You’ll probably spot Strudel Artisan Bakery by the hungry looking queue forming outside from around 8am, and one glance at their Instagram page will make you understand why. From chocolate babka to savoury brioche, this is peak pastry, worth travelling a long distance for. Strudel Bakery Website strudelbakery.com Address 105 Patrick Street, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story You’ll probably spot Strudel Artisan Bakery by the hungry looking queue forming outside from around 8am, and one glance at their Instagram page will make you understand why. From chocolate babka to savoury brioche, this is peak pastry, worth travelling a long distance for. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

This 14-seater Indian/Nepalese under a bridge in Clontarf was one of our favourite finds of 2025. It feels like being invited to someone’s house for dinner, who’s cooked every ounce of your meal from scratch, grinding spices and kneading naan. Badam’s food is alive with flavour, and they do takeaway at a reduced price if you want to try it at home. Badam Website badam.ie Address Badam Indian and Nepalese Cuisine, Howth Road, Clontarf West, Dublin 3, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story This 14-seater Indian/Nepalese under a bridge in Clontarf was one of our favourite finds of 2025. It feels like being invited to someone’s house for dinner, who’s cooked every ounce of your meal from scratch, grinding spices and kneading naan. Badam’s food is alive with flavour, and they do takeaway at a reduced price if you want to try it at home. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Contemporary Mexican from chef Jules Mak, whose first restaurant Mak D6 is around the corner. A menu of bites, tacos and meaty mains focused on the "parrilla" or grill, in a buzzy room full of people out for a good night. There's a huge cocktail list with eight different types of margaritas, and the George Clooney-founded Casamigos tequila is heavily tied into the menu. Parrilla Website parrillaranelagh.com Address Parrilla Ranelagh, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Contemporary Mexican from chef Jules Mak, whose first restaurant Mak D6 is around the corner. A menu of bites, tacos and meaty mains focused on the "parrilla" or grill, in a buzzy room full of people out for a good night. There's a huge cocktail list with eight different types of margaritas, and the George Clooney-founded Casamigos tequila is heavily tied into the menu. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

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

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

Waterfront dining on the docklands from the Bereen brothers, also behind Coppinger Row (now closed) and Orwell Road. The menu uses Irish produce, often with a Mediterranean spin, and the pre-theatre menu is ideal if you're going to a show in the Bord Gáis Energy theatre. Charlotte Quay Website charlottequay.ie Address Charlotte Quay Dock, Millennium Tower, Ground Floor, Ringsend Road, Dublin 4 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Waterfront dining on the docklands from the Bereen brothers, also behind Coppinger Row (now closed) and Orwell Road. The menu uses Irish produce, often with a Mediterranean spin, and the pre-theatre menu is ideal if you're going to a show in the Bord Gáis Energy theatre. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

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

Emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients with a thoughtfully put together wine list. Chef Anthony Smith describes his food as ‘Modern International’ and it's ideal for North city celebrations, especially since they switched to a tasting menu. Mr Fox Website mrfox.ie Address 38 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients with a thoughtfully put together wine list. Chef Anthony Smith describes his food as ‘Modern International’ and it's ideal for North city celebrations, especially since they switched to a tasting menu. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Dolce Sicily made their name on their crunchy, creamy, filled on the spot cannoli, but after moving into a larger premises on South Anne Street introduced a larger menu for lunch and dinner. Handmade pastas, risotto and fish all feature, but it's their bakery we're really here for. A solo breakfast of mini fruit tarts and filled croissants in one of the nooks upstairs is one of our fair city's greatest pleasures. Dolce Sicily Website dolcesicily.ie Address 20 Anne Street South, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Dolce Sicily made their name on their crunchy, creamy, filled on the spot cannoli, but after moving into a larger premises on South Anne Street introduced a larger menu for lunch and dinner. Handmade pastas, risotto and fish all feature, but it's their bakery we're really here for. A solo breakfast of mini fruit tarts and filled croissants in one of the nooks upstairs is one of our fair city's greatest pleasures. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

