The Two Minute Review: Volumes

Ronan Doyle
52 minutes ago
2 min read

What’s the story with Volumes?

“He literally wrote the book on coffee!” is the clear pitch for Volumes, and what volume it's been pitched at since Dublin Coffee Guide author Paddy Kirk teamed up with As One owner Mark Cashen, and ex-Bastible and Delahunt chef Fionn Dwyer Hyland to give us this new Scandi-chic café. It’s the must-have Insta-backdrop du jour – but is it any good?

Well?

On this team’s well-documented desire to deliver a Copenhagen-style community vibe, their space delivers, coffee accoutrements bathed in the light of the floor-to-unfinished-ceiling windows like a modern art museum – solemn nodding punters and all. And why wouldn’t you nod with a cup like this in hand, via Belfast’s Bailies Roasters.

Punters are snapping the bagels like they’re rare exhibits too, with the more sustainable smoked trout twist on a classic lox living rent-free on feeds the city over. She’s pretty alright, though for €14 she’d want to be. Goatsbridge fish and Hayes Farm cream cheese go part of the way to explaining the premium over others we’ve had of late, and if you’re willing, it’s worth it.

Even more an icon of NYC cuisine is the BEC (€10), served here on a "house roll". This bodega-beloved breakfast item even came up in a recent mayoral debate - maybe Mamdani won for his jalapeños versus his opponents' no-salt. He’s right and they’re wrong for the same reasons Volumes’ BEC is, with its slick of gochujang mayo a needed spice shock to cut through the excess - the overly-sweet bacon forfeits the saltiness it needs to really sing.

But the bread! More than in the bagels, Dwyer Hyland’s big bakery back there shows its promise in the rolls, crisped to blisters but so soft. It’s just the right vehicle for the slow roast pork special (€14), with wafer-thin slices draped over pickled fennel and radicchio in blood orange vinaigrette. As it stands, they’ve rolled this one out week after week - shake it up a little more and there’ll be every reason to return.

Especially once you’ve got your teeth into the pastries. A sausage ragu bun (€4.50) is the stuff of slow-cooked daydreams, soft dough spewing juicy clumps of pork and fennel.

Hash browns (€6.50) present more a pale straw than the golden hue we expected, but the crisp factor's there in force, with a chunky chip shape giving all the right edge-to-innard ratio. The house harissa apricot sauce is an sweet and spicy inspiration - if one that could use a little thinning of texture.

Sweeter options don't let things down either, with sesame seeds coating the white chocolate and miso cookie (€4) bringing crisp texture to well-balanced taste. Value and variety are much more assured on this side of the menu.

Why should we go?

As early, easy beats yield to more pulsing melodies by lunch, a winding queue of bagel cravers begins to bisect the room – and the vibe. A little more order would go a long way. Plan for an early arrival when the countertop confections are steaming just as much as the perfect coffee, to get a real measure of the place and its potential.