A food lover's guide to Limerick and the Milk Market

To eat well in Limerick, start at the Milk Market, the covered market in the city centre where traders, bakers and street food stalls gather, then choose your sit-down meals from places rated by people who ate there, judging them on photographs of the food and how many people rated them. The Limerick hub on Mosey shows what has been rated in the city, and Gold marks the places whose ratings have stayed consistently high.

Limerick is a city on the River Shannon that gets less attention from food writers than Dublin, Cork or Galway, which is exactly why a little preparation pays off there.

How to do the Milk Market well

The Milk Market is the obvious place to begin, and the best way to understand what the city eats. A few things make the difference between a good visit and a wander:

• Check its trading days and hours before you go. Markets keep their own schedule, and it is worth knowing it before you build a morning around one.
• Arrive hungry, but not starving. The point is to try several small things rather than fill up at the first stall.
• Walk the whole market before buying anything. The stall you want is often not the first one you see.
• Go early for the bakers. The best bread and pastries are the first things to go.
• Bring a bag if you plan to take produce home.
• Look for the traders who also cook. A stall selling cheese and a toastie made with it is telling you something about both.

Market traders and food trucks are some of the most interesting independent food businesses in any city, and some have their own pages on Mosey. Following the places you like is the most reliable way to hear when they are doing something new, rather than finding out the day after.

Where else in Limerick should you look for food?

Away from the market, the city centre holds most of the choice:

• The city centre around the main shopping streets, close to the market, is where most people eat out.
• The Georgian streets of Newtown Pery, the planned grid at the heart of the modern city, have quieter stretches that suit a relaxed dinner.
• Along the Shannon and around King John's Castle, the older part of the city, is worth a walk before or after a meal.
• Castletroy, near the University of Limerick, has places that serve the campus and the people who live around it.

If you have a car, the County Limerick page covers the towns and villages beyond the city, which suit a long lunch on a day out.

What should you order in Limerick?

Rather than chasing a single famous dish, use the market to calibrate: notice what the bakers, butchers and cheesemakers are proud of, then look for places that cook with that kind of produce.

The most useful search on Mosey is for the dish, not the cuisine. When somebody rates a place and names what they ate, that dish gets its own page at that place, with photographs from the people who ordered it and what they paid where they said. It is a much better answer to "where should I get a burger" or "who does a proper breakfast" than a list of places that call themselves the right thing. The Dishes feature explains how it works.

How to read Limerick ratings properly

A score out of five is an average across a whole menu, and you will eat one meal. Look underneath it:

1. How many people rated it. Mosey shows the count of people, not visits. One rating is a lead. Thirty is a pattern.
2. What the photographs show. They are taken at the table by the people who ate there, so they show the real portion and the real plate.
3. Whether it has Gold. Gold appears in place of the score for places whose average is high enough, and it stays until the average falls some way further. It cannot be bought, and owners' own ratings do not count towards it.
4. How the place replies. It can answer a rating but cannot remove one.

Ratings that are reported and upheld are removed and stop counting anywhere, so what remains is people describing meals they actually had.

How do I book a good restaurant in Limerick?

Weekend evenings, and nights with a big match or concert in the city, are when the popular places fill. Where a place takes bookings on Mosey:

• Book early in the week for a Friday or Saturday. It is free, and you are reminded before the day.
• Join the waitlist if it is full. When somebody cancels, the table goes to the list.
• Check again on the day. Tables come free when plans change.
• Expect a deposit for a big group on a busy night. It comes off the bill and Mosey takes nothing from it.

And confirm opening hours before you travel. Many listings started from public map data, and only a place that has claimed its page keeps its own hours up to date.

A day of eating in Limerick

If you have a full day, a simple shape works well:

1. Morning at the Milk Market, on a day it is trading: coffee, bread, and two or three small things.
2. A walk along the Shannon to the castle and the older streets.
3. A light lunch somewhere you shortlisted the night before.
4. A booked dinner in the centre or the Georgian streets.

Save the lot to a list in the order you plan to do them, with a note on each. On the day it is your map, and afterwards it is the best record of what you ate. The guide to telling whether a place is good is a useful companion for choosing the dinner.

Try it on Mosey: open the Limerick hub, save a market morning and a dinner to a list, and book the dinner before the weekend fills.