When we asked you in January, in association with Fáilte Ireland, to tell us about your favourite foodie destinations around Ireland, we received more than 120 responses.
Even beyond our favourites, we were so inspired by the depth of the food-related experiences you shared that we had to take action. We sent four journalists off to four places you particularly recommended, and are happy to report that all stood up to our foodie scrutiny.
AbbeyleixThe most wonderful soufflé of all
The main street of Abbeyleix. Photograph: Alan Betson
Abbeyleix in Co Laois, once an infamous bottleneck on the Dublin-Cork road, has blossomed into a notable foodie destination over the 16 years since it was bypassed by the M8.
Home to the 250-year-old Morrissey’s Pub, Michelin-listed Bramley restaurant and an award-winning bakery, this is a town where visitors can wine and dine very well indeed.
Scurrying down from Dublin on a Friday night, we leave the city centre at 6pm and make it in the nick of time to check into our hotel, the Abbeyleix Manor, before dinner at Bramley at 8pm.
The hotel sits on the outskirts of Abbeyleix – the oldest planned estate town in Ireland – at the entrance to the Abbyleix Bog Project. At €120 per night for the room, it acted as a solid base for a culinary weekend.
Bramley is an elegant, warm restaurant in the centre of the town, with large black windows out front and calming cream interiors decorated with artworks by Erica Devine.
Helmed by head chef Sam Moody, formerly of nearby Ballyfin Demesne, Bramley is a fine dining restaurant that definitely sits in treat territory, with starters priced at around the €20 mark, and mains ranging from between €35 and €40.
The eight-course tasting menu works out at €80 per person and must be taken by the whole table, although vegan, gluten and dairy-friendly tasting menus are available too.
Bramley is decorated with artworks by Erica Devine. Photograph: Alan Betson 
Chef Sam and Emily Moody are joint owners of Bramley’s restaurant on the main street of Abbeyleix. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Whether dining à la carte or from the tasting menu, guests receive an amuse-bouche and a warm welcome upon entry.
We kick off with a bitesize potato hash with paprika seasoning, followed by fresh brown bread and pillowy, soft home-made butter with an espresso cup portion of potato and lemon soup.
Fresh, zingy and perfectly savoury, starters arrive: slow-cooked white turnips with pickled mustard, bitter leaves, and cured Goatsbridge trout gherkin, with radish and served in a cultured buttermilk sauce.
For mains, we enjoy braised leeks served with a beurre blanc and pan-fried wild halibut.
If there was a platonic ideal of the perfect soufflé to act as a model for all soufflés, the Bramley chocolate soufflé would be it. It’s tall, fluffy and texturally light, but full of flavour on the palate and served with a scoop of white chocolate ice cream. We’re lucky that our next stop is at waddle-able distance – Morrissey’s pub directly across the road.
Morrissey’s is like stepping back in time, with vintage cigarette posters, tubs of Saxa salt, packets of Mikado biscuits and Barry’s tea lining the dark wood-panelled shelves. There is no music here; instead the pub is filled with glorious chatter.
Morrissey’s pub has a large expansion project under way to add a restaurant and accommodation. Photograph: Alan Betson 
Morrissey’s pub is located on the main street of Abbeyleix. Photograph: Alan Betson
We get rich and creamy pints of Guinness, acting as our digestif and preparing us for an early start the next day with a walk on the Abbeyleix Bog Project.
This is a community-led conservation project managing 500 acres of bog, including 100 acres of degraded, raised bog left behind after turf was harvested from the site through the mid-20th century. Moving along the raised walkway where train tracks used to be (you can either do a 3.6km or 7.5km loop) makes for appetite-building exercise, so our thoughts naturally turned to our next meal.
Luckily, Abbeyleix is ready for us.
Award-winning bakery Muller & O’Connell is jam-packed, with a queue snaking around the shop. In the former bank premises (you can still see the old vault), fennel-infused Italian sausage rolls, airy focaccia, rhubarb cruffins (a croissant and muffin fusion pastry) and perfectly buttery croissants are served alongside coffee made with beans from Craic Coffee Laois.
You can also load up on local honey, eggs, Rívesci Cashew Chilli Crush from Tipperary, and Íon spices from nearby Clonanny.
And, if you’re still hungry, you can peruse the town’s weekly farmers’ market in Market Square from 10am to 1pm on Saturdays.
