Forget Dublin: Waterford Is Ireland's New Food Capital

Waterford Food Festival is one of Ireland’s largest and most well-known food festivals. It has been held in County Waterford for almost 20 years and has grown from small beginnings to one of the premier foodie destinations in Ireland. 

Highlighting local producers, top-quality ingredients, and inspiring talks on health and wellbeing, here are some of the things we explored, ate and learned at the food festival this year.

Day 1: Dungarvan Tapas Trail

We arrived in Dungarvan, County Waterford, where the majority of the food festival was held this year. After checking into the gorgeous Park Hotel, we dropped our bags off and made the short walk to Dungarvan Quayside, where we joined the Dungarvan Tapas Trail.

Indian Ocean

We started our trail at Indian Ocean, a traditional tandoori restaurant, which has been open since 2002. 

As this was our first restaurant visit, we were treated to the fragrant and delicious starters: salmon fishcake, onion bhajee, sheek kebab, murg mali tikka and tandoori king prawn.

A flavour explosion barely covers it – the ingredients were incredibly fresh, seasoned to perfection, and cooked perfectly. It offered a great taste of modern Indian food, and washed down with a traditional Indian Cobra beer, what better way to kick off Friday night on the quayside?

The Moorings

Our second stop of the evening was at The Moorings, an award-winning bar and restaurant just a few steps down from Indian Ocean.

The setting was stunning: the 12th-century castle walls of King John’s Castle overlook the courtyard, while the interior of the restaurant pays tribute to its maritime heritage; it was therefore perfect that our main meals were seafood-based.

We tried a stunning prawn curry, made with fresh, locally-caught prawns. Served alongside this spicy curry was a rich and creamy seafood pie, with flaky haddock, salmon and cod inside, and a beautifully seasoned breadcrumb topping.

The contrast between rich and mild to spicy and tangy was perfect, and showcased the versatility and talent of the chefs at The Moorings, as well as the quality of the local ingredients.

Interlude

And you've always got a second stomach for dessert, right? Our final stop of the evening took us to Interlude, a local cafe overlooking the harbour, situated between The Moorings and the Indian Ocean.

While Dungarvan is known primarily for its seafood, County Waterford is also home to numerous local farms, and as such, vegetable growers – and vegetables were the main focus of the dessert – which sounds odd, but the taste proved otherwise.

We were treated to a wonderful array of desserts – an Eton mess, with local berry compote, a courgette (zucchini) cake, a chocolate brownie (not vegetable-based, but who doesn’t like chocolate brownies?), and for us personally, the highlight of the dessert: a parsnip sticky toffee pudding.

This really blew all expectations of how vegetables can be used in sweet treats out of the water, and as if it couldn’t get any better, we got to wash it all down with a glass of rhubarb prosecco. If only we could eat our five a day like this all the time!

This was the perfect way to explore some of Dungarvan’s local eateries, and why they are so loved in the town.

Day Two: Market Exploration, Inspiring Talks, Fascinating Demos and Dinner in a Church

Tasty Market Visits

Day Two was jam-packed. A big day of eating ahead. After starting off with a traditional full Irish fry at The Park Hotel (easily better than an English fry-up), we headed back down to Davitt’s Quay, where we were greeted by seemingly endless street food stalls.

We browsed these stalls, selling everything from Texas-style barbecue to Basque burnt cheesecake, and stopped off to enjoy a refreshing and cooling mango smoothie from PH Juices, which was perfect in the Dungarvan sunshine. We enjoyed this smoothie as we walked through the markets and caught a little bit of Hooks & Crookes, a local Waterford-based sea shanty group, who sang traditional Irish folk songs and sea shanties, which provided an excellent soundtrack to the festival.

Some of the other food we sampled at the market included the ‘sausage box’ from O’Flynn’s Gourmet Sausages – a delightful combination of spicy Mediterranean, Cumberland, and garlic butter sausages, served on top of sweet and spicy sauteed potatoes. We had previously tried these sausages at the Cork Food Festival in 2025, and simply had to try them again; they were that good! 

We fancied something sweet after this, so we opted for the viral strawberries and melted chocolate, served by Munchies Co. These fresh strawberries with melted chocolate drizzled around the cup and over the fruit were the perfect snack to end a day of market exploration.

