Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [388]
Eating
Osta (Hyde Bridge, Left Bank; light meals €6.50-10; 8am-7pm Mon-Wed, 8am-8pm Thu-Sat) Osta is a cafe and a wine bar, and it’s well suited to both callings. An array of preserved meats, seafood and Irish farmhouse cheeses accompany its well-chosen wines. It’s intimate and well lit, and has a prime quayside location for gazing at the river charging beneath Hyde Bridge.
Tobergal Lane ( 071-914 6599; Tobergal Lane; lunch dishes €7.50-13, dinner mains €20-21; 10am-10pm, closed Mon Nov-Easter) Suppliers have top billing on Tobergal Lane’s menu, which includes specialities like freshwater Arctic char fish, served pan-fried with hollandaise sauce, or baked on creamed potatoes with almond and lemon-butter sauce. All baking is done in-house. Sligo’s creative community heads here for the weekly jazz ‘brunch’ (3pm to 5pm Sunday), and ‘Café Beats’: lounge-y DJ sets that take place every second Saturday evening. Alternate Saturday evenings feature ‘Penthouse’ DJ sets upstairs, with a cover charge of €5.
Poppadom ( 071-914 7171; 34 O’Connell St; mains €9.50-20.50; 5.30-11pm Sun-Thu, 5.30pm-midnight Fri & Sat) Poppadom’s atmosphere is a real surprise: minimalist elegance rather than the usual Indian exotica, and the cuisine is excellent. Service is smooth and professional.
Lyons Café ( 071-914 2969; Quay St; mains €10; 9am-6pm Mon-Sat) Sligo’s flagship department store, Lyons, opened in 1878, and its airy 1st-floor cafe – with original leadlight windows and squeaky timber floors – has been going strong since 1923. Daily changing hot specials created from locally sourced ingredients might include sautéed lamb’s liver, smoky bacon and tomato casserole, or baked red lentil potato gratin with wild mushrooms.
Bistro Bianconi ( 071-914 1744; 44 O’Connell St; pizzas €13-18, mains €22.50-29; lunch Mon-Sat, dinner nightly) Deliberate over Bianconi’s 47 varieties of thin-crusted pizza – from grilled chicken and chilli-lime dressing to homemade pesto and caramelised onion. It has an equally wide range of meat and seafood dishes, and a knockout wine list. The O’Connell St bistro is the original location, and has spawned a takeaway outlet ( 071-914 7000; 35 High St; open from 5pm), with branches also in Galway and Dublin.
Coach Lane ( 071-916 2417; 1-2 Lord Edward St; mains €20-28; bar food from 3pm, dinner from 5.30pm ‘till the cows come home’) The place where locals come to celebrate special occasions. Coach Lane shares its kitchen with Donaghy’s Pub, but try for a table in the atmospheric dining room. Don’t miss the peach and strawberry minestrone for dessert.
Pick up fresh produce at Sligo’s central market (Market Yard; 9am-3pm Fri), which also sells crafts, and its farmers market (Sligo Institute of Technology; 9am-1pm Sat).
Drinking
Sligo enjoys some of the best night-time fun in Ireland’s northwest, with impromptu sessions striking up at every opportunity.
Hargadons ( 071-915 3709; O’Connell St; lunch mains €10.50-13, tapas dishes €6.50-9; from 10am Mon-Sat, from 6pm Sun, lunch Mon-Sat, tapas 4-8pm Thu-Sat) Hargadons has polished up its original 1864 fittings – including its bowed former grocery shelves, snug, uneven stone floors, turf fire, and swivelling ‘confession box’ frosted- glass panels above the marble bar – without compromising the pub’s character. You won’t find a TV or DJs here, but you can catch live music on Saturday nights. Tapas dishes range from mussels in white wine to warm crab cake.
Shoot the Crows ( 071-916 2554; Castle St) Dark and somewhat dishevelled, this old pub oozes bohemian atmosphere. Early evening draws a good-natured crowd of regulars, and even when the place is packed to the gills it generally has an easygoing vibe. Singalongs and céilidh sessions often start