Friends, hello — happy weekend! I hope this email finds you well! I am dropping into your inboxes, as promised, with a slightly overdue travel post: A Saturday in Dublin, Ireland. As you might remember, Husband and I celebrated our 11-year anniversary back in July and we marked the occasion by going on a little self-guided food crawl! We started with wine + cheese toasties, ended with fancy cocktails, and somehow managed to squeeze coffee, cookies, beer, chicken AND pizza in the middle there — it was the best day ever! We might have to plan little food crawls for all of our future celebrations together?! It was so fun!
Full details on everywhere we hit during our mini food crawl are listed below. Because we didn’t want to be traipsing this way and that around the city, everywhere we stopped at was very localised and easy to walk between.
Enjoy, friends!
a saturday in dublin, ireland
Our first port of call was Loose Canon because, as much as we love a tiny wine bar situation, we love a cheese toastie even more — and getting to enjoy the two together sounded like a match made in heaven.
We somehow managed to nab a couple of stools without waiting — even though there are only 6 available! thank you, food crawl gods! — and kicked everything off. Wine-wise, Husband went for a glass of red and I went for a white, and food-wise, we went for their classic toastie to share: Hegarty’s cheddar, 18-month old Coolea, béchamel and spring onions.
Our wines — which, admittedly, we chose blind — were delicious, but the sandwich was even more delicious: very buttery, supremely cheesy, melty + stringy, and with a pleasingly crispy bite to it.
We also generally enjoyed the very laid back vibe to the tiny space; there was a chilled out relaxed atmosphere, the staff were really nice, and we enjoyed people-watching through the windows into the George’s Street Arcade.
An excellent start to the day!
More info: Loose Canon Cheese and Wine // Address: 29 Drury St, Dublin, D02 RX95
After our wine + cheese toastie, we sauntered out the door of Loose Canon and right in the door of Kaph, literally two doors away.
Husband hustled his way up to the buzzing coffee counter to order the goods — cappuccino for me, americano for him — and I made my way upstairs to secure a seat. As fate would have it, we were able to sit at the very same table we sat at last time we were in Kaph, ten whole years ago.
We, of course, had to recreate the photo we took all those years back, kicking ourselves for forgetting the camera. It’s amazing to think how things have worked out since then: many new wrinkles, a lot more grey hairs, a new moustache, a marriage, a daughter, and countless other shared experiences ❤️
Café-wise, sadly, I think Kaph has lost some of the charm it had back in 2016. Yes, the coffee was still great, but the ambience just wasn’t as warm? Maybe it’s just me!
More info: Kaph // Address: 31 Drury St, Dublin 2, D02 Y684
Everyone knows you need a little sweet hit after a coffee — is this an Irish thing?? I always need a biscuit or something after my coffee! —, so we wandered a few streets over to Cookieboy. I had been seeing their crazy thiccck cookies pop-up all over my Instagram feed and was so intrigued to try them!
We crammed into the tiny space behind a small queue of maybe 3-people and the smell of the cookies was so delicious! I’d read online that they bake fresh batches all throughout the day, so if you’re lucky you might get a warm-from-the-oven gooey-in-all-the-right-places cookie, which is exactly what happened to us! We got two walnut, milk chocolate + dark chocolate cookies — one for now, one for later 😉—, and secured a barrel outside where we could tuck in.
Spoiler alert: it was amazing!! Super gooey and flavourful, absolutely LOADED with nuggets of chocolate + walnuts, and so generously portioned! We died and went to cookie heaven.
Apologies for the lack of cookie photos, but taking a photo was the last thing on my mind when I was digging into a puddle of molten chocolate. Mmm, chocolate.
More info: Cookieboy // Address: 20 Stephen Street Lower, Dublin 2, D02 DT04
Our plan at this stage was initially to head to BAMBINO for some giant pizza slices, but the queue was so ridiculous that we decided to regroup and head elsewhere. After a quick discussion, we settled on Mary’s Bar & Hardware for a nice pint and maybe some WOWBURGER if the mood took us; it was slightly further afield, but still an easy walk and ultimately in the general direction of our intended final stop.
Now, I wouldn’t normally be a huge Guinness girly — but some places just feel like Guinness places, and this is one of them. We settled into a nice cosy corner downstairs, cheers-ed to how successful our day had been thus far, and discussed how ridiculous the ‘split the G’ phenomenon is.
It probably only took about 6.5-minutes for us to realise that the hankering for WOWBURGER was indeed upon us, so Husband hopped up to remedy the situation. He ordered us a box of five seasoned chicken strips to share with a side of garlic mayo each and GOOD LORD it was divine. Piping hot & juicy, delightfully seasoned, and just so dang moreish.
More info: Mary’s Bar & Hardware + WOWBURGER // Address: 8 Wicklow St, Dublin 2, D02 AX90
Temporarily sated after our beer + chicken, we decided we could survive the time it would take us to make the mini-pilgrimage out to the second BAMBINO location on Merrion Street. More than a little out of our way, but we’d been craving it all day long and sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We’d never actually eaten at this location before, but it ended up being such a good move — there was no queue at all!
I went for a slice of their hot pep, Husband went for a classic pepperoni slice, and we died and went to pizza heaven. My mouth was positively on fire with the heat from the pickled jalapeños, but it was so worth it for the sweetness of the hot honey. I also really enjoy how their pepperoni is thin and small enough to crisp into little cups in the oven that act as little collectors of fat and flavour? Yum.
100% worth the extra steps.
More info: BAMBINO // Address: 18 Merrion St Upper, Dublin 2, D02 X064
To round out our delightful day of snacking across the city, we stopped into Peruke & Periwig for a cocktail en route back to the DART station. It wasn’t quite cocktail o’clock by most people’s standards, so we lucked out and got the table by the window in their gorgeous upstairs lounge room.
After leafing through their very imaginative and elaborate cocktail menus, we decided to just be our boring old selves and order our usual: a whiskey sour for me and an old fashioned for Husband. Our lovely waitress brought over a complimentary bowl of parmesan topped popcorn and two glasses of gin + peach schnapps while she went to prepare our order, which was such a lovely touch!
Our cocktails arrived not much later, and they were just as I’d hoped: strong, expertly made, not too sweet, and deliciously zingy. We lingered over our glasses for as long as we could, watching the world go by on the street below, soaking up the ambiance of the beautiful room, and revelling in the perfectness of the day.
More info: Peruke & Periwig // Address: 31 Dawson St, Dublin 2, D02 DR58
And there we have it: A Saturday in Dublin, Ireland! An absolutely perfect day and such a fun way to celebrate our anniversary! Here’s to many more years together, Husband ❤️
Happy food-crawling,
Vicki xo
*Date of trip: July 25th, 2026
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