The past decade has been a bumper one for putting Galway on the culinary map, and there are three names you’ll hear credited again and again — sometimes even referred to as the Galway Food Mafia: JP McMahon, Jess Murphy and Enda McEvoy.
Interestingly, none of them is originally from Galway. McEvoy, a Cavan man, is the chef who brought Michelin stars to Galway, first at Aniar in 2013 and then again in his own restaurant, Loam, in 2015. Kildare man McMahon is chef patron of three restaurants in Galway — Cava, Tartare and Aniar, with another on the way. Along with his business partner Drigín Gaffey, he also set up the ambitious food symposium Food on the Edge in 2015, which has brought some of the biggest names in food from around the world to Galway. New Zealander Jess Murphy is chef proprietor of the multi-award winning Kai restaurant in Galway, and a well-known face and voice on the Irish food scene.
There are others, too. Seamus Sheridan of Sheridans Cheesemongers landed in Galway in the late 1980s and unwittingly began to pave the way for a new world of food in the city. Originally from Portobello in Dublin, he came to Galway for the arts festival, and hasn’t really left. He says he had arty ambitions — “sure, didn’t we all back then?” He opened what he describes as “a sort of gallery and coffee shop” in the beautiful stone building in Spanish Arch, now home to Ard Bia. The coffee shop eventually evolved into a restaurant, The Blue Raincoat. The menu was heavily ingredient-led; it simply made sense to use local fish, organic vegetables and any other good Irish produce they could find.
A year after opening, Sheridan pinpoints what was one of the seminal moments in his food career. “This lady came in with scallops, I’d never cooked scallops, and she showed me how. Her name was Harriet Leander. She taught me everything about wine, cured meats, and so much stuff because, you know, we were Paddies; her food to us was very exotic.”
Harriet Leander’s name is on the lips of everyone I spoke to about Galway food. Sheridan calls her “the godmother of Galway food”, and she’s the first person JP McMahon mentions. Originally from Finland, she had been working as an archivist in Switzerland before she landed in Ireland and found her way to Galway. It was the sea that drew her to the city, and the people that made her stay. “I just absolutely fell in love with Galway, with Connemara, the Aran Islands,” she says. “And then the position of the city is so perfect. And I also fell in love with the people.”
Growing up, I travelled to Greece, to Italy a lot, to France, so I had seen what could be done with great ingredients. I tasted my way through
The day she walked in to The Blue Raincoat with the scallops led to her spending time in the kitchen. “I said I would give him [Sheridan] a hand with the cooking and that’s how I first got into it. It was a very special place.”
How did Leander know so much about food? She says she had just been curious and well-travelled. “Growing up, I travelled to Greece, to Italy a lot, to France, so I had seen what could be done with great ingredients. I tasted my way through.”
Sheridan, with a growing interest in Irish food, started branching out into cheese with his brother Kevin, opening a market stall and shop. When he left Galway for a while, the owners of the building that housed his restaurant suggested Leander take it over. “I love cooking and I had always been cooking for my friends but I was like, Hello? I’m a librarian.”
They convinced her somehow, however, and Galway is lucky they did. She went on to run the restaurant at Nimmo’s for more than a decade, nailing her simple ethos to “do a small restaurant with things I like”. Friends came and loved it, and told other people. “I never did any advertising really. People told each other. I hired lovely staff for the floor who knew who people were.”
It proved too hard an act to follow for the next owners, but then Donegal native Aoibheann MacNamara moved her Ard Bia restaurant there in the early 2000s. Leander knew it would be a good match. “We all call her Darling, well, because that’s what she calls us. She’s absolutely special and you have to be special when you go into that trade.”
Ard Bia has been one of Galway’s most enduring and charming restaurants, encapsulating the vibe that makes the Galway food scene so special. The business was first started by MacNamara in her hometown of Ards in Donegal, hence the name. She had studied at the university in Galway, but it was a simple encounter that made her want to stay. “I was sitting outside Neachtain’s and Woody Harrelson was next to me and I thought, I’m going to stick around.”
MacNamara first opened Ard Bia on Quay Street, before moving a couple of years later to the old Nimmo’s location in Spanish Arch. Design, culture and creativity have always been at the core of her business, along with the food, of course, which has always been an impressive combination of local ingredients paired with spices, flavours and ideas collected as she travelled the globe.
It was this creative ethos and infectious energy that convinced New Zealand-born Jess Murphy to give Galway a go, after arriving in the city from Dublin and a stint working with Kevin Thornton. Murphy saw a sign looking for chefs on the door of Ard Bia and handed in her CV. It wasn’t long before she was hooked. “I loved working with Aoibheann. She has this crazy energy I love. She would travel lots, she’d been to India and Syria and she’d bring back spices, there was loads of vegetarian stuff, all the colours of the rainbow.”
You could just sit outside Neachtain’s and you’d run into everyone in hospitality, you’d get to know everyone very quickly, that’s what was kind of nice about Galway
Meanwhile, across the Corrib, Seamus and Kevin Sheridan were getting busier at their Sheridan’s cheese shop, to which they had added a wine bar, and Enda McEvoy became their in-house chef. McEvoy hadn’t fully committed to Galway before then; he’d worked with Leander in Nimmo’s, and also travelled to Spain, Germany and the UK, but Galway kept calling him back. There was, and still is, a friendliness in the city that stood out to him. “You could just sit outside Neachtain’s and you’d run into everyone in hospitality, you’d get to know everyone very quickly, that’s what was kind of nice about Galway, it was very easy to make friends.”
