Dublin Airport offer lounge access to airlines and virtually all of them use the same ones. These are the DAA lounges in T1 and T2 respectively, which now have an expanded food offering available.
I’ve occasionally derided the lack of food choices in the T1 lounge and it seems to have been addressed. Let’s have a look at the array of food now on offer.
A Wild Bain Marie Appears!
When you arrive at the reception desk, you can go to either the left section of the lounge (where the bar and barista are) or to the right side of the lounge. The right is where the hot food lives.
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- Two choices, ready to eat!
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- More things to add to your plate.
When I visited, the choices were Mediterranean Chicken Stew or Sweet Potato, chickpea and Coconut Stew. You could have rice or Naan bread with it if you wished. Of course, since I had gone left at the desk, I had forgotten there was now hot food until after I’d already eaten, so I can’t tell you how it tastes.
An Expanded Food Offering
There seems to be a lot more choice on the other side of the lounge as well. Hummus pots were on offer, as well as at least three different types of sandwiches – one is Tuna and another is Egg Mayonnaise, both on a “nutty brown bread”, plus there is also a Ploughman sandwich on “Doorstop white bread”. I went for the Egg Mayonnaise and it was quite nice. Below that selection are cheeses, a “Chorizo, Pepper Salami, Copa platter” and condiments.
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- Hummus and sandwiches.
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- Cheese and the platter and so on.
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- Various breads.
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- All the sugary treats!
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- Crisps on the bar.
People with a sweet tooth have plenty of choices too. Fruit scones, plain scones, Rocky Road, Mint Chocolate, Danish (“Mini Pastries”), Chocolate Muffins, biscuits and water crackers are all available in front of the bar. Very delicious, I’m sure! All in all, it’s not a bad selection for a pre-flight snack.
Drinks, Anyone?
Self-service drinks are available, the usual array of soft drinks, juice, tea and coffee. There is also a bar, where you can get everything up to and including Prosecco, as well as barista coffee.
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- Self-service drinks.
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- My food choices today.
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- Seating beside the cold food area and bar.
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- A high table for those wanting to work.
I went for a pink gin and tonic on this visit, which was nice, though the server was totally flummoxed by my asking for Elderflower tonic. He had no idea what I was on about, so I am assuming he’d never come across it.
Overall Thoughts
It is great to see an expanded food offering at the DAA lounge in Terminal 1. I was quite excited when the announcement came out that hot food was arriving for all of the DAA lounges, as it was high time it made an appearance. Previously everything had seemed really meagre and nobody likes that, plus it gives a terrible impression to people.
All of that has been addressed, so next time I am passing through I’ll be giving the hot food a whirl. Food in Ireland is generally tasty and well presented, so I am sure it will be great.
Have you tried the new hot food offering at Dublin Airport in the DAA lounge? If you have, what was it like? If not, what do you think of it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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A step in the right direction, but a lot depends on how often they replenish. Not always a strong suit in the past
Well, I was there around 4pm to 5:30pm and it seemed pretty well stocked. The sandwiches part did close after that, so I assume then it was hot dinner food only for the rest of the evening, though I didn’t stick around to check.
Just to confirm there is also hot food in the morning. Not entirely obvious but there were 2 three section closed serving hot plates at either end of the main bench. First I saw had sausages, rahers and farl bread and thought that was it but later spotted the second serving plate with beans and scrambled eggs. Decent enough but no pudding, tomatoes or hash browns. Lounge was busy enough and tables weren’t cleared but grand for a 20 minute put stop
Thanks for that, I wasn’t sure if there was, but great to see it’s breakfast items and not more of the later in the day style of food. I do like farl bread as a general rule, so that’s nice, but a shame there’s no pudding. I love black and white pudding! Still, the fact there is now hot food is a major upgrade, so I’m happy with that. Appreciate you reporting back on this!
Those sandwiches appear to be the same ones recently introduced into the Aer Lingus lounge. But beware and check the expiry date on them, out of date ones were available in the EI lounge on my last visit
Would make sense for the same supplier to handle as many lounges as possible. I didn’t even think to check the expiry date. It’s a good sandwich though, definitely no skimping on the fillings!