I’ve visited Dublin many times, in fact all my tours to Ireland begin and end in Dublin City. When I’m leading a tour, I usually arrive a day or two before the group tour, and have a few days to do some exploring on my own to discover new places to eat, see, and experience. I’ve spent years poking around Europe’s nooks and crannies in search of excellent food, good wine, better beer, and sparkling water. I guarantee you’ll experience some outstanding restaurants that serve up amazingly fresh and local dishes on all my tours in Europe. But for this post, I’ll give you some of my best dining picks for Dublin City.
THE OLD STOREHOUSE -3 Crown Alley- Temple Bar https://theoldstorehouse.ie/ I’ve been visiting this popular pub for 10 years now. Manager Robbie and his capable waitresses, waiters, bartenders, and cooks, will make you feel right at home, The food is remarkable and varied. There is a fine selection of starters, mains, and desserts, all of which are sure to please. There is nothing of the notion of bland pub-grub here, everything is fresh and hot right out of their small kitchen. I tasted most of their main courses and must say they are all excellent. My favorites are: Beer Battered Fish and Chips, West of Ireland Seafood Chowder, Steamed-Fresh Connemara Mussels in a cream sauce, Traditional Guinness and Irish Beef Casserole, and Irish Cottage Pie. I hear the desserts are good, but by the time I finish a pint and a meal, I’ve never had room for the sweets.
TOMAHAWK STEAKHOUSE – 2-5 Essex Street East – Temple Bar https://tomahawksteakhouse.ie/ It is pricy, but their dry-aged Delmonico steaks are wonderful. An added bonus is its oyster bar serving fresh oysters from Ireland and Europe.
THE CHOPHOUSE– 2 Shelbourne Road – Ballsbridge – Dublin 4 http://thechophouse.ie/ A bit out from Dublin’s city center, but worth the 30-minute walk or €10 taxi fare. The 10 oz. Dry-aged Irish prime Ribeye is the best cut of Irish-raised beef I’d had on the island. Additionally, they have a varied menu including chicken, duck, pork, and a selection of tasty starters as well.
Baan Thai Leopardstowne – P, Central Park, Carmanhall and Leopardstown, Dublin, D18 N2W6, Ireland http://www.baanthai.ie/ We often stay with our groups in the Leopardstowne suburbs of Dublin. When I think of the best Thai food, my mind wanders to Baan Thai. They have all the traditional selections served in a decorative dinner room.
THE IRISH HOUSE PARTY DINNER & TRAD SHOW – The Irish House Party The Lansdowne Hotel 27 Pembroke Road Dublin 4. https://www.theirishhouseparty.com/ For an evening of traditional music, dancing, stories, and good food to boot, try The Irish House Party at the Lansdowne Hotel. Show up at 18:30 and order your food off a three-course menu selection. Enjoy dinner and a fine music and dance show featuring excellent musicians.
AN EVENING OF FOOD, FOLKLORE, AND FAIRIES AT O’SHEA’S PUB 19 Talbot St, North City, Dublin 1, D01 FA49, Ireland https://irishfolktours.com/ Similar to the House Party mentioned above but here you’ll enjoy stories told by engaging and entertaining Irish folks with a passion for the old art of storytelling. Good food selected from a 3-course set menu with lots of choices.
More suggestions to come…
To truly understand a David McGuffin tour, you have to see it to believe it. This film documents the journey of four travelers on David’s “Taste of Ireland” tour. Filmed on location in Ireland, we hope it will give you a sample of just what to expect on a David McGuffin tour to Europe.
October 4 – A walk around Trastevere – Earlier today, I took the Frecciarossa, the fast train, down from Milano to Rome. From Termini Station, I took a taxi to my B&B in the neighborhood of Trastevere. Le Clarisse e Trastevereis located just off the main drag (Viale Trastevere) in an old convent surrounded by a quiet courtyard filled with olive and lemon trees. Although the building is ancient, the rooms and public spaces are updated for the 21st Century traveler.
That evening, I struck out for a walk around Trastevere, the historic old neighborhood. The cobbled streets are narrow, and many are for pedestrians only, which makes wandering around easy and stress-free. Tonight, there was a festival celebration. October 4 is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. It marks the day in 1226, when the saint from Assisi, Umbria, died. Just by chance, I came upon the procession and joined in for a few blocks toward the church.
Later, I drifted towards the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, a vast outdoor square, with a fountain, bell tower, and church. The Basilica is old! The floor plan and walls date from the mid-4th Century, and practically everything else was renovated in the mid-12th Century, making it one of the oldest churches in Rome. Medieval mosaics dominated both the interior and exterior, with scenes from Christ’s and Mary’s life. But tonight, there was a festival happening in another part of the neighborhood. October 4 is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. It marks the day in 1226, when the saint from Assis, Umbria, died. Just by chance, I came upon the procession and joined in for a few blocks toward the church.
