The Most Popular Food Festivals in Dublin
There are quite a few food festivals in Dublin to chose from, however two of the most popular ones that usually come to mind are Taste Dublin and Big Grill Festival. Both happen annually and have food and drink stands, live music, and cooking classes. They take place over a weekend, so you have several days to choose from, and both are family friendly.
Taste Dublin
Of the two food festivals in Dublin, I would deem Taste as being larger and having more of a selection. Here, restaurants and various other food shops open stands to showcase and sell their best dishes and products. There is more covered seating offered than at Big Grill, which is nice considering the weather can be unpredictable. This year we decided to purchase VIP tickets, which included 2 free drinks. VIP also includes a separate seating area and toilets.
Each year Taste selects their best dish. This year it was from the Mexican Taqueria Los Chicanos stand. Naturally, we had to try it. We queued in line for about 30 minutes and ordered their chicken and beef tacos.
Unfortunately, they were nothing to write home about. We found them to be very basic and white-washed. “Tex-Mex” style if you will. Although I love a good ground or minced beef taco, it really isn’t authentic.
This is definitely something that you could have prepared at home and made better.
While wandering around the festival, we discovered Open Hive’s honey stand. We have a thing for honey, and any time we travel or visit a shop that sells a fancy honey, we have to purchase it.
Along with selling raw honey, they also had soft style honey (which looks like a cream consistency), as honeycomb and candles.
We settled on one raw honey and one soft set honey. Both were fantastic and I would highly recommend you try them.
Surprisingly, I’d have to say my favorite part of the entire festival was the musical act.
Not exactly what you’d want or expect at a food festival, but pleasant nonetheless. Taste always has great performers, and the atmosphere is always fun and upbeat.
We’ve been to Taste before, and found that in previous years the food has been better. That being said, it was still a fun time, and something different to do with your friends or family.
Big Grill Festival
Big Grill Festival is exactly what it sounds like: a festival primarily selling grilled meats. So if you’re into that sort of thing, than you’ll dig it. Like Taste, the festival takes place over a weekend, so you have several days to choose from. There are also 2 time slots. One from 12-4:30, and one from 5:30-10.
Of the two food festivals in Dublin, Big Grill struck me as more family friendly. Nearly everyone had their children in tow, and it ended up being a very packed event. In fact, our biggest complaint was that they seemed to over-sell the festival, and there were way too many people in general. Normally, this isn’t an issue, but the queues for each food stand were 20-45 minutes long. On top of that, it was a hot sunny day, which was beautiful, but there was virtually no shade and no umbrellas or tents set up for cover.
Due to the insane queues, we were only able to actually try one food stand, which was such a bummer.
So for the remainder of the festival, we found a seat in the grass (because there are no tables or chairs) and sipped on gin cocktails from the Schweppes stand.
Like Taste, there were various musical performances happening, although it seemed that most were geared towards children. I think if we had chosen the later time slot we may have avoided this.
Overall, it was a fun experience, mostly due to the cocktails and conversation. If they can just iron out a few kinks such as seating and the overselling of tickets, I think this would be the ideal festival to go to.
In conclusion, both of these food festivals in Dublin are a fun time, it just depends on the vibe you are after.
Still looking for more? Check out my blog post on The 10 Best Restaurants in Dublin!
