We go to Ireland for the food!

I am pretty good in the kitchen, but I am terrible at cooking fish. I am also one of those people who likes to eat fish, but only if it is not “too fishy”, which I know sounds ridiculous. As for Matt, he loves fish in almost every form — the only time I can remember him not liking a fish dish was on in a restaurant on Lake Iseo, where they made an antipasto plate that included a dried fish that was the same consistency as a gummy worm. THAT was a step too far.

We put a ton of effort into finding gastro pubs and restaurants in Ireland, for ourselves and for our clients. You can eat incredibly well in gastro pubs, which often have the most incredible, “fancy” food in a relaxed, casual environment - this is an important factor for us, as we don’t really enjoy the atmosphere of more formal, high-end restaurants.

It has been our experience that there is excellent food to be found all over Ireland, but it does require effort to hunt out those special places. We had some excellent food on our recent research trip to Ireland, but there were a couple of duds too – places that looked online like they would be great, but in person we realized they were back there literally microwaving a steak. This is one reason among many that we only recommend places we have personally been to ourselves; and we don't take kickbacks or discounts, so we can give an honest opinion.

Here is a roundup of some of our favorite dishes from last week’s research trip.