A steak house for the Tiktok generation, with an industrial fit out and casual dining prices. Neon slogans invite diners to "gather the herd" for sharing steaks, double smash burgers, and sides like truffle and parmesan fries, onion strings and mac n'cheese. Bovinity Website bovinity.ie Address 123 Capel Street, Dublin 1 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story A steak house for the Tiktok generation, with an industrial fit out and casual dining prices. Neon slogans invite diners to "gather the herd" for sharing steaks, double smash burgers, and sides like truffle and parmesan fries, onion strings and mac n'cheese. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Bang 3.0 has risen from the ashes of its former incarnations with the new guard running the show. Eric Matthews and Richie Barrett made their name with Kicky's, and have now taken over Richie's family restaurant (where the pair originally met) to do it all again, this time with a focus on all things Spanish. Bang Website bangrestaurant.com Address 11 Merrion Row, Dublin, D02 KW61, Ireland Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Bang 3.0 has risen from the ashes of its former incarnations with the new guard running the show. Eric Matthews and Richie Barrett made their name with Kicky's, and have now taken over Richie's family restaurant (where the pair originally met) to do it all again, this time with a focus on all things Spanish. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Fish, chips, snacks, wine. Casual, bar counter dining at its best, with lovely service from warm staff. Brilliant wine list full of interesting discoveries that the team will be more than happy to talk you through. There's nowhere better for fish, chips and a bottle of Champagne. Fish Shop Website fish-shop.ie Address 76 Benburb St, Smithfield, Dublin 7 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Fish, chips, snacks, wine. Casual, bar counter dining at its best, with lovely service from warm staff. Brilliant wine list full of interesting discoveries that the team will be more than happy to talk you through. There's nowhere better for fish, chips and a bottle of Champagne. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Modern Irish restaurant Delahunt is probably most famous for being the place Harry and Megan ate when they visited Dublin in 2018. They moved to a tasting menu post-Covid and the seasonal menu is big on Irish ingredients. Delahunt Website delahunt.ie Address 39 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Modern Irish restaurant Delahunt is probably most famous for being the place Harry and Megan ate when they visited Dublin in 2018. They moved to a tasting menu post-Covid and the seasonal menu is big on Irish ingredients. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Neighbourhood restaurant from the same team as the The Woollen Mills and The Winding Stair. Varied menu focusing on Irish food and provenance, with an all day brunch from 12pm on weekends. The Washerwoman Website thewasherwoman.ie Address 60 Glasnevin Hill, Glasnevin, Dublin 9 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Neighbourhood restaurant from the same team as the The Woollen Mills and The Winding Stair. Varied menu focusing on Irish food and provenance, with an all day brunch from 12pm on weekends. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Dalkey's much-loved wine shop has a restaurant in the back, and outdoor seating when the sun shines. The menu is a catch all of things like pasta, burgers and seafood, but the stars are on the shelves. Pick from an ever-interesting wine list, or pluck a bottle from the shop and pay corkage. Grapevine Website onthegrapevine.ie Address 26 Castle Street, Dalkey, Co. Dublin Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Dalkey's much-loved wine shop has a restaurant in the back, and outdoor seating when the sun shines. The menu is a catch all of things like pasta, burgers and seafood, but the stars are on the shelves. Pick from an ever-interesting wine list, or pluck a bottle from the shop and pay corkage. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Neighbourhood pizza as it should be: equal parts authentic and eccentric. Named after the nondescript little Smithfield alley out behind Frank Ryan’s pub where it originally set up stall in 2017, Coke Lane has steadily progressed to bigger and better things since opening in 2017, now serving up its wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas in two D8 sites: The Circular in Rialto and Lucky’s in the Liberties. Founder Dave Holmes brings vocational zeal to his work with irresistibly airy sourdough crusts, delicious home-made chilli honey and sophisticatedly simple flavour pairings designed to appeal to all palates. It's a particular hit with vegetarians, with half the menu meat-free. Coke Lane at The Circular Website cokelanepizza.ie Address 536–538 South Circular Road, Rialto, Dublin 8 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Neighbourhood pizza as it should be: equal parts authentic and eccentric. Named after the nondescript little Smithfield alley out behind Frank Ryan’s pub where it originally set up stall in 2017, Coke Lane has steadily progressed to bigger and better things since opening in 2017, now serving up its wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas in two D8 sites: The Circular in Rialto and Lucky’s in the Liberties. Founder Dave Holmes brings vocational zeal to his work with irresistibly airy sourdough crusts, delicious home-made chilli honey and sophisticatedly simple flavour pairings designed to appeal to all palates. It's a particular hit with vegetarians, with half the menu meat-free. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Located right along the canal, Grove Road has an understated and easy-going vibe, great music, and is a serious contender for the best avocado toast in town, thanks to the addition of feta and the crispiest bacon known to man. They also serve brunch all day, seven days a week. Grove Road Website groveroadcafe.ie Address 1 Rathmines Road Lower, Rathmines, Dublin 6 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Located right along the canal, Grove Road has an understated and easy-going vibe, great music, and is a serious contender for the best avocado toast in town, thanks to the addition of feta and the crispiest bacon known to man. They also serve brunch all day, seven days a week. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Potager Ex-Chapter One head chef makes Skerries a food destination Posted: 25 Jun 2019 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? In January this year it was announced that The Red Bank restaurant in Skerries, open since 1983, would close, and the site would be taken over by ex- Chapter One head chef Cathal Leonard and his partner Sarah Ryan. Interested eyebrows were raised, more so as the industry rallied behind them on social media to tell the world what lovely people they were and how great their first solo venture was going to be. Cathal had most recently been working with John Wyer at Forest Avenue , but also worked in UK restaurants like the Michelin-starred Clove Club in London, before coming home and settling into Chapter One. Sarah had been selling fish wholesale to the trade, which is how they met 10 years ago, and Potager has been their dream practically since they met. Despite being one of Dublin's most popular seaside villages, Skerries has been lacking a destination restaurant in recent years. A trip out there at Christmas was less than inspiring, and left us scratching our heads as to why no one was pushing the boat out (sorry). And as if by magic along comes Potager. 