Dublin. After going multiple times, we concur. It’s incredible.
Final Thoughts About Irish Food
There is so much delicious and incredible food in Ireland. There is a lot of diversity in the food. It is very hardy food. It is particularly great for cool, rainy weather. Makes sense that hot chocolate is so popular in Dublin given the pretty constant rain. Don’t be shy to try new foods. Pop into different pubs and try out all the different traditional Irish foods!
