Where to eat near Dublin Airport: a plan for landing or flying

If you are wondering where to eat near Dublin Airport, the choice is simple. Eat in the terminal if your wait is short or your bags are with you, and take a short trip out if you have a few hours and want a proper meal. Either way, decide before you leave home, and book if the meal matters. Both terminals have somewhere to eat on each side of security.

This guide is for two kinds of traveller: the person who has just landed and wants a real first meal, and the person with a long wait before a flight. It names no businesses, because menus and opening hours change. It tells you what to look for, what to ask and how to plan it.

What can you eat inside Dublin Airport?

Dublin Airport has two terminals, and the airport's own news release on its food and drink overhaul says outlets sit in both terminals, on the airside and the landside. Airside is the part after security, where you wait for your gate. Landside is the part before security and the arrivals hall, where anyone can walk in.

That matters for planning. If you are flying, the airside outlets are the ones you will use, and you cannot go back out for a meal once you are through. If you are meeting someone, or you have a long gap before check-in opens, landside is where you will be.

Expect the airport kinds of food: coffee and pastries, breakfast rolls, burgers, sandwiches, pizza, hot dishes and a bar or two. The same release says the airport had heard that passengers wanted more choice, including more gluten-free options. If you need gluten-free food or have another allergy, do not assume. Ask at the counter, and read our guide to checking allergen information before you order.

Two sensible habits help:

• Eat where your terminal is. Your airline's terminal is on your booking, and walking between terminals with luggage is a chore you do not need.
• Check the airport's own site for what is open on the day you travel. Hours change with the first and last flights, and an outlet that is open at midday may not be at the start or end of the day.

When is a short trip out of the airport worth it?

A trip out is worth it when you have time, a table to sit at and no rush. Dublin Airport sits north of the city, so the nearest real food is in the towns and suburbs around it and, further on, in the city itself. We do not give a distance or a journey time here, because they depend on traffic and on how you travel. Look at a map and your transport options on the day.

Here is a simple rule. If you have less than a few hours before a flight, stay at the airport. Security queues are unpredictable and a long lunch is a gamble. If you land in the morning and cannot check in to your room until the afternoon, a trip out becomes a good idea, because you have the time and you are hungry for something that is not a sandwich.

The kinds of place worth the trip are the ones that suit a tired traveller:

• A café or bakery serving breakfast in a nearby town, for a landing in the morning. Look for eggs, toast, porridge and a pot of tea that does not come in a paper cup.
• A pub with a proper food menu, for a landing at lunchtime. Our guide to eating in an Irish pub explains how ordering works, and the full Irish breakfast explained covers the big morning plate.
• A carvery or a sit-down family restaurant, for a late arrival with children. See the carvery lunch explained.
• A city neighbourhood, if you are going into Dublin anyway. Eat there, not near the airport. Our day of eating in Dublin by neighbourhood gives you a way to choose.

If your trip is mostly about the city, the sensible answer to "where to eat near the airport" is often "in the city". Land, drop your bags and eat somewhere you chose. The airport is a place to pass through.

Where do you eat with a long wait before your flight?

With a long wait, split it in two. Do the proper meal early, before you go through security, and the light one airside.

Start with when you need to be at the airport. Your airline tells you, and you should follow it. Then count backwards. If you arrive with a few spare hours, that spare time is the window for a sit-down meal outside the terminal. Leave plenty of margin to come back, because the way back is the part that goes wrong.

Some thoughts on the meal itself:

• Choose food that travels well. A heavy, rich plate before a flight can leave you uncomfortable. Many people prefer something lighter: soup, a sandwich, fish or a salad, and then a bigger meal at the other end.
• Be careful with alcohol. An airport bar is easy, but a long wait and a drink can turn a good day into a headache. Water first.
• Buy a snack for the plane. Food on board is often limited or paid for. A bread roll or a piece of fruit from an airside shop saves you.

If your flight is early in the morning, the airport is the practical choice. Most people will not want to travel out and back at that hour, and the airport's own outlets are built for it. If your flight is late, an evening meal in a neighbourhood nearby is a pleasant way to use the time, as long as you leave a comfortable margin.

What suits a family arriving tired?

A family arriving tired needs three things: a place that takes children without fuss, food that comes quickly and a seat that is not a corner of the arrivals hall. Everything else is a bonus.

Think about the order of the day. If the children have slept badly on the plane, feed them first and think about the hotel second. A simple hot meal beats a clever one. Many families find a plain plate of chicken, pasta or a bowl of soup is what a tired child will actually eat.

A few practical points:

• Decide before landing. Ask the children, or at least the adults, what the first meal should be while you are still in the air. At arrivals everyone is tired, and nobody wants to decide.
• Look for a table, not a counter. A table lets you put the bags down and the children sit. Our guide to eating out with children explains what to check before you commit.
• Tell them about allergies up front. The place may not list every allergen, so say what applies to your child. Asking costs nothing.
• At Christmas, plan more. In the weeks before Christmas families fly in to see relatives, and many are met at the airport and fed at home. If you are bringing a visiting family to eat out, our guide to eating out at Christmas in Ireland explains how bookings tend to fill. See also home for Christmas: where to eat when family flies in.