Holding Court with Sharon Noonan: Irish Mammy Cooks Demo

We then made our way to the Old Courthouse in Dungarvan to attend the first of the day’s demos. These events were hosted by Sharon Noonan, who is the host of Ireland’s longest-running food and drink podcast, Best Possible Taste. Sharon was an excellent host and made the events run so smoothly with her knack for conversation and asking perfect questions.

The first guest was none other than Orla Drumgoole, who is better known as ‘Irish Mammy Cooks’. The demonstration involved recipes from Orla’s latest cookbook, and we got to learn some of her backstory about how she went from a retired teacher to one of Ireland’s most well-known food influencers.

Orla shared three recipes with us: a classic tray bake, florentines and a gluten-free tiffin. The recipes are centred on being simple, easy and quick to make at home. Orla herself even admitted that she had no form of professional cookery training, and instead learned how to cook by watching her mother cook when she was a child.

Naturally, Orla’s recipes were absolutely delicious – and as they required minimal ingredients and can be made in any home kitchen, we will definitely be attempting to make these at home sometime.

Food Is Medicine with Jacinta Dalton, Heather McGuire & Mary Thea Brosnan

The next event we attended was part of the Voices in Food events, which was hosted by Fallon Moore in The Old Bank, a Dingle-based events and food specialist, behind the Irish Food Awards.

This talk featured three incredibly inspirational and brave women who shared their experiences on food as a form of medicine. While all three panellists had their different stories and experiences, all three believed in the same notion: the power of food as prevention for diseases or health conditions.

Mary Thea Brosnan’s experience was largely centred around the power of kefir, which she incorporated into her diet after years of suffering with IBS. This raw, lactose-free kefir helped clear up her problems in the space of a week.

Jacinta Dalton shared her very brave story about how she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in December 2024, and as part of her own personal response to this, she ditched all non-organic foods from her diet, focusing on nourishment and building her immune system with ingredients such as lemon, turmeric and ginger. As of a month ago, Jacinda was given the all-clear from cancer, a large part of which she puts down to the power of food.

Heather McGuire shared her experiences from working in both advertising and nutrition, and while she believes that no one food is a ‘superfood’, which is something that we often see advertised, she instead believes that multiple foods are ‘superfoods’, and have incredible health benefits that we are still discovering: examples included aubergines, edamame beans, beetroot, chia seeds and extra virgin olive oil.

These very inspiring women demonstrated the power of food as medicine, and while our social media feeds often seem dominated by extravagant, unhealthy food options, it’s a stark reminder of the power of real, healthy, nutritious foods and how they can benefit our bodies.

Sushi with Yoshimi Hayakawa

Sushi was next on our agenda for the afternoon’s demonstrations, and this was hosted by the incredibly talented Yoshimi Hayakawa from Wa Sushi in Galway, along with the excellent Sharon Noonan, who asked plenty of interesting questions.

One of the most interesting aspects of the demonstration – aside from the art in crafting the sushi (Yoshimi told us that it typically takes ten years to become a sushi chef!) – was that the majority of the ingredients can be sourced and bought locally in Ireland, such as seaweed and wasabi, which can be purchased from most Irish supermarkets today.

This tied into the key takeaway of this demo, which was that exotic food doesn’t always need exotic ingredients. In fact, Yoshimi herself even said that she hand-picks seaweed from Galway Bay on occasion.

Yoshimi explained to us that sushi is ‘the Japanese version of a sandwich’, and she has stuck by this explanation. When she first moved to Ireland over 20 years ago, she started out selling sushi in Galway markets, and many people were unfamiliar with it at the time. In time, Yoshimi opened up Wa Sushi, which was the first authentic sushi bar in Ireland.

Several rolls were demonstrated, and made to look effortless through Yoshimi’s talent: California rolls (inside-out sushi, known as uramaki), decorative rolls (kazari maki), battleship rolls (gunkan maki), hand rolls (temaki) and classic sushi: nigiri.

The ingredients ranged from avocado and cucumber to freshly caught salmon and tuna for the fish aspects, while crabsticks were also used as a flavour enhancer in some of the rolls.

