Neighbourhood grocers and delis have been one of the good things to come out of the pandemic – we’re always looking for a silver lining here – with restaurants adapting to include them as part of their business, and many opening in the suburbs, doing their own part to bring us closer to the 15-minute city where everything is on our doorstep.
So we've put together this guide to new and long-established grocers and delis where you can browse, shop and buy great food. (In many cases these businesses also sell online, so it is well worth checking out their websites.) We begin here with south Dublin. In the days ahead we'll reveal our favourites in north Dublin, Cork and the rest of Ireland.
A Taste of Spain
60 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2, and 16 Capel Street, Dublin 1; instagram.com
All the products we've come to know and love from our travels to Spain are housed under one roof – well, two actually – as you will find in this emporium of jamon, chorizo, morcilla, Manchego, olives and olive oil, turron, Spanish wines and Vermut on Capel Street and, more recently, Camden Street. The takeaway tapas are a great idea, and their hampers are the sort of thing you would love to see land on your doorstep.
Asia Market
Merrywell Business Park, Ballymount Road Lower, Dublin 12; 18 Drury Street, Dublin 2; asiamarket.ie
Everyone heads to the Asia Market on Drury Street, but the Ballymount outpost has free parking, so you'll be able to load up your car. It is a bazaar that has everything from hard-to-find fresh Chinese vegetables and mushrooms to a tantalising selection of frozen seafood, dumplings and other specialities, as well as every type of noodle and sauce you could imagine. You'll also find Chinese plates, tableware and cooking utensils if you want to add to your at-home dining experience.
Avoca
11-13 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2; avoca.com
Head downstairs at this mini emporium to find an extensive selection of food gifts, chutneys, preserves and olive oil, as well as an in-house butcher and an extensive selection of ready-made meals and salads.
Cavistons
58 Glasthule Road, Glenageary, Sandycove, Co Dublin; cavistons.com
Synonymous with good fish, the Caviston family are a bit of an institution in Glasthule. Their shop is very much a speciality food store as well as the place to pick up your catch of the day (plus live crab and lobsters). There's an organic vegetable market, more than 100 types of Irish and international cheeses, a deli, a bakery and rows of wooden shelves packed with delicious larder items.
Donnybrook Fair
Dundrum Town Centre, Sandyford Road, Dundrum, Dublin 16; donnybrookfair.ie
Running over two floors, Donnybrook Fair's new flagship store in the Pembroke Square quarter of Dundrum Town Centre opens at the end of November. It's on a big scale. The ground floor houses a food hall with a butcher's and seafood counter, speciality counters with cheese, Irish and Continental charcuterie, salads, pastas, pies and fresh prepared dishes. The first floor is home to a restaurant and bar.
Evergreen
34 Wexford Street, Dublin 2; facebook.com
Michelle and Damien Madden's greengrocer is the place to head if you're looking for truly seasonal fruit and vegetables. You'll find gooseberries, plums and greengages as they come into season, Irish asparagus, tender-stem broccoli, new-season potatoes and an impressive selection of organic Irish mushrooms. It's a good place to pick up spices, and there are quite a few vegan options here too.
Fallon & Byrne
11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2; fallonandbyrne.com
You'll find smoked salmon in many food stores and gourmet shops, but this is one of the few places where you'll get Sally Barnes' Woodcock Smokery salmon, which, being wild, is in very limited supply. One of the originals, this food hall is the place to come for all of those hard-to-find items, as well as more everyday luxury items, such as sourdough bread. The selection of fresh fruit and vegetables is impressive, and the cheese, charcuterie and butcher's counters are particularly good. A great place for gift and novelty food items – and if you can't make up your mind there's always its wine range to choose from.
FXB Victualler & Grocer
1 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin 2; thebuckleycollection.ie
In a part of Dublin that until now was severely lacking in food shops, this is not just a premium butcher but also a gourmet food store where you'll find cheese, charcuterie, foie gras and speciality food items, as well as an impressive selection of ready-made meals and wine.
