Restaurant trends and 'food democracy' have changed the way we dine

From food tourism — holidays that are all about the restaurants — to annual pilgrimages to high-end eateries, the way we eat out has been transformed.

THERE was a time in Ireland, not so long ago, when a visit to a ‘serious’ restaurant was as rare and as welcome as the annual trip to the dentist as entire families squirmed in mortified silence, terrified of drawing down the withering disdain of those infinitely superior beings hovering on every shoulder, supposedly there to serve.

This summer, one of the hottest restaurant tickets in the country is Dillisk, a boat shed in Connemara. Diners sit alongside strangers on benches at bare communal tables.