'Potager' means kitchen garden, and theirs comprises the wealth of vegetables and fruits being grown in North County Dublin, as well as fish caught locally and meat like Lambay beef from Lambay Island just across the water. They describe the food as modern, Irish and seasonal, built around Irish producers and their ingredients, and with Cathal being originally from Rush just down the road, he was no doubt familiar with the glut of produce in this part of the country, that few places seem to be taking advantage of. All of the pre-opening talk about it being a showcase for local produce made it sound like the type of restaurant we might have dreamed up, so we were full of anticipation heading off on the Dart. Where should we go for a drink first? We would come straight here and have an aperitif in the lovely waiting/bar area. Cosy up beside the fire (in June) with a sherry or an Irish G+T and enjoy a few moments of calm before heading into the dining room on the other side of the building. If you feel like a bit more action you could head into Nealon's a few doors down (who do a great trad session on Wednesdays), or to The Snug around the corner, which might be the most atmospheric (and snug) bar in the town. Where should we sit? The main dining room is down the corridor from the reception/waiting area, and is a good size whilst still feeling intimate. There are also two smaller rooms off the main one, which would be perfect for group dining or celebrations, or if you were looking for a bit more privacy. The room is very well lit despite there not being much natural light, so there will be no issues reading menus or getting those all important photos of your food. What's good to eat? At dinner it's tasting menu only, with a couple of choices to be made throughout. They say it's five courses for €55, but really it was eight when you include the bread (which you should) and the snacks, which for this amount of food at this level of cooking is incredible value. We imagine once the plaudits start coming in the prices will increase, so get in soon if you like bang for your buck. The first thing to arrive is bread, and it was the most perfect bread course we've had in years. A fluffy, white mashed potato bread, and a dense, fermented, crunchy crusted brown bread with pumpkin seeds came with cuinneog butter and ricotta with local lovage pesto. We could have left after this and it would have been a worthwhile trip. After this came snacks of a tapioca cracker with smoked cods roe, and white beetroot rolled and stuffed with more beetroot, walnut and mint. The cracker was the winner when it came to flavour, but both were interesting single bite snacks. Usually soup does little to get us worked up, but the next miniature course of potato soup with herbs, thickened cream and dehydrated bacon was about as exciting as liquid vegetables can get. We desperately scraped out every last drop out until becoming aware that we were probably disrupting the other diners. The next course of cured, then torched red mullet (a severely under used fish), in a red mullet sauce, with rush tomatoes, tomato jelly, tomato powder, basil and frozen buttermilk was probably the dish of the night, and one of those experience elevating plates of food that makes you wonder how a person even begins to put these flavours and textures together to create something with the ability to totally silence those eating it. After that came another highlight, and a curve ball in the form of strong blue cheese midway through a meal. A cashel blue cheese mousse sat on top of very finely chopped celery and apple, with apple jelly and pickled walnuts. So unusual, so dynamic, so insanely delicious. Then came a dish that we've thought or talked about daily since eating it - charred octopus with roasted cauliflower, Drummond House elephant garlic, and a milk and seed crumb. The garlic heightened everything without taking over, and the charred octopus tentacle was meltingly tender. There had been so much flavour by this point that our heads were spinning, in the best possible way. After that sensory rollercoaster it was onto the mains, and on the night there were two choices, both of which we tried. Hake came with broad beans, lemon confit, smoked mussells, samphire and Ballymakenny pink potatoes, while Aylesbury duck breast came with braised duck leg, cabbage and baby turnip. Both were faultlessly cooked plates of food, the hake probably winning it for us, but they somewhat lacked the excitement of everything that had come before. We wondered if they felt pressure to put on "a proper main course" for locals and former regulars, rather than continuing the theme of small and explosive. Dessert choices come on a separate menu with options for tea, coffee, dessert wine or any other after dinner drink you might want. Again there were two choices, and again both were eye-widening. A smoked chocolate mousse (genius) came on top of beetroot and cherries, with vanilla ice-cream in the centre and puffed spelt berries. Apparently Cathal has a thing about putting vegetables into desserts, and anyone that can do that and have us dreaming of eating it again is very talented. Another scraping the bowl scenario. The other dessert of set sheep's yoghurt from Velvet Cloud , came with the sweetest local strawberries, strawberry tea, strawberry sorbet, shortbread and burnt white chocolate, and it's hard to think of a more perfect, more delicious, Irish dessert at this time of year. And the drinks? The wine cellar is in the old bank vault, which must make it one of the coolest in the city, and they're fine for you to stick your head in and look around. There's a decent sized wine list with some real finds on there and they're working with great wine importers, but it's clear that there's no sommelier to refine it and give it a personality unique to the restaurant - they are looking for someone though. Servers were not versed on the list, so if you want a recommendation find Sarah the owner who will be happy to chat and talk through the options. They've played it very safe with the by the glass list, and the choices won't do much to excite wine lovers, but there's lots to try by the bottle with some really unusual options, and they do have plans to expand and change the wine list over the coming months. We had a really interesting white wine from Savoie in France made from the Jacquère grape - new one on us - and it was complex enough to cope with all of the flavours without over powering anything. And the service? Owner Sarah is a natural host, very generous with her time and clearly at ease working her way around the room making sure everyone is looked after. The chefs brought most of the dishes to the table, which is something we wish more restaurants did, giving us an in depth overview of what we were about to eat, but the few times that servers brought one (clearly as the kitchen was under pressure) they didn't know what they were bringing, and a chef ended up having to come out anyway. Things were very smooth and excellently paced up until the mains, which we had an abnormally long wait for, with no communication from staff about what the delay was. They did take two drinks off by way of apology at the end, but there were a few other issues that weren't dealt with as quickly or as fuss-free as they should have been. We think they're aware that service needs tightening and would be surprised if this isn't top of the agenda over the coming weeks. The verdict? There are a lot of panicked voices at the moment in Dublin about restaurant closures and how it's "carnage out there", but the reality is that most restaurants don't work out because they're missing a certain magic that makes it somewhere that people are desperate to eat in. Potager has that magic and feels like two people who've laid everything on the line to create their perfect restaurant, a chef who's finally been able to fully unleash his own creativity after years working for other people, and now it's exploding onto plates into Skerries. There is no doubt that this is a place that's going to get people very excited to get off their bums and go for dinner, and that's how you survive in a competitive restaurant market. Add to this that the menu seems to be changing daily and we're going to struggle to fight the temptation to hop back on the Dart on a weekly basis due to crippling FOMO. Potager 7 Church Street, Skerries, Co. Dublin potager.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