For those with a sweet tooth, Temptation Chocolates is an Abbeyleix must. The artisan chocolatier tucked inside the historic Heritage House, is a little sliver of Parisian-style luxury in the midlands. Run by twin sisters Kate and Ruth O’Hara, the chocolates here are silky, smooth and sustainable.
Twins Ruth and Kate O’Hara are co-owners of Temptation chocolates in Abbeyleix. Photograph: Alan Betson 
Patisserie delights can be found in Temptation chocolate’s cafe at Heritage House. Photograph: Alan Betson
Soon, Abbeyleix will be home to another exciting culinary venture, the hotly tipped restaurant and guest house Ómós, by Bastible and Noma alumnus chef Cúán Greene. Reservations for the gastro-guest house will go live on March 24th.
En route home, and not quite ready to bid farewell to our foodie fiesta, we stop off at Neighbourhood in Naas, Co Kildare for one last indulgent meal.
State-of-the art design is the first thing you will notice stepping into this restaurant; the scene is set by natural materials, earthy colours, low lights and a stunning skylight hanging over the bar.
We opt for the Okonomiyaki hash with shredded cabbage, crispy shallots, Japanese BBQ sauce and a rich fried duck egg for one lunch and eggs menemen with red pepper, tomato compote served with labneh and sourdough toast for another. It’s a luxurious pit stop, after which we roll back home to food reality. Niamh Browne
KinsaleHard to tear yourself away 
The menu at Saint Francis Provisions puts the spotlight firmly on vegetables. Photograph: John Allen/Saint Francis Provisions
With its pretty harbour, multicoloured shop fronts, and wonderful countryside, Kinsale would be worth visiting even without its reputation for fabulous food, but ever since the 1970s, the Co Cork town has also been styled as The Gourmet Capital of Ireland. It’s an accolade merited by the town’s cafes, bars and restaurants – to the point where it has three Michelin Guide mentions, including a star. Not bad for a place with fewer than 6,000 residents.
I start my day at cafe OHK, where on sunny mornings, locals catch up over excellent coffee on the outside bench. Co-owner Sarah O’Brien tells me it has been in the family for six generations, pointing out pockmarks in the floor from earlier, and probably tipsy darts players.
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“It was a very old fashioned bar,” she says. “They used to trade fish for pints.” These days, the fish on the menu is a delicious smoked salmon on sourdough, or you could just opt for the very tasty pastries.
As it’s a Wednesday, I wander back to the harbour, where the weekly farmers’ market is taking place. Satisfied by my breakfast, I’m browsing rather than buying, although the smell of fresh coffee and fresh bread do add their own tantalising notes. Missed the market? Seeds Bakery at Market Quay and the Gourmet Pantry, just around the corner do fantastic fresh bread, sandwiches and cakes.
Sharp-eyed visitors will notice that Kinsale’s Market Quay, Short Quay and Fish Market aren’t actually on the waterfront. This is because a great deal of today’s town has been reclaimed from the sea, lending the place a charming and quirky character, as lanes open into small squares, creating a sense of discovery as you explore. Determined to work up a renewed appetite, I walk on past the market to follow the inlet up, past The Spaniard Bar and Man Friday restaurant, both favourite local spots, before ducking down the hill to Scilly.
This little village within a village has been changing in recent years, as many of its small cottages have been transformed into larger works of gleaming glass architecture, which either delight or enrage, depending presumably on your tastes and respect for the past. Last year, a group of locals got together to try to buy the tiny Harbour Bar, which is still on the market with Bowe Property. You never know, you might be tempted.
Keeping to the coastline, I take the footpath that winds along below Ardbrack, spotting the fishing boats heading out, and looking across the waters to James Fort, built in 1607, but now an atmospheric ruin.
There are several walking routes around Charles Fort in Kinsale 
The Bulman Bar and Restaurant in Kinsale, Co Cork. Photograph: Tourism Ireland
Depending on how frequently you stop to admire the views, the walk, which does include a couple of short but steep-ish hills, takes about an hour. It’s well worth it though as it concludes at The Bulman, one of Kinsale’s most lovely pubs.
Food is served in the upstairs restaurant, and you can get lunch in the bar on some days (it’s worth checking online before you head out hungry). Alternatively, walk on up the hill to the historic Charles Fort, where Shirley’s van serves fish and chips, with the catch of the day coming direct from the family boat.
