Traditional or poplular foods to try in Ireland and NI

Love the brown bread they serve along with soup in many of the pubs.
Also, Guiness stew! Yum!
I would not eat the salmon, its all farmed in Ireland.

Edit-We ate at our first Michelin starred restaurant in Dublin. Patrick Guilbaud (two stars)
Very fancy, very expensive. So if you want south of the channel type food, there you go!

Pub lunch: bowl of thick vegetable soup made fresh every day, served with brown soda bread and butter. That and a pint and you're set till dinner. Available at most (all?) pubs. Other than that, nothing stands out in memories. If you aren't a Guinness fan, try the cider. It's my favorite drink.

The only other memorable item was the hotel breakfast buffet in Belfast, with a bottle of Bushmill's Irish Whiskey and encouragement to add it to your morning porridge along with the honey and the fresh cream.

Irish pub soups !!!! YES !!!!! Vegetable, Potato and Leek, Creamed Cauliflower, w Brown bread. PERFECT.

Cheese and Onion pie at Kelly's in Sneem w her secret ingredients. Incredibly good. Your arteries might congeal shut by the end but it is so worth it.

Taytos. Seriously. Different and better than potato chips elsewhere.....plus they have fun flavors I've not seen anywhere else. These CRISPS ...don't miss out.

Mi Wadi. In the supermarkets. Ever want something tasty thats different from soda. These concentrates are it. My wife would like to be hooked up to a lifetime IV of blackcurrent. We've drained our bank account back in the states ordering bottles.

Candy bars. Different, fun and to American tastes some downright bizzare flavors......but again excellent.

Seafood chowder. I hate seafood (I know I know) but my wife and our adult kids don't talk at dinner but just make goofy happy sounds while working down this very chunky and I have to admit good looking chowder. Best of it in Waterville and at the Bar on the Arans according to the fish eaters !

Traditional Irish breakfast. Took some time getting used to the blood sausage. And it still tastes like stuffing to me not a sausage.....but what can you expect when bacon isn't bacon, rashers are something different and to get close to "normal" you have to ask for Streaky Rashers ! Still tons of fun and about 7x what I normally eat for breakfast. Love you get Brown bread AND toast like they are two totally different food groups.

Any pub dinner involving potatoes........because you almost always get a side dish......of POTATOES. Had an insanely good Irish stew served over three enormous scoops of mashed potatoes to which the very happy server added an extra dish of "some extra mash for ye" and then came back with a little metal fryer filled with Chips (French fries). I'm not sure if this is in some way linked psychologically to the Potato famine but be prepared for prodigious amounts of delicious potato.

I sat out in a cold 30 mph wind w drizzle in the Glen near Ballinskellig in perfect contentment with my caramel hot chocolate from Skellig Chocolates. So insanely warm and good. It makes cold rain disappear.

Anything at Cafesiveen in Cahersiveen. Anything. Literally anything. Baked goods, Lunch sandwich creations. Scones that you would willingly die for. Cocoa that takes them ten minutes to grind up (yes grind up) for you. Be prepared to come out a bit wider than you went in.

Also in Cahersiveen ......pizza from the Oratory. Have pizza in church......and its totally weird delicious flavor combos. I had blue cheese and peach. And it was actually great. My thin beautiful wife had El Diablo and polished off the entire thing.

Supermacs and Apache Pizza (which serves normal fast food stuff) What McDonald's and Burger King should be. They serve you, have great options, are for some reason universally and genuinely cheerful and the food is good ! Had a burger and chips (fries) at Apache Pizza in Kilorglin and was stunned realizing I REALLY enjoyed it and my stomach wasn't upset.

Just some random ramblings.......but try the nightly specials at pubs they serve great fresh fun foods. You can get great "fine" food almost anywhere....and you can to in Ireland but in Ireland the whole spectrum of edibles is great. Speaking of which don't turn your nose up at gas station food. They often have little deli restaurants in the back and if you ask them whats fresh and good they usually come up with something that is fresh and tastes really good.

One of the great things in Ireland is its joyful, welcoming, virtual classless approach to life. You can eat at a Michelin Star restaurant one night then enjoy delicious Grilled Plaice served with amazing vegetables wonderfully prepared at An Corcan's Restaurant in Waterville another, have great prawn and crab cakes and the roast of the day at the Anvil Pub in Castlemaine, a great toasty or Tea brack in Cahersiveen or even grab a delicious sausage roll or scone made with great skill by a local lady for yes, a gas station mini deli and never run into the pompous pretentiousness you do in other spots in the world. The Irish wonderfully seem to look at your character not your point of origin, title or elitist airs ...... they embrace you fully and enjoy life on all levels unless you think too highly of yourself.......then you are the joke.

