Is Galway worst place too eat in Ireland?(or recommend good value restaurant)

RDM_83 again

Hi moved too Galway about 3 months ago. Now I understand that not that long but what I've found is the value of eating out in Galway at all the "levels" I've tried is poor.

In terms of takeaways/ fast food, it says it all that on this board at the minute there is two relevant threads firstly the one about there being no Italian chippers in Galway (only found three places so far decent in McDonaghs and place opposite Roisin dubh though tiny portions there and finally place of choice the Golden Wok, this compared to Dublin where I lived literally 5 minutes walk from 3 of similar or higher standard )
Second relevant thread, the fact that people have an 80 post thread about the excitement of KFC opening, KFC is decent but it only tastes really good if your used to eating crappi Supermacs chicken (if ever in Ennis or Cork try out Hillbillies chicken)


In terms of pub grub had some decent meals, like the soup and sandwich offers around at lunch but haven't had anything that stands out in either taste or quality.

In terms of wine bars, I've read that Cava has nice food I have not been there, though I would like to go I have been put off by two facts, very short early bird and the fact that wine seems to start at over 20 euro a bottle this puts me off, part of the wine bar thing for me is drinking (and from what I've seen from italy and greece they would agree). They should offer 1 litre caraffes of house wine for e20 or under
ps this should be possible since thats what Bar Pintxo in Templebar do and their 50 metres from a pub that gets away with selling Guinness at more than a fiver)

In terms of the higher end the same applies I haven't tried them due to cost vs review issues. I have not seen a deal for a meal with wine deal that looks good for less than thirty. (ps mean early birds)

Compare to Dublin where couple can eat in Louis Bistro for 60euro for 3 courses and bottle of wine,
La Mere Zou for 28 without drink (it is a French restaurant on Stevens Green though)
or 40 euro to eat at the Michelin starred Chapter One.
If looking for something Cheaper the Argintinian Steakhouse, Koh's or even any of the FXB's places.

I understand that Galway is smaller than Dublin and won't match its range, that why I'm not complaining about the fact that if for some reason I wanted to eat Frogs legs Congee for breakfast I couldn't, what I'm complaining about is the fact that price of eating out in Galway is higher in general for worse and I can't see ground rents in Galway being any higher than Dublin otherwise I wouldn't be drinking 3.30 pints of Beamish on High Street (which is great :-) ). Every other city I've been to In Ireland at least makes up by being cheaper than Dublin for some level off dining.

/rant off


Ps I really really like La Salsa, the Krishna food at the market and the Domina big pizza and pitcher is pretty good too.

any recommendations would be great I don't mind paying as long as its obvious what your paying for.

dinneenp

If ever in Cork try Jackie Lennox's- the BEST chipper in Ireland. FACT. Chips n curry sauce.

For Galway try lunch at Tamaraind (by Spanish Arch). Lunch for a tenner and it's virtually the same as their evening menu.

Vina Mara (highly rated by loads, not me though) do lunch for a tenner. It's considered to be one of the best in Galway.

Milanos often have buy one main course get one free vouchers online. They have customer loyalty card- every 4th main is free. That's the way a loyalty card should be 'in these recessionary times', not every 10th...

WiseMona

RDM_83 again -

Firstly - stop comparing Galway to Dublin. We have a population of less than 75,000 people. End of story. You will never ever find what you are looking for here, if you keep pining for those tasty treats you had in Templebar.

Secondly - stop complaining. You have only been here a few months, hardly time to make friends or discover all the great places top eat in Galway. It takes 12 FULL months to settle into a new city.

Thirdly (and finally) - you are not far off. Even though it is my hometown and I love it, Galway is in the dark ages when it comes to offering 'good value for money eats' at a restaurant.

Lucky for you one of my friends who lives in Waterford was 'nightcrawling' last night and threw me this thread to see if I could help out a 'newbie'.

Breakast:
Best deal, consistent and yummy - Trisha's on Upper Abbygate Street.

Bread:

Brown Soda - Morton's of Salthill (near Warwick hotel) and they have great priced take our dinners too and a load of yummy stuff.

White crusty baguette - The Gourmet Tart. Ask for the Poppy seed Ciabatta. Delish - every time.

Lunch - eh, take advantage of the recessionary times we are in and pack a sandwich. The GT (above) does great sandwiches but I think are a little pricey. And yeah - not sure anywhere else would be worthy to place on my WiseList right now.

