Chef Dylan McGrath's Fade Street Tavern is the pizza place Dublin didn't need, yet somehow desperately did. A reinvention that put the mainstay of Dublin dining back on the map, the Chicago born Tavern-style pies, Grandma and NY-style options were an overnight success, but the regular restaurant and rooftop remain too in their usual crowd-pleasing forms. Fade Street Social/Tavern Website fadestreetsocial.com Address 6 Fade Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Chef Dylan McGrath's Fade Street Tavern is the pizza place Dublin didn't need, yet somehow desperately did. A reinvention that put the mainstay of Dublin dining back on the map, the Chicago born Tavern-style pies, Grandma and NY-style options were an overnight success, but the regular restaurant and rooftop remain too in their usual crowd-pleasing forms. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Host The neighbourhood restaurant every neighbourhood wants Posted: 5 Mar 2019 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Host was opened in September 2017 by partners Chloe Kearney (front of house) and Niall McDermott (head chef) after 10 years working in London, and the residents of Ranelagh rejoiced to have another quality looking restaurant on their door step, with a definite London feel. Initial reviews were mostly very positive, with Catherine Cleary calling it "a shiny new star", and Katy McGuinness calling the pumpkin capellacci "a magnificent dish", and pretty soon it was difficult to get a table. Fast forward 18 months and Host is as popular as ever. You'd still want to give plenty of notice to get a weekend table, and every time we ask our followers what their favourite restaurants are, Host is mentioned again and again. It's not often we see somewhere with such a loud, loyal following, so that alone rocketed it to the top of our 'must-eat-in' list (it's a long one). Where should we go for a drink first? Ranelagh has loads of good drinking options. The Exchequer Wine Bar is a few doors down for wine or good cocktails, The Taphouse is a two minute walk away and has an enormous selection of beers on draught and in bottle, and there's always McSorley 's for a bit of nostalgia if you had a tendency to hang out in Ranelagh in your twenties because it was so much posher than town (just us?). Where should we sit? Once again you have quite the array of options. For twos we'd advise sitting at the counter, having the chats with the lovely staff and getting a proper look at the open kitchen. If you're after a bit more intimacy and/or hand-holding, the standard tables will do the job. Otherwise there are high tables, or seats in the window if you'd rather look outside than into your dinner companion's eyes. What's good to eat? Short menus where everything appeals are fast becoming our firm favourites. Host has that, but goes one better by offering a chef's menu for two with what seems like most of the main menu (except the mains where you just choose one) on there. They also tell you exactly what you'll be getting so you can make an informed decision. No messing around. It's also better value than if you ordered everything separately. Job done. Homemade focaccia to start comes with bright green, grassy olive oil, and oozing, creamy burrata on a bed of smokey aubergine with fresh mint leaves on top and more excellent olive oil at the bottom. Save some bread for moppage. The other starter of tuna, black radish and sesame came with pickled onions, barely seared tuna and thinly sliced radish in a really delicious dressing. Also, black radish - new favourite radish. The portion also felt generous for what's normally a pricey fish. Both homemade pastas we tried were standout, and if we lived around here, dropping in regularly for a plate of pasta and a glass of wine after work would be way too tempting. Duck papardelle came with the richest ragu, the type that tasted like it had started cooking 36 hours earlier. Pumpkin Cappellacci with sage and walnuts was so naturally sweet it was almost caramel like, the bite from the walnuts and the scent of the sage taking things to another level. It hasn't become their signature dish for nothing. For the main event there was a choice between Piri Piri chicken, Hake or Rib Eye, and after hearing so many people talk about the steak it had to be that, even with the €21 supplement, and it was an excellent piece of meat from Peter Hannan , perfectly seasoned. Bonus points for not asking us how we wanted it cooked - there's only one way with a steak like this. Our only complaint is that we would have liked some kind of sauce with it - maybe we're too married to the bearnaise at Etto. A side of charred broccoli with pistachio yoghurt and hazelnuts was good enough to order as a veggie main, and another of roasted peppers, onions and chorizo was also good with a nice tang, but we could have done without more meat on the side of meat. Could definitely see the appeal with the hake. Dessert was burnt ricotta cheesecake and it was a simple, seasonal, not too sweet end to a meal full of colour and interest. The only major thing we felt was lacking is more provenance information on the menus, as apart from the steak we didn't know where any of the meat, fish or vegetables were coming from, and as nice as the staff were, it's always uncomfortable giving someone the third degree about their food sourcing. What about the drinks? The wine list is exactly the type of esoteric, natural focused list we love. There's a really nice selection of bottles, but we would have liked to see more than four whites and four reds by the glass (although we enjoyed everything we had), and anything other than prosecco for sparkling - it just feels jarring in a place where everything else is so slick and sophisticated. To be fair they said they've tried them and they haven't sold, so please people, whenever you see crémant, cava or Champagne by the glass, order it. You're doing the wine lovers of the city a public service. And the service? Everyone was super charming and helpful and the food came at a really nice pace. They also asked us a couple of times if we were ready for the next dishes, which is a really nice touch that we don't see enough of, ensuring guests are having the experience they want. They also seemed really laid back yet in control - the best combination. The verdict? It's really clear to see why Host has so many devoted fans - it's the neighbourhood restaurant every neighbourhood wants. They have all of the boxes ticked when it comes to food, wine, service and general vibe, and it really does feel like it's been lifted out of London and placed on the main street in Ranelagh. Now if only we could convince them to bring Host number two to the Northside. Host 13 Ranelagh, Dublin 6 www.hostrestaurant.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

The Pig's Ear The Nassau Street stalwart looks to the past for its future Posted: 1 Apr 2025 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Ronan Doyle What should we know about The Pig’s Ear? James Joyce once claimed an aim of Ulysses was to offer a portrait of Dublin so complete that the city could be reconstructed out of the book, if ever it disappeared. Well here comes a reimagined Pig’s Ear to give it a shot, in culinary terms at least, with a menu of dishes inspired by Joyce’s works and a handful of other literary and local food sources. Stephen McAllister and Andrea Hussey’s Nassau Street stalwart dished up classical Irish fare for 16 years before reinventing itself last summer as Lotus Eaters . We were all-in on the wagyu beef burgers and Asian-feeling menu, but didn’t get the sense the owners themselves were, with unchanged décor and glasses still etched with the previous brand giving the potential for a swift reverse should things not work out. Lotus Eaters And reverse they did, so back we went for The Pig’s Ear 2.0 . This time they're looking to the past to imagine their future - head chef McAllister has plumbed his own family recipe repertoire and worked with academics from TU Dublin to recreate Dublin dishes of yore and give the restaurant a high concept kick and fresh relevance in the crowded scene of 2025. Where should we sit? Save a few tweaks in the wall art, it’s once again as-you-were in this dining room, which maybe makes more sense in a back-to-the-well revival than the previous concept’s clean break. Warm wood tones and leather upholstery under soft lighting have always made this a welcoming space, and surveying the city from the sash windows is always our preferred option. On our visit, as Joyce might have put it, drizzle was general all over Dublin, and settling into our snug seats out of the rain had us all set for a feast. What’s on the menu? Ghastly type to start with - we’re no font snobs, but the choice of lettering to lay out the concept on the menu’s intro page had us wincing. Especially in a place that invokes Dublin’s literary heritage as a core inspiration - the early internet era “fun” style sticks out like a sore thumb. Okay, maybe we’re slight font snobs. We soon ceased clutching our pearls and picked up our oysters instead – much safer territory. The former Friendly Brothers’ Club on Stephen’s Green (now home to Cellar 22 and Floritz ) is the muse for these meaty morsels, with a punchy beef tartare packed under chive-scattered specimens. We can’t fault either element but they play more competitive than complimentary in practice, as though each were trying to outshine the other – at €8 a pop, we’d welcome more harmony. Boxty is among the reimagined old dishes that punctuate the menu, and it’s an inspired overhaul, with thick Cáis na Tíre custard layered over the potato pancake, liberally sprinkled with grated cheese and black truffle. This could easily make for an over-indulgent starting plate, but the smart pairing of a lighter batter with a sweeter, fruitier cheese cut through the earthy depth of the truffle for a snack you'd easily eat more than one of. It's the same story for the farl, whose plainer presentation gets dressed up with an accompanying cup of bone marrow gravy ripe for pouring. The softer dough here soaks up the thick sauce with almost as much relish as we did ourselves, while the fat-browned crust delivers a crisp texture. Smearing the soft nuggets of marrow across that golden skin is a sensual experience – do remember you are still in public. In a menu not short on creative curios, nothing caught our eye more than “Famine soup” – were we to be treated to an empty bowl? Actually the dish takes its cues, and at least partly its recipe, from Alexis Soyer, the OG celebrity chef whose soup kitchen in Croppy’s Acre out Kilmainham way funded its food by charging the rich an entry fee to see the starving masses. That ugly footnote is something we wish we’d learned on our visit rather than online afterward - neither the menu’s brief note nor the staff’s answers to enquiries dug into the story with anything like the detail that might bring the concept to life. Absent that, it’s a serviceable oxtail-adjacent soup studded with still-firm diced veg and served with (admittedly delicious) bone marrow toast – biting into that it’s hard not to feel more like morbid toffs looking out on soup-slurping peasants. In Joyce’s “Two Gallants”, the thirty-something Lenehan wonders over a plate of peas whether he’ll ever afford a home of his own – in Dublin, some things never change. Peas are pretty consistent too, and the "peas and vinegar" here might be our pick of the lot. Pickled pearl onions and tart redcurrants pierce through the sweetness of the freshly-shelled peas and the puree beneath, all fresh flavours and well-balanced textures in every forkful. Lenehan pays three halfpence for his peas, which we make about 78c in today’s money, to this plate’s €11.50. In Dublin, some things change a lot – this one's worth every penny regardless. Ulysses usefully gives us the then-cost of a kidney (the perils of picking from such a detail-rich oeuvre) at threepence, or just north of €1.50, which makes the "tongue and cheek kidney pudding"'s near-€30 price point seem all the more stark. To savour this dish you will want, like Leopold Bloom, to eat “ with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls ”. As it happens we do, and did. The well-packed pudding oozes chunks of tongue and cheek alongside its kidney contents, a flood of “ toothsome pliant meat ” as Bloom would have it. We’d have relished it all the more were it not for a pre-poured gravy with a too-salty tang that told us it’d been reduced just a little too long – this is a very good pud that deserved better. “The earth garlic” is the most baffling inclusion on the menu – cracking our copy of Ulysses we can see where the name comes from, but not why: “ after all there’s a lot in that vegetarian fine flavour of things from the earth garlic of course it stinks after Italian organgrinders crisp of onions mushrooms truffles ”. Happily it’s a vastly better dish than name, three types of mushroom studded with slivers of truffle, all readily accepting the burst egg yolk in a mess of umami excess. It’s less Joyce’s Dublin that it conjures than San Sebastian, but having a taste of the iconic hongos plancha from Ganbara in Ireland isn’t something we’re opposed to. Smoked potatoes would have fared far better were we into the pudding’s gravy – these shrivelled baby spuds pay for their superb smoky flavour with a desiccated internal texture that demands to be drenched in something – sadly they come alone. The last sad streaks of egg yolk were all we had to offer, but we'd we’d expect the Mulligatawny chicken pie (a smart effort to repeat the rightly iconic reputation of sister restaurant Spitalfields ’ cock-a-leekie) to be a better pairing. Ulysses features a “ rhubarb tart with liberal fillings ” and given ‘it's the season you can imagine our faces when we realised the menu doesn’t – next time, perhaps. A violet and rose jelly-topped blancmange made do instead, far though it be from the “blocks” dished out in “The Dead”. This is a lovely light finale, buttermilk-rich but beautifully soft, spiked by the satisfying crunch of honeycomb and spiced kick of candied ginger. We couldn’t contemplate not trying gur cake ice cream, a nostalgic nod to memories of Manning’s Bakery in the Liberties - its simple, smooth, sweet pleasures scooped atop a base of chocolate mousse and corn flakes would send the hardest of hearts harkening back to simpler childhood days. What are the drinks like? The wine list is effectively unchanged from Lotus Eaters. Though the available BTG options have narrowed, the same punchy markups now commonly found all over the city remain (a glass at €16 when you can pick up a bottle for €23 right round the corner) - we weren’t surprised to see several diners sticking to water. The quality is solid if you can take the price point, with a Louis Moreau Bourgogne complimenting the peas perfectly and a Borgogno Nebbiolo great with the offal. The star of the show was the Pedro Ximinez with dessert – ‘tis a long way from that with gur cake we were reared. How was the service? Very friendly but less invested in the concept than we were expecting. We had to actively invite more detail on dishes at every stage, and thought between the novel development they’ve undergone here and the dish naming that doesn’t exactly sum up what you’re getting, those kind of explanations would be front and centre. And the damage? Just in below the €200 mark before a (pre-added but discretionary) 12.5% service charge, which ably but not excessively fed two. You could easily outdo our bill with fancier starters like the salmon gravlax and lobster omelette, or by veering into the steak and chops section, never mind going in on a full bottle. Keeping the belt tighter (in all senses) with bitterballen and coddle could see you fed for bang-on €30 before service, without anything to sip on. What’s the verdict on The Pig’s Ear? You could read the start-stop fate of Lotus Eaters (stated plans are for the concept to reappear in another venue but there's nothing more solid than that as of yet) as either a sign of the difficulty of landing a new idea in an ever-harder market, or as a cautionary tale about how you really need to commit to the bit if you’re to have any hope your public will too. Something like Suertudo shows how a bold reinvention of a restaurant with many successful years behind it can pay off in spades, but big gambles carry big risks. The Pig’s Ear has always done well in taking Irish food seriously, even through the periods where that was unfashionable. If this new iteration marks a safer bet than what came immediately before, it’s still one that it needs to go all-in. There is in this marriage of literary and culinary history a novel conceit that could work wonders in a UNESCO city of literature to which tourists flock to retrace the steps of Joyce and his characters, and excepting a few easily-overcome hiccups, everything about the food here has what it takes. The idea and atmosphere need to row-in behind it - not in the diddly-eye mode of Davy Byne’s boaters or Sweny’s Chemists serenading, but in the Bar 1661 sense of a menu that takes pride in telling a story. We’d love to see them lean in hard, and see the new Pig’s Ear go the whole hog. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Neighborhood restaurant guides for Dublin, Ireland. Find the best restaurants, pubs, cafes, and fine dining in every area of Dublin. Dublin Restaurant Guides & Reviews Neighbourhoods Where to Eat Dublin doesn't have the same easy-to-navigate neighborhoods as say, New York - but we've tried to split the city up into easily manageable chunks so wherever you're headed you can find the best places around for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and dessert. From Argentinean in Portobello, to Calabrian in Stoneybatter, to a raw seafood bar in Terenure, restaurants and cafés here have the ATF seal of approval, so wherever you find yourself in the city you can search for the best eating experiences around. North City Centre Parnell Street Capel Street Pearse St - Merrion Square Grand Canal Dock Temple Bar Dame Street / Wicklow Street Grafton Street - Kildare Street Creative Quarter St Stephen's Green Aungier Street - Wexford Street - Camden Street Portobello Dublin 8 Smithfield Stoneybatter Dublin 4 Rathmines Ranelagh Harolds Cross - Terenure Blackrock - Monkstown - Mount Merrion Dún Laoghaire - Sandycove - Glasthule - Dalkey Dundrum - Sandyford - Stillorgan - Foxrock - Stepaside Drumcondra - Phibsboro - Glasnevin Clontarf - Fairview - Killester - Artane Howth Join ATF Insiders Make the Most of Every Meal. Join Us

Tiller + Grain's owner/chef Clair Dowling worked for Ottolenghi and Skye Gyngell in London, before bringing her flavour-popping salads and sandwiches to Dublin city centre. Meat and fish is cooked on an indoor barbecue, bread is from Bread 41, fruits and vegetables are predominantly Irish and seasonal, and it's hard to surpass the flavours in their salads. Tiller And Grain Website tillerandgrain.ie Address 2 Frederick Street South, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Tiller + Grain's owner/chef Clair Dowling worked for Ottolenghi and Skye Gyngell in London, before bringing her flavour-popping salads and sandwiches to Dublin city centre. Meat and fish is cooked on an indoor barbecue, bread is from Bread 41, fruits and vegetables are predominantly Irish and seasonal, and it's hard to surpass the flavours in their salads. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Lip-tingling, totally legitimate Thai food, without compromises for Irish palates. Don't miss the Laab Moo (spicy pork salad), Pad Kra Pao (spicy Thai basil stiry fry) and the whole deep-fried fish. Spice levels can be high but staff will advise based on your threshold for heat. Full Moon Website fullmoon.ie Address 8 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Lip-tingling, totally legitimate Thai food, without compromises for Irish palates. Don't miss the Laab Moo (spicy pork salad), Pad Kra Pao (spicy Thai basil stiry fry) and the whole deep-fried fish. Spice levels can be high but staff will advise based on your threshold for heat. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Mexican taqueria (formerly in Temple Bar) with a cult following. Tacos, tortillas and tortas are cheap and tasty, and it's more authentic than most. El Grito Website facebook.com/elgritodublin Address 20 Mountjoy Square East, Dublin 1 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Mexican taqueria (formerly in Temple Bar) with a cult following. Tacos, tortillas and tortas are cheap and tasty, and it's more authentic than most. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Bun Cha Vibrant Vietnamese on Moore Street Posted: 9 Jul 2019 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Bun Cha opened on Moore Street in early 2018 and immediately stood out from the few Vietnamese restaurants in the city thanks to their slick website and professional food photography. We weren't the only ones who noticed, as they had Lucinda O'Sullivan and Tom Doorley through the door in the first couple of months. She hated it, he loved it, but slowly they seemed to be building a fan base for their eponymous bun cha and banh mi. Opened by the same people who own the oriental supermarket next door, we're told it's one of only three Vietnamese restaurants in Ireland that are owned and cheffed by Vietnamese people, and that bringing a taste of home to Dublin was the main goal. So far so convinced. Where should we go for a drink first? We recently made the welcome discovery that Wines Direct have a wine shop and bar in Arnotts with €7 corkage on anything off the shelf, as well as plenty of wines by the glass. It closes when Arnotts closes (from 7-9pm depending on the night) so would only work if you're in early, but it's your best bet for wine around these parts. If you're after a pre or post beer head for The Big Romance on Parnell Street for one of the most interesting selections in town, and if you fancy a caipirinha or a mezcal mule make your way to Wigwam on Middle Abbey Street Where should we sit? There's a Vietnamese canteen vibe that means you probably won't sit here all night, but it's perfectly comfortable for a quick bite to eat. If you're on your own there are a few counter seats looking out onto Moore Street, otherwise grab one of the benches against the wall. What's good to eat? From what we ate the unmissable dishes were the bun cha (grilled pork with noodles) and the bun nem (fried spring rolls with noodles). The chargrilled pork in the bun cha has an obscenely smokey flavour that has to be tasted to be understood (we're talking big green egg flavour), and the pork spring rolls must be up there with the most blisteringly crisp (and delicious) in the city. The balance in the dipping sauce with bits of carrot, kohlrabi and chilli is perfect, and we loved the amount of fresh coriander and mint jammed onto the plates, which is something other Vietnamese restaurants here can bizarrely be lacking. We also loved the wonton soup with shrimp wontons, char siu pork, egg, broccoli and spring onions, and a lemongrass paste to stir into the rich, deeply flavoured broth, that could only have come from hours of cooking. It's a huge bowl of food for €11.50 so only order if hungry or you're prepared to take some home (in their lovely cardboard boxes). Our waiter told us one of his favourites was the dry mixed noodles with roasted pork xa xiu, and it was a disarmingly simple bowl of what looked and tasted like super noodles, with slices of pork, crunchy pak choi, shallots and peanuts. Once we got past the super noodle prejudice we really enjoyed the mix of textures and flavours from the sweet pork, slippery noodles and crispy shallots, and it's a dish we're now actively craving. Summer rolls with prawns weren't the most exciting thing we tried, and could have done with a more amped up flavour, and "fried golden dough" or "quay" were just sticks of somewhat bland savoury dough, but will fill a hunger gap until the mains arrive. In Vietnam these are usually eaten with congee or pho, so that might improve things. We didn't try the banh mi but have it on authority they're as good as many in Hoi An, and will definitely be going back for the pho once the weather turns cold again (which should be any day now). What about the drinks? We'd been told to try the sugar cane juice which is freshly squeezed in the kitchen downstairs, but they were out of it, so instead tried a lychee and mint juice, greener than anything naturally occurring in nature. We wouldn't recommend this unless you like the idea of drinking lychee toothpaste. They do have a short wine list and it's predictably unappealing, but we've seen worse so if desperate you could find something, and randomly they do cocktails, including sex on the beach. Proceed with caution. And the service? Both times we ate here our server was so sweet and welcoming, and very happy to tell us his favourite dishes, both here and back home in Vietnam. For him this is the best Vietnamese food in the city, and when it comes to the bun cha and bun nem we'd find it hard to disagree. The verdict? We've always struggled to understand the lack of Vietnamese food in Dublin when it's so prevalent in cities like London and Melbourne, and such a vibrant, fresh cuisine that most people seem to fall in love with on tasting. It's easy to say that the best Vietnamese cuisine is going to be found in Vietnam, but if you can't afford a plane ticket Bun Cha's doing a pretty good job of bringing it to us. Bun Cha 11 Moore Street, Dublin 1 www.buncha.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

The latest bakery feather in the cap for Tartine's Thibauld Peigne, and his second retail outlet joining Russell Street Bakery a kilometre away. French patisserie at its finest, with Paris-Brests, eclairs and opera cakes offering one temptation after another from the glass windows. Pastries, focaccia and gelato are also on the menu, along with coffee from one of our favourites, Imbibe. Parnell Street Bakery Website instagram.com/parnellst.bakery Address Parnell Street Bakery, Parnell Street, Rotunda, Dublin 1, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story The latest bakery feather in the cap for Tartine's Thibauld Peigne, and his second retail outlet joining Russell Street Bakery a kilometre away. French patisserie at its finest, with Paris-Brests, eclairs and opera cakes offering one temptation after another from the glass windows. Pastries, focaccia and gelato are also on the menu, along with coffee from one of our favourites, Imbibe. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Pi If this isn't the best pizza in Dublin we'll eat our smartphones Posted: 13 Jul 2018 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? We'd heard rumblings of a new pizzeria opening on George's Street for a while, and to be frank we weren't particularly excited. In the realm of pizza/burgers/fried chicken it takes a lot to make us want to give up a meal for what's often over-priced, under-whelming fast food, but something about this one seemed different. After a bit of digging we found out that Laois native Reggie White, the man behind the perfect pizza, had been working in an auctioneer's in Dublin, before jacking it to follow a career in food. After a three-month course at Ballymaloe, his existing pizza obsession grew further, and after various cheffing jobs, and a stint at his brother's award-winning Italian restaurant Flour + Water in San Francisco, he came back intent on finding a site to showcase the Neapolitan-inspired pizza he's spent the past few years perfecting - the problem was where and how with the city's current property situation. It all started to come together when a friend introduced him to the man who would become his business partner, John Savage, who Reggie says had a "carbon copy" business plan of bringing the best pizza to Dublin. John managed to secure a prime site on George's Street, just off Dame Street, and oversaw the high-end fit out. They quietly opened a couple of weeks ago (no pre-opening fanfare here) and we thought now was a good time to find out if it was the real deal. Where’s good for a drink beforehand? We'd head for the newly opened Loose Canon Cheese and Wine , either before for some tasty natural wine or after for a cheese plate (and some tasty natural wine). For cocktails, Bonsai Bar is just across the road and has been getting great reviews for its Japanese inspired creations . You're pretty spoilt for good pub options in this part of town, with The Stag's Head , The Long Hall and Grogan's all a few minutes walk away. What’s the room like? Slick and almost futuristic, all red, black, grey and chrome. This was not a cheap fit out. There are low tables and chairs at the front and back, and high tables and stools in the middle. There's also counter seating in the window which is perfect for a quick solo meal or if you just like people watching. We loved the sleek white tile effect on the high tables (will we be shot for using the term 'insta-friendly?), and the red leather-look high stools and banquettes made it feel more like New York (or any ultra cosmopolitan city for that matter) than Dublin. The high ceilings give a sense of space that's not often found in city centre eateries, and the chrome wall that's supposed to look like used tomato tins is dramatic to say the least. What's good to eat? The menu is short and simple which makes the job of choosing easier. There are no starters or sides, just eight pizzas, three sauces and two desserts. The aim is to do a few things very well rather than spreading themselves too thin. If you only get one pizza, make it the margherita. It's rare that you eat something where the quality in every ingredient is so explicit, but here, the individual flavours of tomato, extra virgin olive oil and Toonsbridge Fior di Latte were almost shockingly good. The crust was the best we've had in Dublin (if not Ireland, if not the world) - springy and chewy but also so light from the four day fermentation the dough goes through before being put into the Stefano Ferrana pizza oven at almost 500°C. We recently heard an Italian pizzaiolo say that the mark of a good pizza is that you could eat another one, and we can't remember the last time we ate a whole pizza and didn't feel uncomfortably full. Three of the eight pizzas are biancha (no tomatoes), and we loved the 'Funghi', which