My father and I are leaving in a week's time for Ireland, where we will be spending several days at least with relatives. He would like to take them out for at least one nice meal as a largish family group. I've been on the websites of quite a few places that my Fodor's guide recommends, and quite frankly, restaurant prices are quite a bit higher than we're used to. Can anyone recommend a place that is fun, but is relatively inexpensive? We'll likely be a mixed age group of eight to twelve people, and I believe the people we'll be staying with live in Mount Merrion. In the end, it is more important to have a nice gathering than to save money, but surely there must be someplace where we could keep the bill around 20 Euros a person and eat decent food. Unfortunately, Indian food will not work, as my father doesn't seem to be able to eat it anymore, and we'd rather not do Chinese, either. Any recommendations?

What about Tapas? you can order lots of small dishes and eat communally for around 20euro/person.

http://www.porthouse.ie/

that place is small, so reservations for a group would be reccomended. the food is very tasty. they also have annother location in temple bar, but I think this one is nicer/funkier.

What a great suggestion! That looks like a really good option, and is certainly a kind of food we like to eat. It'll depend in the end on what they want, of course, but that looks really nice, and definitely the right price and atmosphere.

there is a place called the schoolhouse as well which is nice, kind of pub grub, you can reserve a seating area as well. not sure if they have a website.

Seems to be attatched to a hotel, and looks very nice, but is really a bit out of the range we want to be in.

Market Bar may work nicely also. I know Beshoff's is good, but I think we can manage something a little more festive than that. Thanks for the answers!