DUBLIN RESTAURANTS, CHEFS AND LOCAL FOOD HEROES ANNOUNCED AS FINALISTS FOR THE IRISH RESTAURANT AWARDS

Today, Friday the 9th of March, the Restaurants Association of Ireland announced it’s shortlist for the Dublin region of the Irish Restaurant Awards 2018. Among the winners are the very best of restaurateurs, chefs and hospitality management in the Dublin area.

The awards cover a wide range of venues and the winners are selected from the following categories: Best Casual Dining, Best Emerging Irish Cuisine, Best Kids Size Me, Best ‘Free From’, Best World Cuisine, Best Restaurant Manager, Best Wine Experience, Pub of the Year, Best Café, Best Customer Service, Best Gastro Pub, Best Hotel & Guesthouse Restaurant, Best Newcomer, Best Chef and Best Restaurant.

Speaking about the awards, Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) said: “Now in their tenth year, the Irish Restaurant Awards continue to showcase the exquisite and admirable calibre of food available in our restaurants and pubs nationwide. Online nominations have increased from 9,000 in 2013 to over 80,000 this year and with the increase in interest comes an increase in standards, making the judging process more difficult than ever.

“Our small island boasts everything from fine dining to high quality gastropubs, from the exotic taste explosions of world cuisine to the comfort of traditional dishes. We have an appreciation for what we eat, for the journey of our food from farm to fork, and for the dedication of those working in the food industry to serve up Ireland’s finest food.”

Dublin shortlist is as follows:

Best Gastro Pub
Abbey Tavern
Davy Byrne’s Pub
L. Mulligan Grocer
The Bull & Castle
The Cellar Bar at The Merrion Hotel
The Chophouse
The Exchequer
The Legal Eagle
The Old Spot
Wrights Anglers Rest

Best Hotel Restaurant
1900 at The Harcourt Hotel
Brooks Hotel
Conrad Dublin
InterContinental Dublin
Shelbourne Hotel
The Garden Room at The Merrion Hotel
The Market Hotel
The Morrison
The Westin Dublin (The Moorelands Grill)
Wilde at The Westbury

Best Customer Service
Ananda Indian Restaurant
China Sichuan
Dax Restaurant
Etto
Fia
Luna
Meet Me In The Morning
Michael’s Mount Merrion
Old Street Restaurant
Rasam Restaurant

Best Newcomer
3 Leaves – Blackrock
Bresson
Clanbrassil House
Feast Restaurant
HEY DONNA
Klaw The Seafood Café
Michael’s Mount Merrion
Nightmarket, Ranelagh
Old Street Restaurant
The Legal Eagle

Best Cafe
Dolce Sicily
Five Points, Harold’s Cross
HAPPY OUT
Honey Truffle
Silk Road Café
Storyboard, Islandbridge
The Pepper Pot Café
Two Boys Brew
Urbanity
Vanilla Pod Blackrock

Best Chef
Barry Sun Jian of Etto
Ciaran Sweeney of Forest and Marcy
Conor Dempsey of Amuse Restaurant
Damien Grey of Heron and Grey
Fergus Caffrey of Old Street Restaurant
Gareth Mullins of Marker Hotel
Graham Neville of Dax Restaurant
Grainne O’Keefe of Clanbrassil House
John Wyer of Forest Avenue
Mickael Viljanen of The Greenhouse Restaurant

Best Restaurant
ANANDA
Chapter One
Dax Restaurant
Etto
Forest Avenue
Heron and Grey
L’Ecrivain
Luna
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud
The Greenhouse

Pub of the Year
57 The Headline
Abbey Tavern
M O’Briens
Nealon’s Bar – Skerries
Palace Bar
Peter’s Pub
Stag’s Head
The Long Hall
The Old Spot
Walsh’s – Stoneybatter

Best Wine Experience
64 Wine
Dax Restaurant
ely bar & grill
Fish Shop, 6 Queen St.
Forest and Marcy
Green Man Wines
Piglet Wine Bar
Rosa Madre
Suesey Street
Whelehans Wines/ Silver Tassie

Best World Cuisine
3 Leaves Blackrock
Chameleon
El Grito
IL Vicoletto
Nightmarket
Old Town Chinese Restaurant
Pickle Restaurant
Rasam Restaurant
Rosa Madre
Shouk

Best Kids Size Me
Beaufield Mews Restaurant
BuJo – Burger Joint
Da Mimmo
Farmhill Restaurant
Michael’s Mount Merrion
Milano – Dawson Street
Moloughney’s
The Chophouse
The Pigeon House Clontarf
The Washerwoman

Best Local Food Hero
Eveleen Coyle of Fabulous Food Trails
Gearóid Carvill & Kieran Harnett of The Dublin Honey Project
Jenny & Patrick McNally of McNally Family Farm
Niall Sabongi of Klaw The Seafood Café
William Despard of The Bretzel Bakery

Best Casual Dining
Bagots Hutton
Craft Restaurant
Da Mimmo
De Ville’s
Deep Restaurant
Ember – Milltown
HEY DONNA
Richmond Restaurant
Roly’s Bistro
The Vintage Kitchen

Best Emerging Irish Cuisine
Bastible
Clanbrassil House
Craft Restaurant
Delahunt
Forest and Marcy
Locks Windsor Terrace
Mr Fox
Old Street Restaurant
The Legal Eagle
The Pig’s Ear

Best Restaurant Manager
Andrew Scott of One Pico
Declan Maxwell of Luna
Denise McBrien of The Old Spot
John Healy of Suesey Street
Liz Matthews of Etto
Olivier Meisonnave of Dax Restaurant
Patrick McArdle of WILDE Restaurant
Robert Doggett of Trocadero
Stéphane Robin of Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud
Talha Pasha of Michael’s Mount Merrion

Best ‘Free From’
Cornucopia
Fia
I Monelli
Kilkenny Cafe and Restaurant
Manifesto
Meet Me in the Morning
Sova Vegan Butcher
The Hopsack
Umi Falafel
Veginity

ENDS

For further information contact:

Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive Officer
Restaurants Association of Ireland
Mobile: +353 86 8263311
Telephone: +353 1 6779901
Fax: +353 1 6718414
Email: awards@rai.ie
Website: www.irishrestaurantawards.com
Twitter: @restawards
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IrishRestaurantAwards
Instagram:@irishrestawards

Notes for the Editor:

Dublin shortlisted winners will now move on to the second phase of the Irish Restaurant Awards.

Judging Process
There are two components to the second phase of the process and each element is independently assessed by BDO.

Mystery Guest Visit (40%) This component of the awards is conducted by Customer Perceptions Ltd, specialists in mystery shopping, consumer insights and customer satisfaction surveys. All county winners and Dublin shortlist winners will receive a mystery guest visit throughout the months of March and April.
National Awards Academy (60%) Our National Awards Academy is made up of representatives from each of the regional judging panels and will meet in early May to judge the county winners. The Academy members include food writers, journalists, bloggers, culinary academics and hospitality magazine editors.

National Award Categories
Aside from the main categories, the Irish Restaurant Awards also run national category awards, with only one All-Ireland winner being chosen. The judging and selection process for the national award categories differs from the main award category. Each category will have one All-Ireland winner only. For the first time, nominations have been made by members of the general public for these categories as well. These nominations will be judged and shortlisted by our National Awards Academy and independently assessed by our auditors before a final winner is determined in each category. National categories are listed below.

Best Cocktail Experience
Best Private Dining & Club Restaurant
Best Seafood Experience
Best Cookery School
Best Digital Marketing

The winners of the national categories will be announced at the All-Ireland event on 14th May, 2018.