The Irish Food Report #4
PJ O’Hare’s, Carlingford, Louth
Pan Eile, Stoneybatter, Dublin
Daallo, City Centre, Dublin
This week I enjoyed a great Irish seafood lunch in a famous Carlingford pub, a contender for the best sandwich in Dublin, and a traditional East African restaurant in Dublin’s north inner city.
PJ O’Hare’s - an Irish seafood pub lunch by the sea and mountains
https://pjoharescarlingford.ie/
Food 9/10
Vibe 9/10
Value 9/10
PJ O’Hare’s is the perfect spot for lunch if you’ve been hiking in the hills of Carlingford and fancy yourself some oysters, chowder, and crab claws with heavily buttered brown bread. That’s exactly the position I found myself in this weekend.
Carlingford has a lot of great lunch spots, but PJ O’Hare’s came recommended to us by a local who we met on our hike, and it didn’t disappoint.
The food was fresh and absolutely delicious. The atmosphere was lively, as locals and a stag party kicked off their Saturday afternoon in the sunshine.
There’s plenty of tables inside this cosy pub but we sat in the beer garden to make the most of the great weather. Pubs serving great food like this are Ireland at its best, and my afternoon at PJ O’Hare’s has me excited for summer.
Pan Eile - excellent sandwiches in Stoneybatter’s “Cow Town” food yard
https://www.instagram.com/eile.pan/?hl=en
Food 10/10
Vibe 10/10
Value 9/10
In every town across the country, locals would surely welcome an outdoor food court where food trucks and a great atmosphere create the perfect setting for coffee, lunch, or dinner. Maybe run clubs could meet there? Add in a sauna and plunge pool area and you’ve won modern Ireland’s “fresh weekend” bingo. Stoneybatter residents are spoiled because they have all of that in Cow Town.
In Cow Town you have Taboo Burger, Rustic Pizza, Pan Eile, and The Outcasts Sauna. Next door is Clarke’s City Arms pub, and they let you take your food inside, or your pints outside into the food court. It’s a brilliant set up and Ireland could do with plenty more places like this.
After a refreshing sauna and plunge, I had the porchetta sandwich from Pan Eile: roast pork belly, herbs, roasted peppers, salsa verde, and mayonaise. Lately, I’ve found myself on a mission to find Dublin’s best sandwich and this was absolutely a contender. A mixed berry smoothie went down a treat too.
Daallo - traditional East African food on Dublin’s northside
https://www.instagram.com/white.rabbit.hq/?hl=en
Food 8/10
Vibe 8/10
Value 10/10
Daallo is just up the road from the Rotunda and just off Dorset Street. Its interiors won’t win any awards, and it’s not somewhere you would need to book a table in, but the staff are great and the food is delicious.
I walked in by myself at 9:30 on a Saturday night. Friends of the staff were drinking tea at the only busy table, but you could tell the restaurant was coming off a busy day. I took a seat and asked for a menu but the man serving me (who had come from the kitchen to greet me) told me they were sold out of almost everything but still had lamb ribs and rice. So that’s what I had.
The lamb cuts were rough and ready - again won’t win any awards for aesthetics - but they were very well seasoned and very tender, falling off the bone. There was a slight but subtle hot sweetness to them which I really enjoyed. My side dish of fragrant rice was full of cloves and cardamon and it perfectly cooked. The portions were extremely generous. You could feed two people with the €14 I paid for my whole meal.
This was my first experience of East African food and it won’t be my last. As I enjoyed my meal, more friends came in to relax and drink tea, creating a nice neighbourhood vibe to the place.
Thank you for reading my fourth report. The mailing list is really growing! To receive and read my next report, make sure you’ve joined the mailing list. I send my reports out every Monday. Happy eating!
