Best place for traditional Irish food?

Gloomtastic!

We’ve had best kebab, burger establishments etc but what somewhere in the city centre for traditional Irish food - stew, coddle etc

whiskeyman

I've heard the Boxty House in Temple Bar getting good reviews for stews and coddle.
Not sure if our 'traditional' cuisine is one to be lauded.
Our food produce, however, is world class.

killbillvol2

The Bankers always did the traditional stuff very well and reasonably priced.

Our traditional food deserves to be lauded as much as any other.

not yet

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

We’ve had best kebab, burger establishments etc but what somewhere in the city centre for traditional Irish food - stew, coddle etc

Your gaf..

Gloomtastic!

not yet wrote: »

Your gaf..

Ha! The query was for visitors but I’m under pressure next week to deliver.

not yet

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Ha! The query was for visitors but I’m under pressure next week to deliver.

O'Neills Suffolk st. Great pub, good music and very, very good corn beef and cabbage, Stew, Coddle etc...

This is it

not yet wrote: »

O'Neills Suffolk st. Great pub, good music and very, very good corn beef and cabbage, Stew, Coddle etc...

Great pint as well

JohnnyFlash

The Boxty House is actually very decent. It caters to foreign tourists, but isn’t yet another overpriced Temple Bar tourist trap. Simple Irish food cooked well.

jay1988

The Oval on Abbey St. used to do an amazing Irish Stew, been a while since i was in there so not sure what its like now but it still seems to always be busy which must be a good sign.

whiskeyman

Could we put the humble toastie as traditional Irish food too I wonder?
Put Grogans and a pint of plain on the map so

Portsalon

I don't really understand the urge to eat platefuls of lumper potatoes washed down with copious amounts buttermilk, but hey! whatever turns you on!

https://www.dochara.com/the-irish/food-history/food-in-ireland-1600-1835/

killbillvol2

killbillvol2 wrote: »

Our traditional food deserves to be lauded as much as any other.

Coddle is boiled sausages, rashers and potatoes. Poor quality, tasteless food that presumably relies on nostalgia for its very existence.

It's hardly in the same category as coq au vin or lobster with linguine and a garlic and tomato sauce.

Coddle should have gone the way of the slums. Inedible rubbish.

Gavin "shels"

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Coddle is boiled sausages, rashers and potatoes. Poor quality, tasteless food that presumably relies on nostalgia for its very existence.

It's hardly in the same category as coq au vin or lobster with linguine and a garlic and tomato sauce.

Coddle should have gone the way of the slums. Inedible rubbish.

See yourself out of this forum immediately!

not yet

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Coddle is boiled sausages, rashers and potatoes. Poor quality, tasteless food that presumably relies on nostalgia for its very existence.

It's hardly in the same category as coq au vin or lobster with linguine and a garlic and tomato sauce.

Coddle should have gone the way of the slums. Inedible rubbish.

In other words a 'Mickey stew'

vandriver

The Bachelor Inn on Bachelor's Walk does all that kind of food.

tayto lover

The Jockeys in Dundalk do food like this. Irish Stew, bacon and cabbage, liver and bacon etc all with nice floury jacket potatoes or mash. Good portions too.

killbillvol2

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Coddle is boiled sausages, rashers and potatoes. Poor quality, tasteless food that presumably relies on nostalgia for its very existence.

It's hardly in the same category as coq au vin or lobster with linguine and a garlic and tomato sauce.

Coddle should have gone the way of the slums. Inedible rubbish.

Ah yes, I can picture the Italian peasantry sitting around tucking into the ould lobsters.

killbillvol2

killbillvol2 wrote: »

Ah yes, I can picture the Italian peasantry sitting around tucking into the ould lobsters.

They did! Lobsters were traditionally food for the poor! Rich people wouldn't have touched them. People thought eating lobster was a bit like eating an grossly oversized insect.

Going back to the topic at hand, Dublin shouldn't shoulder all the blame, in fairness. Most traditional Irish food is just as unpalatable. The traditional stew is a minor improvement, if only because the ingredients tend to be more diverse and the meat, whether lamb or beef, is better quality.

