Café restaurants in Ireland
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Milk Bar
Don’t go to Iveagh Gardens without visiting this groovy little sandwich bar, which serves some of the best coffee in Dublin. The blend is a little mild, but if its standard offerings don’t hit the mark, these are the most benevolent baristas in Dublin and are happy to tweak their coffee – a little cooler, warmer, stronger, milkier, sweeter – until you get your fix exactly how you like it.
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Panem
Pasta, focaccia and salads are the standard fare at this diminutive quay-side café, but the specialities are wickedly sweet and savoury pastries, which are all made on-site. The croissants and brioche – filled with Belgian chocolate, almond cream or hazelnut amaretti – are the perfect snack for a holiday stroll along the Liffey Boardwalk. Lunchtimes are chaotic.
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Nude
With juice bars a-go-go in the city, modernist Nude may no longer be the rarity it once was, but it still maintains its own unique identity. Owned by Bono’s brother, it takes the fast-food experience to a delicious and healthy extreme offering hot Asian wraps, bean casseroles and spirulina-spiked juices to go or have on the (plastic-free) spot.
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Oxford Exchange
Smart and stylish with bare pine floors, chocolate brown chairs, white linen napkins and a yellow tulip on each table, the Oxford has breezy charm and a menu of high-end comfort food – try the beer-battered cod with mushy peas, and chunky chips served in a twist of newspaper, or pea, parsley and chervil risotto.
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Butler’s Chocolate Café
Heavenly hedonistic; the coffee might not be the very best in town, but the combination of a delicious handmade chocolate and damn good coffee is hard to beat. Actually, sod the coffee and double up with its famous hot chocolate for an unforgettable treat. There are branches around the south side.
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Harry’s Cafe
Harry’s has some great drops on the wine list, many of which you’ll see mounted on the bare brick walls of this friendly place. House specialities include organic beef burgers or bangers and mash, but the baked Mediterranean stack oozing melted goat’s cheese is our favourite.
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Café Gusto
Wraps, salads and pittas and a commitment to the finest fillings are the order of the day at this simple café. Gusto's assertion that it makes the best coffee in Cork is no idle claim either. You can sit in at high counter tops or take away, and there's a second branch at Lapps Quay.
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Lautrec’s Brasserie
The Carlow branch of the Kilkenny original, the candlelit Lautrec’s is named after the artist (replete with his poster of the red-scarf-clad chansonnier Aristide Bruant mounted on the roof). Creative bistro fare includes monkfish and tiger prawn curry, or Cajun blackened salmon.
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Other Place
This is another student favourite where you can linger over the Sunday papers amid red brick, orange pine and antique objets, or damp down a rising hangover with big plates of lasagne, cajun pitta or home-made hamburgers. Breakfast served till 11:00.
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Locke Bar
When the Atlantic gusts abate, enjoy the tables waterside at this sprawling cafe-cum-bar or get lost in the maze of rooms and bars. Enjoy the pub menu of pasta, fish and chips, burgers and more amid the scrum, or in more refined quarters upstairs.
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Fitzroy's
Informal Fitzroy's does café-style, burger-and-chips lunches till 17:30, and then bistro-style dinners, including Moroccan-style lamb kebab, baked cod with leek risotto, and Thai vegetable stir-fry. There's a second entrance on Carlisle Rd.
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Courtyard Bar & Bistro
Tables out back overlook the brook, out front they are sheltered from the rain and have heaters. Inside a fire burns and you’ll enjoy the scents of excellent baked goods, fine sandwiches and other comfort foods. Superb coffees.
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Jam
This charmer of a cafe is a local hideout. Duck down an alley for a changing menu of hot meals, deli items, and coffee and cake. It’s all made with locally sourced produce and there’s a few tables under an awning out front.
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Sceale Eile
This bakery–cafe, with Irish literary memorabilia decorating the walls upstairs, energises Killarney’s workforce with baguettes, bagels, burgers, lasagne and roasts. The big BLT is famous locally; tarts abound.
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Café Artisan
This cool little café is tucked away at the back of the Bookworm bookshop and serves delicious home-made soups, deli sandwiches, panini (type of Italian sandwich) and excellent cappuccinos.
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Ruby’s Coffee & Sandwich Bar
Tucked upstairs in Eason’s bookshop is this comfy nook furnished with sofas and armchairs, offering breakfast bagels and croissants, sandwiches and salads, soups and baked potatoes. Free newspapers, too.
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An Caife Glas
If you’re exploring West Belfast, drop in to the cafe in this Irish language and arts centre for some good home-cooked food – the menu includes stews, soups, pizzas, cakes, scones and fresh pastries.
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Café Gusto
This bright little café is good for a 'big' breakfast or New York bagel, and lunches such as burgers, goujons (strips of fish or meat coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried), and salads.
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Café Paul Rankin
Owned by Northern Ireland's best-known celebrity chef, this café has comfy benches and sofas for lounging on, and serves quality coffee, cakes, focaccias, soups, pastas and salads.
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Crawford Gallery Café
An elegant blue dining room and exquisite seasonal and locally produced food make for high-class gallery grazing at the Crawford. It's also a quality place for a spot of eavesdropping.
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Café Lucia
You may have to wait for one of the colourful seats in this deservedly popular place, which dishes out homemade soups, fresh juices, salads, paninis, wraps and Thai fish cakes.
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Monks
At the southern end of Shop St, on the corner of North Quay, this lovely espresso bar and café is a local institution. The sandwiches are inventive and the coffees good.
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Egos Lunch Club
Boast about your accomplishments at this bright and open modern café. It has a full coffee bar and a long menu of hot specials, sandwiches and salads.
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Mojo Café Bar
This busy bar and café has sandwiches, paninis, toasted sandwiches and a long list of daily hot lunch specials. The coffee is a cut above the norm.
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Boston Tea Party
Home-made soups, hot lunches, freshly baked cakes, friendly service and the best apple pie in town - what more could you want from a café?
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