Keep on truckin': Where to find Ireland's best food trucks and street food options
In many ways, we are blessed, for Ireland is a world class tourist destination but there is no denying that holidaying here can take a toll on the wallet — especially if with a young family in tow and there are times when you'd be better off herding cats than trying to corral a bunch of young 'uns into a packed restaurant.
This is where the casual dining of food trucks and street food outlets really comes into its own.
Food trucks and street food stalls are the epitome of casual dining but it is worth focusing on the 'casual' aspect for a moment and learning a few handy tips if you aim to include them in your holiday dining plans.
The daily commercial life of a food truck operator can be very precarious. With no booking systems and often at the vagaries of the weather, an operator can prep for a busy day and return to base with the bulk of it.
A single bad weather day can wipe out a food truck's profits for a whole week.
This means many choose to supplement their income with catering jobs or private dining gigs, and sometimes these gigs clash with what is supposed to be a trading day in a regular location.
Or some days a trader just wakes up with the mother of all flus and can't get out of bed, with no one to cover for them.
It can be deeply frustrating to go to the effort of travelling to a particular location to find the food truck failed to show though it is generally a rare occurrence — food trucks value their customers just as much as fixed restaurants do and hate letting them down, especially regulars.
So, if you are planning on visiting a particular food truck, take a minute on your smartphone to ensure they will actually be there.
As is obvious from all the Instagram handles over website URLs below, most have active social media presences, valuing the immediacy of connection with their dining public — often using it to confirm the day before that they will be at a regular pitch and will sometimes even answer direct queries. Many post weekly changing menus if the offer varies.
Also, keep in mind, it may be casual dining but it is not 'fast food'; these aren't burger franchises churning out meals 24 hours a day.
A food truck has a finite output and it is not unusual for the more popular ones to sell out early — plan accordingly and arrive in plenty of time.
As Enid Blyton's Famous Five were want to declare over tongue sandwiches, fruit cake, and endless bottles of ginger beer, 'food always seems to taste better outdoors'. Insufferable though they were, I've never disagreed.
And if you happen to be in a glorious location, even as rain pelts down, dining on a lobster roll from Julia's Lobster Truck while drinking in the Burren scenery, or eating fresh fish from Murphy's Dursey Deli while building up the courage to take the cable car over Dursey sound … well, that's just about the finest sauce of all.
CORK
Caitlin Ruth: Cork's culinary genius.
Caitlin Ruth
One of Ireland's finest food trucks, popping up all over West Cork, including 'residencies' delivering extraordinary and uniquely original menus, as the best local produce encounters Ruth's culinary genius — eg purple rain potatoes tater tots, pineappleweed, and jalapeno jam.
Instagram: @caitlinruthfood
Ceapairí, The Gourmet Grill, Ballydehob
Simon Kershaw's toasties are the best I've eaten in Ireland and his new stall is equally magnificent, using his own 48-hour sourdough bread to make Reubens, Cubanos, and, veggie options — eg his Crown Prince squash special.
Instagram: @ceapairi_the_gourmet_grill
The Spice Genie
Battle of the Food Trucks winner Chris Braganza's delivery of authentic and delicious dishes from his native Goa is further elevated by his mother's own fresh spice mixes.
Look for dosas — recently with potato, sweet corn masala, coconut chutney — lovely samosas, beef masala, and vegan lentil potato sambar masala.
Instagram: @spice_genie
The Curly Stu, Cork
The Curly Stu
My contender for some of Ireland's best pizzas, all delivered from a tiny horse box with souped-up Gozney ovens.
Stuart Bowes' ingredient sourcing and advance prep — 48-hour fermented dough — makes all the difference to his stunning pizzas, classic recipes, and specials alike.
Instagram: @thecurlystu
Murphy's Dursey Deli
Incredible mainland location alongside the Dursey cable car meant serving seafood was a no-brainer, especially when it is fresh, local fish from Castletownbere.
Fresh hake, monkfish, or haddock with chips, and a large menu of alternatives for non-fish people, including burgers, hot dogs, and chicken.
Instagram: @MurphysDursey
Marina Market, Cork. Pic: Larry Cummins
Marina Market
There is nothing in the country to rival the Marina Market, an Irish take on Lisbon's Time Out Market offering myriad edible options and a humongous covered space for dining.