Dinner - BK French Restaurant on the Spanish Arch. Consistent, great prices (check out their 3 courses) and the wine prices are very fair. Their foie gras is yummy too, but all the food we have eaten here over the years are great. Do not be in a hurry though. They are French and believe you should eat slowly (or buy a second bottle of wine while you wait - you decide).

ALSO

Bar No. 8 on the Docks. New menu, well priced. Lots and lots and lots of local fesh stuff and if you sign up to them on FB you can be alerted to the 'Prawns just of the boat' blurbs! (Oh - and best beer selection in town).

Ard Bia (Spanish Arch) is good but unfortunately not consistent and can be pricey. Same goes for Sheridan's on the Docks.

DaTang Noodle House - great for Chinese take-away. Awesome food, very consistent, well priced. Asian Tea house is good too, but waaaaaay over priced.

Cava, Abalone (Dominick Street) are ok, they get a lot of hype, but are just soooo pricey and tbh not that great at all.

Cases Wine Warehouse (Tuam Road) is where you should be buying your Wine. Great 'Case' prices and great discounts on FB or via email.

That is all I have time for but I will kick it around some more today and see if I can pull any other gems out of hiding. I was just at McSwiggans for a wine tasting dinner and it was good, but really just average food for decent price. I prefer to have excellent food for the right price :P

Are you a SlowFood member? You may want to join. Galway has a great active membership and you will meet all kinds of foodies who will be more than willing to help you find what you are looking for!

That is all for now,

Welcome to Galway - great you highlighted the flaws of your new hometown, now get out there and do something about it!

WiseMóna

dafunk

I like decent, healthy, tasty food that hasn't had it's neck rung, been battered and put in a deep fat fryer. My choices would be

The cottage in salthill for tapas
Cavas on Dominik street for tapas.
Il fotellini (sp) on quay street for Italian.
Da Robertas in salthill for Italian.
Nimmos at Spanish Arch for Sunday brekkie.

Fuinseog

galway does not do pretention. its too laid back for it.

if you want 'good' food you will pay for it, same as any where else. there are a few restaurants around Galway with exotic names offering ordinary food in the guise of exotic, but in general most Galwegians don't care for them.

Scoobydoobydoo

I won't bother really comparing Galway restaurants to Dublin (where I live), but generally I find things more expensive there (and Kilkenny) than elsewhere in Ireland, and it's very annoying, so I avoid.
I don't know about what is good value, but have experienced a place that was such bad value as to be shocking, as it was thronged, with a queue out the door in a main tourist area.
A place I love in Galway is Oscar's in Dominic St., have beed three times, and would be happy if I never went anywhere else when in Galway.

Fey!

For a good quality dinner out without costing the earth, then try Kirbys on Cross Street or Park House on Forster Street.

For chinese, try the Royal Villa above the aquarium in Salthill (formerly of Shop Street), or Da Tang Noodle House on Middle Street. Indian is covered by the Kashmir across from the fire station or on Mary Street, or Tulsa on Buttermilk Walk.

The new pizza place beside Yes Flowers on Cross Street is fantastic; I work next to it, and the smell wafting from it drives me crazy, and makes me long for pizza!!

For treating yourself to dinner, then I'd be looking at Abalone on Dominic Street; pricey, but consistent high quality, and you won't still be hungry at the end of the meal.

For bread and sandwiches, there's Griffins on High Street, or the new french place on Mainguard Street, Petit Something (formerly the Galway Taxis office).

For "exotic", try Tamarind by the Spanish Arch or the place over Tigh Neachtain on the Quay Street side. I have yet to see frog legs or escargot on a Galway menu, unfortunately. Exotic here tends to be anything that isn't lamb, beef, pork, chicken, salmon, trout sea bass, or duck!

For lunch, there's the Quays for carvery (and you won't go hungry!). The Dail and Busker Brownes (or Kirbys) on Cross Street are good (soup and sandwich specials), or you could try the Cobblestone or Goyas on Kirwans Lane (homemade food).

Cactus Jacks, went there not expecting much and I was very happy after the mea. Great staff, great service, prices are reasonable and the portions are good too. The quality of the food and ingredients were damn near perfect for the fare they were serving

Wompa1

Fuinseog wrote: »

galway does not do pretention.

you can't be serious with that comment! Maroon tinted glasses

dinneenp

dinneenp wrote: »

If ever in Cork try Jackie Lennox's- the BEST chipper in Ireland. FACT. Chips n curry sauce.

I think their stuff is greasy muck tbh, The burgers are ok but the chips are awful. I'd rather eat in supermacs.

si_guru

Breakfast... Tesco.

lavaghball

Am a big fan of the Woodquay Bistro at the moment.
They are over Bar an Chaladh and have specials from about €6 to €9 everyday. the portions are hooge and the food is lovely too.

