Food Expense in Irleand

What does it cost to eat where you live? There are so many variables. You can drop 50 euros on a lunch or around 5. Dinners can vary as much.

I'd personally spring for the new guidebook.

When I was there earlier this year, a pub meal (lunch or dinner) ran between 10 and 20 euros without drink. On the low side, we picked up sandwiches in a little market for 5 euros with a soda. Our highest for two people was a very nice dinner in Dingle that ran about $80 euros with a low end bottle of wine. Based on the food and atmosphere, my wife and considered it a bargain compared to Houston restaurants.

Pub beers and ales seemed to always be close to 5 euros. Wine by the glass was about the same depending on what was available at the pub. 10 euro for wine was as high as I saw but I payed much more attention to the ales.

Rick's 2010 book estimated $125 per day per person for a B&B and meals. That's $20 for lunch, $30 for dinner, $5 for a Guinness or snack and sharing a $140 B&B room. Our B&Bs averaged about $100 per night. The meals were about Rick's estimate. We spent much more on liquid refreshment than $5. One beer was almost always over $6 and who can just have one?

If you plan to see any sights, an OPW Heritage Card will probably be money well spent. We bought ours at Newgrange and I think it payed for itself within two days.

We spent most of May in NI and the Republic. Lunch, supper and all drinks averaged sixty-five bucks per day. About half of the lunches where from the food sack in the back of the car.

I have been researching this heavily for my impending visit to Dublin the first week of September (I'll be there for the All-Dublin Hurling Championship and had I known that, I'd have planned for a different week).

This will sound like sucking up but Rick's book about Dublin gives some amazing suggestions on where to eat.

I am looking up the individual pubs and restaurants to find the best values and this is what I've learned, thus far:

-Pubs are less expensive than restaurants.

-Restaurants (in Dublin especially) have two seating times. There is the earlier "pre-theater" seating that generally lasts until 8 PM or so. Between 5PM and 8PM is a less expensive time to eat. In the US, this is called "early bird dining".

-Most restaurants and a large percentage of pubs offer both a la carte and prix fixe pricing. Prix fixe is an extremely good value.

-The meals are large and not unheard of to have two people share one meal. Some places charge a little extra for this but it's still less than the cost of a second meal.

-Pubs will have both "pub grub", the traditional Irish fare such as stew, ploughman's lunch and sandwiches, and "non-traditional" meals as well.

-Look for grocery stores and department stores with lunch counters. Unwrap some cheese and bread, open a bottle of wine or beer and find a nice bench in a park or on a bridge.

I have learned a "typical" meal can be as little as 5 Euros a person to as much as 30 Euros a person, depending on where you buy. Most restaurants in Europe have their menu on the front of the place. You can decide before you walk in.

Plan to save the money on lunch as this is where you have the most wiggle room on price. Ireland is famous for it's cheese, produce and bread. Have some of that for lunch every day. You can feed three or four for less than 10 Euros.

We found that the B&B breakfasts filled us up enough that we usually did not get hungry until mid afternoon. Then a smoothie, or some kind of snack was enough for us to last until a pub supper. Go to a grocery store soon after arriving and stock up on munchies. Shopping like a local is part of the fun anyway!

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the good advice...I hope I can help someone else someday after our travels.

I completely agree with Ed about not booking B&B's ahead. Like Ed, we usually find a B&B with one stop it's only been a couple times that we had to make a second stop.

There are a few sites regarding restaurants and menu's which might be of help.

http://www.findarestaurant.ie/
http://www.ireland.com/food/restaurants
http://www.menupages.ie/

Hi Kristi, I see where several people told you to buy 2010 guidebook, I don't think it's necessary to spend the money just to see prices of meals. Pubs are cheaper then restaurants and you can get sandwiches from shops. Restaurants and pubs usually have their menu posted with prices so you can decide if you want to go in. Also, if you like fish there are lots of fish and chips shops.

I recommended the 2010 guidebook because things change. There may not be much difference between the 2008 book and the 2010 but sometimes things are closed for renovation or have disappeared entirely. When I first started looking at going to Ireland, I had an old book that talked about the crystal tour in Waterford. It's now long gone. The Kilkenny bus tour is currently on hold. I'll bet the 2008 version recommends it.

Also, there are a lot of discounts with the current edition of the book. I used a couple of the B&B discounts. I probably covered twice my book cost.

If the only reason she had for a book was to get updated meal costs, I agree it would be a waste of money.

Take-out fish and chip shops offer delicious, filling and inexpensive meals. We brought Balance Bars to snack on in the afternoon after a filling breakfast at our B&Bs. As a result, our food costs in Ireland were very low.

Where you can really save money is by not booking ahead for places to stay.

B&Bs abound, you'll have no trouble finding one when you're ready to quit for the day. If you book ahead, you pay the set price. If you show up, you usually get a discount just for asking and even more by paying cash.

My wife handles this aspect while I sit in the car. It's never taken her more than two stops (usually just one) for her to find a place that suits her.

My husband and I went earlier this year. The "Irish Breakfast" provided by our b&b was HUGE. We still splurged and ate lunch, dinner and snacks. Our big cost were beverages beer is about 5 euro each, soda about 2 euro. The beers were 16oz and all soda served was 12 oz glass bottles. Most meals included coffee or tea in the price. When in Dublin we ate at cafeteria style places a few times it was a great deal around 6 euro and you get quite a bit. Just follow a few locals or look for a good crowd inside. At some restaurants we did not eat in the cheaper pub area as it was pretty rowdy and we were often tired from sightseeing. In the pub a lunch/dinner around 10 euro, in the restaurant 12-15 euro same food. I don't know if it was just the places we ended up but we rarely had table service you ordered at the bar. Also many servers and barmen were very confused with us leaving our money laying around (tip) I really did not believe that it was acceptable to just leave the change from rounding up to the nearest euro, but that is honestly how it is done. In fact our b&b hosts strongly urged us against tipping, said it was considered rude. We also had some picnic lunches bread, fruit, cheese, cold meat around 8 euro from the grocery, bring a bag because in Ireland they charge 1 euro for a grocery bag, and you bag it yourself FYI. Same for buying some groceries and cooking at our b&b. We did discover that the price at some nicer restaurants is less if you pay cash, and that a hot warm meal is priceless. Last note on this long post if you find yourself outside the botanical gardens in Dublin about a block away from the front entrance is a great place. It is cafeteria/buffet style-imagine an amazing thanksgiving dinner you pay for at the end. It was Sunday when we went and perhaps they only have it on the weekend but it was called a carvey it cost about 12 euro and was just what we needed after a long first week to rejuvinate us.

Thanks again everyone! Such great info. I feel much better about my budget now...and all the other tips are so appreciated. I'm getting more excited about the trip by the minute!

I guess you spend in Europe the same in Euros as at home in Dollars and also no real deals [INVALID]early bird or all you can eat. or other specials. I go at least once a year so this answer comes with a bit of thought

I would say it really depends on what type of meals you're looking for. You can grab pub grub for 10 to 15 euros per meal for food, but the beer is what will increase the tab. the "full irish" breakfast is huge!

We cut our food costs by pigging out at breakfast, then skipping lunch and eating an early dinner, but on a couple of occasions we picked up some delicious sandwiches at convenience stores when we stopped for gas. If you keep snacks in the car you should be fine with just the two meals.