Gallagher's Boxty House

During our recent trip to Dublin, we'd done our usual trick of making a very detailed list of places to visit and locations and a route - yet when we arrived there, we just decided to walk around and go wherever took our fancy. I'm glad we did, because that's how we stumbled on this treasure.

Located in arguably the most tourist congested part of Dublin, Temple Bar, Gallagher's Boxty House is a restaurant doing a hundred different takes on the Irish traditional classic - Boxty (a potato pancake). We went for the boxty house chilli and the chicken & smoked bacon boxty with a side of boxty shavings with garlic aioli. To finish it off we had chocolate boxty pancakes and a fruit & nut chocolate cake with boxty ice cream.

Honestly, we weren't expecting anything amazing when we first sat down as we had just dandered in because we hadn't eaten all day and it was the most appealing place in the immediate area. Oh, were we wrong. The food was impeccable, and the staff made the experience all the more enjoyable by being super friendly. To top it all off, it even allowed us the opportunity to wash it all down with Ireland's best cider - in our humble opinion - Stonewell.  In fear of our awe of the place being due to a mixture of exhaustion and hunger, we even got chatting with an American couple next to us who said it was the best food they'd had since being here!

All in all, this place is producing great food and making what was traditionally a poor-mans bread exciting again! If you're in the Dublin area, you should pay it a visit - the food is reasonably priced, but be prepared to pay standard Temple Bar prices for alcohol.