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Bahay Website @bahay_dub Address TBC Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Chob Thai Website chobthai.ie Address Chob Thai Restaurant, Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Replacing Duck next to Asia Market, Hong Kong Wonton is the bustling supermarket's latest foray into fast food, Asia style. The wontons are unsurprisingly the star item, but the Hong Kong-style French toast is drawing the Tiktok crowds. The 15 seats fill up but diners eat and move on quickly, as food comes out fast. Hong Kong Wonton Website hongkongwonton.ie Address Hong Kong Wonton, Fade Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Replacing Duck next to Asia Market, Hong Kong Wonton is the bustling supermarket's latest foray into fast food, Asia style. The wontons are unsurprisingly the star item, but the Hong Kong-style French toast is drawing the Tiktok crowds. The 15 seats fill up but diners eat and move on quickly, as food comes out fast. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

The original Tang site on Dawson Street facing St. Stephen's Green has a lot less seating space than their Abbey Street and Cumberland Place sites, and you can expect to find a queue throughout lunch, but there are few better places to grab a lamb flatbread or a box of brightly coloured salads and head for a bench in the green. Tang Dawson Street Website tang.ie Address 23C Dawson Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story The original Tang site on Dawson Street facing St. Stephen's Green has a lot less seating space than their Abbey Street and Cumberland Place sites, and you can expect to find a queue throughout lunch, but there are few better places to grab a lamb flatbread or a box of brightly coloured salads and head for a bench in the green. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Dolce Sicily made their name on their crunchy, creamy, filled on the spot cannoli, but after moving into a larger premises on South Anne Street introduced a larger menu for lunch and dinner. Handmade pastas, risotto and fish all feature, but it's their bakery we're really here for. A solo breakfast of mini fruit tarts and filled croissants in one of the nooks upstairs is one of our fair city's greatest pleasures. Dolce Sicily Website dolcesicily.ie Address 20 Anne Street South, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Dolce Sicily made their name on their crunchy, creamy, filled on the spot cannoli, but after moving into a larger premises on South Anne Street introduced a larger menu for lunch and dinner. Handmade pastas, risotto and fish all feature, but it's their bakery we're really here for. A solo breakfast of mini fruit tarts and filled croissants in one of the nooks upstairs is one of our fair city's greatest pleasures. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Jaru started off at markets around Dublin, serving bulgogi, tteokbokki and Korean-fried chicken to an ever-growing fanbase. Their 'Jaru Mart' in Nutgrove developed from there, a Korean grocery and meal delivery service, but in 2023 they finally achieved their original aim of opening a permanent Jaru restaurant, in the Liberties in Dublin 8. All the fan favourites are there, and it's a great place to rock up with a group and order it all. Space Jaru Website jaru.ie/spacejaru Address 67-68 Meath Street, Saint Catherine's, Dublin 8, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Jaru started off at markets around Dublin, serving bulgogi, tteokbokki and Korean-fried chicken to an ever-growing fanbase. Their 'Jaru Mart' in Nutgrove developed from there, a Korean grocery and meal delivery service, but in 2023 they finally achieved their original aim of opening a permanent Jaru restaurant, in the Liberties in Dublin 8. All the fan favourites are there, and it's a great place to rock up with a group and order it all. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

NYC-style pizza slice shop with triangular and square slices, gigantic 20" whole pies, and a small, well-chosen drinks selection. The ricotta is housemade, the sausage comes from Andarl Farm pigs, and greens come from McNally Farm in North Dublin. Bambino Website bmbno.ie Address 37 Stephen Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story NYC-style pizza slice shop with triangular and square slices, gigantic 20" whole pies, and a small, well-chosen drinks selection. The ricotta is housemade, the sausage comes from Andarl Farm pigs, and greens come from McNally Farm in North Dublin. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Initially opening above Conway's pub in Blackrock, Ruchii now have their own impressive site on George's Avenue. The six spokes in their logo symbolise the six primary tastes of Ayurveda – sweet, sour, salt, bitter, pungent and astringent - and the six-tastes Thali (meat or veg) is the best introduction. The far-reaching menu spans the subcontinent, and Southern Indian food fans will be excited to see dosa, idli and gobi manchurian there amongst loads more. Ruchii Website ruchii.ie Address Ruchii, George's Avenue, Newtown Blackrock, Co, County Dublin, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Initially opening above Conway's pub in Blackrock, Ruchii now have their own impressive site on George's Avenue. The six spokes in their logo symbolise the six primary tastes of Ayurveda – sweet, sour, salt, bitter, pungent and astringent - and the six-tastes Thali (meat or veg) is the best introduction. The far-reaching menu spans the subcontinent, and Southern Indian food fans will be excited to see dosa, idli and gobi manchurian there amongst loads more. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

A visit to this Argentinean bakery in The Liberties is not complete without trying their alfajores and empanadas (both benchmark level for the city), but then how to fit in the medialunas, canoncitos, and coconut and dulce de leche pie. A few visits will be necessary to eat your way through Bakeology’s range of ‘alfies’ alone - the dulce de leche stuffed cookie sandwiches that they seem to make in unending varieties - but that’s unlikely to be an issue as once you’ve discovered it you’ll want to come back again and again. Bakeology Website @bakeology.treats Address 43 Meath Street, Dublin 8 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story A visit to this Argentinean bakery in The Liberties is not complete without trying their alfajores and empanadas (both benchmark level for the city), but then how to fit in the medialunas, canoncitos, and coconut and dulce de leche pie. A few visits will be necessary to eat your way through Bakeology’s range of ‘alfies’ alone - the dulce de leche stuffed cookie sandwiches that they seem to make in unending varieties - but that’s unlikely to be an issue as once you’ve discovered it you’ll want to come back again and again. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Hatch’s Blackrock outlet opened mid-pandemic and quickly raised the bar for the village’s food offerings. Chef Emma Tarrant’s menu is so delicious that you might consider having her creamy tarragon mushroom toast topped with a fried egg for breakfast AND lunch. Sourdough is from Bread 41 and it would be plain wrong to leave without a cinnamon swirl. Hatch Coffee Blackrock Website @hatchcoffee Address 13 Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Hatch’s Blackrock outlet opened mid-pandemic and quickly raised the bar for the village’s food offerings. Chef Emma Tarrant’s menu is so delicious that you might consider having her creamy tarragon mushroom toast topped with a fried egg for breakfast AND lunch. Sourdough is from Bread 41 and it would be plain wrong to leave without a cinnamon swirl. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Casual ramen shop on Dun Laoghaire's main street that opened in summer 2018 and quickly gained a loyal fanbase. One of our top picks for ramen in Dublin, with everything including the noodles made in house. Don't miss the deep-fried kimchi and creative cocktails. Soup DL Website soupramen.ie Address 28 Lower Georges Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Casual ramen shop on Dun Laoghaire's main street that opened in summer 2018 and quickly gained a loyal fanbase. One of our top picks for ramen in Dublin, with everything including the noodles made in house. Don't miss the deep-fried kimchi and creative cocktails. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Portugese bakery and café just off Capel Street specialising in pastéis de nata and coffee, selling tea leaves to take away from Europe's only tea plantation in The Azores. The fact that they're as good as much of what you'll find in Lisbon has lead to daily sell outs, and the plan is to add wine and small plates by Autumn. Cafe Lisboa Website @cafelisboa_dublin Address 28 Mary Street Little, Dublin 7 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Portugese bakery and café just off Capel Street specialising in pastéis de nata and coffee, selling tea leaves to take away from Europe's only tea plantation in The Azores. The fact that they're as good as much of what you'll find in Lisbon has lead to daily sell outs, and the plan is to add wine and small plates by Autumn. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

