A food lover's guide to Kilkenny: eating around the medieval city

To eat well in Kilkenny, use its size: almost everything is within a short walk of the Medieval Mile between the castle and St Canice's Cathedral, so you can compare a few places before you choose. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights and festival weekends, when the city fills with visitors and groups. The Kilkenny hub on Mosey and the top-rated Kilkenny list rank places on ratings from people who ate there, and Gold marks the ones that have stayed consistently good.

Why Kilkenny is easy to eat well in

Kilkenny is a medieval city on the River Nore, and its centre is compact enough to walk end to end in a short time. That changes how you should choose.

In a big city you commit to one place because getting to another is a trip. In Kilkenny you can look at three menus, peer through three windows and still be sitting down in ten minutes. Use that. Shortlist a few places before you go out, then walk past them and pick the one that feels right on the night.

The other thing size does is concentrate demand. On a quiet Tuesday the city is easy. On a sunny Saturday in summer, with day-trippers, weekenders and groups all arriving at once, the same few streets get very full, very fast.

Which Kilkenny page should you start from?

Mosey has Kilkenny pages for the questions people actually ask there, built from what has been rated:

• Breakfast and coffee, for the morning before the castle.
• Family-friendly, when the meal has to work for children as well.
• Group dining, for the birthday, the reunion or the weekend away with friends.
• Solo dining, for a good meal on your own without feeling like you are taking up a table for four.
• Walk-ins, for when you have not booked.
• Wine list and dessert, for the evening that is about more than the main course.
• Non-alcoholic, for good drinks that are not a pint.

Starting from the page that matches your plans narrows the field much faster than the full list. If the meal marks an occasion, the guide to a special occasion meal in Kilkenny covers booking and the details.

When is Kilkenny busiest, and when should you book?

• Friday and Saturday nights all year, and especially in summer.
• Festival weekends, including the summer arts festival and the comedy festival, when the city is at its fullest.
• Bank holiday weekends, when it is a popular break from Dublin and elsewhere.
• Weekends with big groups in town, which put pressure on the places with large tables.

If your visit falls on any of those, book dinner before you travel. Booking through Mosey is free, the booking goes into the diary the staff use, and you get a reminder before the day. If the place you want is full, join the waitlist: when somebody cancels, the table goes to the list rather than sitting empty. Large groups should expect a deposit on busy nights, which comes off the bill.

Lunch and breakfast are much more forgiving, and early evening is easier than eight o'clock almost everywhere.

How to read the top-rated list

The ranked list orders Kilkenny places by what people rated. Nobody can pay to be on it or to move up it. Read it with three things in mind:

1. Look at the count. Mosey shows how many people rated a place. A perfect score from one or two people is a lead, not proof, and plenty of Kilkenny places have only a handful of ratings so far.
2. Look at the photographs. Ratings usually carry photographs of the food taken at the table. They show you what you would actually be served.
3. Gold means consistency. It replaces the score on places whose average is high enough and does not disappear after one bad night. It cannot be bought, and owners' ratings of their own place do not count.

Then check opening hours before you set out. Many listings began as public map data, and only a place that has claimed its page keeps the hours current itself.

Beyond the city: County Kilkenny

The county around the city is worth the drive. Towns such as Graiguenamanagh, on the River Barrow, and Thomastown have places to eat that suit a slower lunch, and some appear alongside the city on Mosey's Kilkenny pages. If you are staying a few days, a lunch outside the city makes a good break from the Medieval Mile.

Eating your way around on foot

A walkable city suits the idea of a food trail: one ticket, several places, something small at each, and a stamp as you go. Where a trail is running, it is a good way to see more of Kilkenny than one long meal would show you, and it works well alone or with a group that cannot agree on one place. The self-guided food trail guide for Kilkenny explains how it works.

If there is no trail on when you visit, you can build your own: pick a bakery for the morning, a light lunch, coffee in the afternoon and a booked dinner, and save them to a list in walking order. Add a note to each ("get the scones", "ask for upstairs") and the list becomes your plan for the day.

A quick checklist

• Is your visit on a weekend, bank holiday or festival? Book dinner first.
• Have you picked from the page that fits the occasion, not just the overall list?
• How many people rated your choice, and what do the photographs show?
• Have you confirmed the opening hours?
• Is a second option saved to a list, close by?

Try it on Mosey: open the Kilkenny hub, save a day's worth of places in walking order, and book dinner before the weekend fills.