Dublin, Cork and Galway restaurants for dates, families and occasions

The best place to eat for an occasion is the one that fits what the evening needs: a quiet table and a shareable menu for a date, space and a forgiving kitchen for a family, a room that can take noise for a celebration. In Dublin, Cork and Galway, the quickest way to find it is to look at photographs of what people actually ate, check what the place has been tagged as good for, and say in the booking what the occasion is. Then book further ahead than you think for a Friday or Saturday.

How to judge a place for an occasion

Scores tell you whether a kitchen is good. They do not tell you whether the room suits your evening. Before booking for anything that matters, look for:

• The food itself. On Mosey every rating comes from somebody who ate there, with photographs taken at the table. You see portions and plates, not a styled shoot.
• How many people rated it. Four ratings and four hundred can show the same number and are not the same claim. Neither is a reason to skip a place, but know which you are looking at.
• What people tagged it as. When rating, people mark places as good for things like date night, families, groups or a celebration, and Mosey gathers those into city pages.
• The room in the photographs. Tightly packed tables, high stools and a bar at your shoulder all show up in pictures.

Where to go on a date

A first date wants somewhere relaxed and central, with a menu you can share and a bill that does not dominate the evening. Avoid long tasting menus and rooms so loud you lean in to hear. A place near a good pub gives you a second act if it is going well.

An anniversary can carry more: a longer meal, a better bottle, a table you asked for by name. Put the occasion in the booking notes and ask for somewhere quiet.

In Dublin, Mosey's date night page gathers places people tagged that way. In Cork and Galway, both compact centres, the advantage is the walk: dinner, then the river in Cork or the bay in Galway.

How do I choose a family-friendly restaurant?

Families need different things at different ages, but the reliable signs are the same.

• Space for a buggy and a table that is not in a corridor.
• High chairs and a children's menu, or a kitchen happy to do a small plain portion.
• Speed. A place that gets food out quickly at lunchtime will do the same for a hungry six-year-old.
• Timing. Book early: five or half five on a weekend is calmer for everyone, and many places are glad to fill those tables.
• Allergies in writing. Add them when you book rather than at the table.

There is a fuller checklist in how to choose a family-friendly restaurant, and Mosey's Dublin family-friendly page collects places parents have tagged.

Business lunches

A business lunch needs a place where you can hear each other, service that keeps time, and a menu nobody has to puzzle over. Book a specific table rather than whatever is free, tell the place you need to be away by a set time, and settle the bill quietly with the staff rather than at the table. Midweek lunch is usually easy to book in all three cities, but the most popular city centre rooms do fill.

Birthdays, hens, graduations and big groups

For a large group, a normal table booking is the wrong tool. On Mosey, send a Gatherings request with your date, numbers, time of day and occasion; the place can confirm, decline or come back with a quote for time, menu and price, which you can accept or counter. Once agreed, it goes into the place's diary. The organiser can split any deposit across the group and share one link where every guest enters their allergies in a browser.

A few things to ask any place before a group booking: whether a service charge is added for large tables, whether there is a minimum spend or a room fee, whether you can bring a cake, and how late you can stay. In Galway, graduation weeks and festival weeks fill central rooms early; in all three cities, December Fridays and Saturdays go months ahead.

Late meals and brunch

Late dinner is more limited than in many European cities. Check kitchen hours, not opening hours: a place open until eleven may take its last food order at nine. Book the last sitting rather than turning up after it.

Brunch at weekends is the opposite problem: popular places take few bookings and queue out the door by eleven. Go early, go midweek, or look for places that run a walk-in queue, where you join from your phone at the door and get a message when your table is ready.

Booking well in any of the three cities

• Book ahead for weekends. A week or two for a popular place on a Friday or Saturday.
• Use the edges of the evening. Early and late tables are far easier, and some places attach a perk to their earliest slots.
• If it is full, join the waitlist where a place runs one, or set a cancellation alert so you are told when a table is offered up.
• If plans change, cancel early or pass the booking on. Cancellations never count against you; not turning up does.
• Deposits come off the bill, and Mosey takes nothing from them.

To start a shortlist, Mosey's city pages for Cork and Galway are built from what people have rated, and nothing on them is a paid placement.

Pick the occasion, find the place whose food you can see, and put what the night is for in the booking notes.