If you want to taste Ireland rather than just read about it, this is the list: ten traditional dishes, each with a photo, what it is, and where or when to try it. We chose them for how widely they are served, how long they have been eaten, and how well they travel into pubs, B&Bs and restaurants today.
Order is our own call from 10 to 1, so use it as a checklist rather than a ranking. Facts such as opening times and prices come from the producers’ own sites and can change, so check before you go.
| Dish | Where | In a line |
|---|---|---|
| 10. Barmbrack | All Ireland | Halloween loaf with a fortune-telling tradition |
| 9. Brown Bread and Smoked Salmon | County Clare (Burren) | Atlantic salmon, wheaten bread, cold salted butter |
| 8. Black Pudding | Clonakilty, Co. Cork | Spiced blood sausage, fried until crisp at the edges |
| 7. Champ | Ulster and the north | Mashed potato, spring onions, a well of butter |
| 6. Dublin Coddle | Dublin | Sausage, bacon, onion and potato in a pale broth |
| 5. Full Irish Breakfast | All Ireland | Rashers, sausages, puddings, egg, tomato and soda bread |
| 4. Boxty | Leitrim, Cavan and the north-west midlands | A potato pancake with its own rhyme |
| 3. Colcannon | All Ireland | Mash with kale or cabbage, scallions and butter |
| 2. Soda Bread | All Ireland | Bicarbonate, buttermilk and no yeast |
| 1. Irish Stew | All Ireland | Lamb or mutton, potato, onion, water, time |
10. Barmbrack, All Ireland
Barmbrack, from the Irish báirín breac (“speckled loaf”), is a yeasted fruit bread of raisins and sultanas, served sliced and buttered with tea. At Hallowe’en it is traditionally baked with tokens inside: a ring for marriage, a coin for wealth, a piece of cloth for a leaner year. Its close cousin, tea brack, is soaked in tea and made without yeast.
Know before you go
- Best time: October, when bakeries and shops sell it for Hallowe’en; it is available at other times of year too.
- Serve: sliced, with salted butter and a pot of tea.
Our guides: Tea Brack: How to Serve It and Irish Halloween / Samhain.
9. Brown Bread and Smoked Salmon, County Clare (Burren)
The simplest plate on the list: slices of smoked salmon over dense brown bread, butter and a squeeze of lemon. It turns up on menus from city restaurants to harbour cafés. To see where the salmon comes from, the Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare runs a visitor centre and a “Taste the Atlantic” experience.
Know before you go
- Burren Smokehouse: its website says the visitor centre and Taste the Atlantic experience are open daily apart from January and February, with hours varying by season. Check the booking page or phone +353 65 707 4432 before travelling.
- At home or in a café: order it with wheaten or brown soda bread.
Official site: burrensmokehouse.com. Our guide: Irish Seafood Chowder, the other great brown-bread partner.
8. Black Pudding, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
Black pudding is a sausage of blood, oatmeal and spices, sliced and fried. It is part of the Full Irish, and also appears as a starter with apple and chutney. Clonakilty in West Cork is the best-known name, and the producer has a visitor centre in the town.
Know before you go
- Clonakilty Blackpudding Visitor Centre, Western Road, Clonakilty, Co. Cork (P85 V966).
- Hours on the official site: Monday to Saturday, 9:30am to 5pm, last entry 4pm. Booking is recommended.
- Tickets: under-5s free; family ticket €25 (2 adults, up to 3 children under 18). The visit takes about an hour: a self-guided audio tour followed by tastings.
Official site: clonakiltyblackpudding.ie. Check the site for current prices before you go.
7. Champ, Ulster and the north
Champ is mashed potato beaten with butter and milk and stirred through with chopped spring onions, traditionally served with a pool of melted butter in the middle that you eat your way into. It is a side dish for sausages, bacon or fish, and is found on pub menus across Ulster and the rest of the island.
Know before you go
- Order it as a side with a pub main; it is rarely a dish on its own.
- Related song: why the Irish wrote a folk song about mashed potatoes.
