Dining in Ireland

Typical Irish dishes, meal costs (from fast food to pub grub to fancy restaurants), and the variable price of a pint in Ireland

Restaurant meal

from
$26

3-course meal, sometimes w/drink

 

Pub meal

from
$19

sandwich, burger, meat pie w/ drink

 

Fast food

from
$7

fish n' chips; kabab; curry

 

Pint in pub

from
$5

stout is cheaper than ale/lager

 

Beer from grocers

from
$2.80

 

Pub grub in Ireland

Pub grub remains the cheapest way to get a full meal in Ireland, with burgers, sandwiches, meat pies, and other typical bar fare going for about €10 to €15 (including a side of chips—Yanks call 'em "fries"). Add €3.50 to €5.50 for a pint, and your full meals rings in under $20.

Restaurants in Ireland

Proper restaurants have come a long way in both quality and—since the recession of 2008 started—price.

Many restaurants—even top, award-winning restaurants in Dublin—now offer set-price meals for €19 to €30, including two to three courses (a choice among three to five options for each course) and often a drink. At the fancier places, these deals tend to be early-bird specials (say, before 7pm) or pre-/post-theater, but at many they're available at any time.

Fast food in Ireland

Irish fast food is much like British fast food, a mix of traditions and tastes imported from anywher form the local waters to the far corners of the old British empire: fish 'n' chips, kebabs, curries, etc. These typically range in cost from €5 to €8—though you can have a slice of pizza for around €2 to €3.

Perhaps the most popular Irish fast food is that old pub standby, the toasted, a drier variant of the grilled cheese, sometimes with ham, toasted in an oven (occasionally, oddly, cooked with the cellophane wrapping still on). This will run you €1.50 to €3 (though, given the option, I would pay extra for them to remove the plastic first).

A note on beer and cider prices

A pint of beer in an Irish pub costs anywhere from €3.20 to €5.60 (up to €6 in Dublin).

Stouts, like Guinness, are usually cheaper by €0.30 to €0.50 than are ales or lagers (and, for reasons no bartender could adequately explain, third-rate Beamish stout is cheaper than Guinness or Murphy's). Thats' ain pub. A can of beer in a gorcery sotre will run €2 to €3.

Cider is often the most expensive drink on tap, often costing about €0.30 to €0.40 more than an ale and lager.

A few Dublin quirks: pints in Temple Bar cost about €0.40 to €0.60 more than elsewhere in town, and pubs (again, largely in Temple Bar) with a special license to stay open late often raise the price by €0.50 to €1 at 11:30pm.