Standouts include Frankie's Slice Shop, Hansum, Poulet Vous, Nua Asador, Alchemy Coffee, MKT Burger, and White Rabbit.
Instagram: @MarinaMarketCork
Shirley's: Fish at the Fort
Truly gorgeous fish and chips, using the finest fish from the family trawler, cooked in a lovely, light, crispy batter and served up with floury, fluffy chips — say no more!
Facebook: fishatthefort
Meb's Veg at the Farmer's Market, Douglas, Cork. Pic: Dan Linehan
Meb's
Farmer's market stalwart as the former Paradiso chef delivers divine and original vegan dishes, including a spiffing banh mi with exquisite West Cork Otofu tofu; Pho Goodness — broth, rice noodles, cabbage, mushrooms; and killer doughnuts.
Instagram: @MebsVeg
Le Kiosk
Trading at various farmer markets, including Midleton, David Kra's Afro-Carribean fare is street food of the highest order, especially sumptuous jerk chicken, but beef stew and vegan mix are all worth trying, and do add spicy sauce!
Instagram: @le_kiosk_afrocaribbeanfoods
CLARE
Julia's Lobster Truck
The national outcry when Julia Hemingway's seafood stall was turfed out of its familiar Burren pitch, indicated the thoroughly deserved popularity of a national treasure.
Thankfully, Julia has a new location in The Óir House, Ballyvaughan. Expect superb steamed mussels, oysters, lobster rolls, crab toast, scampi, fish and chips, and more.
Instagram: @JuliasLobsterTruck
KERRY
Dick Mac's Yard, Dingle
Two for the price of one in the iconic pub's 'backyard'. The splendid Cáis in Dingle turns out fabulous cheese toasties, while MexWest Dingle puts a memorable West Kerry spin on Mexican street food.
Instagram: @We_Are_Cais and @MexWest_Dingle
An Bothán, Ballinskelligs
Beachside offspring of Driftwood Surf Café, serving toasties, salad bowls, granary baps, sausage rolls — meat and veggie — along with house fries and homemade soft drinks: Lavender lemonade, apple, and ginger, all perfect summer quenchers.
Instagram: @DriftwoodSurfCafé
TIPPERARY
My Street Food, Tipperary
My Street Food
An expansion of their excellent My Tasty Food retail offering, Myriam and Barry use fine, fresh local ingredients to create quite delicious dishes spanning global cuisines — eg, katsu curry, Korean-style bimibap, beef brisket baguettes, Mexican-style burritos. Also snaffle a jar of their mind-blowing pecan butter!
Instagram: @mystreetfood.ie
LIMERICK
Wickham Way
Limerick's Milk Market is the finest farmer's market in Ireland but the cavernous Wickham Way street food and arts and crafts market, just around the corner, is the best spot in Limerick for dining on the hoof.
It also features regular live music and entertainment. Check out Republic of Grill tacos, Raasta Foods Indian fare, Nonties Jamaican food, and Sicín.
Instagram: @WickhamWayLimerick
WATERFORD
Little Catch
Denise Darrer's mobile seafood bar sells cracking street food-style seafood, using excellent ingredients, including locally-caught fish, and do look out for Copper Coast lobster for lobster rolls, chowder, as well as great crispy prawn bao buns.
littlecatchseafoodbar.com
Socafro's Alistair Jeje in action.
Socafro Kitchen
The incomparable and very lovely Alistair Jeje not only feeds the soul but also puts fire in the belly with his Carribean and West African fusion cooking. Seek out jerk chicken, coconut curry, sweet fried plantains, and jollof rice.
Instagram: @SocafroKitchen
Unbeetable
Produce-led dishes of real quality, including chicken or tempeh option to cater for carnivores and vegetarians alike without shortchanging either — eg Thai peanut and quinoa salad or teriyaki bowls, also toasted sourdough sandwiches and wonderful soups.
Instagram: @UnbeetableJenny
DUBLIN
Dosa Dosa
Dosa Dosa is pick of the bunch at Place St, serving up South Indian street food classics including dosa, parotta — naan with stir-fried veg, egg, chicken, aromatic spices — and kathi roll, a kebab wrapped in paratha bread.