How do you plan the first meal of a trip?

Plan it before you leave, the same way you plan a taxi. The first meal sets the mood, and an unplanned one usually ends up being whatever is nearest.

Here is a way to do it in ten minutes, a day or two before you fly:

1. Decide where you are sleeping. Your first meal is probably near your bed, not near the airport.
2. Decide how hungry you will be and when. A morning landing means breakfast. An afternoon landing means a late lunch or an early dinner.
3. Pick two choices, not one. One is your plan. The other is the backup for when the first is full or closed.
4. Book if you can. A table waiting for you takes the pressure off a tired group.
5. Save it where you will find it, not in a message you will scroll past.

On Mosey, this is what the app is for. In Ireland, you can book a table at places that take bookings and, at some, choose your food ahead of time, so the kitchen knows what is coming and the table can sit down and talk. Read about booking a table for how it works. If the place is full, you can join its queue or set a cancellation alert, and be told when a matching table opens, which helps when your plans are uncertain.

If you want something quicker, a place that takes Order Ahead lets you choose what you want, pick a collection time and pay in the app, so there is no queue at the counter. See order ahead. It is useful when you are at a hotel near the airport, or on your way into the city, and want food waiting for you.

Neither is a promise that every place near the airport takes them, because that varies by place. Look at the place's page in the app.

How do you choose a good place when you do not know the area?

You choose by what other diners say about a dish, not by the name over the door. Mosey asks people to rate what they ate, one dish at a time, with tags and often a photo, so a place's page shows what people ordered and liked rather than a single star for the whole kitchen. Our guide to reading ratings and photos shows what to look for.

The tags are the useful part for a traveller. Look for ones like Family Friendly, Kid-Friendly, Late Night, Group Dining and Outdoor seating. They tell you who a place suits before you walk in, and Late Night helps if you land after most kitchens have closed. A dish with no allergens listed means the allergens are not listed, not that it is safe, so ask the place. The "Hide dishes that list" filter hides dishes that declare an allergen you choose.

Mosey Travel gives Dublin a city hub in the app, so you can browse the city before you arrive. Top spots are earned from ratings alone, and nobody pays to rank, so a place near the top of a list is there because diners put it there. See how Mosey ranked lists are made.

If you are travelling with other people, make a list. A list can be private or shared, and an invite link lets friends add to it, even before they have joined. Put your first meal, your backup and one dinner on it, and everyone in the group can see the plan.

What should you eat on your first day in Dublin?

Eat something local, because you came here and not somewhere else. If you land in the morning, a full Irish breakfast is a fair first meal, and the full Irish breakfast explained covers what is on the plate. At lunchtime, soup and brown bread or a bowl of seafood chowder is a gentle start after a flight; see what makes a good bowl of chowder. In the evening, a pub meal is hard to beat when you are tired. Our short-visit guide to eating well in Ireland lists what to look for, and the Dublin page shows places in the city.

If your trip goes beyond Dublin, our seven-day food itinerary for Ireland shows how to join it up. If you live here and are planning a few days away of your own, see our guide to a food staycation in Ireland.

What about a late arrival or an early flight?

A late arrival is the hardest case, because most kitchens close earlier than you think and the airport outlets may be winding down. If you land late, eat on the plane if you can, or in the arrivals area, or plan something simple at your accommodation. Ask your hotel or host before you travel whether they can leave food out. Do not rely on finding a place open.

An early flight is easier than it sounds. Eat at the airport, because it is the place built for it, and look for the coffee and breakfast outlets airside. Pack something small if you have a very early start, so you are not hungry in the queue. If you are staying nearby the night before, eat dinner early and lightly and go to bed.

How do you keep track of where you ate?

Rate it while you are still full and happy. A dish rating takes a few seconds and a photo, and it is the record you will want in a year when someone asks where you had that bowl of soup.

On Mosey, your ratings build your food passport, a record of where you have rated by country and city, and rating by county builds a badge. In Ireland, counties of the island count towards the place-spread badges, at five, ten, sixteen and thirty-two counties. A trip that starts at an airport in Dublin is a good start.

You can also tag the friends you ate with, and they can add their own rating of the same dish. If you want to follow someone whose taste you trust, their picks appear on your map as Friends' picks and on your Home screen in This week with friends.

A final plan to copy

If you want a plan to take to the airport, here it is:

• Decide before you fly where your first meal will be.
• Book a table if it matters, and keep a backup.
• Eat at the airport if you have under a few hours.
• Take a short trip out if you land early and your room is not ready.
• Ask about allergens every time, and say them aloud.
• Rate what you ate, so you remember it.

More travel and planning help is in the guides, and the ranked lists show where people rate highly.