Eating in Ennis and bringing Clare home

As the county town, Ennis feeds itself properly, which means a visitor eats well without much effort. The range runs from hearty pub plates with music to a step-up bistro dinner, and because this is the main shopping town for the region, it is also the best place in Clare to pick up something genuinely local to carry home. Here is how to eat around the town and what to bring back.

Pub food and a session

The heart of eating in Ennis is the pubs, where a plate of food and a trad session come together. Brogan's on O'Connell Street is the classic, an Ennis institution doing generous, hearty mains in a room that regularly has music. Poet's Corner at the Old Ground Hotel does pub food with trad in a comfortable, central setting. This is the honest, everyday end of the town's food, and on a session night it is the whole experience in one room.

Sit-down dinners

For a proper dinner rather than a pub plate, Henry's Bistro & Wine Bar on Lower Market Street is the step-up choice, cooking a locally sourced menu with a wine-bar side to it. It is more considered than the bars without being stiff, and the room to book for an evening out. The Market Bar & Restaurant is a reliable middle ground, known for its seafood chowder and its steaks, good for lunch or a straightforward dinner.

Riverside and relaxed

The Rowan Tree Café Bar on Old Barrack Street has a terrace over the River Fergus, one of the few places in the centre to eat and drink right on the water, and it works through the day and into the evening. Cook's Lane is a café by day and a wine bar with tapas on Thursday to Saturday evenings, set around a covered courtyard, which is the spot for a glass of wine and a few small plates rather than a full meal. And the Ennis Gourmet Store, a deli, café and wine shop, is the place for a good coffee, a light lunch, or the makings of a picnic to take out to the Burren or the Cliffs.

The Friday farmers market

The single best place to bring home something made in Clare is the Ennis Farmers Market, held every Friday morning. Stalls sell handcrafted sourdough and baked goods, free-range eggs, organic seasonal vegetables, artisan cheese, jams, meat pies, plants and cut flowers, with hot food and coffee to eat on the spot. It is a working market for the town rather than a tourist set-piece, and a good way to meet the people making the food. Confirm the current day, time and location before you go, as market venues can move.

Producers worth carrying home

Two Clare producers are worth going a little out of your way for. St Tola Irish Goat Cheese, made on a family farm near Inagh and Ennistymon a short drive north-west of Ennis, is one of the best-known farmhouse cheesemakers in the country, producing award-winning organic goat cheese; the farm offers visits and direct sales, and you will also find the cheese in shops and at the market. Burren Smokehouse, in Lisdoonvarna about 40 minutes north-west, smokes organic Irish salmon and has a free visitor centre and shop, an easy add-on to a day trip toward the Burren and the coast. Both sit outside Ennis rather than in the town, so treat them as short drives or stops on a day out west.

Practical notes

Several of the town's bars and cafes work on a walk-in basis, so for a busy weekend or a festival night it is worth phoning ahead to the bistros to check whether a table can be held. Ennis has full supermarkets, Dunnes, SuperValu and Tesco, if you are self-catering or provisioning a trip, which is another reason to stock up here before heading out to the smaller coastal villages where the choice is thinner.