comes with grana padano, spinach, 'hen of the woods' mushrooms, fontina, garlic and sage cream. An incredible amount of flavour, but really well balanced and not overpowering. The 'Zuccha', with Grana Padano, basil, courgette, garlic, house ricotta and salsa verde was another table silencer. Pizza bianca has a tendency to be slightly dry, due to the lack of tomato sauce, but the homemade ricotta on this one had a silky consistency and a lovely lemony tang. Salsa verde added another level of freshness, and the grana padano added a rich saltinesswhich really highlighted the fresh courgette. Both dips we tried were excellent, although the basil aioli was more addictive than the chipotle mayo for our money. Dessert options consist of a chocolate 'budino' (described as a chocolate pot with sea salt but really a set custard, they just didn't think that would sounds as appealing) and vanilla ice-cream with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, with the sub-heading, 'Delicious... just trust us!' It was delicious, and one of the most simple, inspired, luxurious desserts we've had. The chocolate pot was so rich it was only a few steps away from being solid. We have no idea what chocolate they're using in this but we need to find out. One square a day and life's daily challenges would be a lot more manageable. We've also come to the conclusion that almost all desserts are infinitely better when chunks of sea salt are added to them. What about the drinks? Three white and three reds by the glass and bottle, and a frizzante (basically prosecco) on tap. We tried the Sangiovese (the ultimate pizza wine) and Sauvignon Blanc which weren't particularly exciting but perfectly acceptable for pizza. The beer list has been put together with love and they have an interesting selection of cans and bottles. We tried the unfiltered lager from Ichnusa which was a crowd pleaser. There's also a decent selection of soft drinks. And the service? Charming if a little unconfident, but they've just opened so they can be forgiven for that. On one visit there was a mistake with a pizza but it was rectified immediately. Everyone was extremely pleasant. The verdict? We're not fans of hyperbole, but if this isn't the best pizza in Dublin right now we'll eat our smartphones. There's magic happening here and you'd be advised to go soon because once word gets out it's going to be rammed. People keep talking about how the restaurant scene in Dublin is overheated, and that we can't take any more openings. They have a point in terms of the current chef shortage , the general difficulty in recruiting hospitality staff, and the rising city rents, but Pi shows why new openings are so important - in with the great, out with the mediocre. Dublin has a lot of great pizza places, but a new bar has been set with Pi. Pi 10 Castle House, 73 - 83 South Great George's Street, Dublin pipizzas.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

The third opening in the Oxmantown empire, Elliot's landed quietly in Phibsborough in summer 2022 with maritozzi, damson doughnuts and Basque burnt cheesecake, and all was remarkably better in Dublin 7. It's a bakery first and foremost but there's a couple of benches outside if you want somewhere to perch while you tuck into your purchases. Expect a queue, and an early sell out, particularly at the weekend. Elliot's Website @elliots_dublin Address 330 North Circular Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story The third opening in the Oxmantown empire, Elliot's landed quietly in Phibsborough in summer 2022 with maritozzi, damson doughnuts and Basque burnt cheesecake, and all was remarkably better in Dublin 7. It's a bakery first and foremost but there's a couple of benches outside if you want somewhere to perch while you tuck into your purchases. Expect a queue, and an early sell out, particularly at the weekend. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Chinese roast meats café filling the gap of now closed Duck on Fade Street and CN Duck in Ranelagh. The narrow room in one of the iLac Shopping Centre's units on Moore Street seats 16, and it's walk-ins only. The meats are the star here, with roast duck, char siu, crispy roast pork and soy chicken available for collection and delivery also. Don't skip the homemade pork dumplings either. Taste of Hong Kong Website tasteofhk.ie Address Taste of Hong Kong, Moore Street, North City, Dublin 1, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Chinese roast meats café filling the gap of now closed Duck on Fade Street and CN Duck in Ranelagh. The narrow room in one of the iLac Shopping Centre's units on Moore Street seats 16, and it's walk-ins only. The meats are the star here, with roast duck, char siu, crispy roast pork and soy chicken available for collection and delivery also. Don't skip the homemade pork dumplings either. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Popular neighbourhood café with Cloud Picker coffee and an interesting menu of things on toast and in buns. All the café reliables with some curveballs, like beef brisket toasties and coconut chia pots. A decent amount of seating at the front, in the back and outside, and they're openly dog-friendly. The Orange Goat Killester Website theorangegoat.com Address The Orange Goat - Killester, Collins Avenue East, Clontarf West, Dublin 5, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Popular neighbourhood café with Cloud Picker coffee and an interesting menu of things on toast and in buns. All the café reliables with some curveballs, like beef brisket toasties and coconut chia pots. A decent amount of seating at the front, in the back and outside, and they're openly dog-friendly. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Nomo owner and chef Kevin Hughes is a self-confessed ramen obsessive. He trained and worked in China before moving to Dublin and getting sucked into the tech world, and spent five years travelling and perfecting his ramen before unleashing it on Dublin. Noodles come from the US from the same supplier as Momofuku and Ivan Ramen in New York, and bowls are on the simpler side, but with layers of flavour. Nomo Ramen Website nomoramen.ie Address 4 Harcourt Hall, Charlotte Way, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Nomo owner and chef Kevin Hughes is a self-confessed ramen obsessive. He trained and worked in China before moving to Dublin and getting sucked into the tech world, and spent five years travelling and perfecting his ramen before unleashing it on Dublin. Noodles come from the US from the same supplier as Momofuku and Ivan Ramen in New York, and bowls are on the simpler side, but with layers of flavour. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Loretta's Big flavours from a Sunday night sharing menu in a former bank Posted: 18 Oct 2022 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What's the story? Loretta's opening at the end of 2018 with promises of bringing "US-style comfort food" to Dublin 7. Chef/Owner Jimmy Wiley is originally from Colorado but has been living here for over 20 years, and was previously in the kitchen at 777 . Big flavours and family recipes seemed to be the name of the game and they've been quietly trucking away in Phibsborough ever since, admirably surviving Covid by running weekly takeaway meals - which we tried and enjoyed. They never seem to grab the neighbourhood restaurant headlines in the same way as some of their southside contemporaries, but lately we're hearing more and more people talk about how much they love it, and their Sunday night sharing menu seemed like the perfect excuse to give Loretta's another go. Where should we sit? The restaurant is in a former bank building and the room feels dramatic and modern, with its high ceilings, dark wood, tan leather banquettes and monochrome tiles. Shut your ears and you could be sitting in NYC. The best view of the open kitchen is from the tables in the back facing the bar, while the best natural light is in the front. People who love comfortable seats will love Loretta's, with every table having the option to sit on a booth or banquette, and there are plenty of large tables, ideal for groups or families. When we were there there was one extended family of at least eight eating together, while other booths comfortably seated families with small children, giving them plenty of space for colouring books or general arm swinging - and yes they have high chairs too. What's the food like? The Sunday night sharing menu is packed with eye-popping plates you'll want to order, but while the small plates and snacks are well-priced, the mains seem very expensive. €75 for duck, €65 for roast lamb leg, €45 for chicken, without a potato or vegetable in sight (all sides are extra) and they're all said to feed two. We'd advise you to ignore this, as what we had fed three comfortably with leftovers for sandwiches the next day, so if you do your division like this, suddenly the prices seem a lot more in line with the norm (even if the norm is sky-rocketing by the day). Choosing from the small plates menu will probably be agony, so your best bet is to bring your gang and try it all. The fermented potato blinis (a puffed up, fluffy, crispy pancake) comes topped with deeply coloured and flavoured cured salmon, watercress, and unlisted horseradish cream and slivers of candy beetroot, and if there's a better blini and salmon combo in Dublin we haven't eaten it. Parmesan agnolotti with pumpkin and black walnut was another simple dish made special. The pasta clearly homemade, the filling the perfect amount of Parmesan, and the pumpkin sauce, pickled black walnuts and crispy sage coming together for a party in your mouth. Lastly, the Korean-fried chicken drumsticks, and we can't understand why more people aren't shouting about these sticky, spicy, sweet, crunchy batons of beauty. People get on airplanes to eat chicken this good, and it's been sitting under our noses in Phibsborough the whole time. The only downside is it's not free-range chicken. For mains, as we said, things may look uncomfortably expensive, but go in with the mindset that one will definitely feed three, and if you're two you can bring the leftovers home, they have containers. The decision on which one to go for started well before we left home and took approximately two and a half hours, so check the menu before you get there. We decided on the wood-fired chilli with fermented green chilli, reasoning that the €55 price tag wouldn't sting as much as some of the rest, and this was a mammoth portion of pork. Just cooked and still barely pink, with tangy fire from the green chilli rub, and sitting in its own juices, there was also some puffed up pork skin on top, and any fears of "how interesting could pork rump actually be?" were wiped out sharpish. Also wiped out were any fears of it being tough or chewy. For sides, there's no question that the "Loretta's chips" are homemade, and cooked several times. Skin on, golden and very crunchy, they arrived perfect, but did lose their appeal as they cooled, becoming more chewy. Roast York cabbage with parmesan had been charred all over, crunchy and salty from the cheese and breadcrumbs, with that York cabbage sweetness underneath it all, while charred broccoli with a smoked Gubbeen sauce and truffle is up there with the best broccoli sides we've ever eaten. Whoever came up with this needs a payrise. There were three desserts, and we skipped the Basque cheesecake fearing it wouldn't top the one we'd had recently at Elliot's across the road. Instead we had a cherry “pavlova”, with caramelised white chocolate chunks and honey sabayon, which we found too sweet and not overly interesting. Much better was a buttermilk set cream with honeycomb, blueberry and fresh fig, which was light, creamy, fresh and full of fruit, without hurting our teeth. What about the drinks? The wine list has definitely taken a step forward since the last time we were here pre-covid, and now houses some interesting bottles like Frantz Saumon's pet nat rosé, Arianna Occhipinti's SP68, and even a Pineau des Charentes by the glass, but there's plenty of more conventional stuff too (which overtakes much of the btg list). We tried the Alsation Riesling which tasted like it had been open too long, but the staff offered to change it for something else (the Verdejo which was fine). The Samurai Chardonnay was much better, and if going red it would be Judith Beck's 'Ink', no question. How was the service? Pleasant but a bit perfunctory. Our waiter was new and very accommodating, but no one asked how our food was or came to check on us at any point, which felt strange, especially as the restaurant wasn't full. If they had turned the smiles and general hospitality up a few notches it would have been close to perfect. And the damage? €145 for enough food to comfortably feed three adults (or a family of four), with pork to bring home. What's the verdict? We were hoping Loretta's would be good, we weren't expecting it to be this impressive, this confident, this finessed - every plate came as a welcome shock and a slap of flavours to the face. Forget your Sunday roast, get thee and your people to Loretta's for sharing plates, and the best antidote we can imagine right now to the Sunday fear. Loretta's 162-165 Phibsborough Road, Dublin 7 www.lorettas.