Corinna Hardgrave

Corinna Hardgrave uses detailed restaurant criticism and food writing to track how cooking, value and atmosphere come together in contemporary dining. She is the weekly restaurant critic with The Irish Times, concentrating on food and dining coverage across restaurants, pubs and destination menus.

Restaurant reviews and the Irish dining landscape

Her core work is a weekly restaurant column that covers a wide spectrum of venues, from neighbourhood dining rooms to high-profile openings. Recent reviews range from a Dublin seafront restaurant assessed in terms of quality and ambition to a clever pub known for a dribblingly good cheeseburger and sharp pricing. She writes close, descriptive pieces that dwell on specific dishes, menu structure and service, and she routinely notes pricing and portion size as part of the overall judgment.

The tone is direct and evaluative, with clear conclusions about whether a place delivers solid cooking, exciting originality or simply good value.

She invests equal attention in established restaurants and newer incarnations of much-loved dining rooms, situating each venue in its local history and regulars’ expectations. Reviews of regional Chinese cooking, such as Chongqing hotpot, show a willingness to explain unfamiliar formats and signage so that readers understand how to navigate the experience. Across this work she treats the Irish dining scene as an ecosystem, noting where a restaurant fits in terms of ambition, comfort and price rather than reviewing it in isolation.

Michelin stars and benchmark dining

A defining strand in her coverage is the way she uses Michelin status as a benchmark for high-end dining.

In one review she asks why a highly regarded Dublin seafront restaurant does not yet hold a Michelin star, framing the question around consistency, technique and the overall experience. She appears on audio formats discussing the economics of Michelin-starred meals, the number of starred restaurants in Ireland and what it takes to win or add stars, translating the guide’s criteria for a general audience. Her work is often referenced in coverage of new Irish additions to the Michelin Guide, underlining her role in judging restaurants that later receive formal recognition.

When she writes about restaurants at this level, she balances discussion of tasting menus and refined dishes with attention to cost and accessibility. She is comfortable comparing starred venues with non-starred peers that deliver comparable cooking, and she highlights where a restaurant’s ambition is not yet matched by execution. This strand gives her coverage a clear through-line: Michelin and would-be Michelin restaurants are assessed using the same framework of flavour, technique, value and hospitality that she applies across the wider dining landscape.

Guides, lists and destination food writing

Alongside individual reviews, she produces structured guides and lists that function as maps for eating out. Her annual food awards gather restaurants into categories and culminate in a restaurant of the year, signalling the places she considers most distinctive or successful. She contributes to broader lists of great restaurants, cafés and places to eat around Ireland for the summer season, choosing venues that fit themes such as “summer on a plate”. These pieces show a curatorial approach: she moves from judging single meals to assembling line-ups that reflect regional spread, style and price.

Destination writing is another recurring format, with guides to places such as Marrakesh that focus on markets, local dishes and restaurants for food-focused travel. She also shares top places to visit and eat in smaller cities and regions, such as Kilkenny, under banners like gourmet getaways.

In these pieces she combines practical recommendations with clear descriptions of what makes a location compelling for food-aware visitors, extending her restaurant lens beyond the core urban scene.

Food community and wider writing

Her work includes coverage of the people who shape food and drink, contributing to features that spotlight heroines of the Irish food and drink scene. These profiles and lists emphasise chefs, producers and writers, reinforcing her engagement with the broader community around restaurants and kitchens. She is described on her own professional site as an award-winning food writer, with a portfolio that also includes wine and travel writing and recipe development. That wider brief shows up in food news pieces on her site, where she reports on menus, ingredients and notable events in restaurants and hotels.

Across all of this, her distinguishing feature is consistency of judgment applied to a wide range of formats: weekly reviews, awards lists, destination guides and community-focused features. She writes in a clear, direct style that foregrounds cooking and value, uses recognisable benchmarks such as Michelin stars, and regularly steps back to assemble guides that help readers navigate where and what to eat.

For stories connected to restaurants, dining trends, food-led travel or the wider food community, she occupies a specialist space at The Irish Times with an established, award-backed track record.