Thursday, January 16th, 2025 –The Irish Restaurant Awards made their return yesterday for their 16^th year at Amuri Restaurant, Dublin 2, kicking off the 2025 public nominations for the much sought after awards.

Last year’s Irish Restaurant Awards were the most popular yet, with the public submitting a record breaking 160,000+ nominations for Ireland’s best food-led hospitality businesses and the people behind them.

The Irish Restaurant Awards process begins with an online public vote hosted by The Irish Times that can be accessed here. The nomination window runs from 12pm noon on Wednesday, January 15^th to 12pm noon on Wednesday, January 29^th.

This year, the public can nominate candidates across 23 categories, including 18 Main Award categories and 5 National Award categories. This year sees the introduction of a new category to include the recognition of the role of social media across the Irish Restaurant sector, with the Best Use of Social Media award.

Full list of Awards Categories

Speaking about the launch of the Irish Restaurant Awards, Sean Collender, President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said:

“As we launch the 16th annual Irish restaurant awards it has never been more important that we celebrate the people, the food and the places where we come together to enjoy the best of hospitality across the island of Ireland.”

The public nomination process will be followed by a judging process of national experts, culminating in regional events in the four provinces at which county winners will be announced, followed then by a Dublin shortlist. Finally, in May, the Irish Restaurant Awards’ All Ireland Final at which regional and national winners will be announced will take place.

Judging Process – County Winners

The judging process this year consists of two stages:

Stage 1: Choosing county/provincial winners – After the online nominations are closed and independently audited by BDO, regional judging panels will review the nominees. The county and provincial winners will then be announced at the Regional Awards.

Stage 2: National Academy Judging – Selected judges from the regional panels will form the National Academy, reviewing each finalist and deciding the overall winners. Mystery guest inspections precede this stage for certain categories.

County winners will be announced at Regional Awards Events throughout March and April. Full details will be released following the close of nominations, along with ticketing information.

Regional Awards Events & All Ireland Awards Gala

Regional and All Ireland Winners – including in categories such as Best Restaurant and Best Chef – will be revealed at the All Ireland Awards Gala Dinner which will take place at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, Dublin 4 in May. Ticket and event information will be available on irishrestaurantawards.com shortly.

Notes to the editor

For more information on the Irish Restaurant Awards 2025 visit: https://irishrestaurantawards.com/faqs/

Official Photographs from the 2025 Awards Launch: https://irishrestaurantawards.com/official-photos-awards-launch-2025/

All Images Credit: Paul Sherwood

For media queries contact events@rai.ie or (01) 677 9901.