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Those fretting about the amount of coverage going to "the new" restaurants - imagine - best look away now, as there's a fair amount of "new" this week, plus a new incarnation of an old haunt that most of us have probably danced in while drinking bad wine, but we'll get to that later. First up, despite only opening five days before Christmas, Variety Jones is straight out of the blocks with two reviews this weekend, in the Irish Daily Mail and the Sunday Business Post, and both are glowing. It reminded Tom Doorley of cool London restaurants like Brat or St Leonards , and the moral of the story is he "absolutely bloody loved it". The dish of the night was grilled cauliflower with burnt yeast, sea trout and brown butter (and having eaten this we can attest that it is shockingly good), which he calls "an exquisite, jewel-like dish", and comté ravioli with picked and fresh chanterelles was "perfectly balanced" with "a subtle alchemy" going on. A whole black sole to share was cooked perfectly and came with mussels and cockles, which slightly dominated the dish, and a warm potato salad with "nuggets" of smoked eel was "remarkable" - and sounds it. He calls the wine list "commendably compact" and "bang on trend" and is vowing to return very soon. Read his review here . Gillian Nelis in the Sunday Business Post was similarly impressed after her visit to Variety Jones , saying that the food really did the talking. She also praised the cauliflower, as well as the "smooth as silk" chicken liver paté with "lovely" potato bread, and the "moreish" smokey vegetables with barley and curd. Comté ravioli was "top notch", sharing mains of sole and venison were "great" and cooked perfectly, and Jamaica ginger cake for dessert was "moist and delicious". Read her review here . More of "the new" in the Irish Examiner , as Leslie Williams paid a trip to new Italian pasta bar Grano in Stoneybatter, and like Tom Doorley last week he left very happy. Olives to start were particularly "flavour-packed" thanks to time drying out in an oven, and Black Pig lardo on sourdough toast was "delicious" (need to get us some of that). Frisella di Farro, traditional Puglian spelt bread topped with tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil was their favourite thing of the night, and he said the simple dish had "no right to taste this good." Filejio al Pommodoro (textured strips of pasta in tomato sauce) was "simple but rather glorious", and struncatura (a mixed grain pasta) with cockles, mussels and bergamot was light and fresh with wonderful texture but they thought a denser sauce would have worked better with the "robust" pasta. Tiramisu for dessert was "just about perfect", and they also enjoyed a deconstructed cannolo. He calls Grano "a gem of a spot and warmly recommended not just for the quality of the food but the generosity of the welcome...". Read his review here . It was semi-new for Katy McGuinness in the Irish Independent who was chowing down on cheese toasties at wine bar Loose Canon on Drury Street, which opened last July. She calls it "a little gem", and "something new for Dublin", as well as an ideal place to dip your toe into natural wine, which "can be "pretty funky", but "rarely dull". She calls their toasties "a thing of beauty, made with fabulous ingredients", and "gargantuan", and says the only way you could spend a lot of money there is by drinking oodles of wine (dunno Katie, more than once we've nipped in here for an hour for a few glasses of wine and some small plates and been handed a bill for €80. Oops.) She calls the toasties with wine "a truly joyous food experience", and one that she'll be repeating in the year ahead. She gives it 9/10 for food and 10/10 for value. Read her review here . In the Sunday Independent Lucinda O'Sullivan was checking out the newly reopened and refurbished Café en Seine - €4 million pumped in apparently. We weren't expecting a lot from the food in a venue that can hold 1300 people, and Leslie Williams delivered the 'meh' review we were waiting for a couple of weeks ago, but Lucinda (or the sub-editor) calls it "insanely good". She calls it "high-end casual food", and they shared small plates including "divine" seared King scallops, "superb" gambas a la plancha, and roast spears of salsify with Gorgonzola and Madeira which they loved. She says everything was "delicious and good value for money", but did take exception to the fact that there was only one wine under €30. She also calls Picpoul de Pinet (which encompasses a whole region of France) "plonk", which we're sure the Sud de France promotional board wouldn't be too happy about. Although having seen the wine list, it probably is plonk. (Review not currently online) Finally to quell the burning flames of the new, Catherine Cleary in the Irish Times revisited Pickle on Camden Street, which she previously reviewed soon after opening in 2016. She finds it better than ever, and we dare you to read her review and not immediately want to book a table, with descriptions of lentil and rice crisps with shrimp pickle, aloo tikki chaat smothered in jammy pomegranate molasses, and "one of the best dhals I've ever tasted", with "fresh puffy naan". There were loads more lovely sounding things on the vegetarian thali, and she says Pickle is "a restaurant that has grown into a very special place to eat", with the joy of its new vegetarian dishes the "less-but-better approach". She gives it 9/10. Read her review here . Finally, in the Sunday Times Ernie Whalley was eating in West Restaurant in The Twelve Hotel in Galway, where he had a memorable meal featuring rabbit, venison and a 'soubise'. Read that here . More next week.

BuJo , Sandymount's sustainable burger joint, will today launch the Beyond Burger , a plant-based patty that looks and tastes like meat and even bleeds. Launched in the US in 2016, it quickly swept the country, leading to issues keeping up with demand, and retailers like Wholefoods frequently running out of stock. They launched in the UK in Autumn, going into burger chain Honest Burgers and All Bar One , as well as certain branches of Tesco, and BuJo is currently the only place in Ireland to get it. The Beyond Burger is predominantly made from pea protein (as well as beetroot which gives it its red colour when raw and mimics bleeding), and is soy, gluten and GMO free. It has the same amount of protein as a beef burger, more than twice as much iron, half the saturated fat and no cholesterol. Founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, Ethan Brown, says he broke down the components of beef into its separate parts, and was sure that a similar product could be made from plants. He's spent much of the last ten years isolating these elements in the plant world and figuring out how to "stitch" them together to create something that could be mistaken for meat. His investors have included Leonardo di Caprio and Bill Gates, who got involved after trying a taco made with their plant-based meat and being unable to tell whether or not it was chicken. Beyond Meat say that their Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land and 46% less electricity to make than a beef burger, and if that if each American substituted every third burger they ate for a beyond version it would be the equivalent to taking 12 million cars off the road for a year. Sustainability is the driving ethos behind BuJo , and it's the only casual restaurant in the UK and Ireland with a three-star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association , so owner Michael Sheary wanted to be the one to bring the Beyond Burger to Ireland. They have a limited supply which is available from today in two versions, created by culinary director Gráinne O'Keeffe. The vegetarian one comes with their signature brioche bun and sauce, cheese, tomato, onion and pickles, while the fully vegan version comes with a vegan bun, violife cheese, roasted garlic aioli, tomato, onion and pickles. Sides of fries and panko pickles are vegan friendly too. We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek yesterday and were ultra impressed at the meat like texture and taste - if we didn't know it was plant-based we definitely would not have guessed. Is it as good as the regular BuJo burger? For us, not quite. That one's pretty special and we don't think a plant-based source is going top it. Is it a game-changer for vegetarians or vegans who miss meat? Most definitely. For those looking to cut down on their meat intake, BuJo have also introduced a 'Beeftroot' burger, with 70% beef, 15% beetroot and 15% crunchy quinoa, designed to be a lighter alternative to the regular burger - we tried that too and it is very, very good. For extra health points you can go bun free and get it on top of a kale bowl. The Beyond Burger launches in BuJo today and initial supplies are limited, so if you want to try it this week we'd advise not hanging around. www.bujo.ie

Because we’re still hungover from Christmas shenanigans. Don’t @ us. You’ve met everyone you ever knew growing up over Christmas and you’ve chit chatted your way through all of your relatives, now it’s time to go back to normal: brunch with people you actually want to talk to. Spoiler Alert/Trigger Warning: There will be no mention of turkey, ham or second helpings of roast potatoes in this article. Well, except for now. We’re about as sick of those as we were of your Insta 'best nine of 2018". Yes Karen, we saw you went skiing, no need to show us again. 1. Dim Sum from Bowls Bowls by Kwanghi Chan have just launched a Dim Sum Brunch menu (have more beautiful words ever been uttered?) filled with dumplings, bao and their egg custard tarts. We have our eye on the chicken and scallion potstickers and steamed shrimp dumplings, and we've seen more than one respected source saying the egg custard tarts are some of the best in town. ​www.bowls.ie 2. Potato Hash from Five Points A prime brunch spot in Harold’s Cross, especially when this potato hash with cavolo nero, poached eggs, basil and kale hollandaise is on the menu. In the words of the Five Points Instagram page , ‘vibez’. www.facebook.com/fivepointshx 3. Toast from Nutbutter Grand Canal Dock’s toast hub that is Nutbutter presents, you guessed it, toast, topped with almond butter, banana, salted seeds and honey. Like something you might make at home, but better. www.nutbutter.ie 4. Two Boys Brew Overnight Oats Recently highlighted as one of Katy McGuinness’s ‘ Top 30 Healthy Food Experiences to Try in 2019 ’, TBB’s vegan overnight oats is now at the top of our list for breakfast this week, particularly because they come topped with cinnamon baked apples, blackberry compote, hazelnut butter and lemon balm. www.twoboysbrew.ie 5. The Squash Bowl from Slice Slice’s brunch bowl is filled with McNally  squash, labneh and hazelnut dukkah with poached eggs, pomegranate and chilli oil. So many things right with that sentence. www.asliceofcake.ie

