greetings. in coming down the home stretch for our Ireland first time trip,we are trying to figure out our needs. does anyone have a recollection of a recent trip and what to expect ,cost wise, in moderate restaurants.estimates would be great. we are not gourmet diners nor do we imbibe all night(those days are faded memories)
many thanks.

For 7 of the 8 nights we stayed in Ireland, DH and I ate our evening meals in Pubs. These I think fit the category of a "moderate restaurant". One night in Laragh, we didn't get to the local grocery store in time so we ate at the Wicklow Heather Restaurant. I would equate this restaurant to fine dining. The lowest priced entree item on menu was 17 Euros. I think our total that night for two people was about 90 Euros. This included our meals, drinks, and dessert.

So, back to the pubs. The average cost for a meal (i.e. fish and chips with one pint of beer) was 17-23 Euros. FYI - free refills are not an option in Ireland, so keep that in mind if you like to drink soda or tea.

Since meals are not inexpensive, we decided to stretch our funds by buying our lunches at grocery stores. We did this for three other reasons, too. First, we were staying at B&Bs, so we often had large breakfasts; by the time lunch came around all we wanted was something lite. Second, for 3-5 Euros, we could get an 8-in deli sandwich on french bread that tasted incredible at the grocery store. Third, we could buy other staples in bulk to keep in our car and/or backpacks as we toured the countryside (e.g. bottled water, soda, Cadbury candy bars with Whole Nuts). I think the most we ever spent at grocery store was 25 Euros, but the stuff we bought lasted us a few days.

Sometimes, when we were in smaller towns, we'd stop at a Centra or Top, which are gas stations with small grocery stores attached. Admittedly I was very hesitant to buy food from a gas station (too many bad experiences with that here in the US), but DH convinced me to be adventurous. Turned out packaged sandwiches there were also quite good.

Hope that helps.

By the way, we were in Ireland from June 16-23, 2008.

If you go the pub about 12.45 ( just before the lunch time rush a lot of the pubs are doing carvery lunch where you get a plate of dinner for 11- 14 Euro per head. That is what the locals do if they need to eat out for their main meal of the day.

We just returned from Ireland as well. In addition to our pub dalliances, we were frequent utilizers of Tesco - there are Tesco stores all over. The larger Tescos are similar to a Super Target, and they all appear to be open 24/7 (for those of us too wrapped up in our adventures to find pub food before they all stop serving for the day). In addition to having a fresh and tasty bakery section, they carry everything you could possibly need - and their gas stations are one of the cheapest places to buy petrol/diesel (those all seem to close at midnight). Most of our vacation was spent in a self-catered "castellated house", so handy Tesco was ideal for us. And it was a quick stop in the morning to pick up munchies and lunch for later in the day. Not exactly the traditional Irish experience, but...

I second the recommendation for the sandwiches at Centra. There's one not far from Eyre Square in Galway (not attatched to a gas station) where my daughter and I got sandwiches and bags of crisps several times when I was visiting her there last year. With a bottle of water, it made an inexpensive and tasty meal. And a very handy one when we wanted to eat on either the train or bus.

hi calvo:

I found a reasonably wide variation in prices at pubs and restaurants in Jan 08. In Kenmare/Killarney, prices in pubs were about E13-17 fro entrees, but around Galway, the prices were lower. A pint of stout was around 3.65 outside of Dublin, over 4 in Dublin.

We were told by some friends that the cost of fish was rising due to some fishing restrictions on the number of days per month that fishermen were allowed to fish. Not sure of the validity of that.

Bill