Galway ranks as most vegetarian friendly county in Ireland

Header images via Instagram/thegourmetoffensive/greensandcogalway

Who knew?

For a country with a strong, long standing relationship with meet and two veg, Ireland’s food scene is becoming more and more vegetarian friendly. We ranked among the top ten countries in the world for veganism in 2020, while Dublin appeared 26th in the world’s most vegetarian friendly cities list in 2023. Falafel has become a go-to lunch option as opposed to a word your auntie Nuala spent three hours trying to get Alexa to define, we've got vegan cheese that actually melts and a meat-free sausage selection that extends beyond Linda McCartney's freezer boxes.

Vegan burgers from V-Face in Dublin 7. 

Sadly, Dublin has lost a notable amount of vegan restaurants and cafés to the cost-of-living crisis but there are still loads of great businesses across Ireland flying the veggie flag - with a significant amount of them located in the west. Research conducted by Hello Fresh has shown that Galway is the most vegetarian friendly country in Ireland, based on its number of veggie-friendly restaurants, number of vegetarian takeaway options, and how many locals are searching for vegetarian recipes online.

Homemade Bread & Seitan Sausage with sweet potato chips from Greens & Co, Galway. 

County Kerry has the most veggie-friendly restaurants per capita, with 17 restaurants per 10,000 of the population. This was followed by Galway with 14 restaurants per 10,000 people and Cork with 13.

Longford had the least veggie-friendly restaurants per capita, at just 3 per 10,000 of the population.

Surprisingly, Leitrim has the most vegetarian takeaway options per capita, at 23 per 10,000 of the population. This was followed by Galway with 10 and Kerry with 9, while Carlow had the least veggie-friendly takeaway options.

Hummus with sourdough from Honestly Kitchen in Carrick on Shannon, Leitrim

Commenting on the data, Head of Culinary at HelloFresh Ireland, Hannah Duxbury, said:

“Ireland is often recognised as one of the world’s most veggie-friendly countries, but most of the time it’s Dublin’s vegetarian food scene that people look at when really, Ireland has so many more counties that are great for vegetarians".

Were you surprised with any of the results?

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