South Dublin suburb Rathmines has plenty to satisfy hungry visitors, from freshly made pasta and pizza to generously topped galettes. Rathmines Our Take South Dublin suburb Rathmines has plenty to satisfy hungry visitors, from freshly made pasta and pizza to generously topped galettes. Where to Eat Grove Road Kodiak Lottie's Mad Yolks Rathmines Reggie's Pizzeria Shaku Maku The Dunmore Umi Falafel Rathmines Uno Pizza Voici

Library Street Grab your friends for a night in the PDR Posted: 8 Mar 2022 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? We're always keeping a close eye on Irish chefs abroad, hoping that one day they'll make a triumphant return home, blessing us with skills learned from kitchens around the world, and filling our hearts and stomachs with joy and dishes never to have graced a Dublin menu before. Kevin Burke, who was head chef at Michelin-starred The Ninth in London was firmly on the watchlist, so when we saw that he was back in Dublin mid-pandemic there was a frisson of excitement at ATF HQ. Very soon he popped up at Niall Davidson's Allta, who at the time were keeping us very well fed at home with Allta Box, and he soon became known (to us anyway) as the namelaka man , for causing a major obsession with the creamy ganache-like addition to their desserts. We figured he had sights on his own place, but weren't expecting it to happen quite so fast. At the end of Summer 2021, Allta announced that they wouldn't be returning to their South Frederick Street site, and instead were opening Allta Winter House on the top of Trinity Street carpark (read our review here ). And in the old Allta site? Kevin Burke was opening Library Street . Excitement was high, and we were delighted to be able to offer ATF Insiders first access to the soft launch in November. We were taken aback at the quality of food, wine and service on night one, but we were looking forward to a return visit once they settled into it. Where should we sit? The main dining room is modern and buzzy, with a high table down the centre and regular tables at the wall and window, but we were here for the private dining room (PDR), which can be booked for six to ten people. We feel like most Irish people don't understand the joy of the PDR because there aren't that many of them, but let us tell you, they are special places. It's like a restaurant within a restaurant, with your own waiters, your own music, your own menu, and total privacy for intimate / clandestine / potentially defamatory conversations with no fellow diners' ears to worry about. If you're going to pop your PDR cherry, this is the place to do it. The room is atmospheric and comfortable, with retro furniture, low lighting, your own personal sound system, and plenty of space for whatever else you dragged in with you - presents, props, outerwear. We were six, but the table extends to seat up to ten. It feel really special to be in your own cavernous space away from the throng upstairs, and if you don't have a special occasion coming up as an excuse, you can totally make one up. Returned your library books on time? PDR. Back into your fitness routine? PDR. Finally managed to clear out the freezer? Definitely deserves a trip to the PDR. What's the food like? The team will send a suggested menu in advance, which is basically a bit of everything, and you can make changes as needed. They're also happy to cater for vegetarians as part of the group. You pay per dish as opposed to a set price per person, which we really liked as it means there's no hidden surcharge for taking over the room. There is a minimum spend of €100 per head for food and wine, but that's not hard to get to. We started with all the snacks, and the legendary first mouthful that is choux pastry filled with horseradish cream, with a Cantabrian anchovy, pickled radish and lemon zest on top. This is the stuff of mouth explosions, the tiny bites you'll be thinking about for months afterwards. Then the most Instagrammed dish on the menu - crispy chicken wing with chanterelles and tarragon mayo. The wing has been deboned, with the meat turned into a chanterelle stuffed mousse, placed back inside the skin, breadcrumbed, fried and served with tarragon mayo. It's a lot of work, and it pays off. Next up, Dooncastle oysters from Galway, whose sweetness is cut through with Bourgoin verjus (a kind of lemon juice substitute made from early harvested grapes) and a sliver of chilli. Then some pickled candy and golden beetroot, which you'll pop like sweets. Perfectly chewy sourdough baguettes and Abernethy butter came with the small plates, the first of which was a pile of pear, radicchio, walnut and sheep's cheese, sitting on top of a sheep's yoghurt dressing, both from Velvet Cloud in Mayo. Make sure to mix it up with the spoons provided before diving into the sweet, salty, creamy, nutty, bitter goodness. Make sure the chargrilled Porcupine Bank langoustines are on your menu. These sweet, chunky prawns (similar to Dublin Bay) are caught off the west of Ireland, halved and barely grilled in the shell, before being topped with shellfish bisque and lemon, and you will want a spoon for the juices left behind (or to have shown restraint with the bread). Onto the bigger plates, and with two veggies and four carnivores we got to try a bit of everything. You might think you're risotto-ed out, but you haven't had the delica pumpkin version at Library Street, with sage, toasted pumpkin seeds and more sheep's cheese - parmesan who? It's so easy to overcook risotto, or have it sitting there a bit meh, like the forgotten sibling on the menu, but this had oomph from every angle, and we couldn't spoon it into us quick enough. On special that night was a whole wild brill, chargrilled and served with Killary Fjord mussels, a herb emulsion, and a textured topping including onions and puffed rice. It's always a treat to order a whole fish like this, but if there was only a small number of you it could quickly derail your plans to eat everything else on the menu. It generously fed four, but could have easily stretched to six - we struggled to finish the meat on the flipside. Our other main was a barely cooked roast saddle of lamb, with a kalamata crust and silky soft Jerusalem artichoke purée, and if you were only going to eat one piece of meat a week (even a month), this is it. It's so pink it's basically raw (think of it like sheep steak), and the flavour almost knocked us down. A perfect trifecta of ingredients, and a dish we want to taste again. Sides were also plentiful and generous, providing an even backbone for the superstars up front. Winter leaves came again in sheep's yoghurt dressing, and red cabbage was nicely sweetened with apricots, apple and orange. The other side you're going to try is the roast Carolus potatoes Lyonnaise, which came topped with truffle. They're chewy, fudgy, savoury little carb bombs, but if pushed would prefer our potatoes crispier rather than chewy. For dessert we started with a gossamer light sheep's yoghurt mousse with blood orange, before attacking a couple of Paris Brests with stout namelaka, yuzu and espresso cream. Dessert in Library Street is in no way a downgrade on the savoury courses that came before, and that Paris Brest in particular is one of the most original desserts we've had in Dublin. We sincerely hope it never, ever leaves the menu. What about the drinks? The wine list has been a work in progress since opening, but on the night we visited the manager told us she had finally gotten it to a place where she was really happy with it. Margins are high and there aren't any bargains to be found here, so it's probably best to just close your eyes and go for it (but if you are on a budget there are wines on tap which will add considerably less to the bottom line). We drank the cheapest sparkling wine, a Spanish blend made from the same grapes as cava (€68, we know, ouch), a white blend from Sokol Blosser in Oregon (€59), and a natural Cheverny from Clos du Tue-Boeuf (we didn't keep a record of the price but in the same region) which was our highlight. We enjoyed all of them, but there's barely anything under €40 a bottle so factor that into your budget. And the service? You might worry that in a PDR you'll be flailing around trying to get a server when you need them, but this didn't happen once. It was like they knew what we needed before we did. The whole thing was effortless and easy, and supremely relaxing. We spent about four hours there in the end and couldn't believe the time when we looked at our watches/fitbits/phones. We also thought they got the food quantities perfect. It would have been easy to chuck a few more plates onto the table (and bill), bring down six desserts rather than four, but it was on the mark, and we didn't leave feeling sick or like we'd done ourselves damage through food (which we often do when left to our own ordering devices). And the damage? Around €140 a head once 12.5% service charge was added on (their website states this goes directly to staff). Definitely on the pricier side for a meal out, but we felt it was money well spent and a really memorable evening. The verdict? Library Street is a brilliant addition to the Dublin dining scene, and instantly tables there became some of the most sought after in the city (just try to get a Saturday night table booking before summer). This food feels fresh, original, they're not copying anyone else on the scene, they're just doing their own thing, and doing it so well. We love the main room with its floral installations, open kitchen and long table running down the middle of the room, but the next time you're going out to eat with a likeminded group, try with all your might to get the PDR, and settle in for something special. Library Street 101 Setanta Place, Dublin 2 www.librarystreet.ie New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Agave Website agavedublin.com Address 19-22 Lord Edward Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Healthy, happy food, the kind you feel better after eating. Interesting salads and sandwiches and usually a couple of hot dishes. Missing out on cake would be a big mistake. Honey Truffle Website honeytruffle.ie Address 45 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Healthy, happy food, the kind you feel better after eating. Interesting salads and sandwiches and usually a couple of hot dishes. Missing out on cake would be a big mistake. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Kicky's is the solo debut of former Chapter One head chef Eric Matthews, along with friend and former Bang GM Richie Barrett. Bright colours and in your face flavours are the name of the game, and you wouldn't want to pay them a visit if you're on a diet. Prices are on the higher side of eating out in Dublin, so it's likely to be a special occasion choice rather than a regular haunt for most. Kicky's Website kickys.ie Address South Great George's Street, Dublin, D02 WK13 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Kicky's is the solo debut of former Chapter One head chef Eric Matthews, along with friend and former Bang GM Richie Barrett. Bright colours and in your face flavours are the name of the game, and you wouldn't want to pay them a visit if you're on a diet. Prices are on the higher side of eating out in Dublin, so it's likely to be a special occasion choice rather than a regular haunt for most. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Dublin's docklands is mainly populated by office workers and empties out at weekends, making it a great time to explore and check out some of its better food options. Grand Canal Dock Our Take Dublin's docklands is mainly populated by office workers and empties out at weekends, making it a great time to explore and check out some of its better food options. Where to Eat Allta Charlotte Quay Dosa Dosa Grand Canal Fairmental Herb Street Il Valentino Nutbutter Osteria Lucio Table 45 The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker

Chef de Partie < Back Chef de Partie La Vespa Apply Now Location Dublin 2 Employment Full-time Date Posted 23 June 2026 Website lavespa.ie Love fresh pasta, busy services and great vibes? La Vespa is seeking to hire a Chef de Partie to join our passionate Italian kitchen team in our restaurant in Dublin city centre. Authentic Italian cuisine Fast-paced, professional kitchen Career growth opportunities Supportive team environment Competitive pay If you can handle the heat and bring the passion, we want to hear from you! Please send CV and/or cover letter to info@lavespa.ie

Chongqing Hotpot Dinner and a show (of yourself) for €20 a head Posted: 21 Apr 2026 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Ronan Doyle What’s the story with Chongqing Hotpot? Restaurateurs Ryon Wen and Ian Keegan’s well-established knack for landing Chinese concepts on the Dublin dining scene is best summed up as plugging gaps in the market—ing. They may not be the first to do it, but you can bet they’ll be the sleekest. So where pastel pink Hakkahan gave Sichuan spice a Stoneybatter lease of life, and an impending rebrand of the genuinely novel Nan ’s Huaiyang cuisine in Hong Kong café-style looks set to poach poky Hong Kong Wonton ’s customers from down the road, now here’s Chongqing Hotpot ’s bubbling broth to fill your feed – and no doubt their seats too. The cutesy panda mascot and “ how to eat like a local ” branding speak to the drive, key to this group’s ongoing success, to broaden the appeal from a nostalgic diaspora market to a wider public with minds and wallets equally open. Hotpot is nothing new here - as ever with Chinese cuisine in the city, Parnell Street’s been at it for years - but this bright, branded take is a clear effort to free it from IYKYK turf. Should we order anything other than hotpot? That’d be like stopping by a steakhouse for the salad. There’s really no need, especially knowing most appetisers are transplants from the group’s other outlets, including new arrival Chuna Hunan next door. Not having been yet we were tempted by the century egg but let down to hear it wasn’t on that night (a few years still to go maybe). Typhoon shelter squid (€12) was no consolation, with none of the distinctive dish’s garlic or crunch present half as much as the sodden sensation of under-drained oil. Just get straight into the action. Alright, how do we do this? Start with the broth (€11.90 - €14.90). Sichuan-style spice with beef tallow is traditional, and it’s hard to beat the sights, scents and eventual savour of a chunk of fat dissolving amongst dried chillies and peppercorns. Most will be okay going straight down the middle on medium spicy - level up and lean hard on the cooling sesame oil side bowls if you’re feeling braver. The traditional nine-grid shape grew out of a culture of communal hotpots and individual items zealously guarded – there’s no faux pas fouler than nicking a nugget of someone else's good stuff. If you’re not here to share they can do it for you, but then what are you doing here at all? Another advantage is less chance for ingredients to go AWOL, but then you forfeit the fun of dragging each other’s dire chopstick skillz. As well as an S-shape that leaves more room for fishing fun, double- and triple-pot options give the chance to try pork bone, mushroom, or tomato broths alongside the classic. We’re all for the inclusivity on half-veggie crowds, but we reccomend pork if you’re doubling down on seafood or more delicate vegetables – the mild, rich, sweetness is a welcome balm to benumbed lips. Be warned - the handy menu card you might have studied in advance only partly matches the bilingual listings on the tabletop tablet you order from. Friendly staff are on hand to aid navigation, and to send the order through (oddly you’re asked for a table number when none are in sight). https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_63433c21f1a54f8d989c08fca6d888bd/720p/mp4/file.mp4 Versus this group’s usual focus on provenance (next door they proudly tout Buckley’s meat, Silverhill Duck and Andarl Farm pork), the “premium” and “organic” labels here go unattested (and our questions about them unanswered). In terms of meat, it’s more cut than provider they mean - premium beef slices (€8.90) are wafer-thin rolls, only needing the barest broth-blanching to bring out their best. The quick-cook effect is a great first intro to the alchemy ahead. Ultimately, the shared joy of hotpot is in the sense of a communal cooking lesson – trial and error as much as anything else. Wouldn’t spicy beef (€8.90) flavours get lost in an already-spicy broth, you might rightly wonder. On the surface, sure, less so the marinated depths of these thicker cuts. In the back-and-forth fishing for every possible permutation, in the wide-eyed and full-mouthed signs of a winning combination, there is the contagious fun of shared discovery. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_f75e61093952457897e4098ba152db60/720p/mp4/file.mp4 That’s truer and truer the more adventurous you are – ample offal is where you can really take the plunge. Hotpot has its roots in cash-strapped fishermen looking for flavourful ways to spice up cheap cuts. Cast yourself in their boat and go all-in on iron-rich pork liver (€6.90), or slices of duck blood (€6.90), amplified or overrode to taste by the endless combinations you can make up at the dipping sauce station (€1.98pp, go big on black vinegar). Queasier customers can dip their toes with a thousand-layer tripe (€6.90). Free of the metallic tang, its crunchy layers come alive with a short swim in the tallow. There wasn’t a plate we finished faster. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_ff9b3172fa8c461baeabfab057adbc93/720p/mp4/file.mp4 The mushroom averse may erupt in hives at the sight of black fungus (€3.50), but they're a non-negotiable where hotpot’s concerned. Also known as wood ear, they plump up in the furious heat of the broth and yield to the bite with an elastic snap so satisfying it might tempt some braver fungiphobes to give it a go. Save such spongier stuff for the final stretch, when the broth has bubbled down to a concentrated sauce. That’s where the likes of Chongqing dry potato (€3.50) step to the fore, sun-dried slices that survive a simmering with delicious bite. Few options better showcase the tableside theatre than sweet potato noodles (€5.80), whose pale palor on the way into the broth couldn’t be further from the glassy glory that emerges after – expect oohing and aahing all round. Tofu puffs (€3.50) are marvels of spongy structure ripe for lapping it all up as greedily as we’d like to – just let them cool a little before spraying it all out again. Stodgier still are glutinous rice noodles (€4.90), very much the final boss of the meal with an elusive form to put even the most chopstick-cocky among us right back in our place. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_ec1e36f6afc64bc6b81989f0c5d36d02/720p/mp4/file.mp4 Should we save room for dessert? Everyone but curious completists and nostalgists need not. Appealing as the price point of the classic ice jelly (€2) is, its simple soft and subtle sweet sensations are solely there to soothe tongues numbed by all that málà mouthfeel – if you’re not suffering, no need. Only the chalky candy consistency of haw flakes sprinkled over gives this anything of note. It’s a similar story for the glutinous cake (€6.90), little fingers of rice flour that cool to a gentle chew. Roasted pear (€6.90), another Chinese classic, lacks any hint of either word in its insistently aquatic flavour – this is one sad spoonful, and one only. The efforts of floating goji berries and red dates to add a hint of intrigue are valiant but in vain, leaving this sorry syrup akin to the dregs of a tin can, and not half as tasty. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_17b001b684474a1494c4226787e3cad8/720p/mp4/file.mp4 What’s good to drink? Cocktails, like appetisers, are available from next door, and in the same vein they aren’t quite the right fit. On any other day, the sour-sweet sharpness of a passionfruit saketini (€14.50) is something we’d sip with just about anything, but when you’re talking hotpot it’s beer or bust. Stick to a Tsingtao (€5.50) to cool the taste buds. How was the service? By definition you’re on your own here. Save a helping hand on the initial order and intermittent offers of a hot drop (say no unless you’re running low; concentrating the flavour is part of the fun), staff stay out of your way unless you flag one down to add to the order. Given the size of the place, that rarely proves a challenge. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/79af6f_8e1c60fccacf44c88087bf47ef1c6782/720p/mp4/file.mp4 What should we budget? True to hotpot’s humble roots, you’re in for a cheap night out. Our underwhelming appetiser and desserts still landed us at less than €30 a head before drinks - cut that faff and keep to fewer rice or noodle items and you’d easily come in at €20. Ribeye, scallops, prawns and the likes will swing things the other way if you’re so inclined. What’s the verdict on Chongqing Hotpot? Some restaurants rely on the prowess of kitchen craft to offer a two in one deal - dinner and a show. At Chonqing Hotpot , the only show is the one you'll make of yourself, fishing stray chunks from bubbling broth like a blind angler. Bring some friends and be brave with what you order – it’s a lot of fun. New Openings & Discoveries More >>