And the fry up is savage...

Fenster

Galway really does have a solid range of restaurants, even if you are restricted to a single choice:

Mexican (kinda...sorry, I'm used to the real thing)? La Salsa
Sushi/Japanese? Kappa-ya
Burgers? Boogaloo
Franklin's in the Galway Shopping Centre do the most amazing breakfast rolls bar none.

My biggest sorrow is that while we have a couple of generic "Chinese" or "Asian" restaurants, there aren't any dedicated Korean grills.

fend

Fuinseog wrote: »

galway does not do pretention. its too laid back for it.

+1

Probably the truest thing i'v ever heard

Edgedinblue

RDM_83 again wrote: »

I understand that Galway is smaller than Dublin and won't match its range, that why I'm not complaining about the fact that if for some reason I wanted to eat Frogs legs Congee for breakfast I couldn't

technically you just complained.. a little!

but in all fairness, youre talking about dublin alot, even italy and greece came into your rant. ive done the whole comparison thingy, moved here three years ago and compared everything to dublin but not to that extent.

you said you wanted cheap wine, hit up tesco like the rest of us! you want fine dinning, cook it yourself.

deal with galway for what it is or GTFO

inisboffin

Sadly, there is no *proper* sushi place in Galway. While Kappa Ya and the other place are nice, they just do smoked salmon sushi, raw fish license is a whole different thing.
I LOVE sushi, and head for some whenever I can in Dublin.

Johnny Zimbabwe

Go back to Dublin, problem solved

kodute

Just gonna name 3, that I've been to more than once.

Finnegans - Abysmal both times. Service and food. Won't go back.

Cava - Great food, love it, but serving a group together: they get things waaaay wrong.

Oscars - Awesome everytime. 3 visits later and they still have it. Food is also reasonably priced for what you get.

I've found galway like most places. Some hit some miss. Just gotta know where to go.


All of these are my opinions so if you disagree.... **** off.

brianthebard

WiseMona wrote: »

RDM_83 again -

Firstly - stop comparing Galway to Dublin. We have a population of less than 75,000 people. End of story. You will never ever find what you are looking for here, if you keep pining for those tasty treats you had in Templebar.

Secondly - stop complaining. You have only been here a few months, hardly time to make friends or discover all the great places top eat in Galway. It takes 12 FULL months to settle into a new city.

This is a bit strong, a lot of people on these boards/ in Galway love to compare it to Dublin and claim that it is in many ways better, or combines the best of big and little city. Of course when its being criticised at all suddenly its a small town that can't hope to match up. Secondly, why bother arbitrarily putting a 12 month settling period on the town? A person with their eyes and mind open can acclimatise and analyse faster if they wish.

Thirdly, I agree pretty much with everything the OP has said. I don't eat out an awful lot but more often than not I've been disappointed with what Galway has to offer (and I'm here about two years now). You mentioned bar no.8 as good but me and the gf had a pretty below average meal there and aren't interested in going back. I'm sure they can be good but the biggest problem I've found in the last while is reliability- I've eaten in Kelly's a few times and it was nice once and then afterwards really sub par. I've found the same with a lot of places in galway and when you combine it with Dublin city prices its not a good combo. Only Cava and the Malthouse have been consistently good imo, and they aren't beyond reproach either;Cava's service is deathly slow, while the Malthouse raised their prices for valentines weekend while having the exact same meals at lower prices on the regular menus, which were on the table at the same time as the valentines menus.

Sherifu

kodute wrote: »

Just gotta know where to go.

This.

TheCosmicFrog

I always find it funny how The Front Door is never mentioned as being a good restaurant. It's by far my favourite restaurant in the city and is the nicest, freshest pizza I've tasted in Galway. And yes, I've tried almost everywhere considered to have "good pizza" - except Fat Freddies admittedly!

What I do know is that it's one of the few places in the city which is consistently good - I haven't had a disappointing moment. Give it a go if you haven't already, I'd be surprised if you didn't have a good meal.

edit - dammit, now I want a Front Door pizza >_<

banshee_bones

dafunk wrote: »

The cottage in salthill for tapas
Cavas on Dominik street for tapas.
Il fotellini (sp) on quay street for Italian.
Da Robertas in salthill for Italian.
Nimmos at Spanish Arch for Sunday brekkie.

Heard great stuff about the cottage but I have never been.

I love Cava its just amazing something on the menu for everyone.