Thanks to the lush grass and mild winters, dairy from this part of Ireland is particularly special. In the 1800s, the Cork Butter Exchange was the largest butter market in the world. Ciaran FitzGerald of The Blue Haven Hotel (from €140 per room) cites local food provenance as a clear advantage, although he generously points out that the whole of Ireland can offer up marvellous meals these days. Rare at The Blue Haven is one of Kinsale’s Michelin-listed spots, where chef Meeran Manzoor brings flavours from India’s Chennai to his Irish ingredients.
OHK in Kinsale has been in the family for six generations 
Saint Francis Provisions in Kinsale is run by Rebeca Recarey Sanchez and Barbara Nealon. Photograph: John Allen
After my walk back to town, I pop into Koko, where Francis and Emily Keane run truffle-making courses, and do amazing (and possibly even healthy-sounding) things with sea salt and seaweeds.
Over my day of wanderings, I realise that another thing that marks Kinsale out is its friendliness. Local cafe and restaurant owners are happy to recommend one another, and newer spots find a home alongside the older guard.
The licence at the Grey Hound Bar, with its open fires and cosy snugs, dates back to 1690. Other longstanding landmarks include Martin Shanahan’s Fishy Fishy, Max’s and Jim Edwards. Bastion opened in December 2014, after owners Paul McDonald and Helen Noonan stopped off en route further west, but found they couldn’t tear themselves away. Their Michelin star came in 2020 and they’ve held it since. The Black Pig’s Siobhan Waldron and Gavin Ryan have a similar story – they came for the surfing, but never left.
Spoiled for choice, I book into another award-winning spot for dinner, Saint Francis Provisions, run by Barbara Nealon and chef Rebeca Recarey Sanchez. This tiny restaurant menu puts the spotlight firmly on vegetables, with Nealon’s 2026 Michelin award for service also to the fore. From fabulous focaccia to kale shoots with a sesame miso mayonnaise, it’s a grazing menu rather than a tasting menu. Dishes cost from around €15 – go with a small group or a big appetite and you could well come away having tried everything. Meat and fish do feature, but after you’ve had the smoked potatoes you may not want to eat anything else, ever again. Gemma Tipton
Carrick-on-ShannonGood cheese, gin and waterways are always nearby
The Hidden Corner, Co Leitrim: Richelle South with daughter Shiloh. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Straddling the river Shannon, Carrick-on-Shannon is a key location for boat hire and acts as the entry point to the Shannon-Erne waterway, but this historic town and its surrounds are not only for the boat lovers. It’s a lively area, with a vibrant food culture, beautiful scenery and a bustling nightlife – plenty to offer any visitor who fancies a night or two away.
A good way to start your day of foodie exploration here is with the Full Brekkie at Sonnies Coffee House on Bridge Street or a hearty breakfast bagel at the cosy Olive Tree cafe tucked away in the Market Yard Centre.
On Thursdays, the Market Yard fills up with the local weekly farmers’ market, where you’ll find a wide variety of fresh produce, organic fruit and vegetables, and local crafts – perfect for browsing.
It’s worth crossing the street for a quick peek at the tiny Costello Memorial Chapel, said to be the second smallest church in the world. Built by Edward Costello as a memorial to his deceased wife, it was dedicated in 1879, although no Mass has been celebrated there since Costello’s own death in 1891.
Carrick-on-Shannon is a lively area, with a vibrant food culture. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
The Hidden Corner cheese shop in Carrick-on-Shannon. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
At midday, follow your nose to the Hidden Corner cheese shop where golden flaky hand pies are stacked high warm from the oven. Owners Lisa Gifford, Gypsy Gifford and Richelle South sell their own goat cheeses and goat meat from Leitrim Hill Creamery.
You’ll be ready then to take a drive north to the elegant village of Drumshanbo, passing through the rolling countryside and past small lakes. Ireland’s first floating boardwalk is to be found at Acres Lake on the outskirts of the village and is the start of the Shannon Blueway. It finishes 6.5km later at Battlebridge Lock, perfect for those looking to stretch their legs.