I know this is true of all world cuisines to some extent, but a lot of the food that are described as traditional Irish 'cuisine' would be unrecognizable to the inhabitants of this country only 50 ot 150 years ago ago, whose diets (if they were middle class) would be mostly stew, potatoes and milk, or if they were poor, potatoes, bread and milk, or even whey instead of milk. Maybe herring, if they lived near the sea.

That's traditional Irish food. You might as well add alligator to an Irish dish as add chilli, goats' cheese or even garlic to it. When I see places like Boxty opening up, I think Yeah fair play, but the only reason that food is edible is because it completely rejects the reality of traditional local food.

Soda/ brown bread, and other breads like blaa, are perhaps the only traditional foods that have stayed recognisable and can be really delicious.

It does seem strange that such a productive, agrarian society developed such a poor cuisine, when very similar economic conditions existed in rural France until the 20th century, and their cuisine has huge diversity.

spurious

My granny (born 1914) used to be amused at people serving salmon at a wedding. When she was young, it was what the really really poor people ate.

tayto lover

spurious wrote: »

My granny (born 1914) used to be amused at people serving salmon at a wedding. When she was young, it was what the really really poor people ate.

Brandy too was very cheap until they upped it’s image.

killbillvol2

We used to dig up cockles on the beach (a pain in the arse) having walked across beds of mussels and ignored them!

killbillvol2

killbillvol2 wrote: »

We used to dig up cockles on the beach (a pain in the arse) having walked across beds of mussels and ignored them!

The Mizen peninsula was one of the most devastated parts of Ireland during The Great Famine, at a time when the seas around it were (and still are) teeming with fish.

brick tamland

whiskeyman wrote: »

I've heard the Boxty House in Temple Bar getting good reviews for stews and coddle.
Not sure if our 'traditional' cuisine is one to be lauded.
Our food produce, however, is world class.

Ive never been and it does seem to get good reviews but how traditional is boxty? Dont think its a Dublin thing anyway. I dont know of anyone that used to have it.

May well be a culshie thing 😂

The Pigs ear do a modern take on irish food if thats really a thing

disposableFish

brick tamland wrote: »

how traditional is boxty? Dont think its a Dublin thing anyway.

It's is in the cavan/leitrim/longford type area.

There's a few different types, depending on the area but the wrap things they serve aren't traditional at all, they look more like dosas

disposableFish

Traditional Irish food is not having any...

Really though, whatever culinary traditions we may have had were killed off.

When you see "traditional Irish food", it's one of the following:

- Inedible blandness (coddle, I'm looking at you here)
- traditional dishes that have been changed beyond all recognition (eg. you can find coddle in some places that tastes ok, this is because it isn't coddle).
- things we think are traditionally irish but aren't really (most anything involving meat, which people wouldn't have been able to afford).
- The very occasional thing like boxty or blaa which are actually nice-ish (...that might be a complete list)

loyatemu

Chicken fillet roll - Spar
Spicebag - any Chinese

Some serious embellishment going on here!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/irish

MarkY91

Brought my foreign friends to madigans in o connell street for Irish food. What a mistake! It was worse than microwave dinners. Absolute dirt.

To be fair, it's my own fault, I don't eat "Irish food" out so haven't a clue where to get a good meal. I'll definitely be taking some tips here and getting a hearty meal.

Gavin "shels"

Never tried either but supposedly J.W Sweetman's is a good spot for food - they have 5 (2 are debatable) trad Irish options on the menu. Also never tried the stew in Toners Pub but it looked and smelled unreal when I was in there last, not sure what else they do.

spurious

It's been a few years since I visited, but The Shack in Temple bar was deemed 'very nice' by Mammy Spurious. They do 'traditional'* Irish food as well as more exotic fare.
https://www.shackrestaurant.ie/food/a-la-carte-menu/


*may or may not actually be

Portsalon

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

They did! Lobsters were traditionally food for the poor! Rich people wouldn't have touched them. People thought eating lobster was a bit like eating an grossly oversized insect.

True. And in Victorian times, the main source of protein for the poorest Londoners was oysters! Hence, as Charles Dicken wrote Poverty and oysters always seem to go together."