Green Man Wines
3 Terenure Road North, Terenure, Dublin 6W; greenmanwines.ie
This is one of Dublin's best wine shops. Its owner, David Gallagher, added a "larder" during lockdown that stocks everything you might like to go with something special in your glass. Cheese is from Sheridans, with charcuterie from On the Pig's Back and Gubbeen Smokehouse; there's also a good range of Spanish and Italian olive oils, almonds and olives.
Hen's Teeth
Blackpitts, Merchants Quay, Dublin 8; hensteethstore.com
Hen's Teeth is a contemporary cultural space where art, music, food and culture come together. With their cafe closed during lockdown, they added the "Treats" grocer section in 2020, stocking products from new brands and small Irish producers, and unique, independent products from around the world.
Irish Food Emporium
18-19 Duke Street, Dublin 2; clickandcollection.com
William Despard, owner of the Bretzel Bakery, brought his award-winning sourdough to the city centre when he opened his Duke Street store in the summer, but apart from bread and great sandwiches you'll also find an impressive selection of products from small-batch artisan food makers. They specialise in gifts and hampers.
Lennox Street
38 Lennox Street, Portobello, Dublin 8; lennoxstreet.ie
This small neighbourhood grocer is all about quality suppliers. Vegetables are from Beechlawn Organic, Ballymakenny and Market Gnomes, who are operating a market-garden farm using regenerative agricultural practices to produce high-quality organic vegetables. Other products stocked include Sheridans cheeses, Pastificio Mancini pasta and low-intervention wines.
Listons
25/26 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2; listonsfoodstore.ie
Listons opened in 2000 with the aim of being a local grocer where cooks would love to shop – and immediately became a popular lunchtime spot, with queues for their sandwiches, salads and sausage rolls. Among the many grocery items, you'll find Irish-roasted coffees, organic olive oil from Greece, Tartine and Firehouse bread, and a selected range of wines from small, quality-driven winemakers.
Marlowe & Co
9-11 Sandford Gardens, South Circular Road, Dublin 8; instagram.com
Patrick Fagan and Danielle and Lisa Farrelly describe their shop, which opened in December 2019, as a sort of weird grocer/coffee shop hybrid that sells a few nice things for presents and homeware. They view it as a community hub. Most of the products stocked are organic and come from top suppliers such as Lilliput Trading Co, Sheridans, Simply Wild and IIHF. You'll also find products from White Mausu, the UpCycle Farm, Harry's Nut Butter, Mossfield Organic Farm, Chimac, the Garden, Hopeless Botanics and their new kimchi supplier, Seoul Kitchen. They also have a wide range of vegan options, from treats and sandwiches to sausages and cheese.
Morton's
15-17 Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6; mortons.ie
A stalwart in Ranelagh, Morton's is a family-run business that started out as a traditional grocer in 1934. As well as a comprehensive selection of fruit and vegetables, you'll find Lawlor's meat at the butcher's counter; there are also counters for fish and cheese, plus an enormous choice of top-quality prepared meals and wines.
Picado Mexican Pantry
44a Richmond Street South, Dublin 2; picadomexican.com
What started as an online store is now a fully fledged food shop and cookery school, with a window that will always grab your attention as you pass by. There is no better place to get tortillas in Ireland, as Lily Ramirez-Foran, an Irish-Mexican woman from a family of tortilla makers, has them made to her own recipe. This is a magical one-stop shop where you can browse at your leisure and shop for all things Mexican, from chillies, sauces and tinned and dry goods to cute little cosies to keep your tortillas warm.
Provider
202 Harold's Cross Road, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W; provider.ie
Maeve and Ciaran Donoghue opened their gourmet food store and delicatessen a year ago, stocking cheese, charcuterie and antipasti from Lilliput and Sheridans, bread and cakes from Bretzel Bakery and Mud Bakery, and wines from Le Caveau and Vinostinto. If you're in the burbs, it will certainly save you a trip to the city centre. There's so much here from small producers, including White Mausu, Harry's Nut Butter, Jaru's Kimchi, Taste Joy peanut butter, the Proper Chocolate Company, Sean Cotter's Savage Sauces, Abernethy Butter, Assassination Custard and Crossogue jams.
