Irish Restaurant Awards return for 2024
Pictured: Paul Lenehan of the Restaurants Association of Ireland and Michelle Maguire of Ireland’s Blue Book (Photo by Paul Sherwood Photography)
The 15th year of the Irish Restaurant Awards were launched yesterday at the Marker Hotel.
Last year’s awards were the most popular yet, with the public making more than 130,000 nominations for Ireland’s best food-led hospitality businesses and the people behind them.
The awards start with an online public vote on The Irish Times from 17-31 January. Public nominations lead to judging by national experts, revealing county winners at regional events. A Dublin shortlist is then formed, and in May, the Irish Restaurant Awards all Ireland final regional and national winners will be announced.
This year, the public can nominate candidates across 23 categories. New categories introduced this year include employee excellence, food truck of the year and outstanding achievement awards.
Regional and all Ireland winners including in categories such as best restaurant and best chef will be revealed at the All Ireland Awards gala dinner which will take place at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, Dublin 4 in May.
Paul Lenehan, president, Restaurants Association of Ireland, said: “Despite some extremely challenging times for our industry, year after year, the Irish Restaurant Awards serve as an excellent reminder of the passion and innovation that exist within the island of Ireland’s food-led hospitality industry.
“Above all, the Irish Restaurant Awards provide us with an opportunity to reflect on all that makes our food and hospitality offering great – in particular, the wonderful teams that make everything tick and leave locals and tourists with a smile on their faces time and time again.
“There is great excitement brewing once again about what is truly the good news story of our industry’s year. We look forward to highlighting and celebrating the best our island has to offer in terms of food and hospitality.
“We especially look forward to the public having its voice heard as to which restaurants, cafés and other food-led businesses have transformed their local community. We expect to exceed the monumental 130,000 public nominations that were made last year.”
Ticket and event information will be released in April following regional events.