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Amai by Viktor Brazilian food gets a fine dining showcase off Grafton Street Posted: 19 Aug 2025 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What do we need to know about Amai by Viktor? This one caught us on the hop. Usually when a new restaurant cooking at this level opens, especially one metres from Grafton Street, there's a lot of build up. A chef makes their name in one restaurant, gets backing to go out on their own, a PR company is hired and we're subjected to months of teasers before actually getting to eat anything. Up until a few weeks ago we had never heard of Viktor Silva, eaten his food (we think), or had any idea there was this serious a contender en route to the capital's restaurant roster. Amai by Viktor is a partnership between the chef and the owners of The Corkscrew downstairs on Harry Street (facing The Westbury, what a location). After the wine shop's last partnership with Sicilian restaurant Amuri , who they installed upstairs in their old location on Chatham Street, we're starting to think these guys could have an alternative career in spotting the next big thing in food. Silva's last position was as head chef in Amuri , and he's also worked in Bang , on events with Jordan and Maiken Bailey , and staged in multi-Michelin starred restaurants like L'Enclume. He grew up Brazil's favelas (scenes from which he's hand drawn on one of the dining room walls), and says the idea for Amai developed during the pandemic, when he was thinking about his family, identity and legacy. His grandparents were unable to read or write, and survived by cooking food which Silva's parents then sold in the city. Their sacrifices and " meals full of love " started his passion for cooking. Amai means "mother" in Shona (an African language and part of his heritage) and “to love” in Portuguese, and the chef says it's a tribute to the women who raised him. What table should we ask for? This is a beautiful old room (it used to be a shoe shop!) that's gotten the fit out it deserves, with comfortable, elegant seating, and Brazilian touches throughout - Silva's aunt's paintings are dotted around the room; a cavaco banjo hangs on the wall; a large black mural of an African woman covers the wall that greets you as you climb the stairs (painted by the chef). There are hanging florals, a parquet floor, a timber-lined bar with a swirling green marble countertop, rich dark wood and terracotta cushions on a creamy backdrop - it's a joy to take in, light flooding the room from those old sash windows. The best seats however are the two tables for two at the windows. On a muggy summer evening in Dublin it felt like having our own personal wind machine, the loveliest breeze drifting in through the window. Add to that the 10/10 people watching below (including right into The Westbury's lounge) and these aren't just the best seats in the restaurant, they're some of the best in the city. What's the menu like? It's a tasting menu only for €79 with no options (but they'll happily accommodate dietary requirements, just give them notice please ). Snacks first. A thickly crusted croquette with a rich feijoada interior (the famous Brazilian bean stew), animated by orange and nam jim on top. A smoky yucca (starchy root veg common in Brazil), egg and Gubbeen custard with lardo powder on top - dig deep for sweet and tangy black garlic underneath and scoop it up onto a crunchy tapioca cracker. A foie gras, coffee and açai (actual berries, not smoothie slush) tart that looked and tasted like it had come by taxi from Chapter One . If you weren't paying attention before, this opening salvo will have you correcting your posture. The statement cooking continues with barbecued o chra (a vegetable native to Africa but popular in Brazilian cooking), sitting on a ring of Ardsallagh Goats Cheese, with candied strawberries, nasturtium leaves and puffed rice. Watermelon gazpacho is poured in at the table, along with mint oil and fermented tomato honey (made in house, obvs). Getting your greens is rarely this exciting. Fennel brioche is a wow moment (the same way Jordan Bailey's brown soda bread course at Aimsir was), corn-cultured butter moulded into the shape of a corn cob. Tear open the sweet, fragrant bread topped with salty crystals and lather it on. This is not the stuff for scraping or scooping, this is bread that needs its own moment. Monkfish is next, and Silva's take on the Brazilian fish stew moqueca, with red pepper, coriander, coconut milk and red palm oil. The frothy top hides a deep red sauce underneath that you'll be using your fingers to scrape from the bowl, and the firm, meaty fish was needed for all that tang and spice. We're always surprised to see beef on menus these days with prices out of control, but it is synonymous with Brazil. AGM Mariana told us this dish represents the churrascos in her and Silva's home town of Porto Alegre, where meat is cooked over an open flame, but like everything else it's levelled up with vinaigrette (our favourite salsa-like Brazilian condiment), a rich jus, and a long wafer filled with potato salad. Smoky short-rib to the side, so tender you could eat it with a spoon, was the best thing about this plate, with the striploin too firm and the "jus bras" slightly too salty. Why are tasting menus "mains" always the least exciting part of a menu? We're still waiting on that restaurant with a tasting menu of just snacks. The culinary sparkle was back with a dessert of mango sorbet, mango pieces, lime, polenta cake, camomile infusion, and vanilla caramel tuille with bee pollen. Got all that? You will once it's swimming around your mouth, every flavour holding its own. A tenacious chef ends a menu with the same strong statement they started it with. A blow-torched lemon meringue tart; a banana caramel choux; a Capirin ha pâte de fruits. Three perfect bites, ideally paired with a decaf espresso (10/10), and you'll float happily off into the night. What about drinks? Being the national drink of Brazil, you've got to try a Caipirinha (€16) - this is the best one we've had outside of Rio de Janeiro, and just LOOK at those custom ice cubes (there are more than a few Michelin-worthy touches here). They don't have mocktails on the list but delivered a beauty of a mango one with N/A gin on request. The wines are coming through The Corkscrew downstairs, with Drappier the house Champagne at €22 a glass. Bottles start at €41/€43 for basic white and red, with the more interesting producers starting from €50-60. You'll find something you like here, but we would have liked to see some more exciting, off-beat choices, and they've gone high with margins - the same wines (like Pieropan's Soave) are available in other Dublin restaurants for a good 10% less. Must be the Grafton Street tax. Glasses are also 175ml which is large for this type of restaurant, so expect sticker shock looking at a glass of Portugese Dao for €20, or an Italian rosé for €17. How was the service? They posted on Instagram that what they hope makes them stand out is their " warm, welcoming spirit—that rare quality both Brazilian and Irish cultures share. The genuine kindness, generosity, and love for making people feel at home that's fundamental to who we are ." That statement of purpose sums up our experience here, and the generosity that flowed from arrival to departure. From the broad welcomes on arrival, to the offer of any table we'd like, to the generosity of time chatting and explaining more about the food and concept, to the offer of any drink you want on the house to end your meal (what a novelty!), it's like sitting through a crash course in what it means to be "hospitable". What was the damage? The tasting menu is €79, and if you go all in on cocktails, wine and coffee you'll easily spend €150 a head after tip. We considered that money well spent. What's the verdict on Amai by Viktor? Dublin is on a hell of a roll right now. 2025 has already brought us Lena , Comet and Chubbys , all operating at the very top of their game, and now Amai by Viktor has swooped in as a challenger to the best of them. We said Comet was bringing something unique to Dublin that didn't exist elsewhere - now here's another player a couple of streets over doing exactly that. Brazilian food has never had a showcase at this level of cooking in Ireland, and it's clear from the first few bites that this is a chef with an obsessive focus, who's pushing harder every day (just look at Google reviews to see how the plating has developed over the first few weeks). Take our advice - book Amai by Viktor now before the Michelin men and national critics write about how impressive, unique and exciting it is, and those window seats become a lot harder to secure. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

We called Gaffe's quarter-pounder "Dublin's best new burger" after our visit to Dan Chambers' residency at Leonard's Corner, and we're not alone in thinking he's doing something special back there. The tiny, six-table dining area fills up fast, with a constantly changing menu of smart, seasonal pub food that's as good value as it is good to eat. The burger's non-negotiable; after that you're on your own. Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Website leonardscorner.com/gaffe Address 117 S Circular Rd, Dublin 8, D08 K522, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story We called Gaffe's quarter-pounder "Dublin's best new burger" after our visit to Dan Chambers' residency at Leonard's Corner, and we're not alone in thinking he's doing something special back there. The tiny, six-table dining area fills up fast, with a constantly changing menu of smart, seasonal pub food that's as good value as it is good to eat. The burger's non-negotiable; after that you're on your own. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

A ‘pub with a restaurant’ in the Liberties from the same owners as The Pig’s Ear – chef Stephen McAllister and wife Andrea Hussey. Beef cheek and oxtail Parker House rolls, Iberico pork schnitzel, and a huge cock-a-leekie pie for two make the food at Spitalfields a cut above the average gastropub. Spitalfields Website spitalfields.ie Address 25 The Coombe, Dublin 8 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story A ‘pub with a restaurant’ in the Liberties from the same owners as The Pig’s Ear – chef Stephen McAllister and wife Andrea Hussey. Beef cheek and oxtail Parker House rolls, Iberico pork schnitzel, and a huge cock-a-leekie pie for two make the food at Spitalfields a cut above the average gastropub. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Assassination Custard Small, seasonal and perfectly formed Posted: 2 Aug 2018 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Ken Doherty and Gwen McGrath's tiny restaurant on Kevin Street in Dublin 8 is probably on the radar of most self-respecting Dublin foodies, but because they only open for lunch Tuesday - Friday we know just a handful of people who've managed to get there. The limited opening hours are to allow them to have a manageable family life and see their two children, but they do occasionally do pop-up dinners, like the one at Green Man Wines a few months ago which sold out almost as quickly as it was announced, and we hear you can book the space (and the chefs) for private parties in the evening. Both Ken and Gwen had worked in places before where produce is king (Good Things Café, Café Paradiso, Dax), and it's the same in Assassination Custard. Vegetables come from McNally Family Farm, with Ken himself often cycling to collect them, and meat is locally sourced. Offal appears regularly. A fter very complimentary reviews this year in the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner (and from everyone we know who's been there) we thought it was time for a midweek pilgrimage. What’s the room like? Teeny, with a max of 12 covers we're told (if even). There's one long rectangular table that fits three, and another round table where you can expect to sit with strangers, which is all part of the fun. We would definitely advise getting here as close to opening as possible, unless you're not in a rush. By 12:30 they were full with four people outside baying for seats. Despite this there's no feeling that they're trying to turn tables at lightning speed and the whole things is very relaxed, like having been invited into someone's kitchen who's going to make you the lunch of your life. What's good to eat? The hand-written menu changes daily depending on what produce they can get their hands on, but we'd be surprised to find a dud dish, and it always reflects what's in season. The panelle (pronounced pah-nell-eh) seem to be constant - savoury, salty slices of addictiveness made from chickpea flour before being deep-fried. It would be very easy to do a portion per person. From the other dishes on the menu that day we loved the fish pickle with homemade piccalilli, the oily tuna and anchovies lifted and balanced out by the vinegary pickle, which made for a perfect palate kickstarter, the juices mopped up with their chargrilled, homemade bread. We also loved the jalapeños with labneh, the thick, creamy yoghurt a perfect accompaniment to the charred, occasional fiery hot peppers (there's a bit of Russian roulette involved with the McNally jalapeños). A steaming bowl of chickpeas with sobrasada was so simple and so comforting, particularly on a cold, wet day in July (the return of the Irish summer), and is the kind of basic but brilliant dish that makes you pledge to start making it at home. Pointed cabbage with tahini sauce, Sichuan peppercorns and a dusting of curry powder was a deliciously brilliant example of what can be done when vegetables are put centre stage. The dessert option when we were there was flan covered in a thick caramel sauce, which tasted like the filling from the richest, densest cheesecake. They're famous for their "ugly but good" meringues with coriander and hazlenuts but they weren't on that day. If you see one, grab one. We ate most of the menu and the bill came to just over €40, which was really good value for food of this quality. What about the drinks? They only serve chilled tap water and coffee, but you can BYO for free. And the service? Wonderfully warm, almost like being entertained in someone's home. It's just Gwen and Ken, and they talk diners through the menu, making suggestions when asked and delivering the dishes to the table. There's a really intimate atmosphere because of the size and you get the feeling that nothing would be too much trouble. The verdict? A really special place for lunch that's well worth a midweek detour to Dublin 8. If you like eating with the seasons and food that comes from as close to the source as possible, you'll fall in love with Assassination Custard as soon as you walk through the door. If you can round up a gang of family and friends and take over the space for an evening, even better. That's something that's just gone to the top of our food-related wish list - although unsurprisingly we hear they're quite booked up for the next few months. Assassination Custard 19A Kevin Street Lower, Wood Quay, Dublin assassinationcustard New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Masa Drury street gets a Mexican tacqueria Posted: 16 Aug 2018 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? Masa is a new Mexican taqueria from the guys behind Bunsen , in the old SMS site on the corner of Drury Street . We were excited when we heard this was coming because we were told they'd be making the tacos fresh (the only place in Dublin doing so as far as we know) and had imported special machinery from Mexico to make the masa - the dough made from nixtamalizing corn to break it down and then grinding it into a dough (you can read more about the lengthy process here ). It opened very quietly last month with no big announcement other than a post on their Instagram page telling people the doors were open. We tried to visit a week in on a Saturday and found it closed with no explanation - this has been a recurring theme over the past few weeks with numerous people on Instagram complaining that they've also visited to find it closed. Seems they've been having teething problems with the Mexican machinery and difficulties in finding anyone here to fix it. A week later we tried again midweek and this time it was mobbed. There was a 45 minute wait for a table but you can go for a drink and they'll call you when they have space. Where should we go for a drink? You've got the city's best selection of natural, organic and biodynamic wines at Loose Canon just down the street. For cocktails try Drury Buildings or the upstairs cocktail bar in Fade Street Social , and for pints P. Macs is good fun and just across the road. What’s the room like? Bright, airy and minimalistic, with loads of people talking about the "miami vibes" from trees, cacti and bright blue counter tops. There's table seating by the window looking out onto Stephen Street, and counter seating both facing the window and facing the other way. It feels fast casual in a really modern-European-city way, and there's a lit-up cactus outside the bathroom that's coming