January, the time of remorse and rejuvenation... Whatever you want to call it, the beautiful free bar of booze that was Christmas has ended and thus, we’re back at it. We’ve now reached that stage where bread and alcohol have calories again, you should know what time/day/year it is, and turning off your OOO felt like tearing down the Christmas tree too early. It’s okay, you’re not alone, we don’t want to look at our bank account either, but we still want to eat, so here are ten dishes that we can convince ourselves are undoing all of the festive over-eating without the need for an overdraft. 1. Sprout’s Salads - €8.50 - €9.95 Most of the menu here is under a tenner and a breath of fresh air away from your sad homemade lunch al desko. They also offer loyalty cards on salad bowls, making each January salad purchase that little bit easier. www.sproutfoodco.com 2. Porridge at Póg - €3 The OG breakfast of champions that is porridge is only €3 from Póg, with additional extras costing 50c each. That’s breakfast for the price of a coffee. Sold. www.ifancyapog.ie 3. Bircher Bowl at Brother Hubbard - €7.50 The bircher bowl is a staple at both BH locations and changes frequently, depending on the season. Choose between the northside winter bircher bowl (also vegan), consisting of overnight oats with carrot, orange, toasted seeds and candied walnuts, topped with fresh blueberries and spiced ginger syrup, or the southside sister’s spiced orange oats with apple and roasted squash puree, topped with sweet nut dukkah. www.brotherhubbard.ie 4. The Fumbally’s Avocado Toast €7.90 The Fumbally’s avocado toast can cure a host of ails. It's served with housemade pickled cabbage and popped amaranth. Bonus health points if you grab one of their fermented drinks. thefumbally.ie 5. One Society’s Pan Fried Kale on Toast - €8.20 Ah kale, the hip-and-with-it food that drives the Insta huns wild. One Society pan fries kale and serves it with almond basil pesto, cranberries, toasted seeds and nuts, poached eggs, chilli and sesame salt, and it gives kale a very good name. www.onesociety.ie 6. Airfield Estate’s Salad Plate - €10 After being stuck indoors for so long, particularly for those of you who stayed in Dublin for Christmas, it might be nice to drag the family to Airfield Estate to treat yourself to some fresh air and Luke Matthews’ cooking. The salad plate in Overends Kitchen is a thing of dreams, with much of the ingredients sourced from the farm. If you can stretch to it, the pannacotta made with milk from the estate's Jersey cows is the way to finish (it's healthy, honest). www.airfield.ie/overends-kitchen 7. Aobaba’s Pho - €8.50 The Capel Street Vietnamese spot is one of those places that’s often talked about for the right reasons. All of their regular pho are €8.50, and it's a bargain. Read our review of Aobaba  here . aobaba.com 8. Legit Coffee Co's Super Green Omelette - €10 We’ve recently hailed Legit as the best brunch we've had so far on the Northside , and this omelette seems to go hand in hand with the rejuvenating properties of January. It comes with sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, spinach, feta, lime, avo and some sourdough toast. www.legitcoffeeco.com 9. Shouk’s Falafel Pitta €6 Okay, maybe falafel isn’t the healthiest option on this list but think of the bigger mezze picture here. It’s a great spot if you’re on a Veganuary buzz or are just trying to reduce your meat intake. www.facebook.com/shoukdublin 10. Tang’s Salad Plate - €7.50 Tang’s colourful salad plate comes with either hummus or tzatziki and you can add on protein for an additional €2 (for optimum gainz). www.tang.ie Any other tips on healthy food for under a tenner? Let us know by emailing info@allthefood.ie.

It's an affirmative start to the New Year, with opinions out in full force this weekend - no one's even so much as perching on the fence. Isabelle's gets raked over the coals by Catherine Cleary, and Gillian Nelis does a total takedown of Shelbourne Social, but Grano, Loretta's and Lucky Tortoise are winning. We were starting to wonder if Catherine Cleary would ever have a cross word to say again after the somewhat controversial  Five Guys incident ​ last June (and to be fair, that veggie sandwich looked and sounded like one of the worst things imaginable), but she's starting 2019 by letting it all out in the Irish Times , although she sounds more dejected than outraged at Press Up's latest opening Isabelle's . She visited twice, as the first one was so bad, with two out of three plates going back to the kitchen half-eaten, and it all sounds a bit grim. Pumpkin linguine was "blander than watered-down baby food", and she describes the food as "there for the look rather than the eating". Visit two was better, but "dry" falafel worked out at €5 a piece, and her pasta was better but the pumpkin was "as watery as a slippery sponge", and by the end had cooled to a "glutenous mass" - she reckoned she could do it better herself (maybe they should make her an offer). Desserts were the highlight, with a "tasty" banana and peanut parfait, and a "good" fudge cake, and she ends with a depressed summing up: "Theirs is the model that is both cause and effect of a market with fickle crowds, sky-high rents and rock-bottom talent pool. There is nothing new here. It’s an idea that’s beginning to taste depressingly old." She gives it 5/10. Read her review here . If it was pasta CC wanted she probably should have gone to new Italian spot Grano in Stoneybatter, like Tom Doorley  did for this week's Irish Daily Mail review. He says "Dublin 7 has won again", and calls the pasta "outstanding", with "glorious Italian hospitality and lovely wines". 'Zuppa di orza perlata' with pearl barley and al dente vegetables was "so simple, so good", and 'orecchiette grano arso' (unfortunate name for the Irish market) were ears of handmade pasta in a tomato and burrata sauce which "combined to create something greater than the sum of its parts". He hands down the compliment of compliments by saying that Grano 's bolognese sauce is better than his (which he's been perfecting since his student days), and says it has "depth that can only come from long cooking". He finished with some sharp Italian cheese and a dessert wine, and calls the whole experience "simply heavenly". Noted. Read his review here . Another happy customer in the form of Lucinda O'Sullivan who was at Loretta's in Phibsborough. We have it on authority that she was the first critic through the door back in November, so we're wondering what the hold up was in getting this one to print. She gives some interesting background on Phibsborough's connection to cattle markets and dealers, before some background on chef Jimmy Wiley, who she says "knows his onions". They liked their starters of oyster mushrooms with parmesan fondue and Skeaghnore duck salad so much that they ordered a third, the Nashville hot oysters, which she says was a "knockout taste combination". Her mate enjoyed the wood-grilled yellowfin tuna, and despite the "unwritten rule that a critic shouldn't order steak or chicken" - hadn't heard of that one - Lucinda rebelled and went for the fried chicken with buttermilk biscuit and a corn salad, which was so good she thinks he should patent it. They didn't have dessert, but she describes the food as "beautifully presented contemporary plates". (Review not currently online) In The Irish Examiner Joe McNamee reckons he's found Cork's oldest restaurant,  Jacques , which he describes as "a genuinely treasured institution", serving "well-sourced local, seasonal produce treated with integrity and respect." Blue corn tostadas (which seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment) had "smashing and generous fillings" including West Cork crab with chipotle mayo and Mexican slaw, and a vegetarian tasting board with granola stuffed mushrooms, romesco and stuffed red peppers was "excellent value" at €12. Empanadas came with less than traditional pastry but were "a real Winter comforter", a chocolate and salted caramel tart "lovely", and the Burgundy they drank "cracking". He calls it "a sublimely delivered hospitality experience", and says that Jacques' aim of serving "simple fresh Cork food, bursting with flavour, in a friendly relaxed atmosphere", is accomplished and then some. Read his review here . In the Irish Independent , Katy McGuinness lists her restaurants to try in 2019, and there's loads of great new openings in Dublin to add to your restaurant bucket list, including Bowls by Kwanghi Chan , Variety Jones , Grano , One Society and Liath, formerly Heron & Grey , as well as some new openings to come. Read the full list here . In the Sunday Business Post , Gillian Nelis obliterates Dylan McGrath's new Ballsbridge opening  Shelbourne Social , comparing the €45 wagyu beef to a placenta, describing the chicken wings as so tasteless that if she was blindfolded she wouldn't have known they were chicken, and the pork belly with bao buns as "anaemic", "stodgy" and "a disaster". Totes awks. And in the Sunday Times Ernie Whalley describes Lucky Tortoise as one of Dublin's all-time bargains, with scintillating miso soup, exemplary dumplings and superb fried rice. Read that here . More next week.

Whilst updating the "where to eat" section on the site yesterday, we noticed that quite a few restaurants listed are no longer trading, so we had to slap a big closed sign on them so you knew not to show up at the door. Restaurants in this section of the website have been reviewed by at least one national critic (usually more), which means that they should be at least worthy of your attention, but this wasn't enough to save the following establishments in 2018. Restaurant Forty-One The first high profile closure of 2018, Restaurant Forty-One , part of the former Residence club on St Stephen's Green, closed quietly one Friday in January, with a press release from the Press Up group saying they'd bought the premises (read more about that here ). The whole building reopened as The Grayson in August. Moro Kitchen The more casual sister restaurant to Moroccan Dada on South William Street, Moro Kitchen seemed to be doing well after its 8/10 score from Catherine Cleary in The Times, but it wasn't enough to keep it open, and it quietly shut its doors early in the year. The building now houses Del Fino , which opened in October. Eat Greek Eat Greek opened in Glasnevin in early 2017 and everything seemed to be going according to plan, with an 8/10 for food from Katy McGuinness in the Irish Independent and talk that the Greek community in Dublin finally had somewhere to go to eat the foods they knew and loved. So it was a surprise to find that it had closed in July 2018, but one of the original founders who had left the business, has since decided to take on the lease and reopen it as Yeeros Greek Souvlaki Bar . They have yet to have a visit from a critic (or us), but online reviews are very good. Cavern Another summer closure came in the form of Cavern , the wine bar underneath Baggot Street Wines. They had also started off well, with a very appealing €5 corkage on anything from upstairs in the shop to drink downstairs, meaning the wine lovers of Dublin flocked there to fill their boots at bargain prices. They withdrew this option at the end of 2017, presumably because of the loss of margin, meaning wine bar goers could only choose from their limited (and relatively uninteresting) wine list, which seems to have been the beginning of the end. They announced they were closing in July. Ember Neighbourhood restaurant Ember in Milltown, from chef Greg O'Mahoney, had received mainly positive reviews from some of the country's top critics, but after closing for holidays in August failed to reopen again, with no announcements on social media or their website. Farmhill Another neighbourhood restaurant, Farmhill in Goatstown, opened in 2015 with Anita Thoma in the kitchen, and had received very positive reviews across the board, but after Thoma announced in June of 2018 that she was moving on, things look to have deteriorated fast. The restaurant started to offer free corkage in an attempt to attract diners, and looks to have closed suddenly overnight at the end of August. Read more about it here . Sivad Sivad , an Irish restaurant with an Indian sounding name, opened in Leopardstown in 2016, and managed to bag a glowing review from Lucinda O'Sullivan in 2017, but throughout 2018 their offers (including more free corkage) seemed to become more panicked, and a pleading email to their customers in July asking for their help to stay open looked to be the final nail in the coffin. They announced they were closing in August . Le Plancha Originally opening in Blackrock, the husband and wife team behind Le Plancha moved it to Monkstown in 2016, and a predominantly negative review from Catherine Cleary in The Times followed soon after. They struggled to attract any more press, and shut their doors in Autumn 2018. Nicos One of the longest standing restaurants in the city, traditional Italian Nicos announced it was closing in November after more than 50 years on Dame Street, with the owner of more than 40 years deciding it was time for a break. You can read more about it here . Klaw Poke Niall Sabongi closed the poke branch of his Klaw restaurants in November, saying he wants to concentrate on his new project, 'The Urban Monger', due to open on the North side of the city this year. Could the poke trend be going the way of the doughnuts? Read more about Klaw Poke closing here . Jo'Burger/Crackbird/Hey Donna/Bar Giuseppe The big shock of this year came a week before Christmas, when the Jo'Burger group, headed up by Joe Macken, announced on social media that the group had gone into liquidation. All of the company's restaurants ceased trading immediately, including two Jo'Burger locations, Crackbird on South William Street, the newly opened Hey Donna on Dame Street and the group's new wine bar Bar Giuseppe . The news gained national coverage across the press, and caused shock waves in the industry. Read more about it here . As you're probably sick of hearing, there are many predictions of more closures to come in the first few months of the year, between a challenging trading climate, the VAT increase (effective now) and all of the uncertainty around Brexit. We're on watch to see if anyone doesn't come back from their Christmas holidays, so as always will keep you posted.