The latest restaurant from the Bereen brothers opened just after their most famous restaurant Coppinger Row shut, with Daniel Hannigan (ex-head chef at Mister S) in the kitchen. An ambitious, often unexpected menu, served in a beautiful but compact room, from a young, enthusiastic team. Orwell Road Website orwellroad.com Address 8 Orwell Road, Terenure, Dublin 6 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story The latest restaurant from the Bereen brothers opened just after their most famous restaurant Coppinger Row shut, with Daniel Hannigan (ex-head chef at Mister S) in the kitchen. An ambitious, often unexpected menu, served in a beautiful but compact room, from a young, enthusiastic team. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Ex-Etto head chef Barry Sun’s first solo restaurant Volpe Nera (meaning black fox) opened in between Blackrock and Foxrock in 2019, and every critic who walked through the doors was wowed. The menu has a lot of similarities to Italian/Irish Etto (which can only be a good thing) with the occasional Asian flourish, like the cep dumpling with aged soya, trompettes and chives. Grown up and comfortable dining room over two floors with table and bar seating, and the wine list gets better every time we look. Volpe Nera Website volpenera.ie Address 22 Newtown Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Ex-Etto head chef Barry Sun’s first solo restaurant Volpe Nera (meaning black fox) opened in between Blackrock and Foxrock in 2019, and every critic who walked through the doors was wowed. The menu has a lot of similarities to Italian/Irish Etto (which can only be a good thing) with the occasional Asian flourish, like the cep dumpling with aged soya, trompettes and chives. Grown up and comfortable dining room over two floors with table and bar seating, and the wine list gets better every time we look. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Woodruff Ambitious appetites In Stepaside Posted: 22 Feb 2022 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Woodruff opened in Stepaside, at the foot of the Dublin mountains, in late 2019. It's the first restaurant from Colm Maguire (owner/manager) and Simon Williams (owner/chef), and it was clear that ambitions were high from day one. In his previous position as head chef in The Gables, Foxrock, write ups of Williams' cooking praised his attention to detail when it came to the ingredients he was buying and foraging, and it felt like this was going to be the theme of Woodruff too, but turn that dial up to the max and you'll get the idea. A mission statement on their website sums up what they do: "cook with the seasons | sustainably source direct from farms | ferment | forage | cure | minimise waste". It's very easy to throw these words around, it's much more difficult to live them, but they are. You think of a food product - the chef's made an inhouse version. You think you know what can be foraged in Ireland? Labelled jars around the restaurant contain edible plants, fungi and herbs you've never heard of. You think you know Irish food? Sit back and get a lesson on the best meat, seafood, cheeses and vegetables that we as a country produce. The over and above efforts here are bound to have played a factor in their very quick addition to the Michelin Guide for 2021, who praised their menus "packed with local produce – including plenty of foraged ingredients", and their "delicious food" and "super-friendly service". Its location and Dublin's abysmal public transport options mean that it's probably difficult for a lot of you to get to, but we wanted to see if it was worth the special effort. Where should we sit? We love this room. It feels modern and slightly industrial, but at the same time warm and comforting with all the wood and velvet. It's sleek and somewhere we'd be very happy to sit back and relax for a few hours. During covid they got permission for outside seating too, so hopefully that makes a comeback when the weather gets warmer. We do love a window seat so that's always first choice, but sit close to the back and you'll be able to look into the open kitchen watching the chefs at work. What's the food like? There's just one á la carte menu for lunch and dinner, so be aware, lunch will set you back dinner prices. This is not a casual, quick stop kind of place, it's an occasion. While we think they're missing a trick not doing a set lunch menu at a more wallet friendly price, we were selfishly happy to experience the evening menu without attempting a trek home from Stepaside late at night. When a menu says homemade breads (plural) with cultured house butter, you must order it. Woodruff's sourdough will make home bakers want to weep into their starter - what child must we sell to get a crust as chewy as this!? - while the brown is on the sweet side so best just eaten with mounds of butter, and what butter. So much of the homemade stuff is weak - under-salted and lacking in flavour - this one is worth every churn. They also kindly brought us a sample of their in-house charcuterie as we'd gone back and forth about ordering it. We'd had it takeaway during lockdown and thought was some of the best in the country, and fully stand by those comments. We love a good snack, and Woodruff's plate of house-cured (obvs) Goatsbridge trout with horseradish creme fraiche, chicory and Guinness crumb was a very good snack. A beautiful slice of fish, bags of flavour all tangled up together, and a clever crumb crunch to top it off. We've never met a 63 degree egg yolk we didn't like, so the mushroom tart fine was happening. The thin, crisp dish of pastry came topped with black truffle, hazelnut and tarragon mayo, and was an elegant, beautiful to look at dish, but slightly dry. It just needed an extra slick of mayo or oil, but the flavours were all there. Our other starter was also picked because of a single listed ingredient - scarlet elf cups, a bright red mushoom that grows on decaying wood, with a firm, chewy texture, again foraged by the kitchen. They came on the side of just-seared tuna , young wild garlic (which grows next to the mushrooms), house soy (that's right, soy sauce made in the restaurant), chilli and sesame. This was more fiery than we expected with a good kick from the chilli, but the flavours were toppling over each other, in a good way. As we were sitting next to a large jar of preserved Alexander Stem, we couldn't resist the John Dory with ink fregola, Alexander stem, romanesco and a Vietnamese coriander and lime sauce, and what a plate of food (it's also enormous, and could easily be shared with some smaller plates). The fish came on the bone meaning you've got to be careful about picking out the bones, but it was perfectly cooked, and once again, so many flavours spinning around one plate. Ink fregola is officially our new favourite grain, it's chewy texture perfect for helping to scoop up that zippy, fragrant sauce, while the romanesco and Alexender stem added two more interesting elements, mainly in texture for the former, and flavour for the later.. We always think the vegetarian option is a good test of a kitchen's skills, and Woodruff's gets an A from us. You might think gnocchi is overdone, but when it's St. Tola goat's cheese gnocchi, with crown prince pumpkin, red kale, organic pear, preserved walnuts and wild capers - it's so very not. It was half carby comfort food, half peppy salad, all wiped clean from the plate. At the start we thought