Dublin, anyone?

i'll be working there for a month @ the shelbourne hotel. while i'm sure i'll be busy pretty much non stop, i may have an occasional spare moment. any ideas would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

Sorry, can't help you now, but I'll be there in September so I'd love to hear your thoughts when you get back.

Dave

can't really help you on the food, i'm usually with my family & they are not the most adventurous eaters.

BUT, for a fun non-traditional night, head across the river liffey to pravda, a russian-themed pub that is a bit out of the box compared to lots of the places in temple bar. it is located right across the haypenny bridge & it's bright red --- you can't miss it. we stumbled in on a whim & ended up sitting in the front bar before realizing the bar continued in the back with room for bands in the middle part of the evening & then dj's later at night.

we left to go bar-hop again but ended up back there b/c of the good vibe!

cheers!
miss ellen

for a fine, fine Dublin institution as a "session pub" I spent a happy weekend one evening at the Long Hall with my wife and some friends.
http://www.dublinpubscene.com/thepubs/thelonghall.html

The Brazen Head, also well-known and probably touristy, but old and lovely with food:
http://www.dublinpubscene.com/thepubs/t ... nhead.html

Lastly, along the same lines, is the Stags Head:
http://www.dublinpubscene.com/thepubs/thestagshead.html

We really went to a lot of pubs in Dublin. I mean a LOT. The only restaurants we ate at were Nude, a panini shop on Grafton owned by The Edge's brother (or something), and the Bad Ass Cafe where Sinead OConnor may or may not have once worked. Neither are particularly recommended. I suppose Nude was fine. Isn't it always?
What?

I'll have some answers for you in a couple days. My friend just got back from three months there with her boyfriend (reporter for one of the big Dublin dailies) and they will have the most current info.

My info is about 30 years out of date:) the chip shop down the road in Rathmines is probably a night club now.

so far, including the place i'm working @ the entire city seems to need kosher salt. for some reason, you can not get it here and you can tell by the bland food everywhere. it's only been a wk though.

HI,

Would salt make all the world difference?

I find more and more food in restaurants is under-salted. Yet in the last few days, food I found to be ok others thought was too salty. It's interesting how your comment plays against the trend I am experiencing lately.

Regards,

salt would help. but then so would a culture that appreciates it. most of the traditional food i've eaten so far has been very bland. then you go to have an indian and even that is bland, i mean like tomato soup bland, not what we're accustomed to. i think we'd be bucking the trend. seriously, you can't even buy coarse grain kosher salt from any purveyor for the hotel. it just does not exist here. but i'm well aware of how subjective taste is. one man's salty is another man's bland and so on and so forth.

I just came across this posting, so I hope its not to late to help you on your trip to Dublin. I was there a year ago for a mere two days, but enjoyed it very much and can't wait to return.

On the South side of the river, just above the Temple Bar area, is a restaurant called Eliza Blues. Modern Irish cuisine, I had a very nicely done steak with lyonnaise potato. Check out their website:

http://www.elizablues.com/default.asp

Have a great time in Dublin!!

I've been to Dublin several times, and while I can't recommend a place for fine dining, I can tell you about some interesting pubs and casual restaurants.

My favorite pubs in Dublin were probably The Bailey (often a part of literary pub crawls in the city), Doheny & Nesbitt (a comfortable old place with good food), O'Neills Bar (another pub that is typically part of literary pub crawls), and The Temple Bar (touristy, but a lot of fun).

There's a nice dining spot in Drumcondra (a beautiful neighborhood just north of the center of Dublin) called The Ivy House. It has great atmosphere, good food, and one of the best Guinness pours I've had. It is frequented by middle and upper class folks for the most part, and has a classy feel to it.

Also, if you are able to get out of the city at all, either by rail or by car, the southern suburb of Dalkey has some great restaurants and pubs in the charming village center.

Have fun! I'm very jealous!