Saints & Sinners Supper: Eamo & Ro at St. Mary’s

Our day concluded at the extravagant and incredible Saints & Sinners Supper, hosted by the dynamic Waterford cooking duo Eamo and Ro.

Upon arrival at St Mary’s Church, which dates as far back as the 13th century, we were welcomed with a gin and tonic, before being seated on long tables, ideal for conversation and getting to know each other. We were actually fortunate enough – by coincidence – to be seated alongside Shane Smith, Sunday and Irish Times number one best-selling author, who himself had also hosted a cookery demonstration that same afternoon as part of the Holding Court with Sharon Noonan events.

The meal started off with some homemade focaccia from Dún, a local Waterford bakery, alongside excellent olive oil and 12-year-old balsamic vinegar.

Shortly afterwards, our starter was brought out: Knockanore Farmhouse Mozzarella, Sicilian aubergine caponata and pangriatta. This was paired beautifully with a crisp and sweet 2024 Sauvignon Blanc.

The main course was porchetta, local pork stuffed with sage, apricot, fennel and wild garlic. It was served alongside braised cavolo nero, crushed butternut squash and Italian roast potatoes. This combination of sweet, rich and savoury – as well as pork that melted in the mouth – was absolutely beautiful, and a meal that we both agreed we could eat time and time again. This was paired with Colle Corviano Italian wine.

To finish, we were presented with two desserts: a white chocolate and morello cherry cassata with pistachio gelato, alongside a strong but sweet dessert wine. This was incredibly rich, but the morello cherry definitely helped to cut through some of the richness.

Finally, we were served ‘petit fours’ – chocolate ‘tiramisu’ truffles, which were the ideal way to round off a brilliant feast in a magnificent setting. 

Day Three: Markets and a Demo: the Festival Finale

More Delicious Markets

Another day, another Irish fry at the Park Hotel. And more food markets. 

We pootled around Gratton Square and on this quiet Sunday morning, we had the opportunity to talk to some of the stall owners and see how they make their food up close. 

This included speaking to the guys at Knockout Pizza who had come from Cork, and Catherine Finnegan of The Fluffy Meringue. We also had an interesting chat with Michael Onalimi, originally from Lagos, Nigeria, who has featured in the Irish Farmers Journal with his Flavour Safari sauce range: African-inspired flavours using Irish ingredients.

Taste Waterford: Zsofia Turmezei – Sophie’s Taste Creations

We headed back to the Old Courthouse to round off day three at Waterford Food Festival to listen and watch a demonstration held by Zsofia Turmezei of Sophie’s Taste Creations. These talks were hosted by Richard Povey, who was an equally excellent presenter.

Zsofia’s demonstration was focused on her incredible zero-waste illusion cakes. Her awards speak for themselves – she won the Gold Medal at the Irish Food Awards in the gluten-free category last year, as well as Best in County.

While some suppliers had a focus on local ingredients, Zsofia’s focus was on high-quality, which meant that some of her ingredients were imported from as far afield as Australia. However, Zsofia also had a strong focus on zero waste – using every bit of the lemon in her lemon illusion cakes, and in her pear cakes, she even used the core.

For her lemon cakes, she candied the rind herself, while for the pear cakes, she made the pear jam by blitzing and dehydrating the skin and the core, explaining that it gave a more intense flavour.

And while some ingredients had to be imported – vanilla pods from Asia, for example – Zsofia strongly believes in local produce when and where she can. As she does not use gelatine, she instead uses pectin, which can be found in seaweed and seamoss, which she frequently picks along the Waterford coastline.

Waterford Food Festival: Final Thoughts

It is little surprise that Waterford Food Festival has thrived for so long. This excellent festival with a wide array of street food style stalls, alongside educational talks, fascinating demonstrations and some of the biggest names in Irish cuisine, goes to show that this is easily one of the leading food festivals in Ireland.

Furthermore, the number of events, ranging from dining in a medieval church to a local tapas trail, goes to show just how much Dungarvan as a town and Waterford as a county have to offer when it comes to food and drink.

Putting local people, produce and stories first, Waterford Food Festival is a must-visit for any serious foodie.