The Highs The opening of Uno Mas Etto’s younger sister spent a semester in Spain and opened in December. We almost passed out waiting for the doors to open but it was worth the time spent drumming fingers on tables and peering in the window on Aungier Street. If you need us we’ll be at the bar eating the potato and onion tortilla. The Death of Doughnuts A combination of doughnut fatigue plus the slow realisation that most of them are actually rubbish and made using a pre-mix has finally led to the decline of the doughnut. Thank u, next. Different Dining 2018 brought about very welcome alternatives styles of dining. Street food from Vietnom , small plates from Grálinn and all day dining at Gertrude to name a few. Before 2018 was it even possible to get a buttermilk chicken pancake stack for breakfast or a banh mi from a horse box in the back of a Stoneybatter pub? Wine Bars A new crop of wine bars has finally hit the city, like Loose Canon and First Draft , and places like Grantham's, Industry and Lilliput Stores have started doing wine nights. Viva la wine revolution. Getting to experience Heron & Grey It's no secret that getting a table here is not for the faint-hearted, and after 18 months of waiting with fingers poised waiting for tables to be released, only to be brutally rebuffed each time, we finally got through the doors for one of their waste dinners in April. They charged a reduced price and cooked with what was left in their fridges, freezers and fermenting areas before closing for a month, and we weren't sure what to expect, but it was one of the most exciting meals we've eaten in Ireland. Earlier this month owners Andrew Heron and Damien Grey announced they were going their separate ways in the New Year, with Damien continuing the restaurant under the name ' Liath '. Needless to say our fingers will be flexed and ready when reservations open on the 1st February. White Mausu Mania You can find a jar of peanut rayu in nearly everyone’s cupboard. New flavours coming to a pantry near you soon. Sustainability More cafes and restaurants are looking for more sustainable ways of running their businesses, and it's now the norm to constantly have a KeepCup in hand, eat farm to fork from McNally's in North Dublin, or sea to fork from Niall Sabongi's SSI wholesale . The Lows The VAT increase The VAT rising to 13.5% in January will have huge implications for both customers and establishments alike, whether it comes in the form of rising menu prices or full on closures. Buckle up for some big changes out there. The Ivy Ever since The Ivy opened during the summer, drama has been rife. Between the strict door policy, the vouchers furore and the tipping fiasco it seems the restaurant is all fur coat and less of the undergarments. Maybe save yourself the stress of trying to get a table and give this one a miss. Unless you feel the need to reminisce on the boom times of yore. The Price of Wine in Restaurants When did 70-80% become a standard margin on wine in Dublin? The capital's going to struggle to develop a wine culture as long as it costs this much to drink well. The Closure of the Dublin Flea After being forced to move from Newmarket Square in Dublin 8 in May by developers building new offices, the flea has yet to find a new home . The Christmas Flea allowed the traders a brief return, and it was packed with old and new customers, but the fact that there is still nowhere for it to trade, despite willing traders and eager customers, is a tragedy for independent shopping in the city. The Loss of the Jo’Burger Group Joe Macken’s mini chain of restaurants have long been a staple on the modern Dublin food scene, and the announcement that the group had gone into liquidation caused shock waves throughout the industry. We are particularly grieving the loss of our formerly new favourite wine den, Bar Giuseppe . Let us know your food highs and lows of 2018 by emailing info@allthefood.ie

It's been a year of countless new openings, the big pizza debate and every restaurant in the city fearfully generating a vegan menu - with varying results. These were our most read stories in 2018... 10) Where to eat and drink in Stoneybatter Between Vietnom, Vurgerface and Scéal pastries at Pender's Market, Stoneybatter has had it going on this year. Our guide on where to eat and drink in the batter was the tenth most read article over the past 12 months. Read it here . 9) Dublin's first Vegan Diner and Takeaway opens It's no surprise that anytime we write anything about where to eat vegan food it explodes, and the news that Beast diner and takeaway had opened on the quays was our most read vegan related story of the year. Read it here . 8) Four New Openings and a Closure News in September that Farmhill in Goatstown had closed down along with four new openings in Dublin, including "Irish soulfood with an American twist", two cafés and a city centre bakery is at number eight. Read it here . 7) Critics' Reviews - Gastropubs A tale of two gastro pubs in November is at number seven, where Lucinda's review featured one of the worst food photos ever published in a national newspaper (she took it), and Tom Doorley kicked off the big homemade chip debate of 2018 . Read it here . ​ 6) Critics' Reviews - The Pizza edition A pizza packed critics reviews in July was our sixth most read article of the year, where Lucinda rounded up the best pizza in Dublin and left Pi off the list, and Katy McGuinness had a "truly terrible" one in Clontarf, which left her stomach churning. Read it here . 5) Four New Restaurants that have just opened in Dublin This July round up of four new restaurant openings including a pizza place, a diner and two new vegan restaurants (of course) proved so popular that another online publication lifted it practically word for word. Thankfully we stumbled across it (albeit months later) and had it taken down. Read it here . 4) Loretta's Opens in Phibsborough Chef Jimmy Wiley's US-inspired comfort food and Loretta's upscale fit out had everyone talking, mainly because no one knew it was opening until we published the story (and we only heard about it the day before - ninja levels of secret restaurant planning). It was also a very welcome addition to a side of the city that's somewhat barren on the food front, and Northsiders nearly lost their lives with excitement. Read about it here . 3) Daniel opens on Clanbrassil Street A very under the radar entry, the newest café from 3fe's Colin Harmon opened on Clanbrassil Street in August and became a solid fixture on Dublin's coffee scene within about three minutes of opening its doors. Read about it here . 2) Uno Mas Opens on Aungier Street The second, Spanish-focused opening from the Etto team had us seriously low on patience, after a planned June opening turned into a December one. Luckily it was worth the wait. Read about it here . 1) The Pi Once Over In June Dublin got a new pizza place, and we had a feeling even from the pre-opening posts that it was gonna be a good 'un. When we tried it we nearly keeled over at just how good it was, and took great satisfaction in declaring it the best pizza in Dublin before the masses descended. Despite Lucinda O'Sullivan's not at all disguised irritation at the "frenzied foodies" and their nonsense about where to find the best pizza in Dublin, we consider the spirited debate that followed hugely positive, and just went to show how much great pizza is being made in the city right now. It's also a far better conversation to be having than saying it's all shite. Read the Pi once over here . Got any stories you'd like to see in 2019? Let us know - info@allthefood.ie.

*Disclaimer: We've already published this under where to eat when Christmas shopping, but let's face it, you'll be in the exact same areas, and these are some of the best places to eat in those areas. Shopping is hard. Shopping for a variety of people in a short amount of time with a limited budget (see: Dublin rent) is even harder. Well, we’re not here to give you tips on how to master the art of finding every present in one day, but what we can do is provide you with a list of pit stops for your shopping days in the big smoke. With this in mind, everything here is close to the main shopping areas to reduce any additional walking trips with heavy shopping bags. For Breakfast Brother Hubbard North With the expansion to their Northside cafe came their artisan food shop, in the original seating area. This is really a two birds with one stone scenario: get some brunch and then nip over to their shop to stock up on presents for your loved ones (or really, just for yourself). They also have mulled wine, winter tonics and Christmas spiced hot chocolate. www.brotherhubbard.ie Laine, My Love Laine, My Love on Talbot Street is handy if you’re getting the DART into Connolly and physically can’t make it any further without a coffee hit straight away. It also helps that the coffee is good. You might be tempted by their cashew nut butter and blackberry jam toastie as well. www.lainemylove.com Tang With two locations in town, Abbey Street and Dawson Street, Tang is great to hop into for a coffee and some food. It gets pretty packed during lunchtime in both spots. It’s best to go in the morning to grab a seat before you venture out into the scary paths of Grafton Street or Henry Street. They also serve brunch at both locations on Saturdays. www.tang.ie The Pepperpot If your parent decides to tag along for some Christmas shopping, take them here. The people-watching and the tea will distract them from the extortionate Dublin prices and “fancy luas transportation”. Also Bewley’s is more likely to hold the entire population of Leinster within its walls during December, so this might be a better bet if you’re in the Grafton Street area. thepepperpot.ie For Lunch Kimchi Hophouse It’s getting to a point now where if you haven’t been to the “Hophouse”, do you really know Dublin? If you do make it to the half-pub, half-Korean restaurant on Parnell Street, we would recommend the bibimbap and kimchi pancakes. kimchihophouse.ie Industry Another place where you can go for sustenance on your shopping quest and find some presents. Caution: this may cause distraction and deviation from the plan...what was the plan again? industryandco.com The Woollen Mills The Woollen Mills is running a Christmas lunch menu with items like whiskey and marmalade glazed sticky bacon ribs, black pudding boxty and mince pie ice-cream. Something to look forward to after braving the crowds in the Jervis Centre. thewoollenmills.com Loose Canon Loose Canon do some mean toasties during the day, featuring a glut of Irish farmhouse cheeses. They also sell retail cheese, charcuterie and wine, just in case you want to forsake your gift buying plans for others and focus on treating yourself. Each hour you spend Christmas shopping, a part of your soul withers. The only way to revive it is with warm, melting cheese and alcohol. loosecanon.ie Overends Kitchen For those brave enough to venture to Dundrum Town Centre (*shudders*) for their Christmas shopping, do yourself a favour and go for a peaceful lunch at the cafe in Airfield Estate. www.airfield.ie/cafe Dinner Uno Mas The new cool kid on the block. The recently opened restaurant from the Etto family is already topping our list of favourite restaurants. Sit at the bar, or better yet the alcove. It might be hard to grab a seat here but trust us, it’s worth it. www.unomas.ie Pi This is our favourite place to get pizza in the city. Plus if you have a loved one in tow who isn’t really feeling the shopping vibe and won’t sit in the designated chair in the shop, give them the gift of Pi pizza to cheer them up. www.pipizzas.ie Pichet Pichet is one of the most consistent restaurants in town, service is inviting and the food is delicious. Probably one of the nicest ways to end a Christmas shopping day. pichet.ie The Seafood Cafe A more casual place to go but definitely not lacking in quality, Niall Sabongi’s Seafood Cafe is a welcoming spot after a day of trekking around town. They also do ‘Build your own Mary’s’ during brunch on Sundays. Just saying. www.facebook.com/klawcafe Sisu Izakaya This newly opened Izakaya just down from Stephen's Green shopping centre is like a dimly-lit haven in the middle of the city centre. The ramen is very good, and they do a killer lunch bento box for €10. sisuizakaya.ie Luna One of our favourite restaurants in Dublin at the moment and it seems to be getting better and better. Let Luna be the light at the end of a weary day of bag handling and extra-exhausting thoughtfulness. ​lunarestaurant.ie Chameleon We understand you’re tired. You picked up too many bags and the next shop seems so far away. Hanger is setting in. Your phone being on 5% doesn’t help anything. But there is some soft, pillowy bao at Chameleon in Temple Bar that might help soothe you. www.chameleonrestaurant.com Hang Dai A little more upbeat in terms of dining rooms (or train carriages in Hang Dai’s case), it’s definitely somewhere to get excited about party season. And if there’s ever a time to get involved with their wood fired Skeaghanore duck, it’s Christmas. www.hangdaichinese.com