I was a big fan of the porridge--so lovely and creamy! And you'll often be asked if you'd like some Bailey's on your porridge. Say yes--it's delicious! And I loved "roast of the day", especially the pork! We found it all over the island. One of our favorite meals was at Fishy Fishy in Kinsale. I'm not a seafood eater but decided to go for the salmon and it was delicious. And we had a fabulous lunch at Ballymaloe House near Midleton (I believe it is associated with the cooking school there). If you make it to Inishmore there is a little cafe at the base of the hill leading to Dun Aengus that, according to my husband, had the best Guinness stew he ever tasted (even better than the stew at the Guinness Storehouse cafe which was also very good). At the same cafe I had what was listed as ham salad but turned out to be thick slices of ham with three different side salads. It was the tastiest ham I've ever eaten and the salads were all lovely. We were always too full for dessert but banoffee pie seemed to be included on menus everywhere.

To each their own. For me sitting in a little home based bakery near Dunquin watching and sharing in the preparation of amazing baked goods, being taught Irish words by an utterly loving and generous old lady and her friend is as "highly developed" as I need or want. Wouldn't trade that for any of the meals I had in the South of France or the attitudes that went with them. But again to each their own.

PJ.......the porridge !!!!!! I forgot........you are so right. So good !!!!!!!

I have no idea what the current status is of Chips and Curry but when I lived in Northern Ireland and Dublin many moons ago this was our late night go to snack. So good after a few pints. Also any crisp flavor.

Also have fond childhood memories of soft serve ice cream served with a flake candy bar.

And to go along with the other replies - brown bread! We have been trying for over 40 years to replicate it in the states.

Ireland has come a very long way in the past 20 years in terms of food and culinary offerings. But honestly I would recommend eating Bourdain style - go out and find the locals and figure out where they are eating. Enjoy the food, the beer, and conversation.

Have fun!

In Dublin, you have to try the Dublin coddle... Irish stew was good everywhere we went. My daughter though the fish and chips were to die for.. much better than she had in England.

Irish dairy is the best you will ever have.... soft serve ice cream , chocolate, butter.. you name it, it was awesome. Butler's had awesome hot chocolate, ice cream and chocolates.

Tayto crips as someone else said. Boxty... at Gallagher's boxty house.

Irish food is amazing. Do not let pompous Andrew make you think otherwise ;)

Ditto the brown bread - can't quite explain why it was so pleasing, but it just was. Also want to praise the fish and chips from the Reel Dingle Fish Co. It was my first time trying monkfish, one of several unusual fish on the menu. If I recall correctly, they put gin in the batter (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), and they battered the fish right before frying. Anyhow, it was really fresh and delicious.

Seafood chowder and fresh mussels at Mournes in Belfast.

Guinness pie, brown bread, Irish breakfast, cider. Must try's when in Ireland for sure!

Thank you thank you thank you all

This is pure gold. Printing it all out.

We try to experience foods from the regions we are in. This will help so much.

As for the person from France, been. Loved it but I try things everywhere we go.

All I can tell you is that if you aren't a beer drinker, try the cider. All food tastes better with a pint, and after the second one, who cares :-)

Others have mentioned pub soups and seafood chowder. On our bike tour in 2011, we pretty much had fish chowder for lunch each day, as we rode farther and farther south. Each pub’s version was a bit different, but all were excellent and clearly not from a can! We were never far from the ocean, so it was a treat! If smoked salmon’s available (maybe with eggs for breakfast) you won’t get any better. And Irish oatmeal is tops. Dessert tarts and/or ice cream will likely be on the menu.

Our favorite meal in Ireland was at a pub in Dublin called Oliver St John Gogarty. They have wonderful trad music and we had the best Guinness stew there. We shared it and there was plenty for both of us. It was a very large bowl of stew with some potatoes on the side & of course soda bread. It was delicious! We did desserts on our CIE Tour every night. Hard to pick a best one, they were all so good but I'd have to say the Raspberry Mousse. We also had ice cream in Killarney at Murphy's that was really good too.