I'm heading to Dublin tomorrow night for a 10-day visit with family in Longford, and a few days off on my own (Dublin, and maybe a day or two in Galway or in the West somehwere else) and thought I'd ask to see if anyone has anything further to say - suggestions. I'll probably be concentrating (in Dublin) on some market visits, and not much in the way of major dinners - though I will want one nice dinner in Dublin before heading home. I'm not much of a breakfast person, but I'll have my fill of Irish Breakfasts when I'm with family.

for nice food i'd go where i was, the saddle room @ the shelbourne hotel. quite a scene as well. Tell Chef John you're a friend of mine. pm me if you go.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I returned from Dublin yesterday. Most of my trip was spent with family which lives in a rural, rather isolated part of the country (in County Longford) - and meals were taken at home. I've a cousin who is a small-scale organic farmer (fruits and vegetables) and she prepared most of my meals, and they were fantastic (organic lamb, salmon, chicken). I did venture out for a nice dinner when in Dublin, at an old favorite, the Trocadero where I had a pre-theatre dinner (two courses, 25 Euro) the entree of which was duck breast (which I liked very much); the starter was a nice/tasty vegetable soup. Another day I dined in a park, with fish and chips from Burdock's - a meal I didn't much enjoy.

Let me belatedly add this link to another thread on Ireland..

I must be getting old. I can clearly remember posting detailed notes on some of my visit last year, but I can't seem to find them anywhere here. Recently pulled my notes from last year with the intention of throwing them out, but I will try to pull them back together and post.

As you can see in the linked thread, I definitely agree that a lot of the food in Ireland is underseasoned, though not as badly as when I was going there on business in the 90's. As a fellow LTH'er said to me when I was traveling elsewhere (Chile as it happens) it is a nation of wonderful ingredients in want of a few good chefs.

Anyway, will add my posts to the other thread soon.

I was in Dublin in July, and had a fantastic meal at Fallon & Byrne's. Excellent food, great atmosphere and perfect service.

For appetizers, we got to try the onion & truffle soup (I couldn't believe a soup could be this tasty), the carpaccio of beef fillet (wonderful), and a very satisfying goat cheese and blue potato salad.

As for entrees, the milk-poached pork belly was perfectly cooked -- not too chewy as is often the case. My friend's extra-aged steak was good, but the fries that it came with were awesome. There was a fish dish too, but I can't remember much about it as I was too busy with my own dish . . .

Again, highly recommended.

http://www.fallonandbyrne.com/
11-17 Exchequer Street,
Dublin 2,
Ireland
Tel:(+353) 1 472 1010

Also, if you plan to visit Cork, do not miss Cafe Paradiso. It's often referred to as Ireland's best restaurant, and Denis Cotter is considered "one of the great chefs of his generation." And the fact that the restaurant is vegetarian should not deter the carnivorous.

Cafe Paradiso
http://www.cafeparadiso.ie/
16 Lancaster Quay, Cork.
Tel (+353) 21 427 7939

Resurrecting an old thread ,,, heading to Dublin in April - any updates on what's been posted previously? (Got to get to Chief O'Neill's to get in the mood.)

nr706 wrote:heading to Dublin in April

I'll be looking forward to your report; I'll be going in June.

nr706 wrote:Resurrecting an old thread ,,, heading to Dublin in April - any updates on what's been posted previously? (Got to get to Chief O'Neill's to get in the mood.)

For the last few years I've been getting to Dublin about twice a year, here are a few favorites.

The Pig's Ear
Four Nassau Street
Dublin 2
+01 670 3865

Peploe's
16 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
+01 676 3144

The Cellar
The Merrion Hotel
Upper Merrion Street
Dublin 2
+01 603 0600

Roly's Bistro
7 Ballsbridge Terrace
Dublin, 4
+01 668 2611

I also really like Davy Byrnes pub on Duke Street for Guinness, oysters and great crab and salmon, I really like to stop in late afternoon after the lunch rush and sit at the bar. Doheny & Nesbittt is good for a pint, the food is skipable, but it's worth it to see one of the real oldtime pubs. Bewleys is one of the older coffee houses left and worth getting a coffee and pastry at just to sit and admire the room. I remember thinking how elegant it was when I was a little girl, it can be touristy, but it's worth stopping in.

I hope this helps, I know what a beer aficionado you are so I'm of no help there. Sadly big brewery's have taken over Ireland. I hope the slow food movement there results in a resurgence of small brewers making a comeback.

Back from the ol' sod ... had a great time; food was a mixed experience.

Our first night was at the restaurant in our hotel, Arlington Temple Bar (great location). The hotel features a nightly 30 Euro 3-course dinner with Irish songs and Irish dancers. Entertainment was good, but our "blackened" salmon was nothing Paul Prodhomme would recognize. It was just overcooked salmon, paired with nearly-raw vegetables (who doesn't like raw potatoes with their salmon?) But for a nation known for its seafood, they had an unusual talent to make the salmon especially mushy. My best guess it went through multiple freeze-thaw cycles. Mushy peas are great; mushy salmon isn't. (Sadly, we later discovered that the music and dancing was free; ordering the dinner package only got you a better seat.)