to an instagram feed near you soon. What's good to eat? As we visited early on we wanted to go again a few weeks later, so over two visits we had most of the menu. Food comes when it's ready, and is divided into small plates, quesadillas and tacos. There's also a very interesting sounding dessert of churros with goat's milk caramel but they told us it won't be available for another few months. We thought the tortilla chips were good but would have liked more guacamole (there is never enough guacamole), and the bowl was hard to retrieve it from. We weren't as keen on the elotes (corn on the cob with cheese and chilli) - ours were overcooked and we found the sauce sickly, but we've seen other people on Insta saying they loved them. A cheese quesadilla with chipotle mayo was good if not ground-breaking, but again there was a bit too much of that sauce. Of the tacos we thought the best were the El Pastor (pork, red chilli, pineapple, onion, coriander achitoe - a pepper-like spice), the chicken (fried chicken, salsa macha, chipotle) and the fish (fried cod, cabbage, chipotle, lime), although the fish was better with crisper batter on the first visit. We imagine most people will think these are very good, but we felt the fillings could be a bit more vibrant. We also don't think the tacos are quite there yet. 10 points for freshness and for making them authentically from masa, but they were slightly too thick and the consistency was crumbly. It's early days so we would imagine they are still ironing out kinks, and we would be confident that the quiet opening was to give them time to improve. It is also verging on ridiculously cheap. The first time our bill came to €9 a head, the second €11 a head (with no alcohol), so this is a great option when you want something quick and cheap. What about the drinks? Very basic. Pacifico and Sierra Nevada for beer, and house red and white wines, which the staff told us were vinho verde (presumably Portugese) and tempranillo (presumably Spanish). We didn't drink anything on either occasion because there wasn't anything we wanted. We were really hoping for a margherita and mezcal list. Maybe by Christmas... *crosses fingers* And the service? A bit all over the place on the first visit. Some food never arrived, only to be told that they'd sold out when we queried where it was, and the team seemed stretched. Things were much smoother on the second visit, and all of the staff were very pleasant. The verdict? Dublin has always suffered from a lack of places that fall under the "Quick. Cheap. Good." heading, and Masa fills a gap for both that and for fresh tacos in the city. While we might not have been knocked over by the food, we'd be pretty confident it will get better over the coming months (Bunsen have never been one to do things by halves), and we think it's a great addition to the Dublin dining scene. Especially when you only want to spend a tenner on dinner. Masa 43 Stephen Street Lower, Dublin masadublin.com New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Biang Biang Hand-pulled noodles and refreshing Liang Pi are going to have the crowds queuing before long Posted: 30 Apr 2024 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What should we know about Biang Biang? Biang Biang is the newest restaurant from the guys who brought us Hakkahan , Nan Chinese , Bullet Duck & Dumplings and Little Dumpling . The Chinese/Irish owners are good at spotting gaps in the food market, with Nan Ireland’s first (and currently only) place to eat Huaiyang cuisine, Bullet Duck one of the only places in the city serving Chinese roast meats, and the tiny Sichuan-serving Hakkahan in Stoneybatter perennially bursting out onto the street with hungry customers. Biang Biang is all about th e food of the Shaanxi Province in Northern China and its capital Xi'an, a cuisine heavy on noodles and strong, savoury flavours. Having been introduced to the complex, "one serving is never enough" flavours i n Guirong Wei's Xi'an restaurants in London ( Xi'an Impression , Master Wei and Dream Xi'an ), it's long been a source of culinary agony that we didn't have our own sanctum for Liang Pi, beef biang biang noodles, and hand-pulled fried noodles with lamb, so we were always going to be straight in here with wide eyes and empty tummies. ( In case you're wondering, we were also straight into Xian Street Food , but when the Liang Pi arrived missing the all important steamed gluten/kaofu we were out. Incidentally they took a trademark case against Biang Biang which was initially supposed to be called Meet Xian, saying it would be confusing to customers. Incredibly they won, even though it's the equivalent of two restaurants with the word 'Rome' or 'Venice' in their name ). Where should we sit? It's a petite space with just five tables of four, and you might have to share with strangers if it's busy. There's bench seating on the right, and parents take note - as you walk in, the table right in front of you on the left has a perfect space just inside the door for a buggy. What's on the menu? It's nice and compact - just the way we like it (when it delivers). There are four sections - "Roujiamo" Chinese hamburger, "Liang Pi" cold skin noodles, handmade dumplings, and Biang Biang hand-pulled noodles. You're going to want to try it all, which you can easily do between two, but a table of four will allow you to try more combinations. The Roujiamo (meaning meat in a bun) is a flatbread which has been cooked then sliced open and filled with either pulled pork or beef (€6.50). It's not a weighty portion, but it packs plenty of flavour in the chewy crust and sweet pork filling. We recommend lathering on the chilli oil for an extra flavour punch. You'll never forget your first taste of really good Liang Pi, a refreshing, cold, slippery, tangy, spicy noodle dish, and are likely to spend the rest of your days trying to get that flavour high again. The springy, elastic noodles are made by washing the starch off basic white dough, then steaming the starchy water and chopping it up to make noodles (there's a good video of the noodle part here ). The remaining stretchy gluten (basically seitan or kaofu) is then steamed and served on top along with cucumber, bamboo shoots, and a sauce made from chilli oil, black rice vinegar, soy and other kitchen specific flavourings. It's made to be slurped and if you don't wear a bib, you're likely to leave covered in it. We coincidentally ended up in Dream Xi'an in London two days after eating here, and in a tale of two Liang Pis, there's very little in it. With a dumpling specific restaurant in their stable, these guys always deliver, and the choice here is between beef, chicken or vegetable, either doused in chilli oil or in a hot and sour soup. Dumpling skins are fat, chewy and slightly uneven – the type that can only be achieved by hand-rolling and wrapping, not factory line precision. The beef filling is rich and savoury, with just the right amount of chilli oil, soy and spring onions to bathe in, and six for €9 felt generous (not a word we're using much of these days while eating out). Biang Biang noodles get their name from the sound the dough makes as it’s slapped down on the counter while being stretched into fat, flat noodles. We ordered ours with minced pork (there's also diced pork, beef short rib and veggie options), and they’re another star of the show here, as good as Guwron Wei’s in London. The only thing we didn’t get was the tiny diced potato and carrot, which had the appearance of frozen veg, and added nothing in terms of texture to the dish. There’s a tomato and egg version that we were considering, but after Katy McGuinness said most of her table found them "challenging" and that they were nowhere near as good as she was hoping, we're glad we swerved. Do they do dessert? They do not, but if you're there at lunchtime you can pop a few doors down to Café Lisboa for a Portugese custard tart as good as any in Lisbon. If you have a post-dinner sweet tooth, Ayla Turkish Foods on Capel Street is open until 20:00 and does the best baklava, as well as a large range of Turkish delight. What about drinks? Functional at best, with soft drinks, house prosecco, white and red wine (nondescript Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot), Tsing Tao and Sierra Nevada for beer, and the most interesting option an NA grapefruit IPA from Norwegian brewery Lervig. We wouldn't plan on hanging around post food, and if you're looking for something more exciting, the brilliant Bar 1661 is just around the corner to fulfill all of your cocktail dreams. For a traditional boozer, you can't beat McNeill's , especially if there's a trad session going. (Bar 1661) How was the service? Extremely nice, with the sole server keeping a watchful eye over everyone, happy to point out his favourite dishes and answer any questions with a smile. The food all came when it was ready, and everything was on the table within 10-15 minutes of ordering. What was the damage? €37 for a very filling meal for two, with tap water. Bianging value (sorry). What's the verdict? Rejoice. FINALLY Dublin has Xi'an food we would have previously gotten on a plane for. It's a great day for the parish, and all the food adventurers out there wanting something new to introduce their taste buds to. Our only caveat is that this is not the most elegant food to eat (see above), and you'll be so excited digging into it that you're likely to end up with a face that's been slapped by noodles and spattered with chilli oil. You may want to avoid for a first date or business meeting, but otherwise go quick before the buzz really builds. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Spanish tapas restaurant owned and run by Spanish/Irish couple Anna Cabrera and Vanessa Murphy. Open since 2012, getting a reservation for sangria, Ensalada Rusa and Chicharrones is still a book well in advance situation, but it's worth planning ahead like the regulars do for a dining experience as fun as it is flavoursome. Las Tapas de Lola Website lastapasdelola.com Address 12 Wexford Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Spanish tapas restaurant owned and run by Spanish/Irish couple Anna Cabrera and Vanessa Murphy. Open since 2012, getting a reservation for sangria, Ensalada Rusa and Chicharrones is still a book well in advance situation, but it's worth planning ahead like the regulars do for a dining experience as fun as it is flavoursome. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Row Wines This new wine & music bar is serving heady food in a striking space Posted: 22 Aug 2023 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What should we know about Row Wines? When Coppinger Row closed at the end of 2021, after their landlord decided to develop the building and put the lease on the open market, the Mediterranean-style bistro's regulars were devo.com . Owners Marc and Conor Bereen were already deep in plans for their next restaurant Orwell Road in Rathgar, which opened the following March, but they had unfinished business with this pedestrianised alleyway off South William Street. It took another year, but in April 2023 they revealed that they had secured the lease for the site next door, and were opening a "natural wine and music bar", with snacks and small plates from 23-year old Head Chef Paddy Maher, who had been sous chef at Orwell Road under Daniel Hannigan (he's also across things here as Executive Chef). If you know us you'll know we think Dublin needs more wine bars - places you can show up to without a reservation, that don't make you order three courses including a main, where the focal point is as much on the by the glass list as the food, so this was very good news. Where should we sit? The space looks incredible from every angle. This was not a cheap fit out, designed to feel like a wine bar in Barcelona or San Francisco, and from the green leather to the gold accents, the built-in decks in front of the kitchen to the striking art work covering the walls, there's nowhere else in the city we can compare it to. If you want to sit indoors we'd settle in at a banquette against the wall, giving you full view of the striking space. Over at the bar you'll find counter seating (one to add to our where to eat solo guide ) and some high tables, and there's a good amount of seating outside if it's a rare sunny day in Dublin. The outside seating is not as comfortable though if you're settling in for a few hours, with chair backs slouchy and tables slanted on the uneven ground below. They're also all tables for two meaning you'll have to pull a couple together if there's more of you - all or any of this may or may not bother you. What should we drink? The wine list is more accessible (read: affordable) than places like Fish Shop, Bar Pez or Note, with glasses starting at €8. While they may not have every wine producer with a cult-like following on there, it's fun, full of interest, and both a Portugese pet nat from Vigno and a Chenin Blanc from Domaines de Baumard in the Loire were exactly the light-touch, lively wines we wanted to drink on a sunny Saturday in the city. The more we looked at the list the more we wanted to drink from it, and we didn't even get a chance to try their cocktails, which favour Irish drinks producers and low ABVs. There's a few softs too, including that refreshing kefir from The King. What about food? Their menu of 8-10 small plates changes regularly, and it would have been easy to stick to the same old wine bar classics, but there's nothing dull or carbon-copied about the food in her e. A group of three or four could easily get through the whole menu - which is our pretty much our goal for every meal. Is there anything worse than food envy while looking at another table, or food regret for the one you didn't order... As we established a couple of weeks ago , Row's gilda (€5 for 2) is on the cheaper end of the Dublin scale for the Spanish bar snack, but it's also smaller than the ones at Fish Shop , Uno Mas and La Gordita , with an unexpected hit of chilli. Depending on your spice appreciation levels you may or may not enjoy this - we prefer to get the heat from the pickled green chilli and didn't think it was needed, but we'd still start our next meal with one of these salty, spicy mouthfuls. Marinated olives (green with stone in, black with stone out) were very good quality, juicy, mild and sweet, and a more generous portion than a lot of other places (they are €5 though). Something that's been on the menu from the start (and will hopefully stay on there as long as supply makes it possible) is the Kilkee crab rosti. Thinly sliced layers of waxy potato are deep-fried to a cripsy, chewy finish, served warm and topped with beautifully seasoned Kilkee crab. They're €16 for 5 so work out at just over €3 a bite, but this is a premium product showcased masterfully. There always seems to be a flatbread on, and ours was with nduja, anchovy and fresh basil (€12). The immaculate base was topped with a flavour bomb of spice and salt, but it was very oily and ended up all down our hands after a few bites. A little less nduja would have solved the problem (but it wasn't that big of a problem). Unusually large padron peppers (€8) came with zatar instead of the usual