Mushroom Butcher
Along with premium mushrooms for home cooking, ever-changing menus celebrate the fabulous fungi: Mushroom burgers, crispy Cajun beignets, super doughnuts, and Vietnamese coffee spiked with Lion's Mane mushroom for a real brain boost.
Instagram: @MushroomButcher
Cluck Chicken, Dublin
Cluck Chicken
Deeply divine chicken dishes, superbly sourced produce.
This chicken/beef 'sandwich' tells you all you need to know: Ring's Farm fried chicken with Nathan's slow cooked beef, triple garlic mayo, jus, bone marrow béarnaise butter, crispy onions, on focaccia from Arán, in Kilkenny.
Instagram: @CluckChicken
La Cocina Cuevas
Sublime, authentic Cali-Mex street food based on superb Irish produce serving tacos, birria, agua Fresca, buritto et al. Try 'Irish Landscapes' with seasonal mole, Irish pork, corn tortillas, and macha potatoes.
Coke Lane Pizza
Wonderful renditions of classic pizzas, imaginative specials and sides including meatballs, mixed olives, toasted cashews, almonds, and walnuts with rosemary and sea salt.
They have regular slots at various locations in Dublin and it appears a hot dog stand will soon be added to the offering.
GALWAY
Snappy Snappy
I love a truck that puts a hyper-focus on a prime ingredient and then renders it as total god-food as Snappy Snappy does with crab.
Gorgeous crab rolls in Japanese-style milk rolls made fresh each day, crab claws, crab tostada with guajillo chilli, pickled onion and coriander, and chowder.
Craft beer, cider, and wine also available.
Instagram: @SnappySnappyCrab
Aran Seafood Café, Aran Islands
This fishing family with a seafood business on Inis Mór uses their own produce to backbone delicious fare all adding up to piscine paradise in the West — eg lobster and crab rolls, crab cakes, catch of the day.
Instagram: @AranIslandSeafoods
WEXFORD
Scúp Gelato, Wexford
Scúp Gelato
What's a summer without ice cream and Willie Devereaux's Scúp is some of the finest ice cream in the country.
Flavours in this gelato heaven include crowd-pleasing Wexford strawberry, roasted banoffee, Ferrero Rocher, and their own soft-serve cones, GF gelatos, vegan options, and 3FE coffee.
MAYO
Misunderstood Heron
Another superb outlet to suffer the recent indignity of eviction, it's new home is in the very splendid P Dans pub, in Louisburgh, cooking some of the very best food in Ireland for al fresco 'street' dining — eg pollock croquettes with summer fruit salad, featuring Louisburgh grown apricots, and pork neck, mustard and An Garraí Glas greens.
Instagram: @Misunderstood_Heron
DERRY
Pyke n Pommes
Chef Kevin Pyke may now also have a bricks and mortar premises but an original pathfinder for the Irish food truck world, still delivers gorgeous grub from his river front double decker bus. Korean chicken burger with chilli spring onions, sesame, and miso, is just one eyecatcher on a menu full of them.
Notorious Street Food Derry
Caolán McCourt obviously was inspired by Pyke's endeavours but his delivery is all about down and dirty, old school street food.
After all, a double bacon cheese smash burger may not win prizes for originality but when it's this good, it takes first prize every time. Lucky Derry!
Instagram: @NotoriousStreetFood
BELFAST
Oui Poutine
Calorific Poutine — French fries, cheese curds, brown gravy — like French tacos, is a young person's game, but if you've got youth and stamina on your side, then Canadian Kylah Dittmar's authentic delivery of her national street food staple is the only show in town.
Instagram: @OuiPoutine
Taquitos Belfast
Authentic Mexican fare delivered to the highest standards, and better again, with more than a smidgeon of local flavour and innovation.
Owner Gary Quinn appeared in Gordon Ramsay's Future Food Stars and chef Stevie Toman, of Michelin-starred Ox, in Belfast was the first to tip me off about Taquitos — so Quinn's credentials are endorsed at the highest level.
His own Adobo Paste, available as a retail product, seals the deal.