Da robertas is withouta doubt the best italian in Galway.

Vina Mara is absolutely worth every penny, but if you can't afford it go with the early bird menu , it is superb.

Mustard is an absolute gem aswell, very unpretencious dining, pizzas and burgers mostly and wont break the bank.

Can't argue with Mc Donaghs for greasy fix!

or Charcoal grill after a few cans :pac:

RDM_83 again

brianthebard grasped my point, I'm not complaining about the selection in fact for a place of its size its got a lot of places too eat, but too my eyes in terms of eating out its still running of Celtic tiger prices.

I love Galway for going out and having good pints at a good price in good bars, IMO the Bierhaus is far better place for a night than the various Porterhouses, much better deals, better music better atmosphere and though range is smaller its still extensive.
There's loads of places you can get a pint of stout for about 3 euro, I can't think of one in Dublin (and I know the cheap places decent places to drink there).

But this just illustrates my point, the pubs can charge country prices and presumably do business, the restaurants etc charge the same or more, their both paying the same rents whats the deal?

I originally come from Derry, I understand that a small city doesn;t have same range but just its still a big enough place too have competion between places.

By the way thanks for the recommendations I've been meaning to go to Oscars for a while now ( a very good deal is the pub grub in bar beside it can't remember name)

ps my point about bar Pintxo was that they've been running a succesful place in what I'd presume is a far higher rent area than Cava yet it sells considerably cheap wine.

pps thread title was probably a bit off thats sorry posting at 2 am probably not good idea

brianthebard

banshee_bones wrote: »

Mustard is an absolute gem aswell, very unpretencious dining, pizzas and burgers mostly and wont break the bank.

Bah Mustard are another one that have problems with consistency, had a couple of nice meals there before but last time we were in the gf's burger wasn't fully cooked through in places (not rare but not properly cooked either). That's not acceptable tbh. Plus from what I remember its over a tenner for a burger and chips, that's too expensive for that sort of food imo, even if you're trying to be 'classy' like boogaloo (they're burgers are huge though so somewhat more justified, but still overpriced).

banshee_bones

brianthebard wrote: »

Bah Mustard are another one that have problems with consistency, had a couple of nice meals there before but last time we were in the gf's burger wasn't fully cooked through in places (not rare but not properly cooked either). That's not acceptable tbh. Plus from what I remember its over a tenner for a burger and chips, that's too expensive for that sort of food imo, even if you're trying to be 'classy' like boogaloo (they're burgers are huge though so somewhat more justified, but still overpriced).

Ah feck dude thats not on! I never had a negative experience there and always had student discount! Where is this boogaloo you speak of?! :pac:

Im back for the b/hol weekend, looking forward to the market curry more than anything. Now that is consistent! and cheap!

brianthebard

boogaloo is on lower abbeygate street, think thats it, near the back entrance to Dunnes down there. Its quite nice and they have a nice menu but they're still overpriced burgers, although they've a burger and drink deal for a tenner (if that includes a beer then its decent if it doesn't then its poor).

banshee_bones

brianthebard wrote: »

boogaloo is on lower abbeygate street, think thats it, near the back entrance to Dunnes down there. Its quite nice and they have a nice menu but they're still overpriced burgers, although they've a burger and drink deal for a tenner (if that includes a beer then its decent if it doesn't then its poor).

Thanks for that, I may check that out..... wonder how many more eateries may have sprung up in my abscence! :pac:

Mrs OBumble

OP, I hear ya!

But I'm sure it's not the worst in Ireland: Imagine what the range is like in <<insert your favourite bog-ville village here>>.

The best meal out that I've had was in the Indian place where Spanish Arch meets Flood St - can't quite remember their name. I've enjoyed Cava, too but have been too poor to have a full meal there yet (damn recession).

I'd also second the comment about Woodquay Bistro: the lunch stuff seemed pretty "full price", but the small breakfast for a massive E5.00 (or similar) really surprised me - great price and nicely done too.
(Disclaimer: Yes, Mr Just sometimes does work for them .. this isn't why I like it though!)

milehip1

Fuinseog wrote: »

galway does not do pretention.

Really, what about the 'Latin Quarter'?;)

banshee_bones

milehip1 wrote: »

Really, what about the 'Latin Quarter'?;)

pffft! more of a marketing ploy than an act of pretention!

Eviledna

I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned jalapenos! Its beside fat freddies, and they do gorgeous Mex and burgers at really good prices. Was there on a date lastnight with the oh and the portions were massive, and that was the early bird special. I love the place. Fajitas to die for.