heavy hand with flaky sea salt, and needed a few more minutes in the pan to get the sweet, melting flavours and textures we love. We did see other people's which looked more like it, so we may have just gotten unlucky, and we would have preferred salt, but they were still finished off. Row has an admirable selection of vegetarian dishes (veggies and friends of veggies take note), and another menu success was the baby gem with caesar and Kilnahlan reserve - a Parmesan-style cheese from Kylemore Farmhouse (€10). The fresh, crispy lettuce halves are spread with a cheesey caesar dressing which starts to submerge down through the leaves, then are topped with breadcrumbs and more finely grated cheese. Lettuce has never had it so good. Burrata (€13) came with ripe, roasted peach, basil and mint, and more breadcrumbs, this time laced with zatar (they like zatar in these parts, and this was a very clever addition), We would eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and every flavour and texture was a paragon of summer - get in and eat it while you can. Our last savoury dish of mixed Garryhinch mushrooms (from Offaly) came with shallot xo, shiso leaves and an egg yolk (€14), and while flavours were good (particularly in the sauce), this is one for fungi fanatics. Some of the larger oyster mushrooms were jaw-pain-inducingly chewy, while the smaller ones like shiitake worked much better popped into your mouth with a spoonful of sauce and a drizzle of egg yolk. There's one dessert and one cheese plate (when we visited there was a triple cream from Ballylisk, an 'Irish camembert' and a blue, but details were scant). Dessert was an olive oil cake that Maher learnt how to make while cooking in Spain, with maceated strawberries and whipped mascarpone. There are few better pairings in life than strawberries and vinegar (get involved), and the rich, finely crumbed cake and light mascarpone made for an elegant, summer fruit-laced end to an excellent lunch. How was the service? Full of warmth with lots of big smiles meeting every request. There did seem to be a slight gap in knowledge when it came to the menu, with one (delightful) server unable to answer some questions about the menu, and having to check several things with the kitchen, so a bit more training on what the kitchen is using and serving would be welcomed. What was the damage? €113.50 with two glasses of wine and a kefir, which felt like decent value for what we had. What's the verdict? Although Row Wines is where Coppinger Row was and has the same owners, it's a very distant relative. While Coppinger was a cosy jumper that you've worn a hundred times and knew exactly what to pair it with, Row is like the 'investment' jacket you've bought in All Saints across the road - thrilling, unusual, ripe for eye-widening and compliments from anyone who comes across it. The space feels like nowhere else in Dublin, the drinks are made for diving into, and for a chef in his early twenties to be turning out food this heady and distinctive, we're marking him as one to watch. Row Wines Coppinger Row, Dublin 2 bereenbrothers.com/row New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Yibu by Janet Dublin's dumpling queen's two-for-one deal - are they both worth it? Posted: 28 Jul 2026 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Ronan Doyle What’s the story with Yibu by Janet? The spacious but strangely split space that houses Yibu can no more contain Jianan “Janet” Liu than can the word “hostess”. That term’s genial hospitality lands about eight levels below what she’s going for in this new double-concept kitchen spun off in dream-come-true style from her eponymous Eatyard dumpling truck. Most restaurants are happy enough to make you feel welcome; here, it’s more like she’s determined you’ll never leave. We wind up wondering if we ever will as she swoops in for a second round of hugs and thrusts jars of siphoned sauces and spices into our arms. “Do you want to take a seat at the bar?” one of the staff asks knowingly as she darts back to the kitchen for more, “she always does this.” Wait, what’s with the dual frontage? You’re not the first to wonder. Parked the opposite side of Cusack’s Corner, where tucked behind the bustle of Stephen’s Green the quieter York and Mercer Streets meet, we watch the silent movie-style spectacle of several parties tugging desperately at the yellow Mercer door unaware of the purple York entrance ‘round the corner cast wide to welcome them (signage has smartly been stuck up since). The Arthaus hotel that houses Yibu is built wrapped round a Q Park, the awkward L-shaped ground floor with a kitchen on the corner and no public passage between – the result is two restaurants, really, but a shared sensibility they’re pitching as “two entrances, two vibes, one Yibu”. What’s behind door number one? The sunny yellow “by day” door we watched someone practically pull off the hinges in a demented dumpling lust on that first evening visit reveals what was once the breakfast bar space of Laszló’s (no, us neither). It’s still the breakfast bar space of the Arthaus, we realised as we passed the continental counter and saw several American visitors eyeballing our Yibu breakfasts from behind their distinctly sadder plates. Save for a Yibu collage against the kitchen wall, all furniture and décor in here is unchanged from the previous tenant, an odd upcycled wall mural joining the slow stream of yawning Yanks to give this half of the place a decidedly divided identity – two vibes indeed. Still, it’s worth weathering the weird split for the Shanghai stack (€16). These stuffed scallion pancakes have all the chewy cheese crisp of a quesadilla and the flaky pastry layers of a paratha – a cross-continental answer to the buffet behind us. Dual textures of melted mozzarella – crisply caramelised oozed-out edges and silky, stringy innards – make for mouthfuls of full-fat excess to fill you through to dinner, cut through only by the sweet, sharp shock of a bacon jam’s cooked-down complexity – we wondered if a little chilli oil wouldn’t kick it up another gear. Only the sad side salad let this one down, limp and lonely rocket crying out for a dressing. Zheng steamed egg (€16) carried more appeal on page than plate, less the silky chawanmushi-style custard we expected than a soggy scramble whose loose ridges saw chilli oil unpalatably pooled. With a stir it gives the one-note eggs a necessary lift, but not one that left us any better able to finish the lot, spoon soon deployed to carve off chunks of pancake instead. We’re not shocked to see it seems to have been dropped from the menu since. Any better in the evening? It’s night and day, let’s say. Between the dedicated space siloed from the hotel lobby and much more focused service led by the namesake lady herself, the much busier, buzzier York street side proves the “two vibes” theme – it really feels like a separate thing over here. Shanghai stack or no, we’d stick to dinner. “Irish spicy or Asian spicy?” Janet, eyebrows cheekily cocked, asks as we order, before one of her team pops a jar of chilli oil in the latter-style down like a tester paint pot, carefully watching on lest our faces rush with blood. The good-cop-bad-cop style is a smart way to scope out over-ambitious local palates without making overt assumptions – the smoke-forward spice here sits squarely within our tolerance, but keep things Irish-style if you’re unsure. Even without any at all these prawn crackers, less sprinkled than sprayed with big flavour seasoning, would keep you happy while you wait for the rest. As at the truck, service is speedy, leaving our first plates landing almost as fast as our cocktails. Repeat appearances across the assorted dumplings, bao and specials make it easy to get a good variety across a few shared small plates even with two - with a gang you’ll happily taste the lot. A switch-up to single bao servings at €8.50 for one or any four for €32 since our visit makes mix-and matching easier, though we had no complaints about having to ensure a second Hong Shao pork belly. The slow-simmered, sticky-sweet streaked meat spills out of the soft bun barely able to contain itself. One bite in and we could relate. It’s all about the sauces in here. We can’t begrudge anyone doing a spice bag (€15) these days (look to Little Canton ’s takeaway-only option for evidence they bring in the bucks), but it’s rare one sounds interesting enough to tempt us. Trust Janet. A yangnyum-style sauce is her novel evolution of Ireland’s national dish, and it’s inspired in texture as much as taste. Tossed tight over the chips, the sauce cools to a crisp coating that spares them the soft stodge fate that usually demands indigestive wolfing to enjoy it. Salt and chilli seasoning can skew bland at times but boosted here by fermented gochujang kick it works wonders – this is a very clever twist. It’s not the only Korean foray of the chiefly Chinese menu. Kimchi brings more fermented flair paired with pork in the dumplings (six for €13, or mix two styles for €2 extra), moreishly moist from rendered fat and tangy brine – it’s in the ballpark of soup dumpling. Tearing through the hand-rolled wrappers, steamed soft with a pan-contact crunch below, we couldn’t but wonder if the mapo tofu had been done Irish spice style after all, minimal Sichuan tingling left in their wake. The extra chilli oil came in handy here. With a name like that, the Taipei fire wings (€13) could stand to bring more heat too, though there’s no fault in the flavour. Salt and chilli dry-rub does wonders for crisp, crackling skin that keeps the fatty flesh beneath sealed in and ready to spill out. If you’re the tingling-lip thrill-seeker type like us, it’s the firecracker edamame (€6.50) to make for, plump pods coated in sea salt flakes and chili, all ready to wrinkle your lips to the point of parched – you’ll lick them clean. Self-assembly on the Peking duck pancakes (€15) is another thing that’s out since we visited – socials since show them landing pre-rolled, a prettier plating for sure and one that saves any awkward excess of veg-to-wrap ratio for the last one to dig in. For all its solid spicing and soaked succulent fat, the meat’s sorely lacking any of the classic crisp we expect on seeing the P-word, a let-down leaving only julienned various veg to add any crunch to the package. What about drinks? We side-eyed the standard-issue Japanese slipper slotted into the signature cocktail menu, but after one sip of these terrific creations our minds are newly open. The folks behind Barebone are among the backers here, and they’re parachuted bar manager Daire Smullen in to assemble the Asian-influenced drinks list. The Golden Hour (€14) pairs Toki whiskey and Stillgarden Glas 55 for a passion fruit-forward herbal highball that’s smooth and subtly sweet. Cosmo fans should make right for the Lucky Cat (€15), with guava and tonka bringing fruity, nutty notes to elevate the Absolut. You’d while away a helluva night in here. How’s the service? There isn’t a room out there we can imagine Janet not filling, and as she darts around the place practically demanding a good time all round, you get a clear sense why the Arthaus handed her the keys. Still, it’s a tight ship she runs, with smart pairing of more and less experienced staff in play across our visits – it’s quick, casual, and competent to the last. What should we budget? A pared-back quick dinner to sample shared bao, dumplings and spice bag would take you to €25 a head, not bad value at all if you choose wisely. You’ll tilt toward €60 if you arrive with an appetite and dig in to the cocktail menu while you’re at it – money well spent. What’s the verdict? Janet’s ecstatic embraces on our way out the door were in answer to our asking about ingredients, as were those takeaway extras so we could recreate the flavours ourselves (have a hash brown spice bag for brunch and thank us later). It’s that giddy generosity and goodness of spirit that enlivens the space and the experience as much as the food, and exactly what a foot traffic-free area like this will need to pull in the crowds – just maybe not for breakfast. Come share in a dream made reality – it’s contagious. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Always buzzing, always reliable, the pedestrianisation of Capel Street has given Vietnamese Aobaba much needed extra seats. The summer rolls, the spring rolls, the pho, the Bánh Mi, we love it all. End with a Vietnamese coffee or bubble tea, and the pros order more food to go for lunch the next day. Aobaba Website aobaba.com Address 46A Capel Street, Dublin 1 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Always buzzing, always reliable, the pedestrianisation of Capel Street has given Vietnamese Aobaba much needed extra seats. The summer rolls, the spring rolls, the pho, the Bánh Mi, we love it all. End with a Vietnamese coffee or bubble tea, and the pros order more food to go for lunch the next day. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Hang Dai Chinese Great value group dining with no decisions needed Posted: 21 Feb 2023 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What's the story with Hang Dai? We probably don't need to tell you much about Hang Dai Chinese . Open since 2016, it's been one of the city's most popular restaurants ever since, famous for their apple woodfired Skeaghanore duck (which hang in glass cases downstairs), their subway carriage seating, and their late night DJs bringing the party atmosphere. Originally opened by Will Dempsey and chef Karl Whelan, the latter has now moved on (he ran Saltwater before it closed and is the Executive head chef of Hyde ), but the food here has never seemed to falter, and it's still somewhere you need to book well in advance. While looking at restaurant menus recently we noticed they're doing a €40 and €60 group dining menu, which in the current climate of rising prices felt like really good value, so we thought it was worth checking out, Where should we sit? You've probably seen the subway carriage seating on the ground floor, which makes for a very cool dining experience for groups of up to four. There's also bar seating and more table seating on the other side of the restaurant, which can be put together to cater for groups. It can get loud and party-like down here as the night goes on and the DJs take their spot - don't come here for an intimdate date or with someone who doesn't like noise and low lighting. For a more chill experience, book yourself into the gold bar upstairs, either on high seating in the bar, or out on the covered, heated terrace. It's quite cosy out there, but it's nice to be in natural light with views down onto Camden Street. (Hang Dai) Tell us about the tasting menus? You know when you're out with a group and everyone's happy to share but no one wants to take charge - you could spend 30 minutes going back and forth making sure no one feels hard done by. That's where menus like this make life very easy. There's a €40 and a €60 version, the main differences being the latter includes additional snacks and the Apple Woodfired Skeaghanore Duck that they're famous for. We stuck to the €40 thinking it could be an excellent value pick for dinner in the city right now. There is a menu online