A grated raw potato and mashed potato pancake folded around a savoury filling, the Cavan-Roscommon dish that became Dublin's tourist-trade signature. The crisp outside and soft inside are the working test.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Boxty originated in the Irish midlands in the 1800s as a way to extend the potato through famine winters; the dish was a hybrid of grated raw potato, mashed potato and flour cooked on a griddle. The Dublin signature came in 1989 when Pádraic Óg Gallagher opened Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar, formalising the savoury filled boxty as a restaurant plate. Today every Temple Bar tourist room serves a version; the canonical fillings are beef and Guinness, smoked salmon, or chicken with mushroom cream. The Irish proverb says 'boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan, if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man.'
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. The grated raw potato must be properly dried or the pancake goes soggy; squeeze it twice in the tea towel.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Gallagher's Boxty House on Temple Bar in Dublin, Pádraic Óg Gallagher's three-room canon of boxty, coddle and smoked salmon, the boxty reference in town.
Signature: Boxty pancake, Dublin coddle, Smoked Irish salmon
Order: The boxty pancake stuffed with beef and Guinness, with a half pint of stout.
Tip: The middle dining room is the calm one; the front bar fills with traffic from Temple Bar Square after 19:00.
The Brazen Head on Bridge Street Lower in Dublin 8, established 1198 as Ireland's oldest pub, the present 1754 coaching inn serves Irish stew and trad sessions nightly.
Signature drink: Guinness with an Irish stew
Food: Full Irish pub kitchen, food to 21:00
Tip: Food served until 21:00 daily; nightly trad music sessions from 21:00. The back snug holds eight; the courtyard runs summer only.
Spitalfields on The Coombe in Dublin's Liberties, a Michelin Bib Gourmand pub-set kitchen serving the city's most considered classical Irish menu.
Signature: Tom Crean's oyster stew, Slow-cooked beef cheek, Dublin coddle
Order: The seasonal stew with soda bread, and the coddle when it lands on the daily card.
Tip: Tuesday to Saturday dinner only, 17:00 to 21:00. Walk through the public bar and ask for the back dining room.
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