Clanbrassil House 2018 Dynamic, charcoal cooking in Dublin 8 Posted: 15 Mar 2018 Neighbourhood Neighborhood Name Address Restaurant Address Website Website Name Restaurant Info View the Listing >> Written by: Lisa Cope What’s the story? The second, more-casual opening from Bastible chef-owner Barry Fitzgerald and his partner Claremarie Thomas, with rapidly rising chef Gráinne O’Keeffe in the kitchen. Part of a contingent of young restaurateurs behind some of the most dynamic food in Dublin right now, Bastible's been showing up on every ‘best places to eat in Dublin’ list since opening, and along with their contemporaries like Etto and Forest & Marcy , have injected a new streak of energy into the Dublin dining scene. Clanbrassil House opened in Autumn 2017 and was supposed to be a more casual wine and small plates type of place, but we reckon most people are coming here for a full, multi-course meal. Where’s good for a drink beforehand? We liked 57 The Headline which has a brilliant Gin & Tonic menu, huge beer selection and comfy seats. If you want a more traditional pub you’ve got Leonard’s Corner , and if you’re after wine you’d probably be best to go straight to Clanbrassil House and see if they can seat you early for an aperitif. What’s the room like? Narrow and cosy. Very much ‘Parisian wine bar’, as opposed to ‘inner-city Dublin’. There are high tables and stools at the front, which is a lovely space with bare brick and deep blue walls, wine bottles lined up along one side and fairy lights in the window. It feels very grown up, and like you could be in any number of cool European cities. In the back are the normal tables where you can look into the kitchen, but we could see it from our high table too. What's good to eat? If you’re like us you’ll want it all, and the menu is small enough that if there were four of you (or two who were very hungry) you could just tell them to bring everything. They do a family style sharing menu for €40 a head where the chefs pick food from every section once the order goes in, and it works out as good value, but they’re not keen on telling you what’s going to come out in advance so it feels a bit like Russian roulette. We did tell our server there was one dish we weren’t keen on, and she managed to get it changed to the one we really wanted, but we would have liked full disclosure before deciding whether to go family style (which we did) or á la carte. From the snacks, Verdial olives were exceptional - the type you find in most good bars in Spain but rarely here. Iberico ham croquettes were good, but the knockout dish was grilled sourdough and hot smoked trout. The flavours of smoke from the grill were vivid, and it's come up in conversations a lot since. From the smaller plates, roast leeks, chopped egg and chicken skin was enjoyable whilst not particularly memorable (and maybe a touch under seasoned), but the chicken liver parfait with caramelised apple and brioche was rich, luxurious and perfect. When it came to the charcoal grill (larger plates) our expectations were completely flipped on their heads. We’d been eager to try the Picana steak with roasted bone marrow, parmesan and anchovy, and while it looked great and the flavours were good, the meat was tough and sinewy, and we didn’t enjoy it. The BBQ cauliflower however, with vadouvan butter, lentils and yoghurt (which we probably wouldn’t have picked) turned out to be one of the most memorable dishes of the night (and the year), culminating in a tussle over the last few scrapes of the plate. The cauliflower was almost meat-like, and the flavours were an another level. It takes a skilful kitchen to make a relatively flavourless vegetable taste this good (although the fact it was swimming in butter helped). The infamous hash brown fries were in fact just hash browns in the shape of chips (we're not sure what we were expecting after the mass hysteria on Instagram), and we couldn’t ascertain much pickled onion from the mayo, which it really could have done with to cut through the fat in the fries. Desserts were chocolate mousse, honeycomb and marmalade ice-cream - all very nicely done - and blood orange doughnuts with buttermilk custard, which had a nice texture but only the teeniest splodge of blood orange. The buttermilk custard was beautiful and delicately flavoured. What about the drinks? The wine list is very short. One sparkling, five whites and five reds – three of each are available by the glass). Personally we don’t think this is enough, and although we did have some lovely wines, if you’re only going to have a list this short, every wine has to knock it out of the park. The Mas Candi Cava is a a brilliant example of Spanish sparkling wine, and it’s refreshing to see something other than prosecco by the glass. For whites we had a Riesling from German producer Geil , which is perfectly good but not going to change your life, and the Spanish Louro from Rafael Palacios , which is stunning. For reds we had a natural Côtes du Rhône from Eric Texier , and an Austrian Blaufrankisch from Murh van der Niepoort . The Blaufrankisch had more to it. We had tasters of a few others but none were hitting the spot. If we were going for a single bottle it would have been Australian producer Jamsheed ’s Syrah, which is a brilliant, vibrant example of new-wave natural wine. And the service? Lovely – informative and accommodating. There when you needed them and not there when you didn’t. Our only issue was the speed the food came out at the start (although this isn’t the fault of the front of house staff). We had two snacks and three starters on the table within 15 minutes of the order going in and had to ask them to slow down. If the courses had been more well-paced and we we were told what was on the family style menu (again probably coming from the kitchen) it would have been a perfect 10. The verdict? This is exciting, innovative cooking from a kitchen that’s not standing still, and whilst it might not have been 100% perfect we love what they’re doing. When they get it right, they really take the food to a different level, and we're planning a return soon. On the night we were there Darina Allen flew in for a few plates before an early morning flight to San Francisco. Clearly the woman has her priorities right. Clanbrassil House 6 Clanbrassil Street Upper, Dublin 8 clanbrassilhouse.com New Openings & Discoveries More >>