but it does change every day (this could be made clearer), so you won't necessarily get all of what's on there, but you'll definitely get some. All in all you'll get four starters, five mains and rice to share, and everything here was between three people. Anyone who tried the cheeseburger spring rolls with Sichuan ketchup at Hawker mid-lockdown will be hopping with happiness to see them on the menu here. Yes they're still that good. Yes they still taste like a McDonalds cheeseburger. Crispy, tender squid came with a burnt chilli & lime dressing and was just too easy to keep popping into our mouths, while their famous pork dumplings with sweet soy and chilli were as tasty as ever, but were lukewarm by the time they reached us. The prawn toast with yuzu mayo hit its mark too with chunky pieces of prawn and a brightly acidic mayo to cut through the fatty crispy bread. It's a good way to start and to definitively ease any panic hunger that might have set in on ordering. Starters out of the way, we waited to see what we were getting for mains (if you don't like surprise just ask them), and we lucked out with Irish wagyu steak and a ponzu cured egg yolk. Take your chopsticks and mix the egg yolk into the sauce, then pick up a piece of that savoury, salty, flame-grilled, perfectly pink steak, and dip to your heart's content. The portion felt more than generous too. We'd been hearing good things recently about Hang Dai's Sichuan Kung Po chicken with chilli, peanuts and crispy chicken skin, and now we get it. It was a definitely a highlight and one of the first plates to be scraped clean. Tread easy on the chillies, they are hot, but it has a sticky sweetness that balances it all out in the most "why can't I stop eating this" way. We were less feeling the Ma Po tofu which came with a full block of silken tofu rather than being cut into cubes (which it was on a previous visit ). The flavour was rich and it had good spice, but it just wasn't as accomplished as last time, and was missing the wow factor. We thought similar about the market fish which was sea bass, with garlic, oyster sauce and greens. It was perfectly nice, but again not wow, and something we felt we could have easily knocked up at home. A side of dry-fried green beans with minced pork, chilli and salted radish were good, but not the best in town ( M&L and Nan Chinese are killing it with this dish right now). Regardless we ate them happily, alongside with a portion of plain white rice. We think a big mistep here is a lack of dessert. Some kind of Asian inspired ice-cream or similar would round the meal off nicely, but while that's not available you could head a couple of doors down to Frank's for some cheese or a sweet small plate. What about drinks? The cocktail menu has always been above average in here, and we liked the 'Easy Rider' with Blanco Tequila, orange, mango, vanilla, and anise and cardamom syrup (although it's got a kick, prepare to be woken up). On our server's reccomendation we also tried the 'Lipstick and Dynamite' with strawberry infused Stillgarden Gin, fig liquer, Chinese black vinegar and lime, which was lighter and fruitier, a good aperitif. The wine list has markedly improved since the last time we visited a few years ago, and while compact, there's plenty of good stuff to drink on there. We went for Birgit Eichinger's Austrian Grüner Veltliner which worked nicely with the variety of food, but we think the brut Cava from Pago de Tharsys would be good too if you feel like bubbles. How was the service? Warm, smiling and laid back while being on the ball for whatever we needed. Dishes came out at a good pace, and despite being somewhat marooned on the terrace out of waving reach of staff, it was never an issue as they popped their heads in frequently. And the damage? Around €75 a head in the end with a cocktail each, a good bottle of wine between three and tip. What's the verdict? For group dining on a middle of the road budget, this is a great option in the city right now. We added up the cost of the dishes separately and you're getting really good value for money, and the chance to try more dishes than if you went à la carte. We didn't love every single dish, but there were no fails, and this is an offering that will appeal to anyone who likes Asian food. And cocktails. And terraces. And not spending €150 on dinner every week. Hang Dai Chinese 20 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2 hangdaichinese.com New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Family-run Afanti is Dublin’s first Uyghur restaurant - the cuisine of the Turkic group of 13 million people living in North-Western China’s Xinjiang province, that’s a blend of Middle and Far Eastern flavours. Sisters Eleanor and Halnur Halmurat run things, while their mother Dilana hand-pulls the noodles each morning. Try the samsas (a relation of samosas), the naan dipped in salted milk tea, and the aforementioned chunky, chewy udon-esque noodle dishes. It’s perfect for a quick stop, or a more lengthy dive into their unique menu. Afanti Website www.afanti.ie Address 3a Cavendish Row, Dublin 1 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Family-run Afanti is Dublin’s first Uyghur restaurant - the cuisine of the Turkic group of 13 million people living in North-Western China’s Xinjiang province, that’s a blend of Middle and Far Eastern flavours. Sisters Eleanor and Halnur Halmurat run things, while their mother Dilana hand-pulls the noodles each morning. Try the samsas (a relation of samosas), the naan dipped in salted milk tea, and the aforementioned chunky, chewy udon-esque noodle dishes. It’s perfect for a quick stop, or a more lengthy dive into their unique menu. Where It's At Nearby Locales Goat's Gruff Banco Bah 33 Mark Moriarty Studio Gaffe at Leonard's Corner Sano Pasta Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet

Oliveto Housemade coppa, Osso Bucco and all the views in this charming Italian by the sea Posted: 15 Nov 2022 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What's the story? Oliveto started life as a pizza place on Dun Laoghaire's seafront in 2009. After owner Fla Larkin bought the former Kingston Hotel in 2015, he began the slow process of renovating and transforming the building into boutique hotel Haddington House (still ongoing) and part of this was moving Oliveto in on the ground floor. They've never shouted about what they're doing here, leaving locals and those from further away to organically discover it for themselves, but installing former Michelin-starred chef Cormac Rowe to lead the kitchen, and nabbing Barry O'Neill (Gráinne O'Keeffe's sous at Clanbrassil House) spoke volumes about their ambitions. During the pandemic Rowe moved on and O'Neill was bumped up to head chef, then Executive head chef, hiring Francois Jacusse (previously at Woodruff) as his second in command. Everything seemed to be coming up roses, with one great report after another, but then in August of this year, Barry O'Neill tragically, and shockingly, passed away from natural causes. Anyone who'd worked with him seemed griefstruck, his funeral service bursting with those in disbelief that this talented young chef at the peak of his career could be gone. We'd been meaning to get to Oliveto for months, trying once and having to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances, and while very sad we never made it with O'Neill in the kitchen, we had a strong feeling that the team here would be giving it everything they had to keep the standards as high as ever. Where should we go for a drink first? There's only one answer to this question, and that's The Parlour Bar . Haddington House's recently revamped cocktail bar is for our money one of the best in the city, and the amount of work and detail in these cocktails is hard not to marvel at (read our two minute review here ). We loved their 'Vico Crest' as well as their take on a Dirty Martini with olive brine, fennel powder and mint, and not making time for a drink here before or after dinner would be doing yourself over. Where should we sit? If you or something you're with is still Covid-wary, there are three tables on an enclosed outdoor terrace with sea views and heaters above, but you'll still need a jacket if it's chilly as the front is open. Inside has the buzzy feel of a New York brasserie, with lots of corners to hide away in, or you can sit in the middle of the action. Some tables at the front have a great view into the open kitchen and towards the pizza station where the chef is spinning dough, but the most in demand will always be the ones at the window, so request in advance. What did you eat? We started, as all good Italian meals do, with focaccia, but this wasn't very focaccia-like. It more like a white yeast bread, with none of the oiliness, saltiness or deep flavour we were expecting. It came with chilli oil and 12-year aged balsamic which helped things, but when we told the waitress she flew into the kitchen, then flew back saying the chef sends their apologies and it "wasn't their best". She took it off the bill and we thought fair play, perfectly handled, mistakes happen. Head chef Francois Jacusse was formerly at Woodruff (charcuterie masterminds), so our eyes widened when we saw "housemade Andarl Farm pork coppa", with pickles and house sourdough. It's pricey at €16, but if you're going to do charcuterie, do it like this. We loved the pickled onions, green beans and fennel on the side, and we only wished we'd eaten it a bit slower. For our other starter we went for Italian burrata with beetroot and blackberries because we love blackberries but we've never seen them on the side of burrata. Now we know what we've been missing all this time. The roasted almonds on the menu came as hazelnuts (probably better), the lightly pickled beetroot came in slivers and chunks, and the focaccia crisp on the side added yet another texture to a brilliant dish. We would have never have topped it all with dill, but it was a genius addition. Mains were more limited when we visited than what's currently on their website , with five options and a steak special, but everything sounded a cut above your average neighbourhood bistro. Sausage ragu with rigatoni, aged parmesan and pangrattato had the rich depth that only comes from a long, slow cook, the pasta with a perfect bite, the portion generous. 'Ossobucco Milanese' is a rarely sighted thing in Dublin (see also Pala Pizza and Trattoria ), and this "bone with a hole" was a beautiful rendition of the Lombardy specialty. The risotto cooked perfectly with a hint of saffron, the veal shins falling apart with the touch of a knife, the whole thing rich and heady with flavour and scent. The pieces of uncooked tomato on top were definitely not traditional, but actually melded in quite nicely. We feel it's bordering on illegal to not order Tiramisu in an Italian restaurant, seeing how it stacks up against the rest of the city's iterations, and unfortuntely this wasn't one of the best. It looked fancy, but lacked flavour and tasted artificially sweet. There was something that looked like dehydrated chocolate on top, and it was an unpleasant addition to an already disappointing dessert. A vanilla panna cotta with Irish strawberries and almond shortbread on the other hand was perfect, creamy and light, although it felt quite late in the season for strawberries. This nit-picking did not affect the taste. What about the drinks? The wine list is decent, with plenty by the glass and carafe, and enough to keep both lovers of "house wine" and lovers of something more interesting happy. We drank a Primitivo which did the job with the sausage ragu and the Osso Bucco. Italian is definitely the way to go. You can also bring in cocktails (and presumably order them from your table) from The Parlour Bar across the way. This is a very good fall back plan if nothing on the wine list appeals. How was the service? It felt like everyone in here was being treated like a food critic - it's how the very best do it. It's rare to encounter a team where everyone is so affable, so helpful, like they've welcomed you into their own home and want to ensure you have the very best time while you're there. They couldn't do enough for us and everyone else, and it's the kind of service that builds a fiercely loyal customer base (that and the food). What's the verdict? It's hard not to be totally charmed by Oliveto. The place was heaving on a Wednesday night, the room full of animated people sharing food and pouring wine from carafes. The room felt happy, full of happy staff, and happy customers, and while the food wasn't completely faultless we wouldn't hesitate to go back. So many neighbourhood restaurants are box-ticking and boring, totally missing the subset of customer travelling further afield each week in search of excitement on their dinner plate. Oliveto seems to have struck a perfect balance between an approachable menu that won't scare anyone away, executed in a way that will make even the pickiest diners (guilty) very happy. Oliveto @ Haddington House 9 - 12 Haddington Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin haddingtonhouse.ie/oliveto New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Vada Stoneybatter's newest tour de force with a chef to watch Posted: 27 Jan 2026 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What's happening at Vada? We previously reviewed Stoneybatter's Vada, " a neighbourhood café committed to sustainability " for their daytime offering, and while we loved some of their more inventive dishes, we saw room for improvement in others. Last July they started serving dinner from Thursday - Saturday, with a very appealing menu filled with all the lovely things, and a short natural wine list to go with them. Just five months later, the Michelin Guide announced they'd been added to the guide - HUGE news for such a new business, particularly when so many toil for years and never get recognition from the world's most respected restaurant guide. Michelin noted Vada's daytime offering, but said that " the kitchen steps up a gear in the evening with cooking that is a feast for the eyes and the taste buds ... flavour-packed dishes, like an original venison fattoush salad with baba ganoush. " The kitchen powerhouse responsible for this ultra quick ascent to glory is chef Hannah O'Donnell, American-born and previously head chef of The Gallery in Galway, with Kai also on her CV. She has a strong passion for zero waste and sustainable eating, as does owner Sarah Boland (who previously owned vegan burger brand V-Face ), so it seems like a match made in heaven. Where should we sit? It's a cute, bistro-style room, with dark greens on the walls, dark wood furniture and linen-style café curtains. The wine bottles, art and hanging herbs amp up the neighbourhood cool vibe, but there are more comfortable rooms to be in on a cold night. The premises is old and badly insulated, and we alternated between feeling a draught from the door, and flashes of hot air from a heater working over time. It was also very dimly lit - nice for vibes, less so for reading menus - older diners may need a phone torch. What should we eat? You know those menus where every line reads better than the last? Where there isn't one plate