The vegan offer in Ireland is truly excellent and very diverse. Vegan dishes can be found in practically all grocery stores, most restaurants offer at least one vegan dish and there are many completely vegan and vegetarian restaurants.
1. Cornucopia
Curnocopia is the oldest all-vegan restaurant in Dublin city center with an extremely diverse menu. They offer breakfasts, lunches, desserts and coffees, as well as real Irish coffee. For lunch, you can choose a main course and soup with bread or salad, or a combination of soup, bread and salad. The dishes I tried were extremely tasty and healthy, just like I would prepare them at home. Many dishes are also gluten-free and other allergens free, which is clearly marked with each dish. The interior of the restaurant is very nice and cozy and the restaurant has three floors and many tables.
2. Umi falafel
Umi falafel is a vegetarian restaurant, but most of the dishes on the menu are vegan. As it’s pretty clear from the name of the restaurant, most of the dishes contain falafel. On the menu, they have wraps and pockets with falafel and various sauces and other fillings that can be combined as desired. In addition, they also offer soups, potatoes, salads, desserts and a few other dishes. I tried the wrap with roasted potatoes, which was excellent and very filling. The dishes can be eaten in the restaurant or as a take away and the prices are very reasonable. Umi falafel is located in several different locations in Dublin.
3. The hot donut
This one is for all the donut lovers out there! Dublin is a great location to find vegan donuts, as they have many donut shops that also offer vegan donuts. The hot donut offers many different vegan donuts with different fillings and toppings. The donuts are extremely soft and fluffy, generously filled and not too greasy. In addition, they also offer coffee with various plant-based drinks.
4. The rolling donut
The rolling donut is another donut shop that also offers many vegan donuts in various interesting flavours, such as kinder bueno, biscoff, coffee and walnut, pistachio and other fun flavours.
5. The boxy house
The boxty house is a traditional Irish restaurant in the most popular part of Dublin, close to the Temple bar. They only have one vegan dish on menu, but it is very tasty, it contains gnocchi, cauliflower, chickpeas, carrots, sauce and spring onions.
6. McDonald’s
Irish McDonald’s offers quite a few vegan dishes and is very practical for when there are no vegan restaurants nearby. They offer a spicy wrap that contains lettuce, tomato, onion, hot sauce and vegan vegetable dippers. In addition, they have two different vegan burgers, one with the same dippers as in the wrap, and the other with a Beyond Meat patty.
7. Stores
The offer of vegan products in stores is similar to that in Slovenia, they have many vegan meat substitutes and ready to eat meals such as sandwiches and wraps. In addition, Dunnes stores have a salad bar where most of the salads are vegan, so there is a wide variety of salads to choose from, including pasta, couscous and falafel. You can fill the bowl with any combinations of salad yourself.
8. Vegan coffee
You can easily get coffee with plant-based drinks in almost every coffee shop. They mostly have oat, almond, coconut and soy drinks available. The foam is always of the right thickness, and in some cafes they even make a heart on the coffee with foamed milk. In the Irish Starbucks, they also offer two vegan desserts, I tried the chocolate slice myself, which was extremely tasty and contains pieces of cookies and pistachio!
What to see in Ireland
Ireland is a beautiful country with a lot of beautiful nature and cities that are really worth seeing.
Cliffs of Moher
The most famous natural attraction are certainly the Cliffs of Moher, which lie on the west coast of Ireland and are as high as 214 m. The cliffs are definitely worth a visit, as the view from the top of the cliffs is amazing!
Wicklow Mountains
Wicklow Mountains is a national park that lies south of Dublin and has many different attractions. One of the most famous is the town of Glendalough with the remains of a monastery and lakes. Nature there is completely untouched.
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a charming town in the southernmost part of Ireland, about 2 hours from Dublin. The city is best known for Kilkenny Castle, the river and a few other attractions.
Dublin
There are a ton of things to see and do in Ireland’s capital city. The river Liffey runs through the city, dividing the city into two part, so Dublin has many bridges. One of the more famous is the iron bridge Ha’Penny bridge, for which you used to have to pay 1 penny to cross. The city also has a castle – Dublin Castle with gardens and many parks and a church. There are also many museums in the city and the entrance is free for most of them.
Guinness storehouse
There is also a Guinness brewery in Dublin, which you can visit and see the beer-making process, interesting facts, and finally you can try the beer in their bar, which offers the most beautiful view of the whole of Dublin. And if you were wondering if Guinnes is vegan, it is! For the past five years all of their beers have been completely vegan.
Temple bar
Another main attraction is the Temple bar, this is a part of Dublin with several pubs where there is live music in the evenings and they are always full of people. The most famous one is The Temple bar, which is extremely decorated during the festive season.
Shopping centers
There are many shopping centers in the city with various shops, from clothes, shoes to drugstores, technology and other products. Ireland is also the country where Primark comes from, but it is called Penneys there. So there are many of their stores in Dublin and also in other places in Ireland. One of the most beautiful shopping centres is Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre.