Food · The week
Seven nights, built around eating
Dublin to Cork to Kinsale to Galway, in the order the food makes sense, with the drives, the bookings and the rooms.
This is one week, not a menu of options. It moves in one direction, it never doubles back, and it leaves two evenings deliberately unbooked. Two dinners on it need reserving months ahead. Everything else can be decided the morning of.
Day by day
Day 1 · Dublin
Land in Dublin and eat like you live here
Twenty five minutes from the airport. No car for two days.
- Late lunch at a pub that cooks: chowder, brown bread, a pint of stout.
- Dinner somewhere unfussy in the Liberties rather than the tasting counter. Jet lag ruins a long menu.
The first night is the one people waste on an ambitious booking they cannot taste. Eat early, sleep, and spend the appetite tomorrow.
Reserve this day
Room
Clontarf Castle Hotel
Fifteen minutes from the airport and out of the city noise. Book the room before anything else on the week.
Guided day
Howth seafood and craft beer trail
The best half day in Dublin for anybody who came for the sea. Runs most days, sells out at weekends.
Day 2 · Dublin
The Dublin table, properly
On foot. Everything below is inside a half hour walk.
- Morning at a bakery counter, then the Saturday market if the day lands right.
- Dinner at the one Dublin room worth booking months ahead. Two courses of anything else in the city will not touch it.
Book this dinner before you book the flights. It is the only reservation on the week that cannot be improvised.
Reserve this day
Table
Chapter One
The one Dublin dinner to book before the flights. Reservations open about two months ahead and go the same week.
Counter or market
Sheridans Cheesemongers
Ask what is eating well this month and buy that. No booking, but check the trading hours.
Day 3 · Cork City
Drive south, eat in the English Market
Two and a half hours on the M8. Collect the car after breakfast.
- Lunch upstairs over the English Market, with the stalls below doing the shopping for you.
- Dinner in Cork city, which cooks better than its reputation and charges less than Dublin.
Cork is the best eating city on the island for the money. Two nights here beats one night in four different towns.
Reserve this day
Room
Hayfield Manor
Ten minutes from the English Market and the right base for two Cork nights.
Counter or market
The English Market
Closed Sundays. Go before noon, then eat upstairs at the Farmgate over the stalls.
Table
Farmgate Café
Lunch on the balcony above the market. Walk-ins work midweek, book for a Saturday.
Day 4 · Cork City or Shanagarry
East Cork: the cookery school day
Forty minutes east, and back the same evening.
- A half day course or a garden walk at the cookery school, booked in advance.
- Dinner in the house dining room, which changes daily with whatever the farm cut that morning.
This is the day that explains modern Irish food. Everything else on the week is downstream of it.
Reserve this day
Guided day
Ballymaloe Cookery School day course
Sells out further ahead than any dinner on the island. Book direct, months out.
Table
Ballymaloe House dinner
One menu, changed daily with whatever the farm cut that morning. Reserve when you book the course.
Day 5 · Kinsale
Kinsale, and the boats
Fifty minutes south west of Cork.
- Lunch off the pier: crab, hake, whatever landed.
- Dinner in a small room on a narrow street, followed by a whiskey in a bar with a fire.
Kinsale is the best-eating small town in Ireland, and it is small enough to walk between the three places that matter.
Reserve this day
Room
Perryville House
Kinsale's best small house, and the boats are visible from the room. Twelve rooms only.
Table
Fishy Fishy
Book lunch rather than dinner and sit outside. Closed some winter days.
Day 6 · Galway City
West to Galway
Three hours north through Limerick. Break it at a farm shop.
- Oysters and a glass of stout at a counter on the way in.
- Dinner at a fire-cooked Galway room, the loosest and most enjoyable meal of the week.
Galway cooks with less ceremony and more nerve than anywhere else on the island. Come hungry and take the wine pairing.
Reserve this day
Room
Glenlo Abbey Hotel
A base for Galway's restaurants without sleeping in the noise of them.
Guided day
Galway Food Tours walking tasting
Sheridans, the market and the bay's shellfish with a guide who knows the growers.
Table
Aniar
A Michelin star built on the west's shoreline. Eight weeks out, and take the pairing.
Day 7 · Connemara or Shannon
Connemara, then home
Ninety minutes to Shannon for an afternoon flight, two hours back to Dublin.
- Saturday market in Galway if the day allows, otherwise a long country house breakfast.
- A last plate of smoked salmon before the airport, and a vacuum pack for the case.
Fly out of Shannon rather than doubling back to Dublin. It buys you the whole final morning.
Reserve this day
Counter or market
Galway Market
Saturday and Sunday beside St Nicholas' church. Worth reshuffling the flight for.
Counter or market
Burren Smokehouse
Vacuum-sealed oak-smoked salmon that travels home legally. On the road to Shannon.
Build the trip around it
Where we would stay for a food trip
Hayfield Manor
Cork City
Ten minutes from the English Market and inside striking distance of Ballymaloe and Kinsale.
Glenlo Abbey Hotel
County Galway
A base for Galway's restaurants and the Saturday market without sleeping in the noise.
BrookLodge & Macreddin Village
County Wicklow
The Strawberry Tree cooks wild and organic only. The one Irish dining room built around its own supply.
The weeks this fits inside
7 Days in Greater Dublin: The Definitive Itinerary
Four nights in Dublin, three in Wicklow. The base change at Day 5 is the trick most itineraries miss.
7 Quiet Days in the West
Two houses, no rush, seven days. The West held at the pace it actually keeps.
7 Days for the Second Trip
Three bases, no first-time beats, the Ireland the second trip is for.
Book the week
What to reserve, and in what order
Rooms first, because the good ones in Kinsale and East Cork go before the restaurants do. Then the two dinners that carry the week. Then the cookery school morning, which sells out earlier than any dinner on the island. Tours and market walks can wait until you land.
Where to eat on each leg: the dining guides. Costs, tipping and timing: the practical guide. Why we eat this way: the essay. Back to the food hub.