It's two days before Christmas, which means all the round ups! Some critics have picked their favourite restaurants from the past 12 months, some have literally just listed everywhere they've eaten, and a few actually reviewed somewhere new. First to the new... The Irish Independent's Katy McGuinness is the latest in the door of US-style Loretta's in Phibsborough. The smart fit-out reminded her of some Press Up venues (which is a compliment), and she says she admires the bravery involved in opening "a big, proper restaurant ... at a time when there is a chill wind blowing through the industry". Nashville hot oysters with brown butter and bone marrow sauce could have been hotter but the flavours were "dirty fabulous", and oyster mushrooms with parmesan fondue and aubergine relish were "properly tasty". A Skeaghanore duck salad was "a gorgeous composition" and a striploin steak was "impeccable" with "excellent house-made chips", but side salads were over-dressed. She wasn't a fan of the beef and pork ragu either, feeling it had been rushed, and the black bean chilli on the side of Wicklow venison lacked depth, although the cornbread it came with was "buttery and delicious". An American style baked cheesecake to end was "a winner", and she calls it "a family-run restaurant with a very nice vibe". She gives it 8/10 for food, ambiance and value. Read her review here . In the Irish Examiner , Joe McNamee was in Green Man Wines in Terenure, enjoying the experience of "being able to stand up, walk over to a wall of wine and spend a few minutes mulling over your next choice." A lot of the review is about the wines they drank, including an Italian 'Pét Nat', a "beautifully balanced" Italian Vermentino, and a "bright, juicy" organic Italian Syrah - we're suddenly very thirsty. Mediterranean snacks of corn kernels and lupins divided the table, while a bowl of wild mussels with parsley and garlic butter were flavoursome, sweet and nutty, but missing bread to mop up the sauce. A tender Flat Iron steak came with "terrific" bearnaise and "criminally addictive" parsnip chips - both so good that seconds of each were ordered, and he says that while the food offering is designed to serve the drinks offering, it's "extremely decent, well-cooked and tasty grub, a fine servant to some splendid wines." Read his review here . In the Irish Times , Catherine Cleary is doleling out her restaurants of the year awards, and says the places that got her attention were the ones paying attention themselves - "food geeks who lie awake at night wondering how to make it better". Locks get her vote for "best neighbourhood place", for their relaxed team and "wonderful food" (read our review here ), Assassination Custard take "best café" for their "small brilliance" (we reviewed them too ), and Indian 3 Leaves in Blackrock gets "best value". No doubt there will be consternation amongst the country folk for her "best out-of-Dublin" category ( Restaurant Chestnut ), but three out of nine of her awards go to restaurants outside the capital, which seems about right? (Luckily as this is a Dublin-based site we shouldn't get too much abuse off the back of that one). Pi takes "best newcomer", Vietnom takes "best street food", and Airfield's Overends Kitchen takes "best farm-to-fork. The full article (including those out-of-Dublin places) is here . It's a similar story in the Irish Daily Mail, with Tom Doorley picking out the best restaurants he reviewed for each month of 2018, eventually settling on his favourite five. Etto makes the list for their "simple and brilliant" cooking and "sensational" wine list, Campagne in Kilkenny for their "sublime" food, Everett's in Waterford for their transformation of raw materials that lives on long after the last mouthful is swallowed, and Pichet for a simply perfect lunch. He's hesitant to commit to a meal of the year, but eventually gives it to Uno Mas , "one of the most joyful experiences of the year", where he had "the best squid I have eaten anywhere". He also says he thinks he's eaten better this year than ever before, which says good things about the Dublin/Irish dining scene. (Review not currently online) In the Sunday Independent Lucinda O'Sullivan lists almost every restaurant she visited this year, month by month. Twenty-eight different places are mentioned (not counting her "20 best" lists which seemed to go on for most of the summer), and if you've been reading either her Sunday column or this weekly round up there'll be nothing much new in it for you. Our personal highlights include a recount of her "train wreck" brunch in Bun Cha with their "awful beef" and out of order loos (worth noting that other critics liked it), her trip to The Grayson which included wanting to "push some of the stool-hogging Prosecco ladies off their perches", and another dig at the "non-stop nonsense of foodies on social media whining about the best pizza spot" in Dublin. Hopefully she'll unwind a bit in 2019. (Review not currently online) Another yearly round up in the Sunday Business Post , where Gillian Nelis picks her top ten restaurants of the year, only four of which are in Dublin - Locks , Luna , 3 Leaves and Craft (read that here ), and in the Sunday Times Ernie Whalley is "seriously impressed" after a visit to newly opened Uno Mas (read that here ). No critic review round up next week. See you in 2019.

It's Christmas Eve babe. Do yourself a favour and get out of the house for some fresh, cold air and  decompressing, cold drinks before being quarantined with your loved ones. It's a time for festive fizz, indulging in early food and going home to eat cheese and crackers for dinner before the cooking marathon starts the following day. Most of these take walk-ins but there's a few fancier booking options at the end - at the time of publishing these are booked out online, but restaurant customers have been dropping like flies this month so if you fancy one of them it's definitely worth giving them a call. 1. Urchin Urchin , downstairs in The Cliff Townhouse , is open from 11am - 3pm and has a festive drinks menu including mulled wine, Ferreo Rocher cocktails and hot buttered whiskeys. They've also been doing a 'Christmas Shopping Pitstop' during December which includes a plate of ham croquettes and a drink for €15. Get involved. clifftownhouse.ie/urchin-bar-2 2. Lucky Tortoise Lucky Tortoise has set up shop in their previous pop up location on George’s Street (for how long is TBC), serving  their dim sum style menu. It’s €20 for everything on the menu including miso soup, dumplings and bao, and they have wine on tap. What more could you possibly want? www.luckytortoise.co 3. Gertrude Newly opened Gertrude from 3fe's Colin Harmon and chef Holly Dalton has turned into one of Dublin's hotspots overnight, and they'll be open until lunch on December 24th. Even if you haven’t been there yet you’ve probably seen some of their dishes on Instagram, like their Tonkatsu sandwich, bacon and cabbage dumplings and apple fritters with custard. www.gertrude.ie 4. Pi The answer is always Pi . Or else 3.14159, whatever you’re into. We're into really good pizza, and Pi will be serving that until 5pm on Christmas Eve. www.pipizzas.ie 5. Featherblade Indulge in steak and two veg (one being chips), without a dry turkey or cranberry sauce in sight. The burgers are decent too. featherblade.ie 6. Mad Egg Mad Egg are donating all revenue from Christmas Eve to Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Last orders are at 3pm, so get in early for some Christmas feels and excellent Irish, free-range fried chicken. www.madegg.ie 7. The Grayson The Grayson has a quick lunch menu from 12-3pm, serving sandwiches and salads, and it's a great spot for a midday drink overlooking Stephen's Green to kick off the booze fest. It's also a good alternative to the queues of people trying to wedge themselves into The Shelbourne . Two in, two out. Two chances we're standing in that. thegrayson.ie 8. Two Boys Brew Head here for Christmas Eve breakfast and to buy a haul of their 'granny's recipe' mince pies to take home. It's a great place to meet with friends before going your separate ways to endure tedious dinner conversations, and Taurean’s (one of the Two Boys) decorations will give you serious festive envy. www.twoboysbrew.ie 9. Grano Stoneybatter’s newest pasta bar will be open for all of your carbohydrate-related needs. Freshly made pasta and organic wine until 6pm. www.grano.ie 10. Pickle Sunil Ghai’s modern Indian restaurant on Camden street will be open from 12-6pm. Lunch is a two course a la carte menu and dinner is a set menu served family style. www.picklerestaurant.com 11. The Garden Room at The Merrion ​The Garden Room at the Merrion is offering a four-course menu at €135 pp. If you’re looking for something lighter, they'll be serving festive afternoon tea in their Georgian Drawing Rooms. And when we say lighter, we mean smaller portions but the same amount of food. At this stage, who’s counting mince pies? 12. Pichet Pichet’s buzzing atmosphere is sure to get you into the festive mood, until 3pm when they close, at least. Plus...their bar, you know, to ease you into some solid family time. pichet.ie Also, don’t forget about those in the service industry who work long and late hours during Christmas and put up with a lot of drunk customers, very loud groups and a lot of no shows. Smile, be patient and make sure to leave a tip.

Variety Jones , the new restaurant from chef Keelan Higgs opens at 6pm tonight on Thomas Street in Dublin 8. He describes the food as 'Modern Irish', and the opening menu features comté ravioli, hearth grilled sole and chicken liver parfait with sweet and sour onions and potato bread. Higgs, formerly head chef at Locks and Luna , was looking for a site for two and a half years, but says nothing felt right until he found the one on Thomas Street. He wanted Variety Jones to be in the inner city, where he felt he could be more dynamic with the menu, and have more freedom to keep things interesting. The menu doesn't take the typical starter, main, dessert format - most dishes are designed to be shared, and Higgs said this was important to him as it's how he likes to eat. "The restaurant is based around the Irish principles of sharing, warmth and togetherness. Sharing food breaks down barriers." There's also has an open hearth where certain foods will be cooked straight over burning ash. Keelan's brother Aaron is front of house, and sommelier Vanda Ivančić has put together a wine list focusing on minimal intervention wines from small producers. Food and wine pairings will be a feature on the menu, and they want the wines to inspire dishes, and vice versa. Higgs isn't worried about the number of restaurants opening in the city right now, and the impending doom being forecast by many due to Brexit and the upcoming VAT increase - "It's a dog eat dog world. If we can keep the food interesting to us I think we'll keep it interesting for the customers too, and hopefully they'll want to keep coming back." Variety Jones opens tonight at 6pm, and will be open until Sunday before taking a break for Christmas. They may be back in between Christmas and New Year - keep an eye on their social media feeds for updates. Bookings can be made through their website, and their opening night menu is below. Variety Jones 78 Thomas Street, Dublin 8 Opening hours TBC www.varietyjones.ie

Grano , a new Italian restaurant, has opened in Stoneybatter, with the owner's Mum flying over from Italy to supervise the fresh pasta making. Italian born Roberto Mungo has been living in Dublin for the past six years, most recently working as a sommelier for Wallace Wine Bars , and says the aim of Grano is to create "a contemporary cuisine that respects the roots and traditions of Italian cooking." The menu is inspired by Roberto's childhood in Southern Italy, and they're collaborating with Italian farmers to source cured meats, flour, cheeses, olive oil and tomatoes, amongst others. Pasta is made fresh each day at the pasta counter (which at the moment features Roberto's mother, Mamma Roma, straight from Calabria) and there's a small selection of starters, meat and fish dishes. The predominantly organic wine list is all Italian, with three whites and three reds by the glass, and there's a lot on it we want to drink. There's also a good value early bird at €19 for two courses or €24 for three, served Tuesday to Thursday evenings until 7pm and from 12pm - 7pm on Sundays. In his hometown of Borgia, Roberto's mother and grandmother ran a local Osteria making fresh pasta every day for the neighbourhood, and he said it was the memory of his mother making fresh maccheroni every sunday with the smell of ragu bubbling in the background that was the inspiration for Grano. He wanted to open a restaurant in Stoneybatter as he said its sense of community reminded him of home. Grano is open now from Tuesday - Sunday with lunch from Wednesday to Sunday. Grano Unit 5, Norseman Court, Manor Street, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 Tues 17:00 - 22:00. Wed - Thu 12:00 - 15:00, 17:00 - 22:00. Fri 12:00 - 15:00. Sat 12:00 - 22:30. Sun 12:00 - 22:00. Phone: (01) 538 2003 www.grano.ie

