Here's a fact that might surprise you: Galway used to be a rubbish city for eating.
Seriously. There was a time, and that time was not so long ago, when Galway was a city to be avoided if you wanted to eat well. The benchmark destination for the city wasn't in the city itself: if you wanted food as art, as passion, as creativity, then you got in the car and drove out to Drimcong House, way out past Moycullen, to eat the food of the late, great Gerry Galvin.
Galvin's brilliance shone an unflattering light on what passed for food in the city, which failed to get past starchy concoctions designed to soak up the booze you had consumed in the pubs on Quay Street. The irony was the fact that Galway had the best food produce market in the country, yet it seemed no one in the city was using these local foods in their kitchen. A maverick restaurateur such as Harriet Leander, of the quirky and unclassifiable Nimmo's stood out simply by virtue of being imaginative, creative and dedicated, her dedication echoed by other creative chefs and bakers like Martine McDonagh of Martine's, and Emer Murray of Goya's Bakery
Then things began to change. A cluster of great cooks collected around Sheridan's Cheesemongers. The Gourmet Offensive showed that you could have brilliant cooking from a van in a market. Michael O'Meara was doing funky stuff in Oscar's. Michelle and Fintan Hyland crafted excellent rooms in which to enjoy their baking in The Galway Tart Co. The stalwarts such as Emer Murray of Goya's and Jimmy Griffin of Griffin's Bakery seemed to improve, year on year, from their already excellent standards.
Seamus Sheridan was back in a Galway kitchen, cooking with Enda McEvoy, for the first time since his pioneering Blue Raincoat restaurant closed in 1991. There was a beer – Galway Hooker – that locals could call their own. Aoibheann McNamara succeeded Harriet Leander in Nimmo's and brought the art-funk of Ard Bia to the best room in the city. The city had reliable and imaginative mainstays in the form of The Cobblestone Café; Da Roberta out in Salthill; The Huntsman Inn; The Malthouse; McDonagh's; Vina Mara, and the ethnic food suddenly got truly hip, with Kappa-ya and Da Tang Noodle House. Stefan Griesbach showed everyone what a creative fishmonger could do, along with Galway Bay Seafoods, whilst McCambridge's and Morton's steadily upped their game.
Today, Galway may be the best city to eat in Ireland, apart from the capital. It's better than Cork, and better than Belfast. Everyone in the city has gotten better and those who have arrived and opened over the last five years – Kai; McCambridge's Restaurant; Cava Bodega; Wa Café; Basilico; Eat @ Massimo; Brasserie on the Corner; Aniar – have all cemented the reputation of Galway as a food lover's playground. What is particularly brilliant is the variety, and the excellence at every level, from breakfast in Goya's to lunch in The Kitchen, to noodles in Chi to a dish of ravioli with asparagus and goat's cheese in Basilico, to fish and chips in Kettle of Fish to turbot with goat's neck in Cava Bodega.
All this, and the city's great chef, Enda McEvoy, will be returning to the fray in June when he opens LOAM in June, just across from the Radisson hotel.
The great thing for the city is the fact that this culinary culture is superbly framed by the Galway Food Festival, which is one of the best festivals in the country, a happening that Dublin, Cork and Belfast cannot manage. The festival is a classic example of how the city can showcase just how far it has come, and how much the food culture is by the people of Galway and for the people of Galway. Sure, they have loads of tourists, but this isn't a tourist food culture. Instead, it's the Galway food culture, and it's still moving forward, still getting better.