Also had mushy cod within a nicely crisp coating at a local pub, with their fish & chips.

Beers were good, although it was easy to get tired of the ubiquitous Guinness. It was interesting to see that Smithwick's introduced a Pale Ale, made with American Amarillo hops. Other great beers were from Porterhouse (the largest Irish-owned brewery - and distributed - albeit poorly - by Glunz in the Chicago area), O'hara's, and Eight Degrees.

It was only on our last evening that we had truly fine Irish cuisine, at Pig's Ear (thanks to mbh for the recommendation).

I started with a potted pork dish.

Served cool, it was rich and refreshing, with just the right amount of acidic ingredients to contrast with the natural fat of the pork.

Keeping with the piggy theme, I went for pork belly.

Perfectly cooked, with a skin/crust that was easily as crunchy as anything I've had on a creme brulee.

Moetchandon went with the hake.

Amazingly, the first non-mushy fish on the trip (I think we just made bad choices at the previous places). Again, a crispy skin, contrasted with velvety vegetables.

Overall, we found Dublin to be a very friendly, highly walkable city. We'd recommend a trip over there to anyone.

Had quite good food and atmosphere at L'Gueueleton - French bistro - nice little patio and roof deck area.
http://www.lgueuleton.com/

Like others from here and elsewhere who have been to Dublin recently, I recommend highly both The Winding Stair and The Pig's Ear for quality and value. At the former, standouts were the smoked fish platter (easily shared by two as an opener), haddock on cheddar potatoes, venison on root vegetables, and cockles and mussels; at the latter salmon (accompanied by a puree of smoked haddock) and the pork belly pictured above. For simple and slightly less expensive fare (lunches and pre-theater dinners) Le Bon Crubeen fit the bill for us (liked the chowder, pork belly, and hake), where service was -- as it was in most Irish restaurants we visited -- very friendly, young, and, occasionally, not very knowledgeable. And, if you're in Dublin, the reputed best (and I'm not one to rebut this claim) fish and chips can be found at the Leo Burdock's near Christ Church; it's takeout only, but they provide plenty of napkins.

But the best meal we had in Ireland was actually in Cork, at the Michelin-mentioned Oysters. The meal didn't have much of an Irish accent, but it was just plain fine cuisine, with intense, complex flavors in most of the dishes (particularly in the smoky chowder and the hake over saffron/fennel barley), and the 24-27 euro weekday prix-fixe made it a considerable bargain as well. It reminded me very much of Naha at its best. On the other hand, the equally Michelin-mentioned Jacques, just a couple of blocks away, seems to be transforming itself into a popular tapas bar; unfortunately we were in the restaurant instead, where the interesting menu far surpassed the kitchen's capabilities.

And, if you wander over to Killarney, I recommend the very traditional (but not especially cheap) seafood house Gaby's, where we had exemplary sea bass and scallops.

Oh yes, I sampled several Irish breakfasts (including at the popular Farmgate Cafe in Cork's English Market), but the best I've had so far this year remains the one at the Gage on Michigan Avenue.

Thanks for the timely update -- we're leaving for Dublin tonight. As usual, I'll be FB'ing phone pics until I actually get home and do a proper write-up.

Great, enjoy! By the way, that's The Pig's Ear (not Nose as originally posted):
http://www.thepigsear.com/

JoelF wrote:Thanks for the timely update -- we're leaving for Dublin tonight. As usual, I'll be FB'ing phone pics until I actually get home and do a proper write-up.

Looks like a number of us maybe took advantage of that Aer Lingus sale? I jsut got back last Sunday.

I dearly loved L. Mulligans and WJ Kavanagh's. They're owned by the same people but have different vibes/menus. Some of the best craft beer destinations in Dublin, too, in case you get tired of Guinness. Fantastic whiskey lists, too. Food was homey, flavorful and really, really satisfying.

L. Mulligans is close to the old Jameson distillery, and would make for a good stop after the tour (in case you were going to take the Jameson tour). There's a pub nearby called Cobblestone that is, from what I was told, one of the few places left in Dublin where you can still hear traditional folk music. WJ Kavanagh's is close to Parnell Square in case you were going to visit the Writers Museum or Hugh Lane gallery.
http://www.lmulligangrocer.com/
http://www.cobblestonepub.ie/
http://www.wjkavanaghs.com/

We got back from Dublin last night, and I've caught up enough on other things that I can post... but it might take me a couple days to get it all. Please forgive my craptastic cell phone photos. I didn't want to use the flash and be "that guy," and Sue wasn't carrying her camera as many evenings as she did in Lisbon.