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Several public representatives attended the launch, including Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien and Slovak ambassador to Ireland Andrej Droba. People's support allows the cyclists to 'raise awareness and money' for two centres, which are not funded by the Irish and Slovak governments, he said. 'I've had those conversations with the [representatives] in the centre in Swords and the TDs. We've raised the [lack of funding] with them. "Because when we moved to Ashbourne in October, our daughter had no services for eight months, because it took eight months to get plugged into the local child disability network team. 'At three years old, it's massive, you miss those milestones. So every week, she's been going to the Down Syndrome Centre in Swords and getting those therapies, getting the attention, in terms of learning the signs, learning to speak, to do things like open her buttons and zip up her jacket. "No services for eight months is a big deal. The Down Syndrome Centre really provide amazing support. Two women in particular - Triona Coussen in the Down Syndrome Centre, she's a beating heart at that place, and she's an amazing woman. "And then her counterpart, they're very similar. They've never met in person, but they've had lots of phone calls and emails - Katharina in Hlohovec, she's just an amazing human being. "We're doing the cycle, we finish the cycle, but their work continues. They're just amazing people. They do so much for our families.' The family, who have now cycled more than 1,800km across seven countries, set off from Dublin on July 16, taking a ferry from Dublin Port to Wales and then from Dover, England, to Calais, France. They started cycling on July 17, travelling through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Slovakia, with plans to cycle through parts of Hungary in the next three days. Their trip is fully self-funded, allowing them to donate all funds from their fundraiser to charities. While cycling through Belgium, they visited the island of Ireland Peace Park in Mesen, where they planted a flower from Saoirse as a 'little memory of the trip', Mr Kenny said, describing it as 'really emotional'. Meanwhile, they came across several challenges due to the floods in Austria. 'In Austria, it rained for eight hours the whole day, and we did a 140-kilometre cycle in the rain. It was relentless, biblical. We were really soaked through. The Danube River was floating in parts. We had to go around, take detours. And by the end of this day, we were all freezing cold and wet. "This woman came up to us and just asked: 'Where do we come from?' My dad says Ireland. Her jaw dropped. And that's kind of experience we've been getting a lot, people shaking our hands and giving us donations, and then we put them through online. 'But she gave my dad a big hug when he told her that he was doing a cycle for his grand-daughter. She gave him dried banana, some chocolate and a drink. 'The standout thing for us is this kindness of strangers that we've been experiencing. The trip is self-funded – we pay for all hotels, all food and bike equipment. 'We don't set any money off anyone. Everything goes to the charities, and every penny that's raised is [split] 50/50 between two charities. But we have had some people buy us coffees when we've looked pretty miserable,' he said. Also in Austria, Niall's cousin, Fergal Henry (52) from Sligo, joined his family to cycle 750km with them. The family reached Bratislava on Wednesday, where they were greeted by the Irish ambassador to Slovakia, Dermot McGauran. 'Both embassies have really supported us. That's brought the embassies and countries closer together in some ways.' The father of two, originally from Baconstown, said he has been planning the trip with his father Kevin, who is from Cavan, for quite some time. "My dad's 70 years old, cycling across Europe. That's mad. Myself and dad always talked about cycling across Europe together,' said Niall. "Last year, he fell off his bike in Ireland, and he fractured his hip and shoulder. 'He was recovering, and we started planning in January, seven months before a trip.' After cycling for over 1,800km, cyclists are now heading towards their final destination – Veľké Slemence on the Slovak and Ukrainian border. 'The idea is to go from one side of the European Union to the other and connect the two charities,' said Niall. "We've gone up 11,000 metres. One goal was to cycle higher than the elevation of Everest, which we did. As of today, we've crossed the Danube 13 times. It's been amazing so far.' Originally from Baconstown, Co Meath, he said the support from their family, friends, and communities in Ashbourne and Swords has been 'amazing'. His wife and son, Christopher (8), who is currently visiting his grandmother in Slovakia, are set to join their family on the road for the last days of the trip. 'Every day I've been cycling, I get closer to [my son]. Yesterday was amazing, he met us on the edge of town in Nitra." Despite tiredness, the cyclists are in good spirits with three more days on the road. "We've all picked up injuries. We're all insect-bitten and sunburnt. I picked up an ear infection along the way. I went to a GP in Germany, and he heard what we're doing, and he just said: 'No charge for you, sir'. But we're all grand, we're good. 'We're continuing today, but everyone's in good spirits. We all rested yesterday, and we finish on Monday.'
