The Bridgestone Vegetarian Guide to Ireland

It is six years since we last published a Vegetarian's Guide, and in the intervening years, the greatest change we have seen, and have recorded in the brand new Bridgestone Vegetarian Guide to Ireland, has been the increasing willingness of serious restaurants to take vegetarianism and vegetarians seriously.

For some chefs, this is simply because they enjoy the challenge of abandoning meat - the culinary equivalent of tightrope walking, without a net - in their menus. And for others, the great realisation has been that a vegetarian menu will be chosen by people who would not describe themselves as "vegetarian", so long as the menu offers originality and creativity. Great chefs such as Neven Maguire, of Blacklion's MacNean Bistro, sell a huge number of their special vegetarian menus to their customers, a story that is repeated throughout the country. The truth of the matter is that nowadays, all of us, at one time or some time or another, are vegetarian.

As well as the best places to eat and stay for food loving vegetarians, we have covered the best places to shop, from the dynamic street markets to the most arcane and obscure specialists, right throughout the 32 counties. The Bridgestone Vegetarian Guide to Ireland is published by Estragon Press at €10.

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