Dublin was wonderful: People and restaurant service in general were very friendly, and the food almost without exception was terrific. Just a couple instances of being stupid. Don't let anyone say that Irish food is bad, boring or just pub food: lots of brasseries, bistros and other places if you'll take just ten steps outside of Temple Bar -- and there's plenty of places inside of Temple Bar too. The Chinese community there appears to be Malaysian -- we didn't have any, but almost every Chinese place was Chinese/Malaysian.

Prices for restaurants seemed similar to what we paid in Lisbon, but portions generally heartier. There is a huge pride in native foods, especially meats (there's currently a scandal going on around bacon 'processed' but not raised in Ireland being labeled as Irish bacon -- legal there, but bad form). Dublin bay brown prawns, Irish beef, pork and lamb etc. are always mentioned on menus. Many restaurants offer an early-bird or pre-theater meal -- some have pretty much the whole menu, others limit to a boring few, and they're available through 6:30 to 7:30 or even all night on early-week, depending on the restaurant. We took advantage of several of these, one of which was a disappointment, but the rest wonderful.

Both our hotels featured a breakfast buffet with the full Irish breakfast. I wasn't as fond of black pudding as its Iberian cousin morcilla -- what I had was drier and less spicy. The white pudding at the second hotel was a stuffing-like concoction with barley, quite nice. I don't get baked beans for breakfast, though.

Our first night there might have been my favorite meal: The Winding Stair. I had the first of many Irish ciders, which were widely varied in flavor, dryness and alcohol content. We shared a charcuterie plate which included dried lamb (really flavorful), beef and pork, two salamis, and a sweet caper relish. Great stuff. I had cockles and mussels which had crab and cream in the steaming liquid, and a prawn mayo toast, and chips with garlic aioli. Perhaps a bit much rich on rich, but terrific. Sue had venison over duck fat-roasted root vegetables, also delicious. For dessert we had the first of several bread-and-butter puddings, which are a bit more french toast-like than most bread puddings -- This was the best we'd had, though.

The Winding Stair
40 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 872 7320
http://winding-stair.com


Winding Stair Cider

Winding Stair Charcuterie

Winding Stair Cockles and Mussels

Winding Stair Venison

Winding Stair Pudding

Second night we had a recommendation from a list Sue had found for a place called Eden on Meeting House Square, but it closed, turned its sign around and is a DJ/musician's place called Nede now. So we wandered around and found the Hairy Lemon (also on Sue's lists). This isn't what I'd call Gastropub, just Really Good Pub. I had my first-ever pint of Guinness. I'm not a beer guy, but this was pretty good, at least until the head faded away and it turned somewhat bitter, but a swish of the glass and it got creamy again. I'm not likely to order it frequently, but it sure beats Bud. I had the Bangers and Mash (which the waiter recommended over the Irish Stew "In a heartbeat"), which were three enormous bacon-wrapped pork and leek sausages over mashed potatoes, with onion rings, and a rich sauce/gravy. Fantastic, and filling. Sue had the Steak and Guinness Pie, also delicious and very filling. Double spuds here: both in the pie and in the side of chips -- and quadruple starch with the puff pastry pie top and brown bread. We were too full for their Bread and Butter Pudding (which the waiter claimed was the best in the city), but we came back for it a couple days later.

The Hairy Lemon
41-42 Stephen St, Dublin 2, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 671 8949
http:www.thehairylemon.ie


Hairy Lemon Guinness

Hairy Lemon Bangers and Mash

Hairy Lemon Steak and Guinness Pie

On Anne Street South (watch the addresses in Dublin: not only do streets change names almost every block, but a "South" and "North" street may not even connect or even be on the same sides of the Liffey), we found Kitchen -- apparently Dublin has also succumbed to Chicago's plague of restaurant names that can't be Googled for easily. We had an early-bird menu here which was very good, as it included their full menu, and was good for all night Monday through Wednesday. I had a hake-cake for starter, Sue had Calamari. Presentation on both were a level above what we'd had elsewhere, just beautiful food. Calamari was light and crisp, hake was dense and rich. For mains I had a duck breast in massaman curry -- I'd expected a sliced breast over a curry sauce, but this was more of a straight-up Thai curry -- pecans were a nice touch --surprisingly less refined than the starters, delicious (but not the rare duck breast I was craving). Sue ordered a chicken with oyster mushroom cream, great roast chicken. I had another cider - Orpens this time, very dry.