This week has been dominated by talk of "carnage" and a New Year "bloodbath" in the restaurant industry, after Joe Macken's Jo'Burger group went into liquidation . For months now there's been a lot of chatter about Dublin being at 'peak restaurant', and how we have too many seats for not enough bums, and it looks like a correction has begun. We personally think it's more complicated than this. There are enough bums, they're just not eating out as much for a variety of reasons, including the soaring costs of living in Dublin (including the cost of eating out). If everyone ate out once more per week we wouldn't have enough seats. What the New Year will bring is anyone's guess, but we're hearing of more restaurants in trouble (as well as a tonne more opening), so if anything it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. But onto the reviews... Uno Mas are definitely this week's review winners, after receiving a coveted 9.5/10 in the Irish Times from Catherine Cleary - cue angry tweets about how punters can't get a booking in January. You might want to give that a few weeks and save yourself the heartbreak... She said she knew it would be great, but "the thrill is that it's perfect". Hard to get a better write up than that. She calls a gilda a "pure tapas bar treat", and the cecina (smoked beef) croquettes "a combination so good you could burst into song." She said she wanted "all the mains", but settled on "great" hake with rainbow chard, a clam broth and fermented black garlic sauce. Another of pork 'presa' with apple sauce, potato and flower sprouts made for "one of the best mouthfuls I've eaten all year". She says she'll be dreaming of the 'flan queso' for weeks to come, and a chocolate and olive oil ganache is "brilliant" - we've had it, it is. She says there's a "rightness" that she rarely finds in any restaurant, let alone one on its fourth night of service, and calls Uno Mas "delightful". Read her review here . In the Irish Independent Katy McGuinness took a trip to Yuleyard , Eatyard's festive iteration, as a Christmas shopping pit stop (see our refuelling recommendations here ). She was looking for somewhere more individual, "owned and run by people rather than corporations" - which is a good yardstick to measure any dining choice by - and liked Yuleyard's "eclectic bunch of street-food traders". Dim Sum from Lucky Tortoise were "juicy, tasty and delicious", and their lemongrass pork came in a "soft and pillowy bao with great, not-too-pungent kimchi and white rice". A Mexican Box Burger was "hot, hot, hot", and an apple and mustard hot dog from Flamin' Marvellous came in a "tragic seeded roll" but was "fine"- not really selling it. She calls Yuleyard "the hippest place to grab a bite while you're Christmas shopping", and there's also an unfortunate reference to the fondue in Bar Giuseppe, part of the Jo'Burger group which closed this week. Read her review here . In the Sunday Independent, Lucinda O'Sullivan was in Zozimus bar to check out the new Asian menu from chef Jules Mak, which by all accounts is being well received across the board. Lucky Lucinda found herself surrounded by celebrity faces Norah Casey and Keith from Boyzone, and she says the only problem with the menu was that they wanted everything on it. Prawn and chicken dim sum were "pretty as a picture", and she doesn't say how they tasted but we're assuming she was happy. They stuck to the small plates, including "silky" scallops in a spicy sauce with crumbed pork belly crackling, crab claws wrapped in minced pork and panko breadcrumbs, and duck pancakes, whose pleasure she says was "hard to beat". Her favourite was the panko-crumbed fingers of aubergine with sriracha sauce, and a side of singapore noodles was "excellent". She ends by comparing herself to the terminator, and saying "I'll be back". (Review not currently online). In the Irish Daily Mail Tom Doorley was enamoured with meat-free Good Day Deli in Cork, with its "genuinely striking" welcome, "calm, tall-windowed room", and meaty lentil burger. He says that while the website's talk of sustainable eating, positive attitudes and inspiring atmospheres might have been off putting, the proof was in the eating which was "a delight". Although he's a burger devotee, the lentil burger did deliver something of a hamburger experience, and the chips were "excellent" - the paprika ones even better. Fish tacos came with subtly spiced, battered hake, lemon and coriander mayonnaise, pickled red onion, lime wedges and a colourful slaw, and he calls it "a cracker of a dish". Desserts were mixed with an orange polenta cake "too sweet and pure stodge", but a chocolate and Beamish cake "fabulous". Their bill was "eminently reasonable", and he says that despite Cork being well served by places to go for lunch, Good Day Deli adds something new and different. (Review not currently online) In The Irish Examiner Leslie Williams was in JP McMahon's café-cum-wine bar Tartare in Galway, which he calls a "fine idea", and a place where thought and creativity has gone into the food - like the crisps served with seaweed, fermented cream and trout roe. Good quality beef tartare came with pickled onions and smoked egg, a beef and cheddar sandwich was "packed with meaty flavour", and a venison and barley stew was "a fine filling bowl for a winter afternoon". The only slight off note was a halloumi, gubbeen salami and pumpkin seed salad, due to some over-dressed salad leaves. They finished with a rich, salted caramel tart, and he says that "real care has gone into everything from the wines to the decor, to picking charming, friendly staff, and of course to the food". Review not currently online but should be soon here . In the Sunday Business Post , Gillian Nelis also reviews and highly rates Uno Mas , which she calls "a solid business" in a rapidly oversupplied restaurant market, read that here . And in the Sunday Times Ernie Whalley finally passes through the 'gilded portal' of The Ivy to find food that "will never provoke as much as a flicker of excitement, a soupçon of stimulation". Read that here . More next week.

Joe Macken's Jo'Burger Group has gone into liquidation, and its restaurants Jo'Burger, Crackbird, Hey Donna as well as wine bar Bar Giuseppe have ceased trading. It's understood that staff received a text message yesterday morning telling them of the news, with none of the sites opening yesterday. In a statement released on social media the group said, "With great regret we confirm that Jo'Burger Group Ltd is going into Liquidation. A combination of factors including challenging trading conditions have forced this move. Jo'Burger, Crackbird, Hey Donna & Bar Giuseppe will cease trading immediately. We would like to thank our many customers for their years of support. But mostly thank you and sorry to all our crew and suppliers for their dedication and trust." The Jo'Burger group was founded in 2007, and changed the casual dining scene in Dublin with restaurants Jo'Burger, Crackbird, Skinflint and Bear, but had gone into examinership in 2009 and had been declaring losses for the past few years. The opening of Middle Eastern Canteen Hey Donna in Rathmines in early 2017 was seen to many as the new phase of the group, and Joe himself described it as the type of food he wants to eat these days. The Rathmines site closed in early December, with the company citing difficulties making it work in the suburbs, but a new one had opened on Dame Street in the old Skinflint site. The group's natural wine bar, Bar Giuseppe , only opened above Jo'Burger on Castle Market six weeks ago, so this news has come as a shock to the industry. The rate of restaurant openings in Dublin at the moment seems to be unparalleled (we are genuinely struggling to keep up), and more closures are predicted in the New Year, with many people saying there are too many restaurant seats for the city's population.

Shopping is hard. Shopping for a variety of people in a short amount of time with a limited budget (see: Dublin rent) is even harder. Well, we’re not here to give you tips on how to master the art of finding every present in one day, but what we can do is provide you with a list of pit stops for your shopping days in the big smoke. With this in mind, everything here is close to the main shopping areas to reduce any additional walking trips with heavy shopping bags. For Breakfast Brother Hubbard North With the expansion to their Northside cafe came their artisan food shop, in the original seating area. This is really a two birds with one stone scenario: get some brunch and then nip over to their shop to stock up on presents for your loved ones (or really, just for yourself). They also have mulled wine, winter tonics and Christmas spiced hot chocolate. www.brotherhubbard.ie Laine, My Love Laine, My Love on Talbot Street is handy if you’re getting the DART into Connolly and physically can’t make it any further without a coffee hit straight away. It also helps that the coffee is good. You might be tempted by their cashew nut butter and blackberry jam toastie as well. www.lainemylove.com Tang With two locations in town, Abbey Street and Dawson Street, Tang is great to hop into for a coffee and some food. It gets pretty packed during lunchtime in both spots. It’s best to go in the morning to grab a seat before you venture out into the scary paths of Grafton Street or Henry Street. They also serve brunch at both locations on Saturdays. www.tang.ie The Pepperpot If your parent decides to tag along for some Christmas shopping, take them here. The people-watching and the tea will distract them from the extortionate Dublin prices and “fancy luas transportation”. Also Bewley’s is more likely to hold the entire population of Leinster within its walls during December, so this might be a better bet if you’re in the Grafton Street area. thepepperpot.ie For Lunch Kimchi Hophouse It’s getting to a point now where if you haven’t been to the “Hophouse”, do you really know Dublin? If you do make it to the half-pub, half-Korean restaurant on Parnell Street, we would recommend the bibimbap and kimchi pancakes. kimchihophouse.ie Industry Another place where you can go for sustenance on your shopping quest and find some presents. Caution: this may cause distraction and deviation from the plan...what was the plan again? industryandco.com The Woollen Mills The Woollen Mills is running a Christmas lunch menu with items like whiskey and marmalade glazed sticky bacon ribs, black pudding boxty and mince pie ice-cream. Something to look forward to after braving the crowds in the Jervis Centre. thewoollenmills.com Loose Canon Loose Canon do some mean toasties during the day, featuring a glut of Irish farmhouse cheeses. They also sell retail cheese, charcuterie and wine, just in case you want to forsake your gift buying plans for others and focus on treating yourself. Each hour you spend Christmas shopping, a part of your soul withers. The only way to revive it is with warm, melting cheese and alcohol. loosecanon.ie Overends Kitchen For those brave enough to venture to Dundrum Town Centre (*shudders*) for their Christmas shopping, do yourself a favour and go for a peaceful lunch at the cafe in Airfield Estate. www.airfield.ie/cafe Dinner Uno Mas The new cool kid on the block. The recently opened restaurant from the Etto family is already topping our list of favourite restaurants. Sit at the bar, or better yet the alcove. It might be hard to grab a seat here but trust us, it’s worth it. www.unomas.ie Pi This is our favourite place to get pizza in the city. Plus if you have a loved one in tow who isn’t really feeling the shopping vibe and won’t sit in the designated chair in the shop, give them the gift of Pi pizza to cheer them up. www.pipizzas.ie Pichet Pichet is one of the most consistent restaurants in town, service is inviting and the food is delicious. Probably one of the nicest ways to end a Christmas shopping day. pichet.ie The Seafood Cafe A more casual place to go but definitely not lacking in quality, Niall Sabongi’s Seafood Cafe is a welcoming spot after a day of trekking around town. They also do ‘Build your own Mary’s’ during brunch on Sundays. Just saying. www.facebook.com/klawcafe Sisu Izakaya This newly opened Izakaya just down from Stephen's Green shopping centre is like a dimly-lit haven in the middle of the city centre. The ramen is very good, and they do a killer lunch bento box for €10. sisuizakaya.ie Luna One of our favourite restaurants in Dublin at the moment and it seems to be getting better and better. Let Luna be the light at the end of a weary day of bag handling and extra-exhausting thoughtfulness. ​lunarestaurant.ie Chameleon We understand you’re tired. You picked up too many bags and the next shop seems so far away. Hanger is setting in. Your phone being on 5% doesn’t help anything. But there is some soft, pillowy bao at Chameleon in Temple Bar that might help soothe you. www.chameleonrestaurant.com Hang Dai A little more upbeat in terms of dining rooms (or train carriages in Hang Dai’s case), it’s definitely somewhere to get excited about party season. And if there’s ever a time to get involved with their wood fired Skeaghanore duck, it’s Christmas. www.hangdaichinese.com

