Chefs, fishmongers, writers and content creators are making Irish seafood something to be excited about. From viral fish tacos to sell-out pop-up events to oyster shucking and beautiful plates of food, fish is officially sexy!<\/p>\n
@katelawlorchef<\/p>\n
At K O\u2019Connell Fishmonger in the food emporium at Dunnes Stores on Pana, Kate Lawlor has created a stir with her cooked to order quick serve dishes.<\/p>\n
The casual eatery is right beside the fresh fish counter. In real time, fish becomes Crab Samosa, Fish Taco, Chowder, Beer Battered Fish and Chips, all of which took off on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness has increased 80% over the year, which shows just how much the appetite for fish has changed,\u201d says Kate.<\/p>\n
For Kate, the counter provides an opportunity to engage with customers, learning from them, and seeing how people in Cork all enjoy Irish seafood differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a melting pot of cultures in the city, and with that comes demand for different fish prepared differently. Middle Eastern, African and Indian cultures ask for whole fish prepared in a particular way. Fish for curries is cut on the bone like steak, so it cooks better. Whole fish is bought for frying, especially deep frying. Our Sri Lankan and Thai customers do that.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5033984_5_articleinline_DSC_5462.jpeg\" "\\"")
Kate Lawlor, head chef at K O’Connell fish restaurant downstairs in Dunnes Stores on St Patrick\u2019s Street.\u00a0 \u201cBusiness has increased 80% over the year which shows just how much the appetite for fish has changed,\u201d says Kate. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great for me because I get to ask them how they\u2019re cooking the fish,\u201d says Kate. \u201cIt means I\u2019m learning from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
With fish getting more profile on TV, newspapers, books and online, people are becoming more curious and confident about choosing something different from the typical salmon or cod.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat we have is unique down there. We\u2019ve got live cooking on the go, the fresh fish, and I\u2019m open to giving my recipes away, showing people how to cook \u2013 which is half the battle. If they see a dish I\u2019m making, they\u2019ll come back and buy the fish next time to try the recipe at home.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
At a time when cooking is often seen as too time-consuming, fish is the ultimate fast food. Asking your fishmonger to prepare it for you makes it even speedier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fast food,\u201d confirms Kate. \u201cMussels take four minutes; that\u2019s a meal in no time at all. We do a pan-fried salmon dish that\u2019s ready in eight minutes. People don\u2019t realise how quick it can be done. Home kitchens are better these days too. Induction hobs and good extraction make cooking fish well at home easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although there is evidence of changing attitudes to eating fish generally, does that mean more of us are cooking it at home or just when eating out?<\/p>\n
@goldierestaurant<\/p>\n
Aishling knew the future looked fishy \u2013 in a very good way. At the cusp of a movement all about sustainable seafood, her mission was to showcase the variety of fish and shellfish by working with small day boats fishing close to shore and taking whatever was landed.<\/p>\n
This \u2018whole catch\u2019 approach is challenging, layered with a low-waste approach called Gill to Fin. Making use of every fishy bit \u2013 bones, shells, skins, collars and cheeks – recognises the rarity of one of our last true sources of wild food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve come so far with our food culture generally in Ireland, and that\u2019s allowed for a growing interest in seafood,\u201d says Aishling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we opened in 2019, we felt it was the right time for a restaurant like Goldie. But even so, my friends and family told me they wouldn\u2019t eat in the restaurant because they thought they didn\u2019t like fish!\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward, and they all come to eat now in the city\u2019s most lauded restaurant.<\/p>\n
Outside of her kitchen, Aishling writes about seafood with recipes that show there is nothing to fear when cooking fish at home.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhether in the restaurant or at home, it\u2019s important to make seafood accessible. What we\u2019ve always done in Goldie is draw on the familiar and serve it with the unfamiliar. You might never have eaten Gurnard before, but maybe it\u2019s served with a sauce you love, and it reminds you of a holiday or something nostalgic. We\u2019re always drawing on classic fish dishes, but it needed a drag into the 21st century. That\u2019s how we\u2019ve tried to do it.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m writing a recipe, people cooking the dish in real life are always in the back of my mind. They\u2019ll be using it as their shopping list, so I want to make sure it\u2019s right. With some recipes, I think about how achievable it is cooking for a family of five, whereas others are for special occasions. I think it\u2019s important to have both in your repertoire,\u201d Aishling says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI write recipes knowing fish is a wild product that might be there one minute but gone again the next. When it\u2019s available and abundant, let\u2019s take advantage of that, and I\u2019ll show you what to do with it. But I\u2019ll always give options for all other species of fish that work with the dish. If you\u2019re going to make a nice sauce, pretty much any fish will go well with it \u2013 just trust your fishmonger.\u201d<\/p>\n
@the.hungry.fishmonger<\/p>\n
Originally from London with experience of running a busy restaurant in Notting Hill, Sebastian moved to Dublin in early 2021. Needing a job, he got work at family-run George\u2019s fishmongers, a few doors down from his home, learning the craft of fishmongery on the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed working on the fish counter, but every shift I\u2019d get asked multiple times how do you cook that, for how long, what do with this, what sauce. Those questions led me to create the @the.hungry.fishmonger Instagram page.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m not a trained chef, but I started taking fish home from work for dinner, doing a recipe and posting it online so I could point customers to a recipe for fish we had up on the counter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Sebastian\u2019s audience grew, leading him to publish his first cookbook in May, 2025. Now, he is busy creating content, working the fish counter at weekends, and cooking creative dishes at his fish supper clubs around Dublin.<\/p>\n