it was going to be a case of Chanel - take one thing off - but everything had a reason for being on there. We also tried the house fries with roast garlic and saffron aioli, which were good and clearly homemade, but could have been a little crispier. For dessert there was a white chocolate mousse with blood orange, meadowsweet meringue, pistachio and chocolate crumb, of which the star was the perfectly ripe blood oranges, sweet red juice spilling out over the plate each time they were cut into. The mousse was definitely the canvas for everything else going on, but it was a pleasant dessert that felt like a light way to end a big meal. We also had the Basque cheesecake with gooseberry sauce and Jerusalem artichoke ice-cream, which was definitely not a light way to end a heavy meal, but in for a penny. We find slabs of Basque cheesecake on their own a bit boring, but the tart gooseberry cut through the creaminess like a knife, and the Jerusalem artichoke ice-cream was a genius addition - who knew the sweet, flatulence-inducing vegetable could be used in so many ways. What about the drinks? There's as much care and attention in the wine list as there is in the food menu, and the only problem here is picking what to drink - we wanted everything. We would have liked to see a few more wines by the glass because we knew just it was ripe for discoveries, with manager Colm eager to recommend bottles and talk you through winemakers, vineyards and grapes. These are not wines picked for maximum margin or crowd-pleasing, they're picked because it's what they want to drink, and when we're in someone's restaurant, eating the food they want us to eat, that's what we love to see. And the service? Faultless, but on the midweek lunchtime we visited it was very quiet so we can only judge on that. It's hard to imagine standards slipping though. And the damage? €70 a head for bread, a snack, three courses and a glass and a half of wine each - hefty by lunch standards. We'd love to see them introduce a dynamic, good value offering during the week, a simplified set menu with little or no choice that we think would pack them in. The verdict? Woodruff is the type of restaurant Dublin (and Ireland) needs more of. In a world of "crowd-pleasing" menus aimed at maximum return and little purpose, Woodruff sits in the top tier of restaurants, doing what they love, and hoping the rest of us will do. The ambition and effort happening here is rare and remarkable, and we have no doubt that if they were in the city centre there would be a lot more talk about them because a lot more people would be paying them a visit. In the meantime we just hope Stepaside knows how lucky it is. Woodruff The Village, Unit 7, Enniskerry Road, Dublin 18 woodruff.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Hidden away inside Buddy's Farmers Market in Ballymun Industrial estate, Blossom Artisan Bakery sell a range of breads as well as sweet and savoury pastries that go toe to toe with the city's best. Bakers Peter and Xenia have been perfecting their sourdough loaves and pastries for years, and do weekly changing specials to keep things fresh. Definitely worth a detour on your next IKEA or Decathalon visit, or if you're heading anywhere via the M50, with the added convenience of being able to pick up local fruit and veg in Buddy's while you're there. Blossom Artisan Bakery Website instagram.com/blossom_artisan_bakery Address Unit D2, Ballymun Industrial Park, 16 Carton Road, Ballymun, Dublin 11 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Hidden away inside Buddy's Farmers Market in Ballymun Industrial estate, Blossom Artisan Bakery sell a range of breads as well as sweet and savoury pastries that go toe to toe with the city's best. Bakers Peter and Xenia have been perfecting their sourdough loaves and pastries for years, and do weekly changing specials to keep things fresh. Definitely worth a detour on your next IKEA or Decathalon visit, or if you're heading anywhere via the M50, with the added convenience of being able to pick up local fruit and veg in Buddy's while you're there. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

A first time visit to The Pepper Pot Café in Powerscourt Townhouse is incomplete without two things - the bacon, pear and Hegarty's cheddar sandwich on crusty white bread, and a doorstop sized slice of what's probably the best Victoria sponge in the county. The atrium seating has airy views over the exclusive boutiques, galleries and jewellers below, and it's a calm, top floor escape from the city's crowds. The Pepperpot Café Website thepepperpot.ie Address Powerscourt Town House, 59 South William Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story A first time visit to The Pepper Pot Café in Powerscourt Townhouse is incomplete without two things - the bacon, pear and Hegarty's cheddar sandwich on crusty white bread, and a doorstop sized slice of what's probably the best Victoria sponge in the county. The atrium seating has airy views over the exclusive boutiques, galleries and jewellers below, and it's a calm, top floor escape from the city's crowds. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

You’ll probably spot Strudel Artisan Bakery by the hungry looking queue forming outside from around 8am, and one glance at their Instagram page will make you understand why. From chocolate babka to savoury brioche, this is peak pastry, worth travelling a long distance for. Strudel Bakery Website strudelbakery.com Address 105 Patrick Street, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story You’ll probably spot Strudel Artisan Bakery by the hungry looking queue forming outside from around 8am, and one glance at their Instagram page will make you understand why. From chocolate babka to savoury brioche, this is peak pastry, worth travelling a long distance for. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Hawksmoor We tried 27 items on the menu at Dublin's new steakhouse. Here's what to order... Posted: 5 Sept 2023 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What should we know about Hawksmoor? You probably know it all at this stage, but just in case you've been in Witness Protection for the past few months... Hawksmoor is the London-born restaurant that was named "best steakhouse in Europe" in the World's Best Steak awards, coming second globally (and it's actually not another nonsense awards situation - judges on every continent conduct visits anonymously). They're also certified as B Corp , meaning they have to continuosly prove that they meet high environmental and social standards, with accountability and transparency, and they were the world's first carbon-neutral steak restaurant group. Impressed yet? It was big news last summer that we were getting a Hawksmoor of our own in the old Abercrombie and Fitch site on College Green - their first outside the UK and New York (Chicago is coming soon), and despite making us wait almost a year for the doors to open, demand for soft launch tables was unsurprisingly through the roof. The 50% off food offer helped of course, with 8 days of bookings gone in minutes. We bagged ATF Insiders an exclusive first look at their famous Sunday roast (an offering badly lacking in the capital) but have been back a couple of times since, and managed to work our way through most of the menu - 27 items in fact - so we're here to break it down for you. Where should we go for a drink first? There's a beautiful bar at the front but each time we've been it's been empty - maybe they're still waiting for word to get out - so depending on the atmosphere we'd say here, The Blind Pig around the corner for a cocktail, Fallon & Byrne 's wine cellar for a glass of wine, or The Foggy Dew across the road for a pint. Where should we sit? There are a multitude of seating options in this arresting room with its dramatic ceiling dome, and considering how busy it's been you're unlikely to get your choice of tables, but for our money the large booths at the very back of the room when you walk in are the best of the bunch ( their wine manager agrees ). There are smaller green velvet four tops on both sides of the room, and long rows of banquette seating, as well as standalone tables, and the room feels masculine, clubby, and sprawling - it seats 200 at capacity. Exciting news also dropped last month that they were ready to take bookings for their 18-seater