Galway’s Kai Café and Restaurant Ireland’s Best

Kai Café & Restaurant in Galway, run by New Zealander Jess Murphy and her Irish husband David, has won the top prize in Ireland’s Georgina Campbell Awards 2015, the country’s longest-running hospitality awards.

Kai, named Restaurant of the Year, has been converted from a former tearoom to a rustic restaurant and was praised for having seriously good food and a sense of fun. The establishment was singled out as an “extraordinary little restaurant” and a “must-visit for food lovers from all over Ireland when coming to the west”.

The Irish Times has said of Murphy’s expertise that she “has upped the game for casual eating in Galway with her ingenious cooking.”

Whilst the Financial Times declared: “The food was among the best, and certainly the most memorable of a trip that also included a visit to the Michelin-starred Cliff House in Waterford and similarly starred establishments in Dublin.”

Original article by Aideen Sheehan & Pól Ó Conghaile, Irish Independent, October 7, 2014.