Saltwater Grocery
97 Terenure Road East, Terenure, Dublin 6; saltwatergrocery.ie
The pandemic decimated Niall Sabongi's wholesale Sustainable Seafood business, which relied on restaurants for much of its trade, so as well as taking to the road with his Salty Buoy food truck, he teamed up with his mate and fellow chef Karl Whelan to open a fishmonger, grocer and bottle shop in Terenure. An impressive display of seafood includes lobsters and oysters, shelves are lined with tinned and larder products, a rotisserie at the back is used to cook chickens, and, with a few tables outside, you can enjoy 3fe coffee and pastries from the hatch after shopping.
Shop Easi
63 Clanbrassil Street Lower, Dublin 8; facebook.com
On this little strip of Clanbrassil Street, where you'll also find some top kebab shops, this Middle Eastern store is not just great for buying ground spices and chickpeas: you'll also find very reasonably priced bunches of fresh coriander, mint and parsley, perfect if you're making tabbouleh. Watch out for the Alphonso mangos when they come into season, in late spring.
Small Changes
120 Emmet Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8, and 40 Drumcondra Road Lower, Drumcondra, Dublin 9; smallchanges.ie
The bartering system has been revived at Peadar Rice's zero-waste food shops. Over the summer, people who found themselves with excess fruit and vegetables from their allotment or garden could exchange the produce for store credit. All of the food in the shop is loose – grains, beans, pasta, nuts and household cleaners – so that customers can buy as much or as little as they like.
Forest Avenue Gastronomic Grocers & Deli
8 Sussex Terrace, Sussex Road, Dublin 4; forestavenuegreengrocers.ie
John and Sandy Wyer were the first to adapt their premises to become a grocer and deli, stocking produce from their suppliers for their restaurant business. It has been so successful that it's here to stay, with the restaurant moving to the Forest & Marcy premises around the corner. The sourdough here is a bit legendary, as is the focaccia, so check out the daily sandwich. There is also everything you need for a gourmet dinner at home – oysters, cooked whole lobster, cheese and charcuterie, foie-gras pithivier, rib-eye of beef and a selection of desserts. With an impressive wine shop upstairs, it is no surprise that there are plans to open as a wine bar in the evening.
The Best of Italy
37 Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6; instagram.com
With an array of fresh vegetables displayed outside, you feel as if you're in an Italian deli as soon as you venture inside. Staples such as pasta and tinned tomatoes plus an impressive selection of Italian wines line the shelves, and there are also Italian charcuterie, cheeses and antipasti. It's a one-stop shop for dinner or entertaining.
The Fumbally
Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8; thefumbally.ie
Walking down the few steps into the Fumbally has always had a bit of a showcase feel, and now, with the grocery area to the left and the relaxed cafe to the right, it feels even more inviting. Wooden shelves groan with delicious-looking seasonal produce from top producers such as McNally Farm. You'll also find their own bread, focaccia and ferments, and as well as nut butters and store-cupboard items, they now have a carefully selected range of low-intervention wines from small producers.
The Good Neighbour
Unit 8, Dundrum Village, Main Street, Dublin 14; thegoodneighbour.ie
Leading the way in sustainability, Jess Dollinger aims to make shopping for food as affordable and package-free as possible in her zero-waste food store in the old Dundrum shopping centre. She sells more than 300 package-free products, including grains, pastas, cereals, nuts, spices, eggs, baking ingredients, fruit and vegetables, and you'll also find Giselle Makinde's wonderful Cream of the Crop gelato. If you're a student with a valid ID, be sure to shop there on Tuesdays, when you will get 10 per cent off your bill.
Toonsbridge Dairy + Shop
24 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2; instagram.com
You may not have been planning it, but as soon as you walk into this deli you'll realise that of course you need to have an Italian spread for dinner. You can pick up Toonsbridge fresh buffalo mozzarella, made from their own herd in Cork, charcuterie, salted almonds, and breads from Tartine. They also carry fresh pasta, Irish honeys, prepared lasagne dinners and their much-loved cannoli.
Jump to:
16 of the best places to go food shopping in north Dublin
11 of the best places to go food shopping in Cork
10 of the best places to go food shopping in Galway, Clare and Sligo