The signs of a Dublin Christmas are popping up everywhere - people hauling around tiny Christmas trees for their overpriced apartments, fairy lights strewn shoddily on bare trees and Christmas FM has risen from the shadows to unleash its merry rumps upon us. The Black Friday sales have come and gone, leaving us looking forlornly at full price tags, and while we may have been cynical before, we’re ready now. Fill us with festive carbohydrates, oh sweet and savoury consumer god. 1) The Fable + Stey Christmas Toastie Let the excess commence, and what better way to embrace the season than Christmas dinner in a sambo. The toastie by Blackrock café Fable + Stey  features roast chicken, smoked gubbeen ham, cranberry sauce and onion and thyme stuffing, with sprout salad. Bonus feature: no awkward interactions with relatives you see once a year. (Hint: You can’t choose your family but you can choose your sandwiches.) www.fableandstey.ie 2) The White Mausu Rice Bowl at the Christmas Flea Market This might not be the most festive dish on the list, but that doesn’t dull our lust for it. White Mausu 's rice bowl, available at The Christmas Flea , contains sticky Japanese rice, miso aubergine, homemade fermented kimchi, peas, rayu, and an egg pancake. The Christmas Flea is only open for one more weekend, so why not cross a few presents off your list, and then inhale this as a reward. www.whitemausu.com 3) The Christmas Toastie at Daniel The idea behind Daniel's signature sandwich, the ‘Black and Blue’, was conceived around the festive time last year (when executive head chef at 3fe , Hilary O’ Hagan Brennan made a Christmas leftovers toastie), and it was one of the best things to come out of the silly season since the bearded man himself. Now they've released a new Christmas toastie with turkey, ham, brie and cranberry mayo, and we've been eyeing it up all week. 3fe.com/locations 4) The Cruffins at Oxmantown Pastries, amirite? Oxmantown ’s insta feed has been seducing us with cruffins for weeks. The chocolate orange cremeux cruffin topped with caramelised orange, lemon meringue, toasted nut praline and of course, a malted chocolate cremeux. *double tap* *double tap* *double tap* ... *double tap* www.oxmantown.com 5) Bujo Paddy’s Ranch Burger We’re going to say it first. Burgers are festive now. Burgers are great. Burgers are always a good idea and what other time of the year is it as acceptable to impulse eat them? Plus, every new limited burger at Bujo  feels like opening a window of your advent calendar. Their new special. 'The Paddy Ranch', features house-made Korean ranch and panko red onion rings. See, I’m dreaming of a ra-a-nch Christmas... bujo.ie

Not all mince pies are created equal, so it's time to ditch the sad store bought ones that your aunt insists on feeding you - let’s face it, no amount of tea can make them taste any better. Here’s our pick of where to get the best homemade mince pies in Dublin. The Cupcake Bloke The Bakery by The Cupcake Bloke in Rialto has an entire ‘Mince Pie Bar’ running through December, with 7 different kinds of mince pies to gorge on. The pies on the bar include a Christmas pasteis de nata, mince pie brownies and mince pie cake pops. Needless to say, we've very jealous of anyone who lives in close proximity to the bakery. thecupcakebloke.com Bread 41 The roaring fire of the pizza oven in Bread 41 is enough to get Nat King Cole's ‘The Christmas Song’ stuck in your head for the foreseeable future. Throw in mince pies and it's a done deal. Eoin Cluskey uses his grandmother’s recipe, where the secret ingredient is Guinness - not so secret then. www.breadnation.ie/eatery Two Boys Brew One of the best mince pies found on the North Side. These bad boys fly out the door and are from another grandmother’s recipe (grannies really are the queens of mince pies). You can also order a box of them to take home from December 19th. www.twoboysbrew.ie Five Points Five Points in Harold’s Cross have taken an inventive approach this year by topping their mince pies with meringue, making them look like something out of a snowy Christmas scene. www.facebook.com/fivepointshx Love Supreme Love Supreme ’s savoury pies and sausage rolls always hit the spot and their take on the boozy festive pastry is no different. They’re serving their “Xmas spice fruit crumble” mince pies all month. www.lovesupreme.ie Sceal Bakery These flaky pastry mince pies can be found at the Christmas Flea this weekend and are worth elbowing Christmas shoppers out of the way for. Keep your eyes on the prize...or, better yet, the pies. www.scealbakery.com

We were starting to think it would never open, after delays spanning months, but the good news is that Gertrude , the all day diner from 3fe's Colin Harmon, has finally opened on Pearse Street, with Holly Dalton in charge of the food. Holly comes from 3fe's Grand Canal Dock location, and took some time out to travel around Japan a few months ago, which is presumably where she got her inspiration for Gertrude's pork tonkatsu sandwich. Holly describes Gertrude as "like a diner, but good", and the all day menu stays the same from breakfast to dinner, so steak for breakfast and a fry up after work are now distinct possibilities. They're open seven days a week, and the only night they're currently open is Saturday, but eventually the plan is to open seven nights a week - they just need more chefs first. The menu is a mixture of semi-typical diner fare, Asian influenced dishes and the best Irish produce, with dishes like friend chicken and buttermilk pancakes, duck buns and game pie, as well as scrambled eggs with crab and hot sauce, snacks, sides and sweets. The wine list has been put together by Pete Conway O'Neil, formerly of Greenman Wines, and as is fast becoming the trend across the city, has a natural wine steer with loads of great options, as well as sherries, vermouth and white port. All of the bread and pastries are from Bread 41 down the road, and coffee is of course from 3fe . We can personally recommend the snacks of Cooleeny croquettes with beetroot ketchup and the bacon and cabbage dumplings, which are like a slap of umami right across the face. The pork tonkatsu sandwich with homemade kewpie mayo (a Japanese variety made with rice vinegar) and shredded cabbage on Bread 41 batch loaf is also something special, using Irish free-range pork from The Whole Hoggs in The Boyne Valley, and they're all very generous portions for the price Holly says she wants Gertrude to be accessible, all-day dining, where people can just as easily drop in for a small plate or food or a three course meal, and it's certainly somewhere we can see ourselves lingering for an afternoon. Gertrude 130 Pearse Street, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2 Mon - Fri 08:00 - 16:00. Sat 10:00 - 22:00. Sun 11:00 - 18:00. www.gertrude.ie

Bowls by Kwanghi Chan has opened on Marlborough Street, just off Parnell Street - Dublin's unofficial Chinatown. Kwanghi, a Hong Kong born, Donegal raised, Michelin-trained chef, is probably best known for his range of Chan Chan sauces and spice bag mixtures, but was formerly head chef at the Cliff House Hotel in Waterford, and was also food director of the short-lived Soder and Ko on George's Street. This is his first solo restaurant. Bowls unsurprisingly serves Asian rice and noodle bowls, with a choice from either their signature options like roasted aubergine, beef brisket and char siu pork, or you can build your own from a large selection of ingredients. They're using big green eggs to barbeque meats and vegetables, and there's an abundance of chan chan sauce to top it all off with. We've tried the pork and the aubergine and were seriously impressed with the deep, smoky flavours. They're only doing soft drinks, including Asian iced teas, as well as tea and coffee, and they've got some very tasty looking pasteis de natas on the counter, as well as some other cakes and pastries. Bowls by Kwanghi Chan is open from Monday - Saturday, and currently there's no website but you can follow them on Twitter and Instagram . Bowls by Kwanghi Chan 56 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 Mon - Fri 08:00 - 18:00, Sat 10:00 - 18:00. twitter.com/BowlsD1

Hey Donna in Rathmines closed last week, around 18 months after owner Joe Macken turned the original Jo'Burger site into a Middle Eastern inspired canteen. A second Hey Donna opened on Dame Street last month in the group's old Skinflint site, which will remain open. Hey Donna was seen as the Jo'Burger group 2.0, and a move away from burgers, pizzas and fried chicken to something more upscale and 'Ottolenghi-esque'. Joe described it as the type of food he wants to eat now, with freshness, big flavours and a focus on vegetables. Dishes like their whole roast cauliflower and miso aubergine made frequent appearances on social media, as well as their platters of grilled steak, chicken and ribs. The group, who recently opened natural wine-focused Bar Giuseppe , above Jo'Burger on Castle Market, published this statement on the Hey Donna Rathmines website: "Rathmines has changed beyond recognition since we first opened there as Jo’Burger over 10 years ago. The HEY DONNA concept was a huge success but unfortunately unsustainable in an out of town location.​We are hopeful that the staff affected by the closure can be redeployed, either with Jo’Burger or elsewhere.​The Jo’Burger Group will continue to evolve new ideas and restaurants, while focused on our city centre enterprises, Crackbird, HEY DONNA and Bar Giuseppe.​Thank you for some unforgettable times Rathmines x" Bookings for Hey Donna on Dame Street can be made here .