If you prefer a gentler pace, look to Jinny’s Tearooms, a local institution known for freshly baked cakes and savoury bites. Settle into one of the comfy chairs with coffee and a fudgey brownie, while admiring the range of fresh breads and bake-at-home cake mixes. Owners Sinead (Jinny) and Pascal Gillard have successfully grown their bakery business over the years, now supplying many Irish retailers from their picturesque location near Sliabh an Iarainn.
Drumshanbo is famous for the eponymous Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, made in the Shed Distillery and sold in its distinctive blue-ridged bottle. Tours of the distillery are memorable, mixing equal parts local history, the art of distilling and humour. Ticket prices include guided whiskey tastings, followed by a drink in the beautiful Honey Badger bar.
Tours of the distillery are memorable, mixing equal parts local history, the art of distilling and humour. Photograph: Adrian van der Lee 
Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
After a busy day, it’s time for dinner. Jason and Sonata Horkan’s Red Bank restaurant sits between Carrick’s busy Main Street and the quieter river, housed in an elegant red brick Victorian building. Inside, the high-ceilinged rooms are filled with the buzz of conversations and the cocktail menu prominently features local spirits. Chef Sonata’s cooking is modern Irish, showing a deft hand and love of local ingredients.
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For something a little different, travel a short distance to the historic village of Jamestown. At The Cottage restaurant, TV chef Sham Hanifa showcases all things Irish, but presented with Asian twists drawn from his Malaysian heritage. Grilled chicken thighs are served with rich, dark satay while Thornhill duck comes with crispy wontons and wasabi celeriac purée. As well as The Cottage, Hanifa owns the casual daytime My Kitchen restaurant and the Buffalo Boy steakhouse. After dinner, it’s worth taking a little walk down the road to the Arch Bar, making sure to check out the thick village walls, a legacy from plantation times.
Back in Carrick-on-Shannon, there are many options for a post-dinner drink. Spots such as The Barrelstore or Dunnes Bar offer a mix of sports, music and buzzing nightlife and are popular with both younger locals and tourists.
Alternatively, duck your head into the old-fashioned Cryan’s Teach Ceoil near the Cumann na mBan bridge and find a quiet corner to enjoy a pint and listen to some traditional Irish or bluegrass music.
Then it’s time to head to bed. The town can provide accommodation ranging from self-catering apartments to hotels such as the Landmark Hotel or the Bush Hotel, but if you’re up for it, staying on-board may well be the most authentic way to enjoy Leitrim’s beautiful waterways. Joanne Cronin
BelfastFood tours, Ottolenghi influences and luxury people-watching
Afternoon tea at five-star hotel The Merchant is a special-occasion institution in Belfast
You know your food tour in Belfast is going to go well when it starts with a gigantic, sticky and off-the-charts calorific sweet traybake. Even if the fun stopped here, we might go home happy. Instead, we proceed to munch and marinate our way around the city centre for the next four hours, even then experiencing only a very wee sample of all the foodie goodness the area has to offer.
The Taste and Tour extravaganza begins in Belfast foodie treasure St George’s Market, a large indoor market hall built in the late 1800s. The complexion of what’s on offer varies from day to day, but you’ll always find a fine range of high-quality, local artisan foods, often with producers manning the stall, mixed in with crafts and curios. There may be live music too, or dancing. We visit on a Friday, so there is fish for sale, while on Saturdays, butchers such as goat specialist Broughgammon from near Ballycastle, Co Antrim, will be on hand.
As well as the glorious Fifteen (look up a recipe if you haven’t yet experienced this foodie joy) from Belfast bakery French Village and micro-roasted Drop Hopper coffee that kicks us off, our market visit includes a Ballymena sausage and hash brown soda bread bap from The Belfast Bap Co and a tapas plate from producers and Mediterranean food experts Tom & Ollie. All of this before nearby landmark the Albert Clock has even registered lunchtime.
Displaying great restraint in the face of stalls selling glorious Melting Pot fudge and local honeycomb-like Yellowman, we roll on to the next stop, where our Lenten self-control fails. You could easily miss Daisies Belfast in its small basement on Chichester Street, but that would be an error. Here, they promise the best hot chocolate in town but the territory of that claim could easily be extended. Tour members fall silent as they taste the award-winning wonder of the 100 per cent pure raw cacao mixed with cane sugar and sea salt.
