Galway Food Tours, Around the Marketplace is a culinary walking tour of Galway run by Sheena Dignam bringing people to visit some of Galway’s culinary favourites and hidden gems.
The popular Galway Food Tours started a couple of years ago during the Galway Food Festival and has been going strong ever since. Sheena Dignam leads food enthusiasts around Galway’s finest food destinations, and guests usually replace lunch with the tour as along the way you will sample fresh sushi, the finest cheese, Galway oysters, mouth-watering breads, and savoury bites as well as delicious sweet treats while soaking up the atmosphere of the City of the Tribes.
Sheena Dignam is a Franco-Irish food and wine lover who is originally from Wicklow but grew up in the Loire Valley, where she studied culinary arts and wine. Having spent more than 15 years in the food industry, her passion led her to launch Galway Food Tours.
The original daytime tour took in some of Galway’s culinary hot spots and market stalls from Danny's Doughnuts, to Sheridan's Cheese, to An Cupán Tae. Sheena Dignam guides you along the streets where you meet artisan producers and sample their products. The Saturday and Sunday tours include a trip to the now famous Galway Market, and all days include visits to award-winning restaurants and cafes. Just the thing if you have visitors from out of town. Since then, the variety of tours has grown to feed the demand for these culinary adventures.
There has been a special Pastry Food Tour, visiting a selection of the best bakeries and cake shops in town as part of Galway Bake Fest where a limited number of very lucky people were introduced to the history behind Galway’s best loved bakeries and pastry shops, sampling delightful bites from Griffins to Goyas, from Petit Delice and more. They also found time to indulge themselves in a glass of bubbles in Tigh Neachtain.
There is a Westend Food Tour which started in May to celebrate all things tasty in Galway’s most bohemian neighbourhood. The tour takes in some of their best loved restaurants, food haunts, and watering holes including Ernie's, Eat @ Massimo, Dela, and Pearl Na Mara. Sheena Dignam has some sound advice for people interested in any of her tours: “Come hungry and thirsty as there will literally be a feast of great food and refreshing drinks.”
The newest of these tours sees her taking a small group out to experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of Connemara and the Aran Islands. You can visit an abalone farm, a bakery, and a brewery, meet a herd of goats, and sample all that you have learned about with a lunch in Tigh Nan Phaddy before flying back to the mainland.
Galway Food Tours is now ready to head to the east side with a new evening food tour this month, visiting all the talent on that side of town — Loam, Raw, Sushi In The Sky, Le Petit Pois, House Hotel, and others. It will be another great evening filled with good food and drink.
The food tour is priced at €40 per person, including a goodie bag, and will run at 6pm on Thursday November 3. There is a maximum of 20 people per tour so booking is essential. Tickets are available from Sheena on 086 7332885 or check out Galway Food Tours on Facebook, Instagram and Eventbrite.
