After spending three days in Dublin we came to the conclusion that you can’t stumble onto good food in this city. In general you wont find many restaurants in Dublin that have my “three components of a great restaurant,” quality, quantity, or value. However, there were a few restaurants that we did come across the we enjoyed for one reason or another.
Restaurants in Dublin:
O’Neill’s
We were recommended to visit O’Neill’s by a friend and our Airbnb host. It was in the Trinity College district of Dublin. They
had a cold foods section where they had sandwiches, salads and desserts. Past the cold foods was the “carvery” area. You could pick any of their meats including corned beef, chicken, prime rib and a few others. Then you could pick any and all of the sides like mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, cabbage, lima beans and many others. All of this wonderful food was around 13 Euro. It was a great deal for the amount of food that you got. We ended up sharing and it was more than enough. O’Neill’s also had an amazing beer selection (we just got Guinness). O’Neill’s is highly recommended.
The Auld Dubliner
Our friends found this restaurant on Google and set it for our meeting place. The Auld Dubliner is located in the popular Temple Bar area. The food seemed quite expensive and very mediocre. The beer selection was also lacking. It was a larger pub with live music. We list this restaurant not to encourage you to dine here, but in fact to dine elsewhere. For the quality and price, we would not recommend coming here, at least not for food.
Oasis Café
While we were in Dublin, we stayed in the Smithfield area. Surprisingly, in this area, it becomes hard to find food after 10pm. Oasis Café is actually one of the few options you will have in this part of town at this time. Oasis café offered Mediterranean food along with pizzas. The pizza wasn’t amazing, but the kebab was delicious. The portions were big enough to share as well. We probably wouldn’t go out of our way to eat here again, but if you find yourself in the Smithfield area late at night, then this is a suitable option.
The Waterfront
This place is a dive. You probably wont find anyone or any reviews telling you to go here. I list it for two reasons. First, we had a goal our last day to spend under 5 Euro for breakfast for the both of us. The goal was mostly a joke because you literally cant find anything in Dublin at a reasonable price. However, we happened past this place and noticed a sign that said crumpet and tea for 2.5 (Euro). We both agreed we should take them up on the offer because it would keep us to our unrealistic budget. When we ordered out food, they let me substitute my tea for a latte for free. The crumpet was actually pretty good, and the latte leads me to the second reason why we are mentioning The Waterfront in this post. The lattee was the best I had received in months. I don’t know if I was just was so happy to get breakfast at a good price, or the latte was actually good, but I would go back to this place again in hopes that it wasn’t an illusion. Again, if you cant clearly tell from the picture, this place is no thrills, but I would grab a latte here anytime.
Pubs in Dublin:
The Tap Room
The Tap Room pub was located a little bit away from the touristy area of Dublin. We found ourselves walking in front of it around the same time we became thirsty so we decided to stop in. It was good size pub with inexpensive drinks. It was midday when we stopped in resulting in the clientele consisting of a few elderly people who happened to be pretty drunk and arguing. We found this entertaining, and confusing. If you stop by the Tap Room on the weekend, you will likely hear live music. Again we wouldn’t go out of our way to come here but if your looking for reasonable drinks in Dublin then The Tap Room is the place, only 4 euro for a Guinness!
The Stag’s Head
This pub dates back to 1770 and was originally constructed by a Mr. Tyson. It is located in the Temple bar district and is worth checking out if your looking for a place to grab a drink with some friends. We came to the pub to met up a friend and while we were there, we made two new friends! The pubs is rather large, and has an area right out side its main doors that they normally fence off for a patio.
The Guinness Storehouse
We had heard from many people that the Guiness Storehouse was not worth seeing. We actually had no plans to visit the Storehouse because we consistently were being told not to visit by people we had previously visited. Additionally, we didn’t think we had enough time to go visit, so we thought it was easier to avoid the Storehouse. However, while we were in Chesterfield, UK, we met a guy named Sam who had just come back from the Guinness Storehouse. He spoke so highly about the gravity bar on top of the facility and insisted that we visit. We not so confidently told him we would try to add it to our list. We exchanged emails with Sam and parted ways. The next morning, we received an email from the Guinness Factory confirming our tour reservations. Sam had surprised us by purchasing us tickets to the Storehouse! So of course we made sure to go and experience what Guinness had to offer. Personally, from a brewery tour perspective, the Guinness brewery tour is the worst brewery tour we 
have ever been on, and we have been on upwards of 20. The tour was boring and consisted of a digital tour guide on television screens. Aside from the tour, pouring your own pint of Guinness is a lot of fun and the 360 gravity bar on top of the storehouse is amazing. The bar gave you a 360 view of Dublin. The gravity bar is what Sam was specifically excited about us seeing, and we are glad we were able to experience it. If you are on the fence about going to the Storehouse, I would look at it this way. You get a Guinness pint with your tour ticket. So you in essence are not really spending that much more than a pint would cost you anywhere else in Dublin. So, you might as well have a Guinness pint at the place it was made, enjoying the best view of Dublin you can find!
.
.
