Dublin has always known how to drink; the news is how well it now eats. Irish produce — the beef, the butter, the oysters, the wild Atlantic fish — was always world class, and a confident generation of chefs has finally built a restaurant scene to match it. The correct approach is to alternate: old pub, new kitchen, repeat. Here is the route.

Key facts

  • Currency: the euro; cards accepted almost everywhere, though a little cash never hurts in older pubs.
  • The pint: a well-poured Guinness needs a two-part pour — patience is part of the ritual.
  • Booking: the top tables book out days or weeks ahead, especially Thursday to Saturday; reserve before you fly.
  • Timing: pub kitchens often close well before the bar does; eat first, drink second.
  • Budget: casual meals are mid-range by European standards; tasting menus climb steeply from there.

The proper pubs

The Long Hall

On South Great George's Street, all Victorian mahogany, mirrors and red-shaded lamps, largely untouched for over a century. There is no food to speak of and none needed: this is where to learn what an unhurried pint of stout actually tastes like, ideally mid-afternoon when the light comes through the etched glass.

Order: a pint of Guinness, nothing else, and stand at the bar if you can.

Kehoe's

Just off Grafton Street on South Anne Street, a warren of snugs and creaking staircases that fills nightly with an easy mix of locals and strays. The snug by the front door — a small partitioned room once used for discreet drinking — is the prize seat.

Order: a pint, and a toasted sandwich if hunger strikes between meals.

Mulligan's

On Poolbeg Street near the river, trading since the 18th century and long beloved of printers and journalists from the old newspaper district. Famously serious about its stout; famously unserious about everything else.

Order: many Dubliners will tell you this is the best pint in the city. Test the claim.

The institutions

Leo Burdock

Dublin's most storied chipper has been frying on Werburgh Street, near Christ Church Cathedral, since 1913. Take the paper parcel and eat outdoors like everyone before you.

Order: fresh cod and chips, salt and vinegar on everything.

Gallagher's Boxty House

In Temple Bar, and a rare tourist-district address locals will still defend, built around boxty — the traditional Irish potato pancake — done a dozen ways.

Order: a boxty wrapped around slow-cooked beef, with a bowl of seafood chowder and brown bread to start.

The new Irish table

Chapter One

In a basement on Parnell Square on the north side, this is the flagship of modern Irish fine dining — Michelin-starred, rooted in Irish producers, and run with real warmth rather than starch. The set lunch is the accessible way in; book well ahead and check the current menus on the official site.

Order: the tasting menu, and let the sommelier drive.

The Winding Stair

Above a beloved bookshop of the same name on Ormond Quay, looking across the Liffey to the Ha'penny Bridge. The cooking is honest modern Irish — smoked fish, farmhouse cheeses, excellent bread — and the room, all bare boards and river light, is one of the most quietly romantic in the city.

Order: whatever smoked or cured fish is on, then the Irish cheese plate.

A word on Temple Bar

The cobbled district's famous namesake pub is a photogenic, red-fronted landmark — worth a picture, and a fine place for live music if you accept that prices run well above the city norm. Drink your serious pints elsewhere on this list; come here for the spectacle.

Tip: Do one morning at a food market if your dates allow — and pair the trip with oysters wherever you see Irish ones on a menu; September to April is their classic season, and they want nothing more than brown bread, butter and a half-pint of stout.

Eat Dublin this way — chipper paper at lunch, white tablecloth at eight, snug by ten — and you will understand the city's real culinary secret: it never chose between the old table and the new. It kept both, and set them a short walk apart.