you wouldn't order? Where choosing takes extra long because every dish and ingredient is screaming "pick me!" We greedily (and begrudgingly) settled on two 'picky bits', four 'small plates', one large and one side, and with dessert afterwards it was too much. Aim for two, three, one and one for a safer stomach option. We've had varying experiences with focaccia in Dublin lately, with some a blasphemy on the name, but Vada's (€7.50) is up there with the best. Served warm, the crumb, the crunch, the plump interior - you don't think it can get better, and then you spread some whipped cashew basil cream on top. Tempura broccoli (€12) arrived at the same time, with romesco and green chilli-laden zhoug, and between the perfection that was the cooking and battering of this broccoli, and the cacophony of flavours leaping off the plate, there was a lot of silence as we ate this, taking it all in. Another 'picky bit', panisse (€11), came dolloped with feta and crispy onions, just begging to be lobbed into your mouth in one go. This had all the texture contrasts between the deep-fried chickpea snacks (crispy on the outside, smooth in the middle), the creamy feta and the crunchy onions, and we could have eaten many, many more. Scallops with fennel soubise and blood orange were in the price shock category, at €18 for two scallops (that's even more expensive than Sole , who give three for the same price). They were nicely cooked, but we found the fennel soubise extremely rich, more like a butter sauce than an onion one thickened by béchamel . The fresh fennel and blood orange gave needed freshness, but we would have preferred an overall lighter take. More (delicious) heaviness followed with the karaage chicken in a (this time literal) butter sauce with pickles. If you're calorie counting you'll want to avoid this. If you're not, it'll be hard to stop digging your fork into that fried chicken and smearing it through that mild, curry scented, very creamy sauce. Thank God for the pickles. We had to ask them to take the plate away to save us from our lack of self control. We'll make a confident bet that venison with walnut hashweh and tahini isn't on any other menu in the country right now - O'Donnell's food is genuinely unique. Hashweh means stuffing in Arabic, and it's usually a one-pot rice dish, but here she's used nuts, seeds and spices for a Middle Eastern flavour detonation. We needed more of the Blanco Ninos on the side to scoop up that tahini sauce - two crisps was never gona cut it - and topped with sticky, shredded venison, pickled onions and fresh mint, this is another one you'll remember. We only realised when looking back at pictures that the menu has a note at the bottom saying " a minimum of three dishes (including one large plate) are required per person ". It's probably for the best as few things get our backs up more than being told how to eat - does it matter as long as you order enough to justify your seat?? Thankfully it wasn't enforced, and we were let away with our solo Etherson's pork chop with pak choy, miso and turnip. We love a good pork chop, and this was a very good pork chop, a distant relative of those pallid, grey, chewy creatures on supermarket shelves. The jus, the creamed turnip, the pak choy, we loved every inch of it, but it's relatively high spice levels should have been advertised - we still have no clue where all that heat was coming from, but plenty of water was imbibed in the eating of this dish. A side of French onion spuds was very clever, caramelised onions drizzled on top of gorgeous, perfectly tender floury potatoes, with a flurry of Gruyère on top. We had absolutely zero room for dessert and were falling over the line at this stage, stomachs very swollen, but needs must, so forced rhubarb with custard panna cotta and a ginger biscuit it was. It was no more a panna cotta than the table was a tree trunk, just an odd, overly set custard that delivered little pleasure in the eating. The blushing rhubarb saved this dense splodge from being a complete fail. What is there to drink? Only wine, the majority of it natural - that's never a problem for us, but the older generations may struggle with it. All of these were right up our street, and we love the pet nats, the Uivo orange, the Xisto Ilimitado and La Nave's Mencia. Need to play it safer? Order the 3 Rios Alvarinho or the Vinasperi Rioja. How was the service? In a word, messy. We were frequently without water, cutlery, napkins, twice we ordered wine that didn't arrive, and we spent an inordinate amount of time just trying to get someone's attention, which really cut into our experience. The room seemed well staffed with four people for 12 tables, but every server seemed to be serving every table - if each just focused on three we might have been better looked after. An initial request to move table away from a sweltering heater was met with resistance, and despite asking that our eight plates were spaced apart so we had time to eat them hot, three arrived within five minutes of ordering, and another two hovered by the kitchen a few minutes later before a server apologetically asked if they could bring them too. We politely declined - they would have had to be placed the floor - but diners shouldn't have to worry that their next courses are being fried under heat lamps while trying to enjoy what's in front of them. When they brought the bill they had taken off dessert to apologise for the issues during the meal, and while the majority of the staff were lovely and obviously trying their best, the service we had needs sharpening. Hopefully we caught them on a bad night. What was the damage? €148.50 before tip for too much food for two and three glasses of wine. A bottle and a second main and you could be heading towards €200 after tip, which is pretty much in line with what you'd pay for this kind of food anywhere (barring Assassination Custard ). What's the verdict on Vada? Watch this chef - she's on an ascent to big things. Nothing sets a new menu apart like this kind of distinctiveness, food that excites and engrosses, rather than having to read and eat your way through the greatest hits dish compilation that so many fall prey to (while wondering why business is slower than they like). Stoneybatter seems to get cooler by the day, and Vada is its newest tour de force. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Achara Walloping flavours, fun and prices that are hard to argue with Posted: 3 Sept 2024 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What's the story with Achara? Northern Thai grill-inspired Achara (pronounced ah-cara) opened at the end of June in the Aston Quay site formerly occupied by Happy's , from the same team - they also own Crudo in Sandymount and are involved with Juno on Dorset Street. Happys' global street food on a very challenging street to trade from chugged along but never took off, so the owners decided to change direction. They say they've been obsessed with Thai food since travelling across South east Asia: " The flavours, the smell of grilled meats walking around Chiang Mai, the hustle and bustle of the night markets, that first pad Kra Pao after an 12 hour night train to Surat Thani. " Hungry yet? We were. (Achara) Achara's aim is to shine a light on the grilling culture of Northern Thailand, with a menu centred around their charcoal grill, custom made by Smokin’ Soul in Co. Wexford. It's used to bring out the smoky best in top Irish produce, like Feighcullen free-range chicken, Goatsbridge trout, and custom Thai sausages made by The Village Butcher in Ranelagh. They say they want to show there's more to Thai food than traffic light curries and Pad Thai, and we like the sound of that. Where should we sit? It's the space at the front for us, particularly at the window - Aston Quay might not be the most scenic backdrop but the natural light streaming in those big windows is very pleasant to bath in while you eat. The whole place is tailor made for groups, but particularly the area at the back in front of the kitchen, which looks ideal for semi-private dining. There's also a lovely round table in the window to the left when you walk in, which fits six comfortably in your own little space. Drink while we're deciding what to order? Definitely. There aren't many Southeast-Asian restaurants around town serving BBQ rhubarb gimlets with Thai basil oil (order it, trust us), and Kaffir lime margaritas (didn't taste very different to a regular, well-made margarita). Cocktails here were not a last minute add on, they're a part of the grand plan. What's on the menu? Small and large plates designed for sharing - that means that dishes might arrive at different times, and that may or may not infuriate some diners, so if it's a one main per person sitch with no sharing forecast, you're better telling them so they can do their best to accommodate. The menu doesn't specify how many of each thing you get either, so that's another thing worth asking if you're sharing - it looks to be three large chicken wings, and three - four prawns depending on the size. The lovely small plates for sharing are illogically small for anything more than a few tablespoons, but they seem to have twigged this because larger metal ones came out with the larger plates. You might also be surprised to see a fork and spoon rather than chopsticks, but this is the Thai way - they will bring out chopsticks on request but they're the disposable type and not the nicest to eat with. First up on the do not miss list are the chicken wings in chilli fish sauce caramel (€10). There's so much crunch wrapped around these juicy, double-jointed chicken wings, and the sweet, salty heat of the caramel sauce is just right. Some fresh coriander on top before you take a bite is the final piece of the flavour puzzle. You should also get a Killary Fjord mussel skewer in a spicy lemongrass sauce (€4), the mussel texture closer to chicken than seafood, the flavours BIG. If your mouth needs waking up, this will do it. Goatsbridge trout ceviche (€12) with mint, dill, chilli and little slices of kumquat was more 'cooked' than any ceviche we've had before, so raw fish phobes needn't worry. Ours was surprisingly high on the spicy scale, but it worked well with all of those fresh herbs and the citrus - just make sure you have a full bottle of water on the table, and maybe some tissues for your nose. Kale fritters (€8) were more like a bar snack, with plenty of grease and sriracha for soakage if needed. Good if you want something to crunch on, but we wouldn't be running to reorder. Larger plates start at €14 for mushrooms and aubergine, going up to €25 for whole chargrilled sea bass with nam jim seafood (which translates as "seafood dipping sauce"). Our fish should have come off the grill earlier, the flesh a little past tender, but there wasn't much complaining while pulling off pieces of flesh and swirling them around that firecracker of a sauce laden down with chillies, fish sauce, coriander, garlic, lime juice and sugar. Aubergine fans assemble - Achara's basil chilli version is one of the best dishes using the purple plant that's passed our lips in an age. Bury us in Thai basil, stuff chillies in our ears, lay us on a bed of aubergine so juicy it squirts when you bite into it. There's a mince beef version of the same served with an egg, but this is not playing second fiddle. The charcoal grill really shows off with the glazed pork belly moo hong, slow cooked to render some of the fat away, then seared on an open flame. It's the live fire taste you can't fake, with the sweet, smoky glaze hitting every part of your palate, but the inner pieces were more tender than the outer, some of which were on the dry side. The more squeamish may be put off by the Granny Smith and anchovy salad - they're less anchovies, more tiny dried silver fish or whitebait, startled eyes staring up at you. As an accompaniment it feels like it's there more for visuals than for taste, the watery apple not adding much in the way of flavour. The lunch menu is where the real value is to be had, with selected dishes €15. One of these is the grilled chicken khao soi (€21 on the à la carte menu). Feighcullen free-range chicken is cooked on the grill, and served on top of noodles swimming in a spicy coconut curry, with some raw onions and coriander. It's very good, very spicy and extremely rich (not one for the calorie counters) - the only thing we didn't get was the deep-fried noodles on top which were so hard they felt more like a garnish to be discarded than an edible. A side of green beans with garlic and chilli could have been more blistered, but while they might not hit the heights of M&L they are probably better than what you make at home. There's one dessert of charred pineapple, whipped sheep's yoghurt, pistachio crumble and sticky rice (€8). The whipped yoghurt and crumble are added tableside for an attempt at theatre, but it feels like it a scramble for something to put at the end rather than something created out of love. If you skip it you're not missing much. What are the drinks like? Proper love has gone into this drinks list, with original cocktails, whiskey sodas (for the real Thai feel), and a wine list that has no business being this interesting when much of the food is popping off with spice. There are 12 wines by the glass, with the only one there for box ticking purposes a prosecco. Top picks would be the Von Winning Weissburgunder, the Arndorfer Zweigelt (chilled), and the Piggy Pop for happiness-inducing pink fizz, but there's little or nothing we wouldn't be happy drinking. And the service? Some of Achara's online reviews mention poor service, but on the two occasions we visited staff were welcoming, helpful, and the food came at a good pace. On both occasions the owners were present, so maybe that helped to ensure things were running smoothly. They did also put out a call for staff a couple of weeks ago, saying that their run of good reviews in the press had made them busier than they'd imagined, so perhaps they've had some teething issues with new starters, or a struggle finding them. Either way they'd be foolish if they're not tackling the issue with urgency, and we don't think these guys are that. What was the damage? €151 to feed three with four drinks on the bill. Getting in and out for circa €50 a head with a drink is hard to argue with for food this jammed with flavour, and a restaurant without much to fault. There's also a three-course pre-theatre menu served Monday - Friday from 17:00 - 18:30 which is obscene value for €25pp - more money to splash on that wine list. What's the verdict on Achara? Achara isn't trying to cook Thai dishes to the letter, but take influence from the food and culture of the North to amp up Irish food in a brand new way. They're bringing walloping flavours, fun and great prices to a strip more known for fast food, dive bars and being the wrong side of Temple Bar, and doing it without compromising on the produce coming into the kitchen - that's impressive by anyone's standards. If the kitchen keeps pushing for flavour and consistency, and initial front of house issues are resolved, there's so much potential for these tables to join the consistently booked out club. New Openings & Discoveries More >>