Where to eat in Waterford, Ireland's oldest city

To eat well in Waterford, start in and around the Viking Triangle and the quays, where most of the city's choice is within a few minutes' walk, and make sure one meal includes a blaa, the soft, floury bread roll the city is known for. 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, and book ahead for weekend evenings.

Waterford was founded by the Vikings and is Ireland's oldest city, on the River Suir in the south-east. It is small enough to walk, which makes it an easy and rewarding place to eat.

What is a blaa, and where should you eat one?

The blaa is Waterford's own bread: a soft, white roll with a dusting of flour on top. It is eaten all day, but it is at its best in the morning, split and filled with butter, or with rashers or sausages for a breakfast blaa.

If you only eat one thing in Waterford that you cannot easily get elsewhere, make it a blaa. Look for it at bakeries and at cafés that serve breakfast. The quickest way to find a good one is to search for the dish rather than a type of place: when somebody rates a place on Mosey and names what they had, that dish gets its own page there, with photographs from the people who ordered it. The Dishes feature explains how it works.

Which parts of Waterford are worth knowing for food?

• The Viking Triangle is the historic heart of the city, with its museums, old streets and a cluster of cafés and places to eat. It is where most visitors spend their time, so look closely at ratings rather than choosing the first place you pass.
• The quays along the River Suir are the city's long front, with places to eat and an easy walk between them.
• The streets running back from the quays into the city centre hold much of the everyday choice: lunch spots, cafés and places locals use.
• Beyond the city, the Waterford Greenway runs out along an old railway line to Dungarvan, and the coast has towns and villages worth a lunch on a day out.

Because it is all close together, the best approach is to shortlist three or four places before you go out, walk past them, and pick on the night.

How to judge a Waterford place before you go

Every rating on Mosey comes from somebody who ate there, and most carry photographs of the food taken at the table. Look at four things:

1. The count. Mosey shows how many people rated a place, counting people rather than visits. One rating is a lead. Many is a pattern.
2. The photographs. They show portion size, style and whether the dish you want is any good there, which no description can.
3. Gold. It replaces the score on places whose average is high enough, stays until the average falls some way further, and cannot be bought. Ratings left by a place's own owners do not count towards it.
4. The replies. A place can answer a rating but cannot delete one, and a calm reply to a complaint tells you a lot.

Ratings that are reported and upheld are removed and stop counting anywhere. Before you travel, confirm opening hours too: many listings began as public map data, and only a place that has claimed its page keeps the hours current itself.

How do I get a table in Waterford?

The city is quieter than the biggest cities, but its best-known places still fill on Friday and Saturday evenings, around big events and in summer.

• Book ahead where a place takes bookings on Mosey. It is free, and you get a reminder before the day.
• Join the waitlist if a place is full. When somebody cancels, the table goes to the list.
• Look again on the day, when cancellations free up tables.
• Expect a deposit for a large group on a busy night. It comes off your bill and Mosey takes nothing from it.

Breakfast and lunch are far easier, which suits a city where the blaa does its best work before noon.

Eating well on a short visit

Many people pass through Waterford for a day or a night, often on the way somewhere else. If that is you, focus your effort:

1. Breakfast or lunch with a blaa, at a bakery or café that people rate for it.
2. A walk round the Viking Triangle and along the quays, which shows you most of the city in an hour.
3. One booked dinner, chosen the night before from places with good photographs and a reasonable number of ratings.

If you have longer, the guide to a food weekend in Waterford covers a full two days, including a day out on the Greenway.

Keep what you find

Save places to a list as you go, with a note on each: "go early", "get the breakfast blaa", "ask for a window table". It turns a scatter of good meals into something you can come back to, and it is the most useful thing to send a friend heading to Waterford next month.

When you get home, rate the places you ate. Waterford gets far less written about it than the larger cities, and every rating with a photograph makes the next person's first night there better. The Travel feature explains how city and town pages help when you are somewhere you do not know.

Try it on Mosey: look at what people have rated in Waterford, save a blaa breakfast and a dinner to a list, and book the dinner before you travel.