Guests find the events through Sebastian\u2019s social media, and, he says, are a different age profile from customers he meets at the counter.<\/p>\n
Sebastian Skillings: \u201cButchers had their moment with dry aging, leather aprons, red lights and cool shops. Fishmongers need to have their moment now. We need to make it sexy!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt supper clubs, everyone\u2019s in their twenties,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re young and willing to try anything, like deep-fried prawn heads or trout roe on chocolate tarts. If I said that over the counter, customers would look at me like I have ten heads, but with supper clubs, you can really push things and people will embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back at the counter, Sebastian finds tastes are stuck, estimating 60% of fish sales are for farmed salmon.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing has changed much that way,\u201d he says. \u201cSocial media, restaurants, etc, the last couple of years have seen a real push on Irish seafood with some really cool things and creative dishes coming out. But if you switch to retail, it\u2019s still a little bit stuck in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cButchers had their moment with dry aging, leather aprons, red lights, and cool shops. Fishmongers need to have their moment now. We need to make it sexy!\u201d<\/p>\n
From a sustainability point of view, Sebastian says communication is key to helping customers make better choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers choosing to eat more varieties of fish creates sustainability on the counter,\u201d he says. \u201cIf there\u2019s constant demand for hake on the counter, fishmongers feel they must always order it. But that might mean hake being flown in from South Africa or northern Europe. If you\u2019re constantly meeting demand for the same group of fish, that\u2019s not great for sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other factor Sebastian advocates for is seasonality of Irish seafood, because, he says, \u201cpeople don\u2019t really know that seasonality exists in seafood. That\u2019s something I wanted to put across in my book with chapters split into spring, summer, autumn, winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeasons are changing a little bit with climate change, so it\u2019s more of a guidance than an authority, but it was important to me to press home that there is seasonality in seafood.\u201d<\/p>\n
@heyoysome<\/p>\n
Remember the saying about only eating oysters when there\u2019s an R in the month? The answer to this \u2013 and many more facts about oysters – is why Sarah began Oysome with oyster workshops delivered all around the country.<\/p>\n
Originally from Listowel in Co. Kerry, Sarah grew up on a dairy farm and only tasted an oyster for the first time five years ago when she joined BIM\u2019s Taste the Atlantic programme and became fascinated with these shellfish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I visited an oyster farm, I was blown away by how humble the oyster farmers were, how willing and excited they were to share their knowledge,\u201d says Sarah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I visited an oyster farm, I was blown away by how humble the oyster farmers were, how willing and excited they were to share their knowledge,\u201d says Sarah.\u00a0Picture: Anita Murphy<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, oysters were so misunderstood in Ireland. I wanted to raise the profile of our oyster farmers here at home because, internationally, they are so sought after. Irish oysters are the top selling oyster in restaurants in Hong Kong. It\u2019s like we need to export something to realise it has a value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming from a rural farming community, Brown recognised an affinity with oyster farms. Many are in areas not easily accessible, and sometimes the only viable industry able to provide employment and income for those living near an oyster farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish oysters are particularly sought after because the growing conditions here are ideal here. Water temperatures are low year-round, which means oysters grow slowly, which concentrates their flavour. Salinity of Irish waters is stable, so how close or far away the oyster farm is to a fresh water source, the oyster will either be sweeter or saltier with a concentrated umami flavour,\u201d explains Sarah. \u201cYou can\u2019t replicate that. Each oyster is a little pocket of flavour from the very specific place it\u2019s from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland has 180 oyster farms around its coast, but only seven sell into the Irish market. The rest is exported, making Ireland the second largest exporter of oysters in the world.<\/p>\n
Brown showcases the wonderfully diverse flavours of Irish oysters in workshops where participants learn how to shuck and taste oysters and learn all about these incredible shellfish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe workshops are really impactful,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cI like to emphasise that there\u2019s no such thing as the best Irish oyster. They\u2019re all very good in their own way, so you can have such an interesting tasting experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah will be running her Oysome workshops during the Waterford Festival of Food on Saturday, April 25, aboard the Klevia moored at Dungarvan Harbour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chefs, fishmongers, writers and content creators are making Irish seafood something to be excited about. From viral fish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,126899,18,8388,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-434912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cork-food","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-fishing","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116403894608211992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}