Our guide: Golden Wonder potatoes for the potato basics.
6. Dublin Coddle, Dublin
Coddle is Dublin’s slow-simmered pot of pork sausages, bacon rashers, onions and potatoes, cooked in a thin broth until everything is soft. It was a thrifty way to use up the week’s leftover meat, traditionally eaten on a Friday. It is plain, salty and filling, and many Dubliners eat it with brown bread.
Know before you go
- Where: traditional Dublin pubs and some Irish-food restaurants list it, usually in colder months; ask what is on that day.
- Pairs with: a pint of stout and brown bread.
Our guide: Coddle Broth Recipe.
5. Full Irish Breakfast, All Ireland
The Full Irish typically brings rashers, sausages, black and white pudding, a fried egg, grilled tomato and mushrooms, with toast or soda bread and a pot of tea. Hotels, B&Bs and cafés serve it nationwide, and the quality depends on the sausages and puddings, so ask whether they are local.
Know before you go
- Where: almost every B&B and hotel includes it; cafés serve it all day or until a set time, so check.
- Variations: some places add potato bread, beans or hash browns.
Our guide: Irish Customs and Traditions: A Visitor’s Guide.
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4. Boxty, Leitrim, Cavan and the north-west midlands
Boxty is a pancake of grated raw potato and mashed potato bound with flour. It is made as a griddle bread, a thick cake or a thin pancake rolled around a filling, as shown here. The old rhyme goes: “Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.”
Know before you go
- Gallagher’s Boxty House, 20–21 Temple Bar, Dublin 2: a restaurant built around boxty, with a tasting slate of different styles. Phone +353 1 677 2762.
- Prices vary: reviewers have quoted around €22 for the signature Gaelic Boxty main, so check the current menu.
Official site: boxtyhouse.ie. Our guide: Leitrim-Style Thin Boxty.
3. Colcannon, All Ireland
Colcannon is mashed potato with kale or cabbage, spring onions and plenty of butter, sometimes topped with bacon as in the photo. It is closely linked to Hallowe’en, when small charms were once hidden in it. Floury potatoes and greens that still have some bite are what make it work.
Know before you go
- Best time: autumn, around Hallowe’en, though many pubs serve it as a side all year.
- Compare with champ: colcannon has greens, champ has spring onions only.
Our guide: Irish Halloween / Samhain.
2. Soda Bread, All Ireland
Soda bread raises with bicarbonate of soda reacting with the acid in buttermilk, so it needs no yeast or proving time. Most recipes use just flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and buttermilk, in white or wholemeal. Every household has its own version, with the addition of treacle, seeds or oats a common argument.
Know before you go
- Where: bakeries, farmers’ markets and nearly every B&B breakfast table.
- Eat it the day it is baked, with butter; it dries out quickly.
Our guide: Treacle Bread Recipe.
1. Irish Stew, All Ireland
Traditional Irish stew is lamb or mutton on the bone, potatoes and onions, simmered slowly in water until the potatoes thicken the broth. Many cooks add carrots, which purists dispute, and some use beef. It is the dish most visitors ask for first, and a good pub bowl comes with brown bread.
Know before you go
- Where: traditional pubs and hotel restaurants in every county serve it, especially in winter.
- Ask: whether it is made with lamb, as the classic version is, or beef.
Our guide: How to Recover a Lost Irish Family Recipe.
Eating your way round Ireland: practical tips
Most of these dishes are cheapest and best in ordinary pubs, cafés and B&Bs rather than in tourist-facing restaurants. Winter is the season for stew, coddle and colcannon, October for barmbrack. If you have dietary needs, tell the kitchen early: coddle, black pudding and the Full Irish are all pork-based. Booking is sensible for the Clonakilty visit and for Gallagher’s at weekends.
The Irish Seafood Chowder and Shepherd’s Pie nearly made the list. See our Irish Seafood Chowder guide for the first.
Which of these is the one you would put first? Tell us your favourite in the comments.
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