The Kitchen
3 South Anne Street, Dublin 2
Phone: 01 6774205
http://www.thekitchen.ie/


Kitchen Hake Cake

Kitchen Calamari

Kitchen Chicken

Kitchen Cider

The next night was one of our missteps. We went to Pasta Fresca, another recommendation from Sue's list. The flavors were uninspired, the menu limited, prices high. The pastas themselves were excellently al dente, but the place just didn't do it for us. No photos. Lunch that day was a stop at a Leo Burdock's just for tradition. Reasonably tasty, but awfully greasy and not all that crisp. I imagine straight out of the fryer it would have been better, but we'd gotten one that probably had stood there for a bit.

Pasta Fresca
4 Chatham St, Dublin 2, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 679 2402
http://www.pastafresca.ie

Leo Burdock's (several locations, but we were at this one just around the corner from Christschurch Cathedral)
2 Werburgh St, Christchurch, Dublin 2, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 454 0306
http://www.leoburdock.com/

After an uninspired dinner, we went back to the Hairy Lemon for their bread and butter pudding. Very good, but I don't think it beat Winding Stair's.


Hairy Lemon Bread and Butter Pudding

More later.

So where are we, Wednesday? Yup, that looks right.

With all the recommendations from here, we wanted to try the Pig's Ear. I stopped in around lunch to find out if they had table for two available early evening, and they said they were booked solid, but that a walk-in might be possible. So we ate light for lunch (easy to do with the full Irish breakfast buffet), and stopped back in at 5:30 when they opened. They said we could have a table if we could be out before 7. We eat pretty quick, so that wasn't a problem.

The Pig's Ear is one of the few places we were at that provided bread service that wasn't just what's put on the main course plate. Some very good brown and white bread here, fresh butter. Sue started with a Pork Terrine with white beans, nice. I had a fried egg with black pudding and greens that didn't photograph -- the egg got a little well done, but otherwise delicious. I had a very nice piece of hake, very crisp skin, over mash and carrots; Sue had a very tender, melting pork belly. We ordered a side of duck fat potatoes, which were probably rather unneccessary given the starch load we'd been eating. Dessert was a "Brown Bread Ice Cream with Pecan Nuts & Crumbled Guinness Cake" -- very Milk Bar inspired, and probably my favorite dessert of the trip. The pecans were in sort of a foamed brittle or toffee, the brown bread crumbs in the ice cream added a lot of flavor.


The Pig's Ear
4 Nassau St, Dublin, Co. Dublin City, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 670 3865
http://www.thepigsear.com/


Pig's Ear Bread


Pig's Ear Terrine


Pig's Ear Egg and Pudding


Pig's Ear Hake


Pig's Ear Pork Belly


Pig's Ear Potatoes


Pig's Ear Dessert

The next night we were taken out by my company's account manager, to Farm, which has two branches, one of which was just around the corner from the conference hotel. Everything organic, farm-to-table. The table (seven of us) had a few starters, including some very good buffalo wings with local Cashel blue cheese sauce, duck spring rolls, and charcuterie, but Sue and I did not choose wisely regarding mains. We'd been hearing about the quality of Irish beef for days, and the burger (with smoked grubbeen cheese, Irish bacon, caramelized onions) sounded really good. We were warned that they couldn't do medium rare, but it came rather well done -- if you've got to do well done, do it with thin griddled patties, please, not a thick pub burger that ends up dry. I liked everything else about it though, except the patty. No pics except another excellent cider, this one very crisp and dry, with a higher alcohol content (7%). Oh, and another bread and butter pudding: this one was crisped top and bottom, adding nice toasty flavors, but making it a bit less, well, pudding-y.

Farm
133 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4
Phone: 01 212 0743
http://www.thefarmfood.ie/


Farm Suffolk Cider

Friday night, we were winging it as we usually do, and dangerously so since Irish don't eat as late as other nations. The first few places we checked were booked solid. We walked into a place we'd spotted previously as having interesting-sounding food, called KC Peaches Wine Cave. It turns out KC Peaches is a deli-like counter-order chain, but this one has a downstairs "wine cave" that has full service, live music, and a very enjoyable meal. They've got an emphasis on natural, local food (as did much of Dublin's restaurants), and definitely went beyond their humble deli facade, with great flavors and nice presentations. Their early-bird deal was four small plates and two glasses of wine for 37€, and the wine was from a choice of several (we both had the grenache). Our plates were a crawfish and chorizo pasta, a rather nicely spicy sauteed Dublin Bay Brown Prawns, goat cheese-stuffed figs, wild mushrooom crostini, and we added a green salad that was mostly sauteed veg. The live music was a guitar-and-vocals duo that did very nice covers of 60's classics (Moondance, Look of Love, Let's Stay Together, etc.). It's not destination dining, but if you find yourself near Trinity College and can't get into The Pig's Ear, it's a nice night out.

