Seafood Trail

At McSwiggans we have been welcoming customers for over 30 years. Our commitment to quality food, service and our extensive wine list are the major factors that have enticed our friends and customers to dine with us year after year.

For the festival, the Oyster bar will be fully stocked with Dooncastle Oysters over ice and customers will be able to enjoy Oysters as is or with a mignonette dressing. Pair the oysters with a creamy pint of Guinness or choose from the McSwiggans extensive wine cellar.

Irish Seafood will be king this weekend with a crock of Mussels served with the twice cooked skin on fries or a plank of prawns served with the very traditional Marie rose sauce. The menu will also include fish and chips as well as Seafood Chowder and their home made brown bread.

Specialising in Seafood & Steak dishes, Brasserie on the Corner is a multi-award winning restaurant just off Eyre Square. The focus is always on quality, upscale casual dining – using local and seasonal produce to create each dish. Throughout the festival, Brasserie on the Corner will be serving a host of seafood and oyster dishes for festival goers to savour. For further details visit www.brasseriegalway.com

At McDonagh’s, we have been tantalising the tastebuds of both visitors and locals alike for four generations.  Established in 1902, we bring over 115 years of knowledge to serving the best seafood and have earned a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest seafood houses.  In our Seafood Restaurant, you will find a wonderful variety of fish dishes on the menu, ranging from the native Clarenbridge oyster to salmon, mussels, scallops and hake.  There’s also the Fish & Chips Bar, where our fish is cooked to order.  Orders can be enjoyed on the premises or taken away and there is also outside seating during the summer months.

Situated on Middle Street in Galway city, the award-winning Cava Bodega showcases the very best of Spanish food and wine, in particular the global phenomenon of tapas.

The Cava Bodega menu features a range of seafood tapas and will have an oyster festival weekend special.

JP and Drigín first opened Cava in 2008 in Dominick Street and relocated to Middle Street in 2013. With the relocation came an opportunity to invigorate the restaurant. JP, working with local farmers and artisan producers, created a new focused menu taking the best from local and Iberian influences. Drigín designed a contemporary space with a strong focus on exposed and reclaimed materials to match the colourful and lively atmosphere of Cava. And in September 2013 Cava Bodega was born. Proven to be as popular as ever with the locals, tourists and food critics are also singing its praise.

Cava Bodega is a great example of the international trend for good ethical casual food in a shared environment– with tapas, food is passed around the table, communal style, the dishes breed discussion and provide an alternative approach to eating.

Kirbys offer a relaxed dining experience in modern surrounds. Savour the best of local produce cooked with a modern twist. An extensive wine list is available with and emphasis on New World wines. Assured of a warm and friendly welcome and value for money, Kirbys is the ideal venue for a night out with friends or when celebrating that special occasion. Kirbys also caters for Corporate lunches and dinners as well as Christmas parties.

Come to eat , Stay to party!

Rúibín restaurant and bar is located on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.  Situated in the heart of Galway, it overlooks the city’s historic docklands.  The building, which is also the birthplace of Pádraic Ó Conaire is now owner run by Alice and Richard.  Alice’s ethos in the kitchen focuses on local seasonal Irish ingredients. However, in her cooking of this produce you will find influence from around the world.

Aniar is a Michelin Starred restaurant located in Galway’s West End, the food comes from the specific place that is the west of Ireland. ‘We hope to reveal the distinct and various foodstuffs that make up our particular landscape, through our farms, the wildlands and the shores that surround us. The natural course of the seasons dictates our ever-changing and evolving menu’.

The kitchen is lead by chef patron JP McMahon. Alongside using wild and foraged local ingredients, Jp likes to foster old traditional cooking and preservation methods, such as curing, pickling, smoking and fermenting. His aim is to look back in order to look forward: to the future of Irish food. It is only by understanding our culinary past that we can unlock the untapped resources of our future.

Our tasting menu is an immersive dining experience of Irish food through the ages with a contemporary filter. Oysters generally feature twice as part of the Aniar 24-course tasting menu, once as a signature, palate-cleansing Oyster Ice-cream.  

Aniar also runs a Boutique Cookery School. The School offers one-day workshops as well as six-week classes. The classes run by JP McMahon offers hands-on experience.

Oysome was founded by Sarah Browne in 2023. Sarah is a qualified chef and Irish oyster expert, whose passion for oysters began when she was selected as one of BIM’s Taste the Atlantic Young Chef Ambassadors in 2021. Sarah has learned first hand how to shuck and serve to the highest standard from exceptional oyster farmers around the country. In addition to this, she is certified be the Oyster Master Guild.

Sarah curates oyster experiences which showcase the very best of Irish oysters, teaching guests how to shuck to perfection as well as prepare balanced accompaniments using seasonal Irish produce.

Workshops can be adapted to include seaweeds/other shellfish to cater for dietary preferences.

www.oysome.com

Galway’s newest and most exciting restaurant can be found at the end of the promenade in Salthill. This beautifully refurbished famine-era building boasts unrivalled views of Galway’s most recognisable landmark, the Blackrock diving tower with the backdrop of Galway Bay.

Blackrock Cottage has contemporary modern Irish cuisine on it’s menu, using the best of land and sea. 

Kai Restaurant is nestled between the church and a gay bar down on Sea Road in Galway’s Westend. The building which was home to a florist before New Zealander Jess and Carlow’s Dave Murphy arrived in over 13 years ago and transformed the space into what it is today, Kai.

Kai holds a Michelin Green Star which mirrors our focus towards sustainability. From super seasonally sourced ingredients to sustainable practices.

Kai is the Maori word for food and in 2011 they opened the door with a simple formula — high-quality produce, preferably organic or wild, sourced locally and cooked intelligently.

Located in the city centre of Galway’s vibrant ‘Latin Quarter’ The Quays, Galway is one of Galway’s most famous and historic music drinking establishments. For close on 400 years The Quays has catered to both Galwegians and visitors to our city.