It was a great time, Seamus Sheridan says, for a bunch of like-minded people working, cooking and eating together. “We were a little gang, Junichi from Kappa-Ya, fishmonger Stefan Griesbach, Enrico Fantasia who now runs Grapecircus for Sheridans, David Gumbleton, who sadly passed away, and Enda, of course.”
Jess Murphy then joined the fold when she decided she needed a break from the kitchen and fancied herself as a cheesemonger. “I had a dorky interest in milk and cheese and charcuterie seemed like something Willy Wonka-like to me.” She took a job in Sheridans cheese shop to soak up all she could about Irish food, and loved it.
Next, the Sheridans branched out and became publicans and restaurateurs when they opened Sheridans on the Docks, in a 19th-century stone building on the water that was known locally as Pádraic’s (due to it being the birthplace of Galway writer Pádraic Ó Conaire). This is now where Rúibín can be found, but back then it was a much-praised gastropub where Enda McEvoy first came to the attention of the Michelin Guide. Seamus Sheridan recalls there was a real buzz around McEvoy’s food. “People got excited about his cooking, they were travelling from Dublin to eat there.”
Around the same time, JP McMahon and Drigín Gaffey were making the leap to becoming restaurateurs. McMahon had been in Galway since about 1999. “I think I went because it was quite arts-orientated and I was into theatre and literature and all those things. I went down for a couple of weeks in the summer and I supposed I just stayed.”
Tapas took a long time for Galway to get used to; for people to understand sharing plates and smaller portions... I mean, now it’s just a given
He had been cooking at busy Quay Street spot, Fat Freddy’s (now renamed Freddy’s), when the opportunity to take over a space on Dominic Street came about, and he and Gaffey opened Cava. “We did it with very little money, we were quite naive.” Both McEvoy and Murphy helped out in the kitchen when he first opened. McMahon recalls that it wasn’t exactly an easy sell, serving Spanish food in the city back then. “Tapas took a long time for Galway to get used to; the first few years were definitely a struggle. For people to understand sharing plates and smaller portions... I mean, now it’s just a given.”
But just as Cava was finding its feet, Sheridans on the Docks came to an abrupt end. McEvoy went to Noma in Copenhagen for a stint and then came back to Galway, where he joined Aniar, McMahon’s new opening. He says he “wanted to continue what I had been doing in Sheridans on the Docks. I wanted to use local suppliers, I wanted to explore what was happening in the west of Ireland and use more local ingredients.”
Aniar was awarded that all-important first Michelin star for Galway city within 14 months of opening. McEvoy stayed for two years before he opened his own restaurant, Loam, nabbing a Michelin star this time within eight months of opening, which he has retained ever since. More recently, he has been behind the opening of the critically acclaimed restaurant of the moment in Galway, Éan, run by Tipperary native Christine Walsh.
Jess Murphy had also worked with McEvoy at Sheridans on the Docks as his sous chef for a bit, and then went on to open Bar 8. It was while cooking here she won the Best Chef in Connacht 2010 award, and started to get to know her customers, giving her the confidence to make the jump and open her own neighbourhood restaurant with her husband, David: Kai on Sea Road.
JP McMahon has retained the Michelin star at Aniar and opened Tartare across the street, a much-loved local wine bar and small plate spot that sadly will close next month. Cava is thriving, and McMahon and Gaffey continue to bring great food minds and speakers to Ireland for their Food on the Edge symposium, and are in the process of opening another restaurant too.
So there you have it: a whistle-stop tour of the backstories and successes of some of Galway’s culinary leaders, and I’ve only really discussed a tiny cohort.
Ones to watch
There are plenty of rising stars on the Galway food scene – here are some of the people I’ll be keeping an eye on.
Christine Walsh, head chef at Éan
Éan already seems like a firmly established Galway culinary great, despite having only opened its doors in 2020. Head chef Christine Walsh runs this seasonally-led bakery, restaurant and wine bar with aplomb, attracting praise from critics and customers alike, and a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2022.
Alice Jary and Richard Kennan at Rúibín
Rúibín was the restaurant on everyone’s wish list this summer. Owners Alice Jary and Richard Kennan have created a wonderfully fun spot with a tasty menu that combines their stellar hospitality experience and extensive travels. From the cocktails to the fried chicken, local suppliers and the waterside views, there’s plenty to enjoy. It’s also serendipitously housed in the same dockside building once home to the short-lived but much-loved Sheridan’s on the Docks.
Drew Ishmael and Beth Hannan, owners of The Imperfect Bakery
The Imperfect Bakery was started by Drew Ishmael and Beth Hannan from their Salthill flat during the lockdown, and snowballed into a small pop-up business focusing on long fermentation bread, bagels and wonky doughnuts. As their reputation grew, plans were afoot to open their own spot until Ishmael’s underlying health conditions put a halt to things (he is currently on the kidney transplant waiting list). While plans for a bricks-and-mortar Imperfect Bakery may be doing a slow ferment, for now you can taste Ishmael’s delicious baking if you stay at The Stop B&B on Father Griffin Road, or try the divine doughnuts on Fridays at The Sea Hare in Clifden.
Damien Walsh, Space Cowboys Tacos
When I asked always-in-the-know Galwegian Lisa Regan about up-and-coming food in the city, Damien Walsh’s Space Cowboys Tacos was fresh in her mind, as he’d recently sold 500 tacos in three hours at the Galway’s West End Street Feast she’d organised. Walsh’s nomadic Space Cowboys concept specialises in drool-worthy sandwiches, artisan hot dogs and tacos, depending on whether he’s cooking at festivals, events or markets, as he looks for a more permanent spot to hang his space cowboy hat.
