A yeast-free quick bread leavened with bicarbonate of soda reacting against buttermilk, baked in 45 minutes with a cross cut into the top. The Irish kitchen bread, every day for two hundred years.
Soda bread became the Irish household loaf in the 1840s when bicarbonate of soda arrived in Ireland, giving cooks a quick yeast-free leavener for the rough wheat available to small farms. The brown soda variant uses wholemeal and was the working everyday loaf; the white soda variant arrived later. The cross cut into the top was practical (helps the loaf bake evenly) and superstitious (lets the fairies out). Today every Dublin restaurant serves a brown soda variant with butter; the Brazen Head, the Bretzel Bakery and the Winding Stair bake the city's references.
4 editor picks for Irish soda bread in Dublin, ranked by editorial score. All Dublin signature dishes · Irish soda bread across every city.
Spitalfields ★ 4.5
the-liberties · 25 The Coombe, Dublin 8, D08 YV07
Spitalfields on The Coombe in Dublin's Liberties, a Michelin Bib Gourmand pub-set kitchen serving the city's most considered classical Irish menu.
The Winding Stair ★ 4.4
north-inner-city · 40 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1
The Winding Stair on Ormond Quay in Dublin 1, Elaine Murphy's upstairs dining room above the bookshop overlooking the Ha'penny Bridge and the Liffey.
The Brazen Head ★ 4.4
the-liberties · 20 Bridge Street Lower, Dublin 8, D08 WC64
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.
Bewley's Cafe Grafton Street ★ 4.0
south-city-centre · 78-79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2
Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street in Dublin, the Ernest Bewley grand cafe since 1927, restored across three floors, the city's heritage tea-room and lunch room.