private dining room off to the side, 'None The Wiser', offering sharing dishes and family-style feasts. One to bookmark for your next work night out/group gathering/special occasion. Give us the menu breakdown. Starters, go... Right, are you strapped in? The menu starts with oysters, either Flaggy Shore dainties (natural or with scotch bonnet mignonette ) or Kelly Gigas roasted with bone marrow. We very much recommend the warm, savoury yet sweet, creamy, crumbly latter - even oyster deniers might get on board with these ones. The roasted currach-caught scallops with white port and garlic are pricey at €18 (€6 a scallop) but we loved them too - you just might not be kissing anyone for a while afterwards. Hawksmoor are famous for their bone marrow with toast, an animal part so rarely (and inexplicably) seen here, and if you've never experienced the joy of scraping well cooked marrow out of the bone and smearing it onto bread (like the best beef-flavoured butter), now's your chance - just don't forget a generous sprinkle of sea salt on top. Andarl Farm pork belly ribs were not what we were expecting, in the best way (they were boneless for one), with the tangy meat collapsing under our knives, and the vinegar slaw a bright, refreshing side show. There are two starter options for vegetarians and vegans, and we're relieved to tell you that both are worth ordering, whether you're a meat eater or not. A ripe, heritage tomato salad came with diced cucumber, thinly sliced shallot rings and fresh herbs in a vinegar-heavy dressing, which all tasted beautiful under a generous scoop of soft St. Tola goat's cheese. The vegan option (although why you'd bring a vegan into a steakhouse is beyond us) is ash-baked beetroot with pickled fennel and horseradish, and while that doesn't sound overly interesting, it really was - the sweet beetroot, tang of the fennel, punch of the horseradish (creamed and fresh), and a clever sprinkling of breadcrumbs pulling together a salad made for people who like their flavours turned up. The last starter we tried, and the one we liked least, was the smoked mackerel salad with new potatoes, horseradish and watercress. It was fine, but tasted like something we'd pull together for a midweek lunch at home, and the mackerel tasted like the big brand type rather than the local fishmonger type - it's the only fish item on the menu with no provenance. Got it. Tell us about the mains... Onto what you're probably here for - the steaks. There are four set priced ones on the menu, ranging from €26 for rump to €42 for fillet, and other cuts (Chateaubriand, Porterhouse, Prime-rib and T-bone) are priced per 100g, with available sizes listed on blackboards on the wall. From the set priced ones we tried the rump, sirloin and rib-eye. The rump was undoubtedly the weakest, drier and chewier than the others, but if you order the cheapest thing on the menu what do you expect. The sirloin was better, although the first time we had it it came pre-sliced without much of a buttery coating, the second time it came as a whole piece with far more fatty flavour from the pan. You can add a half native lobster in garlic butter onto the side of your steak, but at €28.50 when we visited this is not good value for money (you can get a whole one in King Sitric with chips for €40) so we'd skip that splurge unless you're living the high life. The rib-eye was far and away the best steak we tried of the three, beautifully browned outside, the additional fat bringing all the flavours. All of the steaks we tried were cooked more or less the way we asked for them, with a couple coming more medium-well than medium - if it had been any further in one direction we would have asked for a redo, and at these prices so should you. The sharing steaks are where you'll really want your debit cards greased up, and have the potential to make people nervous - you'll need a calculator to figure out what they cost. There's been quite a few complaints about the availability of only very large sizes when guests have visited, and we found the same on two visits. We did manage to get a 550g Prime-rib for two (they recommend 300g of meat per person) but at €71.50 we would have liked more meat (we presume the bone was part of that weight). One hungry person could easily have eaten this alone. When it comes to fish they've got Dublin Bay monkfish, whole native lobster in garlic butter (which will come in at €55-60 depending on size with no sides), and 'Dublin Lawyer' - a whole lobster baked with whiskey, leeks, cream and Cáis na Tíre, at the eye-watering price of €75. When one of our party wanted monkfish they were told the smallest size available was 300g, which came in at €42, with just a lemon for company. This is big money for most people, and will be pushed towards €50 with a single side. It was well cooked but we can't say we thought it was worth the price tag. There's one option for the vegetarian in your life (nothing for vegans but again, it would just be cruel to bring them here) - a Ballylisk Wellington with celeriac, mushrooms and Ballylisk cheese. While we loved the originality of this dish (and are die-hard Ballylisk fans) it's very heavy, dense and meaty from the mushrooms, and it would be more suited to a cold winter's evening than a sweltering day in summer. Our token veggie liked it, but as it went on found it a bit much, and didn't finish it. Okay, what about the sides? There are triple-cooked chips and beef-dripping fries, and it's fries or die for us. They're as close to McDonalds as you'll get without having to step under the golden arches, while the triple-cooked ones were disappointingly beige - lacking crispness and fluffiness. The Hawksmoor caesar comes with Cantabrian anchovies and plenty of cheese, and we loved that you eat it leaf by leaf, each its own vessel for the lovlieness within. The macaroni and cheese is also worth your money, with just cooked pasta, a rich, well seasoned sauce (clearly made with good cheese) and a browned breadcrumb topping. Creamed spinach, a steakhouse must, is done very well here, with the right amount of cream to spinach and a perfect sprinkling of nutmeg, but the grilled hispi cabbage on the menu is not hispi cabbage - it's buttered spring greens. While they taste as they should, it's quite the comedown if you're expecting grilled hispi cabbage - they've gotten us twice on this now and we're not sure why the menus haven't been reprinted (it does say buttered greens online ). We tried all the sauces, and here's our verdicts: Béarnaise - textbook perfect Young Buck hollandaise - blissful, if you like blue cheese you'll love Anchovy hollandaise - as above with anchovies Porcini hollandaise - a mushroomy version of the same but not as interesting Bone marrow gravy - gravy but better Peppercorn sauce - don't do it. It doesn't resemble anything you know as peppercorn sauce and is more like a dishwatery gravy. Should be deported immediately What about the Sunday roast? It's €23 for dry-aged beef rump (cooked deliciously pink and so tender), beef-dripping roast potatoes (nice but missing the crunch, which always seems to be the issue with roasties made en masse), Yorkshire pudding (huge but ours were dry and papery - other diners don't seem to have had this problem), roasted carrots (lovely), buttered greens (ditto), roasted garlic (why isn't this served with every roast) and bone marrow gravy (a joy). We ordered an additonal side of cauliflower chese and it was as good as it gets - al dente cauliflower, a rich cheese sauce, and perfectly browned on top. If you want to pop your Hawksmoor cherry you'd do worse than starting with the roast, it's up there with the best in Dublin (albeit that's a very short list). Tell us about the desserts? If you're still reading fair play to you. The 'Peanut Butter Louis' is the unmissable one here - a layered, crispy, peanut butter and caramel filled, chocolate covered rectangle, served with salted caramel ice-cream. If you've gone for the full kit and kaboodle it will probably push you over the edge, so we recommend sharing. The same goes for the sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream, which is British pud perfection. You should also share this one, for your stomach's sake, but you'll find it difficult. The tiramisu comes covered in a mascarpone mound, with Irish whiskey and coffee-soaked sponge, and coffee ice-cream hiding