Donegal wins big at Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards

Donegal took home four awards at the annual Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards.

Harvey’s Point Resort at Lough Eske won Best 4-Star Hotel 2025. The Small Stay Award 2025 went to The Mill in Dunfanaghy.

There were two Rathmullan winners, with Belle’s Café winning Casual-Dining - Bakery-Café 2025, while Rathmullan House won Best Irish Breakfast, Country House Award 2025.

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

The Mill in Dunfanaghy won The Small Stay Award 2025

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.

Belle's Kitchen in Rathmullan won Casual-Dining - Bakery-Café 2025

Opening the event with an appeal for government support for the food and hospitality sector in next week’s Budget, the respected food writer Georgina Campbell 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,” said Georgina Campbell. “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.

“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.”

Rathmullan House won Best Irish Breakfast, Country House Award 2025

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.

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“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.”

A wide range of leading food and hospitality businesses of all sizes and specialities across Ireland were highlighted at the 2025 Awards, each one very special and contributing in its own way to the wonderful thing that is Irish hospitality.