KC Peaches Wine Cave
29 Nassau St
Dublin 2
Phone: +353 1 633 6872
http://kcpeaches.com/


KC Peaches Fettucine


KC Peaches Prawns


KC Peaches Figs


KC Peaches Crostini


KC Peaches Salad

Our last day, we went out of town to Malahide, with the original intent of staying there late enough for dinner, but with the cold and damp, and none of the local places sounding all that interesting, we came back to Dublin with no reservations again, and were able to squeeze into Fade St. Social -- again, they were clear they had a limited window for a table in the GastroBar part of the place (2 hours), but it was no problem. Fade St. is the latest outlet from Dylan McGrath, who got a Michelin star at Mint (which is no longer open). Outstanding small plates, although a little random on price/size ratios -- a 4-Euro dish might be a lot more food than a 9-Euro one. There's also a more straighforward restaurant section, I don't know what that menu is like.

We ordered six dishes which turned out to be just about right. I started with another cider, a Bulmer's Pear. The dishes were a sliced duck breast with a duck leg confit spring roll; soft-boiled duck egg with grilled leeks and parmesan (ooh, nice); baby crab toasties with melted cheese, duck egg hollandaise, skinny fries and truffle mayonnaise (better than any shrimp toast, and the fries made nice soldiers for the egg shell filed with truffle mayo); chinese pork belly, slow cooked with
Asian spices and crispy peanut brittle; and salted popcorn with crispy free-range chicken cooked in tapioca flour, rolled
in sumac with truffle butter (this was more of popcorn with cracklin's -- very nice but we'd thought there might be a bit more chicken, but probably not at that price -- no pic).

Fade St. Social
6 Fade St, Dublin 2, Ireland
Phone:+353 1 604 0066
http://www.fadestreetsocial.com/


Fade St Cider


Fade St Duck Egg and Leeks


Fade St Crab Toasties


Fade St Duck


Fade St Pork Belly


Fade St Cocoa

Lastly, Saturday morning they have a gourmet market in Meeting House Square where we picked up some cheese and bread for the plane. Great quality stuff there, a good place for lunch with curries, soups, kebabs, etc., plus fresh cider (labeled for making hard cider), salsas and as everywhere, really nice people.

To sum up: Great eatin' town, very walkable (I managed to walk enough to keep from gaining any weight, even with the hefty breakfasts and many heavy dinners), very friendly people, and nice siteseeing. Keep Dublin on your list, even if you, like me, don't care to drink Guinness all night.

Just a couple more Dublin notes.
Compared to other EU cities I've been in the last few years (Munich, Vienna, Barcelona, Nice, Lisbon), its downtown has a lot more eateries. Yes, a lot of them are pubs.
US fast food has made more inroads, but only a few of the chains (BK, McD's, Subway, with Quizno's and Papa John's resident in some SuperMacs). I didn't see Dunkin Donuts, but I did see Tim Horton's products in SPAR grocery/cafes.
Lots of pizza (across from our hotel was a sign which read "Possibly the best pizza in Dublin"), lots of Indo-Pak, and as I said before, lots of Chinese/Malay.

JoelF wrote:Lots of pizza (across from our hotel was a sign which read "Possibly the best pizza in Dublin")

not sure if I'm intrigued or laughing.

I haven't been to Dublin in awhile, I think last time was in early 2000s, how late do most pubs serve food? (I arrive into Dublin airport at 7:20PM on a Sat night last weekend in March).

Sweet Willie wrote:I haven't been to Dublin in awhile, I think last time was in early 2000s, how late do most pubs serve food? (I arrive into Dublin airport at 7:20PM on a Sat night last weekend in March).

Sorry, can't help you. We're mostly early eaters. I do remember the Hairy Lemon serving food late after we got done with something else for the evening (we came back for dessert). I doubt you'll have problems finding a bite in the Temple Bar neighborhood, it looked like it never closed.