2025 winners of the annual Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards are announced

2025 winners of the annual Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards are announced.

Georgina Campbell cautions against ‘cutting corners’ in hospitality.

 Celebrating Ireland’s gold standard champions of the food and hospitality industries, the winners of the Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards 2025 were announced at a gala lunch at the InterContinental Dublin Hotel this week.

• Chef of the Year awarded to Conor Halpenny of Square Restaurant, Co Louth
• Glenlo Abbey is the 2025 five-star Hotel of the Year
• Allta in Dublin announced as Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year
• Niall Rochford of Ashford Castle honoured as Hospitality Hero of the Year.
• Fern Allen of Ballymaloe is 2025 Host of the Year.

FINAL GC 2025 AWARD WINNERS

Ireland’s longest running food and hospitality awards, the annual Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards were established by the well known food writer in the 1990s, with the aim of giving recognition where it is deserved across a broad range of destinations and lead customers – both Irish and visitors – to genuinely hospitable experiences where they will enjoy great food that ‘speaks of the real Ireland’. Unlike some commercially-led awards schemes, businesses cannot enter themselves for these awards, which are based solely on independent all-year assessments by a team of experts, who book anonymously and pay their bills like any other guest.

CHALLENGES

Opening the event with an appeal for government support for the food and hospitality sector in next week’s Budget, the respected food writer said the immense countrywide contribution made by the sector seems to be persistently undervalued and the struggles that many businesses are going through are very evident. “The VAT cut mooted for next week’s Budget, or some such relief, especially for restaurants, is urgently needed. It is shocking to hear endless news of closures – most recently Dublin’s much-loved Big Mike’s, a high profile example that is echoed by many less well known but equally cherished businesses elsewhere. Having a more positive business environment would have meant the world to them, their families and their communities – and once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

RESILIENCE

Yet there are businesses that continually invest in innovation and excellence against all the odds, Georgina said, “Ireland is rightly known especially for warm hospitality and it is a joy to visit, and to revisit, the places where standards are non-negotiable – and thank goodness there are still so many wonderful people demonstrating extraordinary resilience at a time when Ireland’s hospitality and food sector faces so many challenges.”

CUTTING CORNERS

However there was also a note of caution against cutting corners, as Georgina and her team also had what they felt were unnecessary disappointments this year. “The cold hand of the accountant is very apparent in some businesses,” she said. “Presumably in an understandable response to rising costs, the little extras in bedrooms and bathrooms, the breakfasts showcasing local flavours, the well trained staff sharing wine knowledge, and even the time spent making guests welcome can seem to be under threat. The value of offering a really good breakfast, especially, has always been highlighted at the Georgina Campbell awards, as it’s good for business as well as the happy guests. But – in contrast to the outstanding businesses represented at these awards – it’s as if mean-minded efficiency is the rule in some places, where staff do the job but without meaningful engagement with guests.”

WORK IN PROGRESS

Yet, ironically, cutting back on special touches and warm engagement can actually do irreparable harm in the long run, Georgina said – while also emphasising that ‘perfection’ is not the holy grail. “Sustainability and innovation excite us on our travels and the Guide loves nothing better than a work in progress, so I’m happy to report that many of the businesses applauded in this year’s awards reflect that. And indeed, while there is a place for exquisitely high-end special occasion dining experiences, personally ambitious perfectionism (together with often eye-watering prices) can be very off-putting and we are not fans of the corpulent tyre man’s obsession with that area of hospitality.”

THEMES

Very much an all-island event, a wide range of leading food and hospitality businesses of all sizes and specialities across Ireland are highlighted at the 2025 Awards, each one very special and contributing in its own way to the wonderful thing that is Irish hospitality. The Guide aims to build up a balanced picture of Irish food and hospitality, not only by assessing the big names but also seeking out great destinations and produce that may be found in less obvious locations and not often reviewed. Themes that have come together this year include a particular welcome from the assessment team for refined simplicity, real value, rural destinations and, of course, sustainability. And then of course there is the great “Fine dining v casual dining” debate: “It is clear that, with the exception of exclusive high end fine dining, the lines are becoming ever more blurred and this is reflected in the various types of casual and fine dining establishments recognised in these awards.”

RURAL GEMS & FOOD TOURISM

The Georgina Campbell Guide has always highlighted and championed excellence throughout the country. And, while the quality and diversity to be enjoyed in cities is acknowledged, the Guide’s assessors see standards in less populated areas around the country rising to match the urban experience – and more. Pricing, welcome and a genuine sense of place can often be especially pleasing in relaxing rural venues. Chef of the Year, Conor Halpenny, runs Square Restaurant in Dundalk, for example, while the prestigious 5-Star Hotel of the Year award went to Galway’s magnificent Glenlo Abbey.

The Bord Bia-sponsored award Best Supporter of Irish Food & Drinks Producers (2025 winner, the wonderful GROW HQ Café & Larder in Waterford) focuses firmly on that area, as does the exciting new ‘Rural and Community Award’, sponsored by The Shed Distillery in Co Leitrim, reflecting the sponsor’s local enterprise and community ethos.

The inaugural Rural Destination of the Year is Castle Leslie Estate, Co Monaghan, while their Taste of the Waterways winner is The Left Bank Bistro in Athlone. In the same vein, another new category this year (and perhaps long overdue) is the Food Tourism Experience of the Year, which went to the renowned  St Tola Farmhouse Cheese & Goat Farm in Co Clare, while Killruddery Estate & The Grain Store in Wicklow took the 2025 Sustainability Award. Seriously impressive kitchen gardens are on the rise all around the country too, including a move towards self-sufficiency in some cases, which is very encouraging all round.

MEETING THE EXPERTS

The prestigious awards ceremony featured an engaging panel discussion and a lively Q&A with special guest John Brennan and his wife Gwen, about life after The Park, the plans they have for Dromquinna Estate (including an ambitious 10-year garden transformation) and working together as a family now that their son Adam has joined them in the business. Not only a great hotelier, the unprecedented success of the RTE programme At Your Service, that he and his brother Francis continue to make each year, makes him a source of inspiration in the industry, thanks to his practical approach to the problem properties they visit and his honesty in offering solutions.

Once again this year, Georgina particularly acknowledged the achievements of those who have been striving for high standards over many years, and continue to do so in the face of all kinds of challenges – and the ‘2025 Long Haul Hero’ award, which went to Fergus & Trish O’Mahony of the famed Mary Ann’s in Castletownshend, is a specific recognition of those special people. By the same token, Georgina said, as she does every year ,”We also need to encourage more young people to see the food and hospitality industry as an exciting option. It is not enough to tell a child about the hospitality sector, we must help them to develop an early interest and that could mould the sector’s future pioneers from the get-go.”

FOR INFORMATION:

Also see: www.ireland-guide.com