right in the middle. It's very good. For something marginally lighter, the strawberry pavlova with custard cream and strawberry basil sorbet was a bright, summer-filled ending, and the salted caramel rolos (€6 for three or €15 for eight to take away) are a good choice if you can't face a whole dessert (or just be greedy like us and have both). What about drinks? They take cocktails as seriously as meat in here, and everything we tried could compete with the city's best cocktail bars, including the 'New Cork Sour', 'Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew', and the 'Sour Cherry Negroni', although we did have one incident involving the 'Ultimate Gin Martini' (€14). On ordering we were told that the latest batch wasn't ready yet, it was in the cooling stage, and were offered a regular martini (a bit of a comedown from the "ultimate" but okay). We were asked to pick a gin, Tanqueray (on the cheaper end of the scale) was selected, and all was fine until the bill arrived and we'd been charged €19. A elongated debate with a bar manager followed about why a basic martini was €5 more than the "ultimate" one, and eventually it was removed altogether, but it didn't make a whole pile of sense and the drawn-out mansplaining episode seriously delayed our departure. The wine list is towing a line between crowd-pleasing (including an own-label Malbec we imagine will be popular) and wanting to appeal to the city's wine lovers (and big spenders), and you might not be surprised to hear that there's not a lot under €50. Our best advice is to ask the wine manger for her recommendations and tell her what you want to spend - she steered us towards a Slovenian Furmint which went beatifully with some seafood, and a Georgian Saperavi, which we went straight out and bought a bottle of afterwards from The Corkscrew . The best way to drink wine in here is to visit for the BYO Monday wine club , where corkage on any bottle is €5 - if you like the good stuff it won't take long to figure out the savings you could make on the bill - you can even bring a magnum for the same price. Oh and pro tip - always offer the wine manager/sommelier a taste. You will instantly become their favourite customer of the night. How was the service? Better when it was quiet, lacking at times when it was very busy. Servers were all very pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful, but at times we found ourselves straining to get someone's attention in the 200-seater space, and on one visit we reckon we sat for an hour more than we'd planned to because of delays in ordering, calling the bill and paying it. It's not the intimate service experience you'll get in places like Etto or Library Street, and some people might prefer that, but we could have done with a bit more checking in. What was the damage? It can vary wildly depending on what you order, but we'd budget €100+ a head before tip if you want to do it right - that estimated €4 million fit out has to be repaid somehow. The clever money's in the express menu , served Monday - Saturday until 6pm, with two courses for €29 or three for €33, including rump steak, monkfish, the sticky toffee pudding and more. And the verdict? How anyone could deny that Hawksmoor is a remarkable addition to the capital is beyond us (and there are always dissenters out there). There's nothing else like it in the city, and it does feel a bit like little 'ol Dublin is joining the dining big leagues - where one international outfit goes, others tend to follow. However highstreet steak house chain this is not - it's premium dining at premium prices, with generally the provenance to back it up, and if you get your head around that and budget accordingly you should have a great time here. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

We didn't think the team behind BIGFAN could usurp themselves, but what did we know. Their collaboration with Fidelity Bar and Whiplash beer at 'Fidelity Studio' was a smash hit from night one, and God knows where the crowds are coming from, but they keep on coming. The menu has a lot of crossover with BIGFAN, but the big draw here is the use of spent grain and brewery products in Sister 7-only dishes. Sister 7 Website fidelitybar.ie/food Address Fidelity Studio, Queen Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story We didn't think the team behind BIGFAN could usurp themselves, but what did we know. Their collaboration with Fidelity Bar and Whiplash beer at 'Fidelity Studio' was a smash hit from night one, and God knows where the crowds are coming from, but they keep on coming. The menu has a lot of crossover with BIGFAN, but the big draw here is the use of spent grain and brewery products in Sister 7-only dishes. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

All the modern French bistro vibes from Sandy and John Wyer (Forest Avenue, Little Forest, Una Bakery). Located above M.O'Brien's pub (formerly home to The Sussex), the dark wood and deep blue room has never looked better or felt cosier, and the menu of upmarket French bistro classics features hit after hit. Try the leeks vinaigrette, the chicken liver parfait, and the headline grabbing chicken au vin jaune, and no matter how full you are, there's always room for the croissant pudding made with Una leftovers for dessert. Forêt Website foret.ie Address Forêt, Dublin 4, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story All the modern French bistro vibes from Sandy and John Wyer (Forest Avenue, Little Forest, Una Bakery). Located above M.O'Brien's pub (formerly home to The Sussex), the dark wood and deep blue room has never looked better or felt cosier, and the menu of upmarket French bistro classics features hit after hit. Try the leeks vinaigrette, the chicken liver parfait, and the headline grabbing chicken au vin jaune, and no matter how full you are, there's always room for the croissant pudding made with Una leftovers for dessert. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Allta Niall Davidson's wild wine bar comes to Setanta Place Posted: 10 Dec 2019 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Oh we do love when a chef who's been a hit elsewhere prodigiously returns home, bringing bits of other cities in their armour and implanting them in our own. One thing is guaranteed, it's not going to be boring, and it's most likely going to be something brand new for the city - especially if they're coming home from London, scene of some of the most exciting cooking in the world right now, where unexciting/average/samey just doesn't cut it. So colour us fit to burst when the news broke last summer that ex- Nuala chef/owner Niall Davidson was coming back to Ireland to open a restaurant in the capital. Nuala was pegged as a 'modern Irish' restaurant using the best produce from the British Isles, and Allta (Irish for 'wild') was pitched much the same (with Irish substituted for British), but from early on they referred to it as a wine bar, and much of the talk was about small plates and handmade pasta (both of which we like a lot). Davidson brought ex-Luna head chef Hugh Higgins in as head chef and partner, along with Christine Walsh (ex-Loam) as sous chef, and the trio spent months leading up to the opening travelling around the country meeting producers, and testing recipes in a Terenure test kitchen. When they finally opened last month our readers got first access to the soft launch , and they had so much interest their system crashed. When reservations were released until the end of the year they had over 1,000 bookings in 24 hours. Safe to say people were excited about this one. Where should we go for a drink first? You're definitely not short of options around here. 9 Below (pictured), Peruke & Periwig and The Sidecar (our fav) are all a few minutes walk away if you're after a pre-dinner Martini/Mezcal Smash/Manhattan. For a proper pub head for Kehoe's or Davy Byrne's, and for a good glass of wine head for Isabelle's on South Anne Street, basement wine bar La Cave or La Ruelle. Where should we sit? The long table down the centre of the room is half kept for walk ins, with the other half used for groups. On the side nearest the kitchen the tables are all for two with extremely Instagram-friendly lights above, but there's one light-free 'date table' in the corner if you like things a little dimmer. The tables nearest the window are all for four, so