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

Opened by owner Shona McCabe after years of working in restaurants across Australia and New Zealand, Kerb draws on several different cuisines. They originally focused on Middle Eastern food a modern twist - this is definitely not the greasy late night kebab that we all know and love, but the evening menu has more of a Mexican spin with tacos, totopos and tostadas. Plenty of options for both veggies and vegans, and a great place to stop for coffee. Kerb Website kerb.ie Address 1B Brighton Road, Foxrock, Dublin 18 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Opened by owner Shona McCabe after years of working in restaurants across Australia and New Zealand, Kerb draws on several different cuisines. They originally focused on Middle Eastern food a modern twist - this is definitely not the greasy late night kebab that we all know and love, but the evening menu has more of a Mexican spin with tacos, totopos and tostadas. Plenty of options for both veggies and vegans, and a great place to stop for coffee. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra

Well-executed, carefully sourced Italian food from Ross Lewis (chef and owner of Michelin-starred Chapter One) and his friend, chef Luciano Tona, whose restaurant in Italy also held a Michelin star for a decade. Since stepping back from Chapter One Lewis himself has been cooking in the kitchen, and looks to be having fun with it. An interesting cocktail list makes for a perfect after work aperitivo. Osteria Lucio Website osterialucio.com Address The Malting Tower, Grand Canal Quay, Clanwilliam Terrace, Dublin 2 Good For Tag 1 Cuisine Tag 1 Once Over Read our Review >> The Story Well-executed, carefully sourced Italian food from Ross Lewis (chef and owner of Michelin-starred Chapter One) and his friend, chef Luciano Tona, whose restaurant in Italy also held a Michelin star for a decade. Since stepping back from Chapter One Lewis himself has been cooking in the kitchen, and looks to be having fun with it. An interesting cocktail list makes for a perfect after work aperitivo. Where It's At Nearby Locales Yibu by Janet Little Canton Dak @ Bar Anam Mongoose Chongqing Hot Pot Boco Clontarf Bell Pesto Bang Gloria Osteria Cantina Valentina D'Lepak Pera Borgo Amai by Viktor Kaizen Chubbys Badam Table 45 Comet Daruma Malahide Lena The Pig's Ear Notions @ Two Pups The Rooftop @ Anantara The Marker Sofra