The SOUPerb Awards 2026: Ireland's Best Seafood Chowder
Have your Vote on where to find Ireland's best Chowder!
Seafood chowder is the Goldilocks bowl.
A good chowder is not too salty. And of course it’s not too sweet. Chowder is the dish that pushes all our buttons when it is “just right”, as Goldilocks would say.
And what is just right?
Well, chowder needs the right mix of fish and shellfish, and seafood guru Aishling Moore of Goldie Restaurant says that “the inclusion of smoked fish is a non-negotiable for me.” So, some naturally smoked haddock or coley in the mix.
Chowder needs the broad palette of a good fish stock to create a deep canvas against which the fish and shellfish can shine.
The potatoes need to crumble when pressed with your spoon, yet the celery needs to still have a slight bite, because that contrast is important. Properly sweated leeks and onions give depth to the bowl, and let the vegetables and fish play their part.
How much cream is too much cream? Well, Maura Laverty used to fire 3 cups of milk into her cod chowder, whilst Martin Shanahan of Fishy Fishy Café uses 170mls of cream to poach his fish before adding the mix to a prawn head stock.
The short answer is that there is no short answer. Experience, judgement, tasting balancing are all the things that lead us to making something that is “just right”.
The 2026 Cully and Sully SOUPerb Awards to find Ireland’s best Seafood Chowder launches today!
We’re joined this year by broadcaster and Instagram creator, Cassie Stokes, and together with Colum Sully O’Sullivan we will be on the road hunting for the best chowder in Ireland. We’ll be looking looking for that Goldilocks bowl, the one with the goodness, the one that shows judgement, the one that tastes fresh and deep as the ocean itself.
If you reckon that you know how to fashion a seafood chowder with depthless flavour and savour, then throw your bowl into the ring and enter the 2026 SOUPerb Award. You can pick up one of Cully and Sully’s limited edition soup tubs and follow the instructions provided. Alternatively, visit the official website at www.cullyandsully.com.
Then we will soon be coming your way, spoons at the ready, to get the taste of that good Goldilocks chowder.
Here are our shortlisted chowders from the 2025 SOUPerb Awards.