plenty of options. There's also a private dining room downstairs (due to open any day) so if you did want to have your birthday/anniversary/leaving meal there it's a possibility. What's good to eat? The menu is a food sharer's dream, starting with snacks and moving onto a variety of plates, most of which include pasta. They've also just introduced a chef's menu for €48 per person where you get practically everything, but you will have to choose between the spider crab bigoli and the BBQ lamb pappardelle - a choice no one should ever have to make. Cromane oysters come with rhubarb vinegar and are of the dissolve in your mouth variety, with added zip from the vinegar, and the subject of the mural on the wall is the oyster fisherman in Kerry that they buy them from. Anyone who grew up in Dublin was probably raised on ray (or skate as all the cool kids are calling it now), and they've done a very clever take on it with their crispy skate wing and seaweed cream. The bone is used to pick it up (a fish first for us) and it was perfectly crisp, tender and seasoned. A small plate of grilled broccoli, pickled green tomato and goat's curd had immense flavour, and had us kicking ourselves for stripping the leaves off broccoli all of these years. Here they topped the dish like smoky crisps, with the broccoli stems beautifully chargrilled and tender, the goat's curd creamy like the inside of a ball of burrata, and the pickled green tomatoes the perfect foil to lift it all up. Then come the pastas. If you've heard about anything it's probably been the chicken scarpinocc, a stuffed pasta filled with chicken liver mousse in a foamed sauce topped with crispy shallots. It's rich, it's luscious, it's perfect. You will groan - unless you really don't like chicken liver pate, or butter (in which case we can't be friends). The spider crab bigoli is the dish with theatre attached, and another must order. The bigoli pasta is topped with spider crab and an egg yolk when it comes out, before a chef holding a spider crab shell filled with bisque pours it over the top. It's every bit as good as it sounds, with the flavour of the crab coming through on so many levels. The pasta here is faultless, with the perfect amount of chew, and everything combined makes this a very special dish. Speaking of special dishes, say hello to the BBQ lamb with seaweed pappardelle, Cáis na Tíre cheese and wild marjoram. Mayo lamb is salted, confit then smoked over birch and glazed with their own Irish BBQ sauce, black apple purée, brown butter and salted cherry blossom vinegar. If you need to take a minute to process that go right ahead. You'll need another one after you've eaten it. Sticky, smoky, crunchy lamb, wafer thin strips of pasta, that cheese sauce... Swoon... They also sent out an extra dish that's not on the menu yet but will be soon, and form an orderly queue. Hand-dived scallops are flash fried on the pan, then put back in their shells, topped with gooseberry beurre blanc and hazelnuts and placed on top of some smoking juniper wood to finish cooking at the table. Will any scallop ever taste this good again? How did we not know that scallops and hazelnuts were meant to be together? Where has gooseberry beurre blanc been all our lives? So many questions. For dessert they're keeping it simple, with ice-cream or cheese, but obviously not just any ice-cream, 'nitro' (nitrogen) ice-cream, with smoked honey, sea buckthorn and white chocolate chunks. As you do. It's a pleasingly nostalgic end to a stellar meal, and one that won't have you leaving thinking you overdid it. Cheeses when we visited were Coolea or Young Buck, but they had run out of bread due to an issue with their flour supplier, so maybe check beforehand if you feel cheese without bread is like a weekend without wine. What about the drinks? The wine list is full of interesting bottles to drink but the prices are very punchy, so there's not much in the way of value. If that doesn't bother you or someone else is paying you'll have fun exploring it. We found the glass list offered more bang for your buck and lots of interesting wines are open so we'd stick to that. There's also a selection of wines on tap that are slightly more pocket friendly. The by the glass list is not separated into sparkling, white and red, but instead by genre, which those who don't have much wine knowledge might be uncomfortable with (especially considering there's a lot of unusual grapes), but just ask sommelier Ian Fitzpatrick or any of the other staff to point you in the right direction. The chardonnay based sparkling Tuffeau is a great meal opener at €8.50, and we also loved the Czech Krasna Hora rosé (€10.50) with the crab bigoli. And the service? Manager Gráinne Bates is well known in the industry having managed Etto, Forest & Marcy and Piglet amongst others, and her hospitable, bubbly nature is infectious, with other staff equally lovely. The chefs bring the dishes to the tables themselves and explain what's in them, and everyone seemed very chilled and on top of things, making for a very relaxing experience. The verdict? Despite only being open a couple of weeks, Allta is already one of the best restaurants in the city, and we look forward to seeing what the team get up to next, both with the menu and with the second more upscale site that's in the plans down the line. With what feels like a weekly increasing awareness of the importance of eating what's around us, and the sheer amount of world-class produce coming from our small island, places pushing as hard as Allta are going to be instrumental in taking Irish food and restaurants to the next level, and finally shaking off the global image that there's nothing to eat here but potatoes. Allta Setanta Place, Dublin 2 allta.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Bahay A feel-good, Filipino family affair Posted: 20 Jul 2021 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? We all love the new, the different, the things we can't find on every corner, but when we told you that ex-Clanbrassil House chef Richie Castillo was bringing Filipino food (courtesy of his Dad's recipes) to Dublin, excitement was at fever pitch. There's never been a Filipino restaurant here that's had the foodie crowd clambering at the door, and everything was telling us that this one was worth getting excited about. After considering a few locations for Bahay's (meaning 'home' in Filipino) first outing, Richie and girlfriend Alex O'Neill decided on Roe & Co's D-8te pop up at their Dublin 8 Distillery (quite the coup for them), and tickets disappeared as soon as they went on sale, with legions of you hanging on their feed waiting for cancellations or no-shows. Not ones to let a new food experience go undiscovered, we were ready and waiting for tickets to go on sale and exhaled a sigh of relief when we got a table, ready for all the Inihaw na Manok (grilled chicken), lumpia (pork spring rolls) and sinangag (garlic rice) we could get our hands on. This is a slight teaser of a review as the Bahay Roe & Co pop up ended two days ago, but they'll be back in Camden Yard Market in two weeks with a lot of the same food, and Roe & Co's cocktail village continues until the end of August, with residencies from Nightmarket, Matsu Ramen and Lil' Portie, so here's what to expect from both. Where should we sit? It's assigned seating, and if you've already tried you book you might know that tables for two are few and far between (there might only be one), so you've a better chance of getting a booking for four or six. There are two main seating areas (all covered), and the airsteam is in the middle of both, so everywhere has a decent view. There's also just a lovely, holiday-like vibe in there (helped by plenty of string lighting), and it's a really atmospheric place to spend a few hours with friends. What's the food like? Each residency is a set menu costing €40, with an optional cocktail pairing for €30. This makes it a pretty stress-free experience (unless you're with a picky eater) and you can get straight to chatting and waiting for the food to start coming out. We had to try a cocktail pairing after their big talk about how much work had gone into it, but you can also order other cocktails, spirits or beer. There's no wine. While we were waiting for our first drink to arrive they brought an aperitif of Roe & Co whiskey, Tokaji (Hungarian dessert wine) and aloe - a lovely touch and a very user-friendly (and original) introduction to their whiskey. First up for food was a snack platter containing Lumpia (pork spring rolls) with a rice wine vinegar dipping sauce, Inihaw na Manok (grilled chicken thighs marinated in banana ketchup, garlic, 7up & soy), and Pandesal (a yeasty bread roll) served with whipped chicken fat annato butter (annato is a spice that's frequently used as a yellow food dye). This is the type of legit street food the city needs more of, and hopefully they'll be cornerstones of Bahay's menu. Dipping the pork-packed spring rolls into the zippy dip and pulling the smoky, juicy chicken from their skewers, we could have been in a Manilla market instead of just off James' Street (the hot, humid weather helped too). This is the first time we've seen banana ketchup on a menu in Ireland (you can read more about it as an ingredient here ) and hopefully it won't be the last, and the bread roll from the Gold Ribbon Filipino bakery on Dorset Street was fluffy and made for tearing apart with your hands. The only mild disappointment was the chicken fat butter which we were expecting more of a chickeny flavour from. Next was a small bowl of 'sisig', which our lovely server told us was the dish Anthony Bourdain thought would make the world fall in love with Filipino cooking. If you have a fatty meat phobia this might not be for you, but the diced, grilled pork (usually from the head) with soy, vinegar, calamansi and onion was a savoury, lively bowl rocking with flavour, and it disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. It's cocktail pairing had an appley profile, with Calvados, amontillado, and barley and orange champagne cordial, and it really did compliment the dish - pork, apples and sweetness, what's not to like. The main was beef short rib kare kare (braised short rib in a peanut sauce), with green beans, bok choy, bagoon (a condiment made from fermented fish), atchara (pickled carrot, daikon, pepper and green papaya) and sinangag (garlic rice). At first taste you might think the kare kare is lacking something, but you use the bagoon almost like salt and pepper to season it to your taste. We started off slow and ending up using so much we had to ask for more. If you're a fan of the flavour profile of kimchi, fish sauce, shrimp paste etc, you'll be hooked on bagoon. If they'd been selling it to go we would have grabbed a few jars. We loved everything about this plate, and how harmonious all the flavours were together - the creaminess of the curry, the pungency of the bagoon, the zing of the pickled veg, and the soft, mildly garlic rice. It felt so pure, like you'd been invited to a Filipino friend's house for dinner (whose family could really cook), and something totally original for Dublin. We also spotted Richie's Dad cooking with him in the kitchen - could Bahay get any more wholesome? The cocktail pairing was knockout too. They could have played it safe (who has time for that?) but they really went for it with a Liberty Belle Gimlet - bell pepper infused whiskey, suze, elderflower, grapefruit, olive bitters and chilli oil. A really unusual drink that you're not going to see on every cocktail menu, and it did what every good pairing does, it elevated the dish. Claps for whoever came up with this one. Dessert was tibok-tibok with latik - calamansi coconut custard with caramelised coconut milk curds. The smooth, creamy custard came topped with what looked and tasted like dulce de leche and a cross between fudge and honeycomb, but managed to keep a certain lightness, helped by the citrus calamansi. The cocktail pairing was a Pina Punch, with whiskey, coconut, pineapple, lime, mint and jasmine tea, and together they were a lovely, refreshing ending to a meal that didn't dip in enjoyment at at any point. What about the other drinks? Between four of us we tried all five of the other cocktails on the list, the winner of which was the 'Verdi Grey' - a lemon sherbet style whiskey sour. We also loved the 'Weights & Measures', a low abv drink with Roe & Co's 0.1% whiskey, amontillado sherry, sweet vermouth and cordial, and their take on an Old Fashioned ('Brass Tax') was good too. The most unfortunate thing to happen all night was choosing to end on an 'Espresso Marini', which someone had inexplicably added dillisk liquer to. Seaweed has no business getting into the espresso martini game, and it's a taste that will haunt us for some time. How was the service? When we sat down we were greeted by Roe & Co's Billie, who must be one of the loveliest, bubbliest servers in the whole city. She was full of information, recommendations and seemed genuinely enthused about every drink she brought us. When she disappeared towards the end of the night (presumably a break or end of shift) she was really missed, with other servers just bringing the drinks and placing them down, with none of the Billie flair. On Bahay's side, Alex (co-owner) and her sister were front of house, and their obvious passion for what they were serving burst through, with loads of useful tidbits of information about dishes and ingredients, which really helps to enhance your experience and give you more of an understanding about what you're eating. And the damage? €80 a head - €40 for food and €40 for drinks, which felt pricey enough for something so casual, but also sadly feels pretty standard these days, especially when cocktails are involved. The verdict? We're so happy Bahay is here and can't wait to try more from them. This is something legitimately different for Dublin, and it's first outing has been a major success by the looks of the feedback they've had (ours included). All going to plan you'll find them serving a lot of this food in Camden Yard Market from two weeks time (keep an eye on their Instagram for an announcement), but we're really hoping they can find a permanent home in the next year. We deserve more bagoon, more banana ketchup, and a place for these guys to call 'Bahay' permanently. Bahay Next venue: Camden Yard Market @ Camden Court Hotel Opening days/times: TBC www.instagram.com/bahay_dub www.roeandcowhiskey.com/outdoor-dining New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Mr. Fox This is Irish food Posted: 27 Nov 2018 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Mr Fox opened at the end of 2016 from the same owners as The Pig's Ear , Stephen McAllister and Andrea Hussey, with chef Anthony Smith. They opened to very positive reviews , but if the word on the street is anything to go by (and we'd like to think we're talking to the right people), it's just been getting better and better. After a 'memorable for all the right reasons' lunch there during the summer, we'd been meaning to go back and do a proper write up, and after three people in one week told us how much they loved it, we took it as a sign that we needed to tell the masses. Where should we go for a drink first? Wine bars and cocktail dens are scant around here, and in all honesty there isn't a pub within a five minute walk that we could hand on heart recommend (if we're missing somewhere let us know), so we'd suggest a drink in the bar in Mr Fox, which is very comfortable and has a nice drinks list (more on that further down). Where should we sit? There are two main rooms, one towards the front on Parnell Square, the other towards the back. We prefer the front due to its proximity to 1) the bar, 2) the windows and 3) the stove. It just feels cosier. What's good to eat? Both times we've eaten here we left really impressed. There's so much mediocre food in the city that when you eat somewhere like this it's like a smack in the face. On this occasion we ate from the pre-theatre, and at three courses for €27.95, it's got to be one of the best value (for what you get) in the city. We also love that the options are all from the á la carte, so no cheaper ingredient options being made to look like better value than they are. They start you off with excellent sourdough, which comes with mushroom butter and parmesan cream - both so good you're likely to put indecent amounts on the bread. We really loved both starters, which had so much going in in terms of flavour and texture. Tuna was listed on the menu as coming with ponzu (a citrus-based sauce), navet (a type of turnip), avocado, charred watermelon and tobiko (fish roe), but actually came with what we think were jalapeños, red