The Two Minute Review: Tribe Coffee

Ronnie Ohana
6 hours ago
2 min read

What’s with all the buzz about Tribe Coffee?

Founded by friends Simon Lambert and Finn McGarry, Tribe Coffee opened in 2021 at St. Enda’s GAA club in Ballyboden, before opening a café proper in Rathmines in 2022. Their latest and third opening in Rathgar village answered a request from regulars - more seats.

The new space keeps their signature pastel palette and has been designed with social media snaps in mind – look at that purple La Marzocco coffee machine. Natural light floods the front, with high tops and window seating, while the back has plenty of tables with benches, individual seats and a cosy booth.

Tribe already has a loyal following for their build-your-own açaí bowls, but we were here for their new bagel collab with micro bakery Fat Baby Bakes, whose bagels have up to now only been available for collection from East Wall.

What should we order?

With a Canadian at the table missing “proper” bagels, we went in with expectations set to high. The bacon, egg and cheese (€11.50) arrived cold (unexpected), but the flavours were there - thick streaky bacon, free range eggs, cheddar and cream cheese - rich and ultra savoury, lifted by spring onion freshness.

The bagels are coated with everything seasoning (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, onion, salt), adding a savoury, salty wallop of flavour, but they leaned a little dry - a quick toast would have brought them back to life. Homemade cream cheese was lightly whipped and tangy - we’d have liked a tub to go.

The smoked salmon and cream cheese (€11.50) would have benefited from more salmon. The lemon-dressed rocket was nicely seasoned but felt heavy-handed compared to the modest amount of fish - we've seen a more generous ratio on their socials. While we’re dreaming, how about some capers, the advertised but not included red onion, dill? Hot honey on the side added flavour, but we weren't transported to NYC.

Known for classic toasties, the nduja (€10) did what it needed to. Mozzarella, spicy Calabrian sausage, fresh chilli, hot honey and balsamic glaze, on Tartine sourdough, served with cheese and onion crisps. Good hangover fare, if not quite ooze central.

A pear and black pudding sausage roll from Pieman (€5.50) was well-seasoned, filled with Irish pork and black pudding, though we couldn't detect the pear.

We found the baked goods mixed. A Nutella cookie (€4) arrived fridge-cold, but after a few hours had softened into a chewy, sweet and salty, chocolate-studded treat that we genuinely enjoyed.

An almond croissant (€3.50) however was stale. The filling was good, but we're not in the same league as places like Una or Elliot’s baking them fresh.

Tribe continues to serve some of the best specialty coffee in D6, using Never A Days Trouble. Both the oat flat white (€4.30) and chai latté (€4) were 10/10 no notes, with the chai landing nicely on spice rather than sweet.

Why should we go?

Go for specialty coffee, a buzzy space and a menu with enough hits to justify the queues. We’d return for the bacon, egg and cheese bagel (toasted this time please), and a lazy weekend coffee and catch up in an aesthetically beautiful setting.