We were wondering who would get the first review of Uno Mas in, which has been undoubtedly one of the most anticipated openings of the year. The safe money was on Lucinda who we know had booked in for opening night, but lo and behold Tom Doorley beat her to it. Presumably we can expect her take on the Spanish influenced cuisine from the Etto crew next Sunday. No surprise to hear that Tom loved it. He describes the gildas as "bursting with savoury goodness", slivers of pig's ear were tender and crisply coated, and the squid a la plancha with just salt and olive oil was "the best thing I've eaten all year". Morcilla with fried quail's egg and piquillo pepper was "breathtakingly simple", with flavours working "like a symphony", and a potato and onion tortilla was "perfectly seasoned ... perfectly oozing". We can confirm it is that good. They finished with a dessert of milhojas, which reminded them of childhood custard slices, and he says that even though his visit was on their fourth night they didn't miss a beat. He describes the food at Uno Mas as "very simple dishes ... very clever and executed exquisitely." Needless to say they were very pleased to wake up to that yesterday morning. (Review not currently online) In the Irish Times this week, Catherine Cleary has gone very worthy altogether by using her column to highlight The Fumbally team's brilliant work in taking over the canteen at a local school . The reason she gets away with it (by a sliver) is because they're starting to offer food for collection to local businesses as a way to keep money coming in. She went to their fundraising dinner to see (and eat) the type of food they're serving up to the girls, and that will now be available as part of a catering service. Roasted squash with labneh and spices was "a perfect plate", and corn tortillas with tomatillo salsa, pork belly and pickled red onion are the best she's had outside Mexico - which is saying something. Two curries, one chicken and one butternut squash were "delicious", and dessert of apple crumble with custard caused bowls to be "almost licked clean". She says that The Fumbally have made good food in Dublin cafés the norm, and if they can make the same work financially in schools it's a model that could be rolled out anywhere. Okay we forgive her. Read her review here . In the Sunday Independent Lucinda O'Sullivan was in Cork trying out "contemporary Italian osteria" Da Mirco in Cork, where she found the drink of her dreams - a mixture of Campari, Martino (Martini?) Rosso and Prosecco in case you're interested. Like Joe McNamee a couple of months ago, she was very taken with the "simple food and good wine", which included a baked potato cake with a cod mousse ("tasty and filling") and raviolini with gorgonzola and walnuts ("absolutely delicious"). Tagliatelle with a mixed-meat white ragu (above) had "a rich and edgy taste", and casarecce alla puttanesca was "a whopping bowl with tonnes of everything". Her friend's salame di cioccolato was "the perfect chocolate fix", and her Lombardy cheeseboard was "just fabulous". She says the menu is concise and the prices great, and they clearly left delighted with life. (Review not currently online) In The Irish Examiner Joe McNamee was remembering the good and the bad about A.A. Gill at the Farmgate Café in Cork's English Market. The good - his stylish and funny prose. The bad - his brutal hidings. Thankfully when the now passed critic visited Cork's Farmgate Café he loved it as much as Joe does. He calls it a "sanctuary", and upon entering "the world without vanishes entirely, for as long as you choose to stay". Their chicken liver paté was "fine and herbaceaous", a lamb shank was "divine meat" cooked perfectly, and a smoked cheese, potato, leek and caramelised onion tart was "quite delicious", with a "wonderfully gooey filling". An Irish stew was "tender, sweet and exquisite", and he says the Farmgate's essence and ethos has remained consistent for the 24 years it's been open. He even goes so far as to say on certain days it's his favourite restaurant in the world. Hard to beat. (Review not currently online) In the Irish Independent , Katy McGuinness took a trip to London to super cool Shoreditch eatery St Leonards , which she calls "flamboyant but flawed". Their mixed experienced started with an icy welcome, before they got onto the food that didn't all taste as good as it sounded. High points included shell-on prawns with Old Bay mayonnaise, grilled leek heart cooked on the grill, filled with almond cream and topped with truffle, and a foie gras custard with smoked eel and crunchy pork rind, but there were plenty of lows too. Oysters with beef dripping, green tomato and horseradish were a "non-event" with their "unpleasant mouthfeel of cold fat" (gag-worthy), grey mullet crudo was "awful, unpleasant", with a "complete absence of flavour", and a Mangalica pork chop had a meat to fat ratio that her fellow diners found "off-putting". Dessert of a salted caramel and sherry tart was "sublime" and while she says the food is by no means perfect, it's certainly exciting. This seems to be the theme of the place as Jay Rayner called it "not so much a restaurant as a funfair ride". Read her review here . In The Sunday Times Ernie Whalley enjoyed "a masterclass in styling and flavour" at The Owenmore Restaurant in Ballinahinch Castle, read that here , and in the Sunday Business Post , Gillian Nelis liked the bistro dishes more than the exotic ones at The Three Q's in Greystones. Read that here . More next week.

Damien Grey and Andrew Heron, owners of the tiny Michelin-starred restaurant Heron & Grey in Blackrock, have announced that they are going their separate ways, with Damian reopening the restaurant early next year under a new name, 'Liath', which means Grey in Irish. The restaurant is fully booked until January 26th, after which they will close for a month, and reopen in a slightly new format. It's a surprisingly turn for the duo behind one of Dublin's most successful restaurants, which first opened in 2016 and gained a Michelin star in under a year. Heron and wife Jessica had their first child earlier this year, and he says he hopes to do something that allows him to spend more time with his family. Heron & Grey have been changing their menu every two weeks, never repeating a dish, and Grey says he plans to bring back the best from the past three years, after going through his 8 A4 folders containing every dish from the past three years. The menu will continue to change with the seasons. Choosing to reopen as 'Liath' means giving up the Michelin-star that's been awarded to the team every year since 2016, but Damien says their main priority is getting Liath off the ground and making sure all guests are looked after when they visit in its new guise. They hope to gain a star again, but for now, he says, it's heads down and getting to work on Liath. We have a feeling this will have precisely zero impact on the enormous demand for seats. We'll update you on bookings for Liath once we hear more.

This year’s Christmas Flea Market starts TODAY in the Point Village, and with a Dublin flea shaped hole in our hearts we're very excited to get in there and start eating our favourite things again. Usually held over one long weekend, this year's Christmas Flea has been split over two weekends; 6th-9th December and 13th-16th December. The indoor market will be open on Thursdays and Fridays from 1-8pm and 11-6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Food stalls will include Corleggy Cheese with their raw milk cheeses from Cavan, The Proper Chocolate Company with their bean to bar chocolate made in Glasnevin, 4 Hands Studio fermented foods and The Wooded Pig charcuterie made from free range pork in Meath. Camerino Bakery will be there with their signature cakes and bakes - their raspberry cheesecake raspberry brownies are especially good if you need a pick me up whilst browsing the stalls - and the Flea will be running a mulled wine stall with all proceeds going to charity. Dublin Honey Project , started by Gearóid Carvill and Kieran Hartnett, will be there with their local honey collected from apiaries in various Dublin postcodes. The honey from each postcode has a different taste, and comes from spots including a rooftop in Dublin 1, an apple orchard in Dublin 4 and a suburban garden in Dublin 14. White Mausu , creators of the infamous Peanut Rayu, will be there with their condiments and signature rayu bowls - one of the few times a year you can catch them in Dublin. The rayu bowls will have sticky Japanese rice, miso aubergine, pickles, homemade kimchi, peas, peanut rayu and egg pancake, and are really worth the trip. They’ll also be launching their new sauce, Cashew Miso Maple. Sceal Bakery will be there with their show-stopping pastries, and Christmas puddings made with their sourdough breadcrumbs. Yes, a thousand times yes. They’ll also have flaky mince pies, sausage rolls, mince meat and vanilla sea salt brandy butter. MuTonics will also be there with their signature turmeric drink, Jamu tonic, made in West Cork. Clovis Ferguson, from the Gubbeen empire, and Ruth Calder-Potts are behind the tonic drinks, and we intend on stocking up on some for January, and let’s be honest, the heavy mornings over Christmas. The organisers have advised to head there on the Thursday and Friday to beat the crowds, which is pretty solid advice if you’re not yet in the mindset of rabid Christmas shopping. Similar to the regular Dublin Flea Market format, entry is free. We recently wrote about the current situation with the Dublin Flea Market and their search for a home which is still ongoing. You can read about that here . The Christmas Flea Point Square, Dublin 1 Thu 6th - Sun 9th Dec, Thu 13th - Sun 16th Dec. Thu & Fri 13:00 - 20:00. Sat & Sun 11:00 - 18:00. dublinchristmasflea.ie

Shelbourne Social , Dylan McGrath's Manhattan style, super high end restaurant in Ballsbridge opens to the public today, with every luxury food ingredient you can think of, leather dining tables and some very punchy prices - their €120 steak was quite the talk of social media yesterday. The menu is most definitely unlike anything else currently on offer in the city, and while it's not anchored to any one cuisine, there are some jaw-dropping dishes on there - both in description and price. Wagyu beef on crispy potatoes with sesame, garlic, hot sauce and crème fraîche will set you back €45, you can get a pot of whole roasted duck with confit leg, citrus pancakes, preserved lemon, bitter leaves and rice for the princely sum of €90, or the aforementioned 35 day dry-aged rib eye with pickled red onion, fried chard and Café de Paris Hollandaise for €120. All to share apparently. Phew. The menu is pretty extensive, with crudo (raw), nearly cooked, fish and meat sections, and there are less expensive options too, if you're one of those unlucky people paying Dublin rents, like soba noodles with brown shrimp, prawn and Thai basil for €15, and cacio e pepe pasta for €18. They're also adding a bar menu soon which should be on the more affordable side. We have a serious gaze on the 'hot curd bread' section, which is being described as being like an Irish potato bread made with sheep and goat's curds, cooked like a large pancake and served with different options, from foie gras with poached plum, Riesling and pine nuts to caviar and seaweed butter. Please god let these taste as good as they sound. The interior, described as old fashioned American, is proper swank, with leather topped tables, Italian marble and a mezzanine cocktail bar. There are several dining areas, and we're being promised intimate niches in the restaurant and the cocktail area upstairs. Shelbourne Social is on the corner of the new No. 1 Ballsbridge development on Shelbourne road, and we're pretty sure the residents of the five-star luxury apartments above will be regular customers. It's a 5 minute walk to the Aviva Stadium and a 10 minute talk to the RDS, and in a part of town that's not exactly bursting with good eateries it's great to see another quality sounding option opening up. This is the sixth restaurant and bar from McGrath's restaurant group Prime Steak Ltd, which also includes Fade Street Social, Rustic Stone, Bonsai Bar, Taste and Brasserie Sixty 6. This latest opening has cost a reported €3 million - they'll need to sell a lot of €120 steaks to make that back. Shelbourne Social is open now for dinner from Monday - Saturday, with lunch to follow in a week's time. Bookings can be made through their website below. Shelbourne Social Unit 1, 1 Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Mon - Sat 17.00 - 22:00. From 12th of December, Wed - Sat 12:00 - 15:00 also. www.shelbournesocial.com