onion and cucumber. Usually that kind of thing would drive us mad, but it was so delicious we didn't even notice until later. The other of Buffalo mozzarella, smoked beetroot, Jerusalem artichoke and hazelnut was possibly even better, and such a seasonally perfect plate of food, the crunch of the hazelnuts and artichoke providing really lovely texture contrasts with the soft cheese and beetroot. There was more pledging allegiance to the seasons with a main of roast barley risotto, pickled mushrooms and smoked ricotta, which was just about the most perfect thing to eat on a cold, wet November night in Dublin. So much depth of flavour and a lot of (attemptedly inconspicuous) scraping of the bowl took place. Another of cod with cauliflower, brown butter, grapes, capers, almonds and mussels initially had us a bit like "why does cod even exist", but once we gave it a chance we fell hard. Yes cod can be a bit tasteless, but brown butter should be added to every dish in every restaurant for the rest of time. No exceptions. It was a great combination of flavours that we never would have put together (grapes and mussels?), and really worked. A side of thick, paprika spiked chips with garlic aioli were potato perfection, but another of nduja green beans were overcooked and needed more nduja. Do not, under any circumstances, leave here without having dessert. Anyone who's been to The Pig's Ear will know about the nostalgia inducing cakes and icecream, like the berry cheesecake in a sweet bag and the "walnut whip", and they've carried the same theme over to Mr. Fox. Both the clementine "super split" and the coffee "iceberger" are so perfectly reminiscent of the versions a lot of us enjoyed as children, but you get the feeling that if you tasted them side by side you'd be disgusted at your younger self for accepting such a substandard version all your life. What about the drinks? Mr. Fox has an excellent wine list, and while the mark ups are typically city centre high, there were so many bottles we wanted to drink - which is frustratingly still a rarity in Dublin. They have 14 wines by the glass, from house Godello and Nero d'Avola on tap, to Burgundy and Bordeaux, and an additional six sweet wines (try the Jurançon with the super split - swoon). There's loads for natural wine lovers to get their teeth into, like the cloudy 'Colfondo' prosecco from Casa Belfi and the stunning Syrah based 'Octobre' from Domaine des Foulards Rouge, and they have a sommelier, so if in doubt ask for advice. They also have a few Irish craft beers and a very substantial spirits list. And the service? Very bright-eyed and smiley, if a bit eager to take our order. Perhaps they were under pressure to turn tables post pre-theatre. The food came at a nice pace and they were all very pleasant in the process. The verdict? We're constantly asked by visitors (or friends of visitors) to Ireland where they should go for a proper Irish food experience. Our first response is usually "not Temple Bar!", but beyond that, it's hard to know where to suggest that won't be a total let down on the food front. As far as we're concerned, the best Irish food experiences revolve around the best Irish produce, seasonality of ingredients and innovative ways of putting them all together. Mr Fox ticks all of the boxes, and with the excellent wines and lovely room to boot, this is our new go-to for people wanting to know what Irish food even is anyway Mr Fox 38 Parnell Square West, Dublin mrfox.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

What was formerly the more casual Bar East downstairs (with the more formal King Sitric upstairs), has been turned into King Sitric 2.0, with the next generation of the family running operations. Seafood tastes like it was caught hours earlier, lobster and crab show up in abundance, and if you don't get the large portion of tempura prawns you'll regret it. The owners have a relationship with Domaine Hugel in Alsace and import their wines directly, meaning they're a bargain by Irish standards. King Sitric Website kingsitric.ie Address East Pier, Howth, Dublin 13 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story What was formerly the more casual Bar East downstairs (with the more formal King Sitric upstairs), has been turned into King Sitric 2.0, with the next generation of the family running operations. Seafood tastes like it was caught hours earlier, lobster and crab show up in abundance, and if you don't get the large portion of tempura prawns you'll regret it. The owners have a relationship with Domaine Hugel in Alsace and import their wines directly, meaning they're a bargain by Irish standards. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Gursha was many a Dubliner's first experience of Ethiopian food, and their original pop up in Cloud Café in the North Strand was harder to get a seat in than a Harry Styles concert. Since moving to Poolbeg Street they operate a supper club system where you buy tickets in advance for their set menu of injera with a multitude of Ethiopian dishes, from Doro Wat (chicken stew in berbere sauce) to Yebeg Alicha (lamb with garlic, onions and tumeric). Meals end with a chocolate fudge brownie and a traditional coffee ceremony, and it's phenomenal value for a completely pure experience. Gursha Website gursha.ie Address 7A Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Gursha was many a Dubliner's first experience of Ethiopian food, and their original pop up in Cloud Café in the North Strand was harder to get a seat in than a Harry Styles concert. Since moving to Poolbeg Street they operate a supper club system where you buy tickets in advance for their set menu of injera with a multitude of Ethiopian dishes, from Doro Wat (chicken stew in berbere sauce) to Yebeg Alicha (lamb with garlic, onions and tumeric). Meals end with a chocolate fudge brownie and a traditional coffee ceremony, and it's phenomenal value for a completely pure experience. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure

Southside suburb Ranelagh has always punched above its weight when it comes to eating and drinking, and it's packed with perfect pizza, tongue-tingling Thai, and some of the best steak in the capital. Ranelagh Our Take Southside suburb Ranelagh has always punched above its weight when it comes to eating and drinking, and it's packed with perfect pizza, tongue-tingling Thai, and some of the best steak in the capital. Where to Eat Brother Hubbard Ranelagh Firebyrd Host Kinara Kitchen Ranelagh Nightmarket Parrilla Rita's Sano Ranelagh Suertudo The Butcher Grill Una

Good food options in South County Dublin take the scattergun approach, so it's important to know exactly where you're heading in advance. Plan ahead and you'll be rewarded with some of the city's finest Sichuan, Indian fine dining, and a foraged, fermented and cured Irish food experience to remember. Dundrum - Sandyford - Stillorgan - Foxrock - Stepaside Our Take Good food options in South County Dublin take the scattergun approach, so it's important to know exactly where you're heading in advance. Plan ahead and you'll be rewarded with some of the city's finest Sichuan, Indian fine dining, and a foraged, fermented and cured Irish food experience to remember. Where to Eat Ananda Brighton Road China Sichuan Eleven Grump's Kerb Mad Egg Dundrum Overends Kitchen Riba Street Woodruff

The second outpost of Sprezzatura to join their first site in Dublin 8. Fast, casual, inexpensive pasta and small plates, with almost every ingredient sourced in Ireland. Irish twists on Italian classics with a big focus on sustainability - all drinks are on tap, all packaging is compostible and they’re fully paperless. Sprezzatura Website sprezzatura.ie Address 221–223 Rathmines Road Lower, Rathmines, Dublin 6 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story The second outpost of Sprezzatura to join their first site in Dublin 8. Fast, casual, inexpensive pasta and small plates, with almost every ingredient sourced in Ireland. Irish twists on Italian classics with a big focus on sustainability - all drinks are on tap, all packaging is compostible and they’re fully paperless. Where It's At Nearby Locales D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra Little Geno's Mama Shee Nutbutter Smithfield Shaku Maku Mad Yolks Rathmines Una Choux Bakery Parnell Street Bakery Baily Bites @ Kish Spice Village Terenure