Where to Eat, Stay & Play in Dublin

sarahpainter2
Jun 9
5 min read

Layered with culture, conversation and legend, the Irish capital is a city with depth and soul. A small city center with around 600,000 people, it’s low-rise and has no metro. But what it lacks in shimmering skyscrapers, it makes up for in spades in its historical layers, kaleidoscopic culture and knack for craic. That last word is a skeleton key to the city. Craic, pronounced crack, is Irish for fun or conviviality.

Situated behind Dublin Castle is a pint-sized park. Dubh Linn Gardens is plum for a picnic or a pause after visiting the Chester Beatty museum and library. It’s also the historical heart of the city — “Dubh Linn” is Irish for “black pool,” a name harking back to a tidal basin that bulged here when Viking settlers moored their boats from the early ninth century. They weren’t the first Dubliners; Celts had been here before (its Irish name, Baile Átha Cliath, means “town of the hurdle ford”). But the trading port flourished, and Dublin developed from there, laying down streets, lanes, districts and squares over the centuries.

Few traces remain of the city’s Viking heritage today (a story colorfully told in the Dublinia museum), but visitors can step into the medieval crypts of Christ Church Cathedral, search out chunks of Anglo-Norman city walls, gaze at glowing Georgian red bricks from the pathways of Merrion Square or find bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising on O’Connell Street. Another era is always around the corner.

Sometimes, Dublin’s most historical spaces feel like portals of time travel — standing beneath the barrel-vaulted ceilings of Trinity’s Old Library (said to be an inspiration for the Jedi Archives in Star Wars) is just one standout example. Those tracing their own roots can visit EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, which covers the history of the diaspora, and its Irish Family History Centre.

FOOD & DRINK

Think Dublin, and good food might not be the first topic that springs to mind. But that’s changing. A new generation of chefs and restaurateurs, and a growing confidence in Irish breads, cheeses, lamb, beef, seafood and other ingredients, has seen a tasty and underrated food scene emerge here — from mid-range to Michelin stars and all sorts in between.

In The Liberties, Variety Jones sees chef Keelan Higgs cooking over fire with a funky, family-style approach to fine dining. Chef’s choice menus are served to share: celeriac noodles topped with slivers of fire-roasted scallops and a golden confit egg might be one of the six courses, for example. On Parnell Square, two-Michelin-star Chapter One is chef Mickael Viljanen’s polished poem to modern Irish cuisine — with decadent detailing in dishes like wild turbot with carrot, yuzu and bergamot and lobster sauce. Some Dublin foodies believe this will be Ireland’s first three-Michelin-star restaurant.

Elsewhere, Legal Eagle is a contemporary take on the Irish gastropub (its Sunday roasts are among the city’s best), and new arrivals worth talking about include globally influenced Floritz and Italian restaurant Lena. For a roving, convivial taste of the city’s trends, consider a walking food tour with Fab Food Trails or Delicious Dublin Tours.

When it comes to drink, “the black stuff” is on every bucket list. Tours of the Guinness Storehouse provide an immersive look at the iconic stout, the science behind it and its place in Irish culture. They culminate with a pint at the 360-degree Gravity Bar, which provides views stretching from Dublin Bay to the mountains.

NIGHTLIFE

Temple Bar is the city’s tourist hub — a boisterous, sometimes rowdy cobblestoned crossroads between the River Liffey and Central Bank building. Visitors often outnumber locals in the party pubs here, but it’s worth an early evening walk for the atmosphere, and pubs such as The Temple Bar itself make a great photo (especially in its Christmas finery).

“Good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub,” Leopold Bloom says in James Joyce’s Ulysses — a masterpiece set in the city. The challenge remains as tricky today, but why pass by when one can step inside? Mulligan’s on Poolbeg Street and the Palace Bar on Fleet Street are famous literary pubs, while The Cobblestone in Smithfield hums with quality traditional music. The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl sees actors bring pub lore to life during a 2.5-hour tour.

Dublin nightlife quickly transitions from an after-work and pre-show scene to packed pubs before tapering into fewer late bars and clubs after midnight — centered around lively strips like South William Street and Leeson Street. Its cocktail scene is going up a gear too, with new arrivals like the Collins Club at The Leinster, which serves batch drinks in a sexy crimson salon, alongside stalwarts like the Vintage Cocktail Club, marked by the letters VCC on its grubby steel door in Temple Bar.

Irish craft spirits are increasingly a feature — the Vintage Cocktail Club’s “banshee” cocktail is a good example, a mix of Micil poitín (a traditional distilled spirit), Powers single pot still Irish whiskey and Celtic honey liqueur along with bitters, apricot, apple and rhubarb.

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EXCURSIONS

The Dublin Mountains, south of the city, quickly blend into Wicklow Mountains National Park. The 80-mile Wicklow Way is an iconic hiking route, but there are plenty of shorter rambles — to the hulking old ruin of the Hell Fire Club on Montpellier Hill, for example. Legend has it the devil once played cards at this 18th-century shooting lodge.

Continuing through Wicklow, a popular driving tour takes in Glendalough, where a sixth-century monastic site seems to sit in soft focus in a glacial valley. There are easy ambles through the ruins and along the lakeshore, but a tougher, six-mile hike on the Spinc and Glenealo Valley route offers views over the entire site and passes an abandoned mining village. Wicklow is known as Ireland’s garden county — Powerscourt Estate and the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh are just two to visit.

Heading north, Ireland’s Boyne Valley is a rich tapestry of historical sites including the Hill of Tara, Bective Abbey and Brú na Bóinne (also known as the Boyne Valley tombs). The highlight of the latter is a tour of Newgrange, where visitors are taken deep into the structure, past stones cut with ancient symbols, to a chamber that’s illuminated by a shaft of sunlight during the winter solstice. Those on tour get to see a simulation, but it’s still magical to think the experience pre-dates Egypt’s Great Pyramids.

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HOTELS

Dublin is a small capital by international standards, but its selection of classic, contemporary and boutique stays is a cosmopolitan one. The Shelbourne, overlooking St. Stephen’s Green, is its grand dame. Celebrating 200 years, this is at once a heritage five-star property putting guests within walking distance of the main sights and shops, and a beloved special-occasion stop for locals. Afternoon tea in its Lord Mayor’s Lounge or cocktails in its 1824 Bar are worth getting dressed up for.

The Dylan Hotel is squirreled away from the buzz off Baggot Street, but with a vibrant, clubby feel thanks to its contemporary art, design and Dublin focus (an in-room map and audio guide leads guests on a neighborhood trail). Make time for a cocktail in its Ruby Room bar or dinner in The Eddison restaurant.Sarah Aughinbaugh Briggsdale, CO All Inclusive , Theme Parks, Family Vacation

The Fitzwilliam is another elegant, central stay, with an art deco-inspired lounge and recently refurbished rooms (options overlooking St. Stephen’s Green from terraces are like looking out from a luxury ocean liner). The icing on the cake is chef Andy McFadden’s Michelin-starred Glovers Alley restaurant.

Just over a mile from the city center is Anantara The Marker, an iconic, Aires Mateus-designed building on Grand Canal Square. Local chef Gareth Mullins is developing a destination restaurant here in Forbes Street, creating dishes that feature seasonal and local produce. St. Patrick’s Festival, set around Ireland’s March 17 national holiday, is a multi-day celebration packed with events and parades.