Where to eat in Enniscorthy, and which days they open

Enniscorthy eats in a small area. Almost everything below is within five minutes' walk of Market Square, on Weafer Street, Rafter Street, Barrack Street and Slaney Place, with two hotel kitchens a little further out. The town's own visitor site lists Thai, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese and Indian kitchens alongside a steakhouse, which is a wider spread than you would guess from the size of the place. Opening days matter more than anything here, because several of the best rooms are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The evening booking: Via Veneto

Via Veneto on Weafer Street is the one to plan around. Paolo Fresilli and Diana run it, Paolo with more than forty years behind him as a chef, and the wine list runs past a hundred Italian bottles. It is open in the evenings only, Wednesday to Sunday: half five to half nine midweek, to ten on Fridays and Saturdays, and five to nine on Sundays. You book by phone or by email, not online, and the restaurant sends you to its Facebook page for the current menu.

Lunch: The Bailey

The Bailey on Barrack Street is the all-day answer. Coffee from eleven, lunch from noon every day, and an evening menu until eight from Monday to Thursday and until nine on Fridays and Saturdays; Sundays it serves from five to eight. It won Best Food Pub at the Irish Pub Awards, and the seafood chowder is the dish it puts on stage when the Rockin' Food Festival comes round. It is roomy, bright and used to families. Online bookings go through an enquiry form that wants at least a day's notice; for anything sooner, ring.

Market Square and a later table

The Holy Grail on Market Square is a tapas and cocktail bar with a menu that runs from comfort food to curries. It opens at noon every day and stays open until ten from Friday to Sunday, which makes it useful when the others are shut. There is no online table booking, so ring.

Across the river

On the Templeshannon side, Chang Thai sits behind reception in Treacy's Hotel. It is a dim, red-walled room, open Wednesday to Sunday from half five, and you book through the hotel reception by phone or email. It is a couple of minutes from the station, which makes it a sensible dinner if you are on the late train out.

Downriver: The Alamo

The Riverside Park Hotel on the Promenade has three places to eat. The Alamo Steakhouse is the dedicated restaurant: Irish steak and fish from Kilmore Quay in the hotel's old woollen mill. The hotel publishes no opening times for it on its own page, but it does take bookings online, and it asks you to book ahead at weekends.

Coffee and a pint

For coffee before the walk up Vinegar Hill, Impresso on Slaney Place is by the old bridge and does takeaway, paninis and a soup of the day; you can order ahead for collection on its own site. For a pint with the hurling on, Rackard's on Rafter Street is the pub of the Rackard brothers, Bobby, Nicky, Billy and Jim, who were on the Wexford teams that won the All-Irelands of 1955 and 1956. The walls are the family's photographs and press cuttings, and it does breakfast and lunch from Monday to Saturday. Its website gives two different sets of food times, so ask at the bar.

Saturday morning and strawberries

The farmers' market sets up at Abbey Square, by the river below the castle, every Saturday from nine to two, with vegetables, meat, baking and fish from Kilmore Quay. In early summer, drive out to the Village at Wheelocks, about three and a half kilometres east of town, where the Wheelock family has grown fruit since the 1950s. From May to October you can pick your own strawberries in the polytunnels, and the café and farm shop stock food from Wexford producers. It opens Wednesday to Sunday.

A note on the Rockin' weekend

Over the May Bank Holiday the Rockin' Food and Fruit Festival puts a free Food Marquee in the castle grounds, with chef demonstrations and an artisan market of more than eighty producers. In 2026 it ran from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 May. If you want Via Veneto or The Bailey that weekend, book ahead.