Galway’s Birdhouse restaurant wins ‘Best of Ireland’ at Just Eat Awards

Three of Ireland’s top chefs have spoken, and declared that this year, the ‘wesht is best’. Galway restaurant Birdhouse has won the ‘Best of Ireland’ award at the 10th annual Just Eat Awards. The restaurant was selected as Ireland’s best by pop up chef Nico Reynolds, TV chef and cookery tutor Erica Drum and restaurateur and author JP McMahon, who were enlisted by Just Eat to judge the ‘Best of Ireland’ category this year. Nico, JP, and Erica sampled a selection of dishes from each of the category finalists before declaring the winner, including Birdhouse’s signature dish, the ‘Tendie Burger’, which is the restaurant’s unique take on the classic Irish chicken fillet roll.

Over 47,500 votes were cast at this year’s awards, which recognise the nation’s most loved restaurants, grocery, and convenience stores that partner with Ireland’s leading on demand food delivery platform, Just Eat. The awards were hosted by TV presenter and podcaster, Muireann O’Connell at the Marker Hotel, Dublin.

The three ‘Best of Ireland’ finalists were voted by the public as offering some of the best food for delivery in their province. As this year’s regional award winners, Birdhouse (Best of Connacht & Ulster), Amigo (Best of Munster), and Dublin Pizza Company (Best of Leinster), automatically became the finalists of the category. Dublin Pizza Company, Birdhouse and Amigo beat off extremely stiff competition to be recognised to win the coveted regional awards this year.

For this year’s ‘Best Sustainability’ award, Just Eat invited its partners to submit an entry and explain why they should win. From those entries, Dublin based restaurant Chimac was chosen as the winner. As well as using fully recyclable packaging in both its restaurants and retail business, Chimac bases the quantity of sauce products it produces by volume of orders to reduce food waste. Chimac also exclusively works with suppliers which have made a conscious effort to reduce their packaging. In winning the ‘Best Sustainability’ award, Chimac will have access to expert guidance from Just Eat’s Responsible Business and Sustainability team, as well as with sustainability company, My Emissions.

Other award winners included Cork wood fired pizza restaurant Pompeii Pizza, which took home the award for Best Pizza, Dublin culinary institution Romayo’s, which won Best Chipper, and Cluck Chicken in Dublin, which saw chicken focused food again take centre stage, won this year’s coveted Best Burger award.

Speciality cuisine restaurants were honoured aplenty at this year’s awards too. Bao Bun was declared the winner of the hotly contested Best Asian category, Boojum topped the Best Mexican category, and Leinster food spot Daata clinched the Best Indian award.

It wasn’t just restaurants walking away with trophies, as three of Just Eat’s grocery and convenience partners were also shortlisted in the Best Grocery & Convenience category, with on-demand digital convenience store Shuppa named the winner on the night.

Commenting on the winners of the 10th annual Just Eat Awards, Amanda Roche-Kelly, Managing Director of Just Eat Ireland said: “We were delighted to celebrate a historic moment for Just Eat since first launching in the Irish market fifteen years ago, and mark a decade of the Just Eat Awards last night. With over 3,700 partners on the platform, the Just Eat Awards recognise our incredible restaurant, grocery, and convenience partners in Ireland.

I would like to thank the judges of the ‘Best of Ireland’ category this year, culinary experts Nico Reynolds, Erica Drum, and JP McMahon for assuming the very hard job of choosing just one winner from the three incredible finalists in the ‘Best of Ireland’ category. I would also like to thank each member of the public who voted and supported their favourite restaurant, grocery, and convenience store.

Finally, I would like to congratulate all our winners and finalists this year and thank them for their outstanding work. Our partners are at the heart of everything we do, and we look forward to working with them to bring even more innovative offerings to the industry and Irish consumers in the next year’’.

In the lead up to the 10th annual Just Eat Awards, Just Eat enlisted social media star and foodie, Cassie Stokes, to visit each of the ‘Best of Ireland’ category finalists and document what makes each one so special. To watch Cassie’s visits, including her trip to ‘Best of Ireland’ winner, Birdhouse in Galway, visit @justeatie on Instagram and TikTok.