Where to Eat and Drink in Wexford Town

Wexford Town's eating scene concentrates along two streets: South Main Street, where most of the casual and mid-range options sit within a few hundred metres of each other, and the quayfront, where the more formal dinner spots have set up to make the most of the harbour views. Between them, there is a genuine range, from a Michelin-recommended wine shop and restaurant combined to a straightforward wood-fired pizza place.

For a proper dinner

La Côte, on Custom House Quay, is Wexford's most formal seafood option, run by chef Paul Hynes with an elegant, high-backed dining room looking out over the water. It opens for dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday, and books up on festival weekends in particular, so reserve ahead through the restaurant's own online booking system. Greenacres, on Selskar Street, works differently: it is a wine shop, deli, coffee shop and art gallery as well as a Michelin-recommended restaurant, and has grown into one of the best-known names in town since it started as a food shop. Expect locally sourced food served alongside a genuinely serious wine list, open Monday to Saturday.

For something more casual

South Main Street is where most of Wexford's everyday eating happens. Simon Lambert & Sons is a gastropub and brewery that makes its own beer on site and serves generous, unfussy pub food in a relaxed room; it is a reliable choice for lunch or an evening meal without booking ahead. Santorini's, further down the same street, does Mediterranean food, pasta, chargrilled meats and paella, with ingredients sourced locally from County Wexford where possible, open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday. Crust serves wood-fired pizza in a contemporary, open-plan room, and Mi Asian Street Food on Anne Street offers a casual Asian menu with gluten-free and vegan options, useful if you are travelling with different dietary needs in the group.

Slightly out of the centre

The Old Granary, tucked just off Westgate near the old town walls, serves straightforward Irish cooking with local ingredients and no particular flourish, the kind of food that is comforting rather than showy. It opens for dinner through the week and adds a lunch and tapas service at weekends. It sits close enough to Selskar Abbey and Westgate Heritage Tower that it makes sense as a stop after walking the old town's northern end.

For a pint

The Sky and the Ground, further down South Main Street, is a proper traditional pub with a heated beer garden out the back and regular live music, the kind of place suited to a session rather than a sit-down meal. It is a good finish to an evening after dinner elsewhere, and worth checking its Facebook page in advance if live music is the specific draw. During Wexford Festival Opera in October, expect the town's pubs generally, and this one especially, to be busier and later than usual, with festival-goers spilling out after evening performances at the National Opera House nearby.

Booking ahead

Outside the October festival fortnight, most of these places take walk-ins without much trouble, particularly for lunch. During the festival itself, book dinner reservations, especially at La Côte and Greenacres, as far ahead as you can. If a specific dish or dietary requirement matters, it is worth calling ahead rather than assuming a menu online is current, since several of these are small, owner-run operations that update their offering seasonally.

Shopping for food yourself

If you would rather put together your own meal than sit down for one, Greenacres doubles as a genuinely serious food shop alongside its restaurant, with a deli counter, a pantry section and a dedicated wine warehouse attached. The Bullring Market, running every Friday in the historic square of the same name, is worth timing a visit around if you want fresh produce or a food stall rather than a restaurant table; it is a working local market rather than a tourist-oriented craft fair, so what is on offer varies week to week. Self-catering visitors staying in accommodation with a kitchen will find Wexford's supermarkets, a Tesco on Distillery Road and a SuperValu at Redmond Square, both within easy walking distance of the town centre.

A note on price and pace

Wexford's restaurant scene skews toward mid-range and casual rather than a cluster of high-end tasting menus, with La Côte and Greenacres as the clearest exceptions. That makes it a genuinely easy town to eat well in without planning every meal in advance, provided you accept that the more formal spots want a reservation and the pubs and casual spots do not. Portions across the board tend toward generous rather than precious, in keeping with the town's general lack of pretension about its own food scene, even where the cooking itself is careful.