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Three of the best fish dishes in Ireland, and where to eat them

Our food experts Corinna Hardgrave, Lisa Cope and Ali Dunworth reveal their favourites

Fish and chips at Fish Shop

Corinna Hardgrave
Lisa Cope
Ali Dunworth
Mon Nov 15 2021 - 06:00

"What's your favourite restaurant?" is a question food writers are asked regularly. We reveal our new top 100 here. But what about our favourite dishes? We're answering that question in this series. Today: fish dishes. Here are the ones that Lisa Cope, Ali Dunworth and I will travel for, and will order regardless of what else is on the menu.

Fish and chips at Fish Shop
€15.95; 76 Benburb Street, Dublin 7; 01-5571473; fish-shop.ie

What a catch: fish and chips at Fish Shop

The joy of sitting on one of the high stools in this compact restaurant is matched by the quality of the fish on the concise menu. The beer-battered catch of the day dates back to when Jumoke Akintola and her husband, Peter Hogan, started out in Blackrock Market. Generally it's hake or haddock, delicately cooked in a crisp, light beer batter and served with hand-cut chips and homemade tartare sauce. For a few euro more you can scale up to plaice, brill or turbot. Corinna Hardgrave

Fish with Café de Paris Butter at Goldie 
From €22; 128 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork; 021-2398720, goldie.ie
At Goldie the menu changes daily, as they follow a whole-catch approach: whatever the small boats bring them, they take and transform into one of the most fun and delicious fish menus around. There will most likely be some spanking fresh round fish available, pan fried and served with homemade Café de Paris butter – simple but exquisite, and always worth ordering. Ali Dunworth

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Ceviche at Mamó
€14.50; Harbour House, Harbour Road, Howth, Dublin 13; 01-8397096, mamorestaurant.ie
Jess D'Arcy and Killian Durkin's seaside restaurant, Mamó, has become a vital box to tick on the Dublin-restaurant bingo board, and each week the dining room is a mix of devoted locals and eager travellers. Fish is a speciality, and whatever the season I must have their ceviche with homemade crisps. They often make the Peruvian dish of marinated raw fish with lesser-seen catch, and I've yet to find a more vivid, bracing version anywhere. Lisa Cope

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