Well this is embarrassing. Three of the critics have reviewed the same restaurant this week. Is this like showing up to a wedding in the same outfit as not one but two other guests? Lucky for Loretta's in Phibsborough, it's a fried chicken filled hat-trick. In The Irish Times , Catherine Cleary calls it "a slice of Americana" on the Northside, with "big, gutsy dishes cooked from the heart". Despite the fact she found the lighting slightly too bright, she says "they've done a brave thing with this space", and that their accountant probably would have recommended opening a superpub or burger joint instead. More fool them. A chicken-liver mousse on brioche with candied walnuts and whit port soaked golden raisins "works really well", and oyster mushrooms on toast with Parmesan fondue and aubergine relish is "great". The dish that's probably going to be their signature, a 'biscuit' with fried chicken and a corn and fennel salad, she calls "a keeper", and combining it all makes for "a truly satisfying mouthful". Cured then fried seatrout with butternut squash gnocchi is "rib-sticking", and the only let down was the desserts, which were "fine". She calls it "a place to sit back and ... enjoy a district reinventing itself through small businesses wearing their hearts on their sleeves." All the feels... Read her review here . In the Irish Daily Mail, Tom Doorley calls chef and owner Jimmy Wiley's food "excellent ... rather original, American accented cooking." He was also feeling the fried chicken, calling it "a knockout", and loved a Skeaghanore duck salad with roasted baby beetroot and violette mustard. A striploin steak had "a lovely touch of smoky char" and came with homemade chips - another win . He calls Loretta's "more than a neighbourhood restaurant", saying he can see people travelling to eat here from all over the city. He found out in the course of the meal that Jimmy grows his own vegetables in North Dublin, and it sounds like they had a bonding moment over some tomatillos. Needless to say he's a big fan. (Review not currently online) Another love letter to Loretta's in the Irish Examiner (are you bored yet? Stick with us...), where Leslie Williams is super impressed with the "lovely job" done refitting the former bank - "the grandeur of the space kept fully intact". More love for the fried chicken ("tender and flavourful") and the "excellent" buttermilk ‘biscuit’, which he notes rarely seen in Ireland - we're more likely to call it a scone. "Excellent" Nashville Hot Oysters’ came in a crispy coating with "pungent" bone marrow tartare, dry-aged Angus striplon was "tender, good quality meat", and beef and pork ragu with pappardelle was "properly" Bolognese style, even if the pasta was slightly overcooked. Their desserts (different to Catherine Cleary's) sound pretty good, and he says it would be great if every neighbourhood had a spot like Loretta's. Read his review here . Now for something completely different. Another disappointing meal at Del-Fino . Katy McGuinness in the Irish Independent says she gives her 5/10 for food "with a heavy heart", as she was so looking forward to eating there. She says Del-Fino is "barely holding it together, in terms of either food or service", which is pretty similar to what Leslie Williams and Ernie Whalley said. Things didn't start off well after they were abandoned at an uncomfortable high table, with no one coming back "for the longest time", and after asking to move they ended up very cramped, with no remedy in sight. She calls the menu "a strange mix ... no one can decide what the food is supposed to be". Fermented potato beignets weren't as interesting as they sounded, two different pasta dishes had excellent pasta but sauces lacking depth of flavour, and the only one that felt like "an O'Reilly plate" was a starter of pork cheek, celeriac, hazelnuts and sherry vinegar. Mains featured overcooked côte de boeuf, dried out shortrib and monotone gnocchi, and she calls the desserts "pedestrian". Despite the head in hands experience she ends on a very generous note, saying "I'm sure things can and will improve". Read her review here . In the Sunday Independent, Lucinda's back on the round-ups, this time the best places to get something to eat while Christmas shopping (look out for our own feature on this next week). Funnily enough, after the pizza bashing of two weeks ago, she recommends Pi as a good place for a stop off. Maybe she's coming around to the "peasant meal" after all. Her other Dublin recommendations for Christmas shopping stop-offs include Greek restaurant Corfu on Dame Street which will "transport you immediately to the Aegean", Glovers Alley for "some of the most elegant French style food in the city", and The Legal Eagle - "the hottest gastropub in town". She also gives Saba a shoutout for their cocktails, and Duck , for the, er, pork. (Not currently online) There's no review in the Sunday Business Post this week due to their gift guide, and in the Sunday Times Ernie Whalley is left cold by his trip to The Botanic House in Glasnevin, which he says wavers between being a pub that serves good food and a neighbourhood restaurant, and is falling short at both. Read that here . More next week.

Uno Mas, the long-awaited restaurant from Liz Matthews and Simon Barrett ( Etto ) and Paul McNamara ( Locks ) opens on Aungier Street today. Uno Mas, meaning 'one more', has a predominantly Spanish theme, and the team have spent the large year making research trips to Madrid and Galicia to get inspiration for the menu and wine list. Similar to Etto , there's a two or three course lunch option, and an á la carte menu in the evening. The menu will change regularly, but features traditionally Spanish things like gildas, jamon iberico, padron peppers, croquettas (with cecina - smoked beef), and the best tortilla we've tasted in years. There's also a bit of Irishness going on, with dishes like venison carpaccio, pickled walnut, treviso and horseradish, and suckling pig with pink fir apple, potato and parsnip. There are nods to Etto  too (which was named  RAI restaurant of the year 2018 ), with their much-loved mussels and nduja with chargrilled bread getting a makeover and popping up here as mussles with rojo mojo. There's also a Delmonico ribeye with Bordelaise sauce for two, similar to Etto's côte de boeuf, and they've done something very clever with a dessert of 'milhojas', by adding a layer of red wine prune juice to it. Anyone who's been to Etto will know that their signature dessert is a bowl of red wine marinated prunes with mascarpone - now the leftover juice will come to Uno Mas. There's an extensive, mostly Spanish wine list, with a sizeable amount of sherries, and vermouth on tap. The impressive hand-made wooden bar is officially the best bar seating in town (more of this please), and the two seater alcove opposite it is going to be the table in demand, so get your requests in early. Uno Mas is open now for lunch and dinner from Monday to Saturday. Their website isn't live yet, but bookings can be made by emailing info@unomas.ie or calling 01 4758538. Get in fast as this one is going to go crazy. Uno Mas 6 Aungier Street, Dublin 2 Mon - Sat, Lunch from 12pm, Dinner from 5pm www.unomas.ie

Isabelle's , the latest addition to Press Up's Entertainment bar and restaurant portfolio opens on South Anne Street, just off Grafton Street, at 5pm today. Like the rest of their venues ( Sophie's , Roberta's , The Grayson ), the fit out is high end, with oak clad walls, marble floors and handmade wall tiles. There's an open kitchen, and seating at banquettes, the bar or the copper-covered pizza counter, where you can watch the pizzas being made (if your dinner guest has no chat). Press Up have been known to get some flack over the food in their venues, with menus of the "everything to everyone" variety, and it might be for that reason that they're really pushing the food with this one. Head chef Barra Hurley worked in Shanahan's on the Green for 9 years, and spent the last year as head chef in Tomahawk , Press Up's Temple Bar Steakhouse. They say that he and fellow chef Stephen Ryan (most recently head chef at Lucky Duck ), travelled to London several times for inspiration for the food, which they say is "simple but packed full of flavour, centered on seasonality". The proof will be in the Po'boy. There's not much of a theme to the menu, with everything from bolognese pizza, to glazed beef shortrib to that blackened shrimp Po'boy (pictured), and desserts like Valrhona broken chocolate fudge cake with warm salted caramel and Black Forest Alaska (below). Cocktails all have twists on the classics, they have a large selection of wines on tap and in bottle, and refreshingly (no pun intended) there's a focus on low alcohol drinks, including a selection of spritzers. Definitely sounds like a good one for the 12 pubs. Isabelle's opens at 5pm today and will be open 7 days a week for lunch, dinner and brunch on weekends. Isabelle's 13-14 South Anne Street, Dublin 2 Mon - Fri 12pm - late Sat - Sun 10am - late isabelles.ie

Klaw Poke , Niall Sabongi's Hawaiian seafood bowl restaurant on Capel Street has closed. Opened in May of last year, Klaw were one of the first to get in on the poke trend that's swept the globe in recent years, and like the rest of their sites, the aim was to get people eating more Irish seafood. Sabongi's been working on a new concept, the 'Urban Monger', and said he's closing Klaw Poké to concentrate on this new project, which is due to open on the Northside next year. The Urban Monger will act as the base for Sabongi's wholesale business, Sustainable Seafood Ireland , and will also have a retail arm, a restaurant and a fish cookery school. Customers will be able to buy fish to take home, or have it cooked to order then and there, and we very much like the sound of all of this. Klaw in Temple Bar and The Seafood Café are trading as usual, and The Seafood Café recently launch a new brunch menu which you can read about here . More news on the Urban Monger as and when we get it.

In keeping with the ever-growing Irish tradition of copying whatever over-the-top thing the Americans do (Krispy Kreme, anyone?), we - through Instagram - celebrated Thanksgiving this year. And by proxy, Black Friday/Cyber Monday and all of the associated neo-liberalism afflictions. This week, with the ever-increasing pace of LAST CHANCE discount emails pinging our inbox, we began to feel some premature shopping anxiety, which normally presents itself around the 22nd/23rd December. So, let us lay down our new logic. If turkey is moved up a month, then why not festive over-drinking? Sure, the rush of actually buying Christmas presents in a timely manner is cool but have you considered procrastinating until last minute? Here’s five ways to drink your Xmas stress away. *Alexa, play Michael Buble’s Christmas Album* 1. The Wine Bagnums at First Draft Coffee and Wine Nothing says ‘I’m spending an excessive amount of time with my family’ like having wine on tap on your person. Give the gift of a bagnum today... to yourself, you deserve it, small talk is tough. The bagnum, boxed wine’s younger, more hipster sister who took a gap year to find herself and has now become an eco warrior, has got your back. A bottle of wine is cool and all but stand out today with a bag of wine. First Draft launched their new wine bar last week, complete with this beautiful Le Grappin Gamay by the glass, but really, we want the whole bag. www.facebook.com/firstdraftcoffee 2. A Pear and Cinnamon Bellini at Coppinger Row If you read our last 5 things , you may have noticed our slight aversion to cinnamon during the pre-Christmas period. But rest assured, following increased exposure to the festive spice, we’ve decided to scale back our aversion - at least when it comes to cocktails. Maybe by December we’ll be ready for a cinnamon-themed 5 Things? www.coppingerrow.com 3. This cocktail from Bar Giuseppe Upstairs on Castle Market Street, Bar Giuseppe has quickly become one of our favourite places for a drink in town. Apart from the bar’s obviously Instagrammable interiors, this place knows its way around a cocktail. When mixed together, campari, silver tequila, grapefruit, bitters and lime, are known as a “Siesta”, and once you add in their cheese fondue, you'll most likely need "a nap". bargiuseppe.ie 4. The Exchequer's 'Ode to Vogue' When you’re in town this weekend, remember: Christmas shopping is not a race, it’s a marathon that takes up a lot of energy and brain power. It’s not about buying everything in one day, it’s about getting distracted, forgetting your list and walking past The Exchequer and realising you need a fashion inspired drink. Oh capitalism. Distract yourself with this 'Ode to Vogue' and mull it over. www.theexchequer.ie 5. Henriot Champagne at The Coburg It’s hard to follow winebag up there, but this is not your average ‘bubbly’ (we literally hate ourselves for saying that). Look, we know it’s hard to accept, but prosecco is losing its hype, and this particular Champagne tastes approximately 150 times better. Plus it’s Christmas, the time of year where you close your eyes and tap your bank card like you’re moving in time to the festive music. Just go with it. www.thecoburgdublin.com