The Irish Restaurant Awards are back for 2024 meaning now is the time to get nominating your favourite eatery for 2024’s ‘Food Oscars’.
Launched in Dublin earlier this week, this year marks the 15th outing for the Irish Restaurant Awards with last year’s edition seeing over 130,000 nominations submitted.
“The Irish Restaurant Awards provide us with an opportunity to reflect on all that makes our food and hospitality offering great – in particular, the wonderful teams that make everything tick and leave locals and tourists with a smile on their faces time and time again. There is great excitement brewing once again about what is truly the good news story of our industry’s year. We look forward to highlighting and celebrating the best our island has to offer in terms of food and hospitality”, so said Paul Lenehan, Restaurants Association of Ireland president at Wednesday’s launch event.
See also: Submit your nominations here via irishtimes.com
Nominations close at the end of January, paving the way for a judging process in February before regional events are held in the four provinces across March and April. All winners go forward to the All-Ireland awards set to take place in Dublin this May.
17 of the categories (below) will have a county winner and/or a regional winner and All-Ireland winner. The remaining awards (Cocktail Experience, Learning & Development, Private Dining & Club Restaurant, Cookery School, Oustanding Achievement, Food Truck of the Year) will have national award winners only. Of the 23 categories, newcomers this year include Employee Excellence, Food Truck of the Year and Outstanding Achievement awards.
Among the overall winners for 2023 were Dublin’s Chapter One (Best Restaurant), Thomas Connolly’s (Sligo, Pub of the Year), Union Wine Bar (Waterford, Best Wine Experience) and Lock 13 (Sallins, Innovator of the Year).
Closer to home – Kilkenny, that is – last year’s winners at county level included Mag Kirwan of Goatsbridge Trout (Local Food Hero), Arán (Innovator of the Year and Best Casual Dining), Nóinín (Emerging Irish Cuisine), Ristorante Rinuccini (Best Wine Experience), Campagne (Best Restaurant) and Keith Boyle (Best Chef, then Restaurant Lady Anne).
This year’s All-Ireland Awards gala dinner will take place at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, Dublin 4, in May.
Irish Restaurant Awards categories
- Best Restaurant
- Best Chef
- Best Restaurant Manager
- Best Hotel & Guesthouse Restaurant
- Employee of the Year
- Pub of the Year
- Best Casual Dining
- Best Gastro Pub
- Best Contemporary Irish Cuisine
- Best Newcomer
- Best Wine Experience
- Best Customer Service
- Best Café
- Food Truck of the Year
- Best World Cusine
- Best Cocktail Experience
- Best Private Dining & Club Restaurant
- Best Sustainable Practices
- Best Cookery School
- Innovator of the Year
- Local Food Hero
- Outstanding Achievement Award
- Best Learning & Development
How to nominate
Nominations are open now (as of 17 January) and close at midday on 31 January. Anyone nominating will be entered into one of two Irish Blue Book giveaways with a stay in Ghan House (Carlingford) and The Mustard Seed (Limerick) up for grabs.
Nominations can be made through The Irish Times here. On the website you’ll make one nomination at a time meaning you don’t need to nominate in every category but if you have a few do to, allow yourself a few minutes.
