Food

The best places for a family lunch: try these 10 great spots

These 10 places have one thing in common: it’s all about the food. Treat the kids – and yourself

Robert Mungo (centre) tends to guests at Grano in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7. A two-course lunch costs €12. Photograph: James Forde/The Irish Times

Catherine Cleary
Lisa Cope
Wed Feb 19 2020 - 06:00

Grano
Unit 5, Norseman Court, Manor Street, Dublin 7, grano.ie
Grano owner Roberto Mungo brought a slice of Sicily to Stoneybatter just before Christmas last year, and it has been one of the most talked-about restaurants in Dublin ever since. Its two-course lunch, at €12 for a starter and main, is almost as cheap as you'd find in Italy, and with dishes such as panzanella, stuffed sardines and handmade pasta with anchovies and capers, as well as many of the ingredients being imported directly from the farms of Mungo's family friends, it's the closest you'll get to the real deal without getting on a plane. Lisa Cope

The Fumbally
Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8, thefumbally.ie
Business partners Aisling Rogerson and Luca D'Alfonso are the mammy and daddy of the Fumbally family, a group of cooks, growers, makers and thinkers who work and eat here. The Fumbally has become the linchpin around which Dublin's best cafes revolve. Their shared tables are brilliant for family gatherings, smallies, oldies, four-legged members and all. Catherine Cleary

The Fumbally

Storyboard
Clancy Quay, Islandbridge, Dublin 8, storyboardcoffee.com
A friend brought her family to this lovely cafe after a ramble in the Phoenix Park recently, and everyone loved it. The fit-out is simple, and so is the food idea. Start with excellent (mostly Irish and mostly organic) ingredients, then make them as tasty as possible. Simple soup and sandwiches offer no hiding places for short cuts to be taken. And they don't take them here. CC

Storyboard feels like a story that’s going to get bigger and better.

Overends Kitchen at Airfield
Airfield Estate, Overend Avenue, Dundrum, Dublin 14, airfield.ie/overends-kitchen
Airfield Estate's Overends Kitchen, run by chef Luke Matthews, uses what's available on the grounds, from its fruit and vegetable plots, polytunnels and herd of Jersey cows, to produce a menu with the intention to "grow, farm, use and give back". The lunch menu features salads, soup, tarts and other regularly changing dishes, and if something's not in season you won't see it. All dishes are available in a half-size for half the price, so children eat as well as the adults. LC

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The garden views are a pleasing feature of Overends Kitchen at the Airfield urban farm in Dublin 14.

Bresson
4a Monkstown Crescent, Monkstown, Co Dublin, bresson.ie
The long family lunch is still a strong part of French culture. A leisurely meal by the sea that takes you from bouillabaisse to tarte Tatin, with plenty of good bread and butter on the side, is the kind of rhythm into which all can relax. For an intergenerational gathering, there's plenty to suit everyone on Bresson's crowd-pleasing menu. CC

Moran's Oyster Cottage
The Weir, Roymore, Kilcolgan, Co Galway, moransoystercottage.com
It takes a lot to keep a veteran restaurant fresh and avoid decline. At Moran's the freshness comes from the fish and seafood they serve here, unadorned and simple. Brown soda bread warm from the oven and freshly shucked wild Clarenbridge oysters are an exquisite treat. Older family members will remember the flavour of a wild native oyster, and younger ones will discover it to keep. CC

Ballymore Inn
Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, ballymoreinn.com
Funding has been announced to extend the Blessington Greenway from 6.5km to 43km and take in a number of villages on the west Wicklow side of the county border. Even if that takes a while to materialise, there are already lovely forest walks near Ballymore Eustace that can bring the family to Barry and Georgina O'Sullivan's tables with a good appetite for their chicken-liver pâté and house specialities such as Duncannon fish and chips. CC

Wine & Brine
59 Main Street, Moira, Co Armagh, wineandbrine.co.uk
Lunch at this elegant restaurant comes with the kind of prices that make you think it will be ordinary. But the cooking at Wine & Brine is several notches above its mid-range pricing. Starters are excellent gastropub favourites, and mains get very special. The diningroom is lovely, and you will feel properly spoiled after a visit here. CC

Wine and Brine in Moira, Co Armagh

Grow HQ
Farronshoneen, Dunmore Road, Waterford, giy.ie/grow-hq
Grow HQ, the fruit-and-vegetable-growing Mecca at the side of a roundabout in Waterford, showcases its garden bounty in the on-site restaurant, led by head chef JB Dubois. Each week a hero platter takes one seasonal vegetable and prepares it in five ways, but every dish is designed to use what's growing in the gardens, with everything available in a children's portion. After lunch you can take a walk around the garden and look at golden raspberries, rhubarb and even lemons in the greenhouse, depending on the time of year. LC

Grow HQ: the view outside is gorgeous

Foyle Hotel
Main Street, Moville, Co Donegal, foylehotel.ie
Fish is the thing to have at this welcoming hotel and restaurant on the Co Donegal coast. Local Greencastle boats keep the kitchen stocked with all manner of shellfish and seafood, which its head chef, Derek Creagh, then works his magic on. Don't leave without having a dessert made by the talented head pastry chef, Monto Mansour. There is a full lunch menu as well as a Peckish selection, for smaller appetites.