I don’t even remember the name of the pizza place I chose. I was working on instinct, and notice this place was packed with mostly Romans, not tourists. Families and groups of young people filled all the tables, and they all seemed to be enjoying their pizza and having a good time. I joined the queue at the door, and after about ten minutes, I got a table. A fast-talking/fast-moving waiter came by and dropped a menu on my table. I quickly ordered my drink before he ran away to help someone else. Sitting back and looking around, I noticed the patrons were enjoying watching the swift and gruff waiters hustling from one table to the other. A lot of action, but not too much service. A young guy at the next table leaned over saying, “We come here to drink and watch the waiters run around, if we get pizza, it is a bonus!”
Checking back in my journal, I found this entry, It is fun to note that even the local Romans are “entertained” by the fast-moving waiters and their super-slow service. If I were here with a group, this would be bad. But, for me tonight, it is entertainment.
Ultimately, I did get a pizza, and it was good. The pizza, mixed with the wine, ambiance, locale, and festive atmosphere, made for an enjoyable evening! You never know what you are going to come across when you wander.
Even though I did not get the name of the restaurant, I did make a sketch. Maybe next time I am in Rome, I’ll try to find this place again!
Scoula Italiano Pizzaoli – Molto Importante
It is important to note that the pizza makers here must have an education at the school for Italian pizza makers.
Finding a suitable and quality dining spot in Venice has always been a challenge for me. There are countless restaurants, bars, and finger food joints, but I have not run across anything that just makes me want to go to Venice to dine. I think the problem is that Venice is a tourist’s town and many of the restaurants along the “tourist path” put out an “ok” product knowing that most of their customers will never return to eat again in Venice.
However, there are a few “gems” I have discovered in my 30+ years of visiting Venice. Here are my top picks:
VOLTERRA- I arrived back in my favorite Tuscan hilltown yesterday afternoon. Volterra is delightful. This is how I describe it in my guidebook:
Volterra is the perfect pick for my favorite Tuscan hilltown, Not too big, not too crowded, and certainly not loaded with tacky tourist shops, it is authentic in every way. Settle in to Volterra, for a beautiful town, surrounded by ancient fortifications, guarded by an impressive fortress, and perched high on a hill overlooking the fertile fields of western Tuscany. Visiting here tends to make one forget about “touring” and more about settling into the laid-back lifestyle of the local folks. It’s hard not to “go local” with a visit to the market, or knocking down an espresso at the neighborhood bar. Engage in conversation with the shopkeepers and “get lost” wandering the narrow cobbled streets. On the town square, enjoy a crisp glass of wine at a café and then hang out for the late afternoon passigiata where everyone gets out to visit. Finally, enjoy a tasty dining experience featuring some of the best restaurants in Tuscany. Soon, the day will be over and you’ll be asking for just one more. Embrace Volterra and experience Italian life!”
I arrived here with 43 friends, some whom I just met this morning at Rome’s airport, and others who I count as my best friends and travel partners. Emerging this many Americans into Volterra’s fragile lifestyle is always a tricky process. On the one hand, I want to give a 36 hour “crash course” compiling all my personal Volterran experiences, on the other, I hope to provide the “venue” for individual experiences, the kind that won me over to this town many years ago.
So, to take the edge off their jet-lag, we jumped right into Volterra’s lifestyle at Pizzaria Ombra Della Serra, immersing ourselves into an Italian-only environment filled with good food, better wine, and an easy transition from American culture to Volterran life.
We began the tour early one morning in Glasgow, Scotland. By the early afternoon, we had toured the Scottish lowlands, Stirling, the Trossach’s and the Roy Roy and William Wallace historical sites. In Oban, I discovered THE TEMPLE RESTAURANT, quietly located away from town in a small bayside park. Luckily, I arrived by about 5:00 and made a reservation for 8:30; otherwise, we would not have gotten a table. While dining, we learned that the present owners had just taken over the restaurant two weeks before. The meal featured platters of what was fresh on the day’s catch. We ordered two of the platters featured above. Pam, on the right, was not a fan of shellfish or seafood, but this platter convinced her otherwise. All the ingredients were fresh from the sea, with such an amazingly clean and sea-salty flavor. There was a lot of food, but yet none of us were uncomfortably stuffed upon leaving. As of this moment, THE TEMPLE RESTAURANT does not have a website. Eilidh (pronounced like Kaliegh) the proprietor, can be contacted by telephone at 01631 566000.
ENOTECA DIVINO is located three floors down in the wine cellar of a popular Italian restaurant in Edinburgh. I was lucky to find this place and even luckier to get a table. The “enoteca” (that’s Italian for wine merchant/bar) featured authentic food and wine in a high-tech environment, yet comfy cave atmosphere. We ordered a tasty “antipasti” mixture for our first course, that consisted of fresh mozzarella, crostini, pate, several kinds of cheese, prosciutto, cured ham, salami, and bread. Everything tasted first quality, just like eating it in Tuscany. We all chose something different for our “secondi” and it must have been good because, by the time I got around to taking a photo of the food, it was all gone!
