Big Grill 2025 crowns its first ever dish-judging champions in sizzling showdown

The Big Grill, 2025

The Big Grill Festival turned up the heat in Herbert Park this year with its inaugural Big Grill dish-judging contest delivering two smoking-hot winners across its debut categories – Best Dish and Brightest Spark.

Overseeing sizzle, and serious culinary skill from 16 competing restaurants, the judges crowned Bahay’s Beef Cheek Kare Kare as the winner of Best Dish, beating Texas Michelin star La Barbecue who came third and Texas Monthly’s #1 Top 50 BBQ Joints, Burnt Bean & Co., who came second. Achara took home the title of Brightest Spark, awarded for the most creative use of live fire.

Run by partners Richie Castillo and Alex O’Neil, Bahay is a Dublin based food truck and restaurant pop-up serving Filipino food inspired by the dishes Richie grew up with. On winning the award, Alex said “What a way to kick off Big Grill 2025! We can’t believe we’ve won Best Dish in the inaugural competition considering the calibre of restaurants taking part this year. It’s really validating and to be up there amongst legends of BBQ means a lot. The Big Grill has been a big part of what we’ve done with Bahay so this really means a lot.”

On the judging panel were a mix of expert culinary and media talents – Marie-Claire Digby, former Irish Times Food Editor, Cassie Stokes, content creator,  Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly’s Barbecue Editor, and chef, DJ and this year's festival host Marcus O’Laoire – who sampled every hero dish before announcing the results to a packed crowd on Thursday 14th August.