The Taste and Tour extravaganza visits Daisies Belfast
Now very much warming to our role as Belfast food experts, we move deeper into the city centre to long-standing specialist food shop Sawers on College Street, where we experience the rich and liquidy joy of Black Butter, a spicy apple conserve from Co Armagh, alongside Abernethy Butter, locally smoked salmon and brown bread.
Given it’s actually lunchtime now, and we’re ignoring having stuffed ourselves for the past hour and a bit, we take in another small course at The Morning Star Bar & Restaurant in Pottinger’s Entry, coinciding with filming of Belfast-based police series, Blue Lights. It’s just another event witnessed by this historic bar since its establishment as a coaching stop for the Belfast to Dublin post in 1910. There is a real feel of authenticity and historical resonance in the air here, helped by the efforts of current owners the McAlister family to bring their six generations of farming to the table. Our flank steak has followed a verifiable path from family farm to family abattoir to family kitchen, and it’s complemented by local elderflower cider from Armagh Cider Company.
And still, there is more food to come – where will we put it? Our guide Meave Davison tells us somebody once completed the full tour while wearing high stilettos, so we have to find the strength from somewhere. Reader, we manage it.
The second stop to last is the heavily but beautifully scented Mike’s Fancy Cheese, where the unassuming Mike Thompson tells us how he got into cheesemaking by accident. A sample of his Young Buck raw milk blue cheese later and we’re practically saying a novena of thanks for his career choices.
The tour tries Copeland Rum from Co Down mixed with Donegal’s own Football Special at The Reporter
The tour, well worth its £70 (€80.86) price tag, concludes nearby in snug but hugely charming hostelry The Reporter, where we make space for Copeland Rum from Co Down mixed with Donegal’s own Football Special.
It’s an afternoon well spent but, this being a foodie visit to Belfast, we must keep going in the name of Irish Times integrity. After a power nap at Harrison Chambers (£165, €190 for B&B), our gorgeously eccentric hotel near Queen’s University, we go again, this time by taxi to Capparelli at the Mill in Dundonald, on the outskirts of Belfast. This is a lovely restaurant in every way, located in a 300-year-old restored water mill and influenced by investor and lover of Northern Ireland, Yotam Ottolenghi, for whom chef Carlos Capparelli worked in London. Capparelli himself is Brazilian with Italian roots, with all of these positive factors weaving their way through an elegant menu of snacks, small plates, pasta and mains. We share Portavogie prawns in Bouillabaisse sauce and gloriously melty burrata before moving on to pasta. The beef shin ragu is worth a journey on its own; you’d struggle to find a better sauce in Italy itself. After earlier excesses, dessert is a bridge too far in our foodie campaign, but we can see sweet-related delight on the face of many others in this large, airy room.
Next morning, renewed after a super breakfast of local produce including apple juice (those Armagh apples get around) in Harrison Chambers, skies are blue so we wander contentedly around beautiful Queen’s University Belfast and the adjacent Botanic Gardens in an attempt to work up an appetite for our next culinary engagement. If you did fancy coffee and a bun around here though, you could try the Coop Coffee Co van at the Ulster Museum side of the gardens or wander over to the nearby Lisburn Road to check out Trait, one of the city’s wildly popular and hip coffee shops (try Neighbourhood or Established in the city centre).
We linger luxuriously over beautifully presented finger sandwiches, scones and Parisian-style cakes
Our next bite is more traditional. Afternoon tea at five-star hotel The Merchant is a special-occasion institution in Belfast, as demonstrated by the multiple family groups and birthday gatherings scattered around the tremendously handsome Great Room Restaurant, once a grand Victorian banking hall. For £46.50 (€53.72) each, we linger luxuriously over beautifully presented finger sandwiches, scones and Parisian-style cakes. As a bonus, we have a perfect view of the hotel’s vintage revolving door to watch all of Belfast’s most stylish enter and leave in their finery.
When we finally have no capacity left to eat or drink, we make our own less well-dressed departure through the fancy doors for a quick stroll down a busy pre-Saturday-night Hill Street, centre of the Cathedral Quarter. We marvel at the teenager-filled queues for ice cream at Mackles and admire the local menu at Niall McKenna’s Bib Gourmand restaurant, Waterman. The energy and enthusiasm in this area, as in the other parts of this increasingly foodie city, are hard to resist. Plan your visit now, before everybody else does. Úna McCaffrey