A few days later, we flew from Edinburgh to Dublin. For dinner, I booked us into my favorite French Restaurant outside of France. LA MERE ZOU is nicely tucked into a basement just across from Stephen’s Green, the huge city park. I found La Mere Zou many years ago and have been coming back ever since. Our starter consisted of succulent Duck Confit on a bed of fresh greens and topped off with a tangy vinaigrette; even the folks who had never tried duck were impressed and gobbled it all down. We continued with a roasted lamb shank cooked in the style of “beef burgundy,” with plenty of juices. Finally, we finished off our dinner with a variety of desserts.
OLIVER ST. JOHN GOGERTY is a favorite pub on Fleet Street in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. We dined here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. On our last evening in Dublin, I slid down a dozen raw oysters drizzled with a little red wine vinegar and lemon. Gogerty’s serves food all day and has music on all day as well. Go here for good food, good music and good craic!
The Biggest Wine Glass ever!
Actually, this was the decanter for our “Vino Nobile de Montepulciano,” a masterly crafted Tuscan wine that is smooth as velvet on the taste buds. RISTORANTE RINUCCINI is without question, my best pick for Italian food outside of Italy! Like “La Mere Zou” in Dublin, I discovered Rinuccini some years ago and have been coming back ever since. I booked us a table for the “early-bird” menu offering three courses for about € 30. Again, I don’t have any pictures of the food because we all were too busy eating it! However, I do remember my menu: fresh Wexford mussels steamed in fresh tomatos, garlic and white wine, fillet of chicken in a cream sauce of mushrooms, and pancetta and white wine and creamy Tiramisu for dessert.
Fresh wild-caught salmon – Out of the Blue, Dingle, Ireland
Several years ago a friend recommended I dine at OUT OF THE BLUE the next time I was in Dingle. I did and have never had a better seafood experience! Consequently, I keep coming back! However, it is a small place so reservations are strongly advised. “Out of the Blue” is only open when and if there is fresh fish brought in that morning. If there is no fishing, there is no food! This particular evening, we all decided to pick one item off the blackboard menu (they have nothing in print because the menu varies with the fresh fish caught that morning). I ordered the Monkfish (pictured above) which was fresh, clean and flakey, but firm enough to stand up to the pepper sauce. The other five plates were met with yummies and silence as we ate.
I did not think to take a photo of the fresh fish menu, but we did get our waiter to pose with the dessert menu.
I don’t want you to think we ate gourmet food every night. We mixed it up with a variety of exceptional “pub grub,” featuring this Irish filet of beef and onion ring, hamburgers, beef and Guinness pie, mixed salads, fish and chips, and even some tasty black pudding with goat’s cheese!
Full-Irish Breakfast
Finally, we had the option to begin every morning with a full Irish or Scottish breakfast, as pictured above, or a more reserved menu featuring ceral, oatmeal, fruits, and cheeses. On the plate above (beginning clockwise from 12) Irish Bacon, Black Pudding, Fried Egg, Orange Wedge, Tomato, Sausage Link and White Pudding in the center.
I took my final “student educational tour” in 1999. This trip was a bit different from my previous “student educational tours” in that it was designed as a performance tour for my band students and me. Leading up to the tour, I did a lot of planning and selected all the destinations. In my now famous “McGuffin tour style,” we stayed in some out-of-the-way locations, as well as visited big cities. In fact, the company handling my tour arrangements had never taken student groups to a few of our destinations. Although this tour was well planned, we still had to put up with mostly poor hotels and the usual tasteless dinners.
There were some memorable dining experiences in the small villages I had chosen. I remember the little family-run hotel in Rot-an-der-Rot with a basement bowling alley. The mom and pop chef team were happy to feed us and keep the second helpings coming until the pot was empty. The same was true with the hotel restaurant in Interlaken. However, beyond that, dining was disappointing.
I don’t have many “dining” photos from those early student tours. I did find this one of my son and his friends at a “nice” restaurant in a village on the Rhine River. Notice the plate of fries and breaded meat. On another occasion, I recall being taken to a Moroccan restaurant in Paris where we were served undercooked chicken and couscous. How can that be? We were in Paris, the gourmet capital of the world, and we were served, not escargot and steak frites, but Moroccan cuisine from another continent!
In contrast, here is a photo I snapped on one of my student tours a few years ago in Rome. The dinner consisted of three courses, the second being filet of beef, roasted potatoes, veggies, and a strawberry and chocolate garnish. Not only was the meal a dining experience, the ambiance and location was amazing. This dinner is at the Café Bernini on the very popular Piazza Navona. ROME: Dinner on the Piazza Navona
Here are some food-related comments from a recent tour. The question posed is, “In general, what did you think of the dining experiences [on your tour]?
“The food and wine were fantastic every night. The last time we went to Europe we didn’t eat nearly as good. It made the trip much more memorable being able to enjoy good food and not having to worry about trying to figure out what to order.”
– Paris to Rome Tour, June 2011
“What kind of question is this??? Haha. Almost always delicious, and I am a VERY picky eater, by American standards. Often, I wish there was some sort of choice for dinner, but perhaps that’s not the way things work over there. Also, I found the food in Switzerland to be subpar.” –Paris to Rome Tour, June 2011
If you would like to read more comments from my tour alumni, take a look at my tour comment page. Or, you can leave your own comments about “dining with David” right here!
