What is a city without its sights and smells and sounds? And taste.
In recent years, Galway City has become a place of gastronomic pursuit, a place where the juxtaposition of culture and sound and smells have come together with taste to create a culinary tapestry.
There is now becoming into vogue a unique Galway taste, a taste defined by those craftsmen and craftswomen who form the backbone of our local dining industry.
This has been achieved by the leading lights who are household names, but in general it has permeated through younger chefs and cooks and restaurateurs who want to make their own eatery unique in a city that is unique anyway.
More and more people who visit Galway are wowed by the range of food available, and comment on the fact that this dining experience is an enhancement of their visit here.
Galway’s food industry is an extension of the madness, the zaniness of those who are the leading lights in music and art and drama. The success of Galway as a cultural hub has given its creative food makers the carte blanche and the confidence to go ahead and try things.
We are blessed to have as the main exponents of original food in Galway, people who are not just cooks or chefs, but who in their heads are poets, songwriters and writers and readers and creators and consumers of popular culture.
And we are blessed that they bring this originality to their concoctions they create to try out on the palates of those who visit Galway for something different.
Already we have the Good Festival and Food On The Edge. Both of these are effectively Ted Talks for Foodies, but they have gone a long way to educating diners about the possibilities of food. In the same sense, they are inspiring food creators to be even more imaginative.
No longer is food in Galway just functional, although if that’s what you want, that’s available too. Now people when they make a reservation or make a choice for lunch, want to be wowed, to be treated to something different, to share in a meal that has been prepared by someone creative.
The city is a melting pot for many nationalists and cultures and these influences have seeped through into the thinking process for those who create food in Galway.
So what am I saying? I’m saying that if you want a truly original food experience in Galway, there is plenty of scope to discover one. And when you discover one, please share it with the world so that the legend of Galway food spreads far and wide, becomes more successful and plays an even bigger role in bringing people into this city and county.
Now go forth and eat, and I hope you get some ideas from the establishments listed here in this food guide.
