Restaurants in Dublin
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Sixty6
This swanky New York–style brasserie is one of the most popular party-dinner spots in town – the kind of place at which you’d want to celebrate your birthday with friends. It does a mean rotisserie chicken, four different ways at any given time. Besides its signature dish, the meat-heavy menu features things like lamb shank and a particularly good bit of liver. For that special occasion, there’s a whole roast pig, but you need to order seven days in advance and be in a group of eight.
reviewed
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Yamamori Sushi
Sushi arrives on the northside and immediately proves successful, but that's hardly surprising considering that its southside sister has been doing the Japanese thang with great aplomb for a very long time. The menus in both are largely the same, but we prefer this newer location – right on the river – because it's just that little bit more airy and spacious. The bento boxes are a popular choice – especially at lunchtime – but we really just can't get enough of the Nami Moriawase (€25).
reviewed
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Diep le Shaker
Diep le Shaker is a modern, light-filled space that is tucked down an alley off prestigious Pembroke St. It is popular with the local business crowd, establishment movers and shakers, and people generally consumed by their own self-importance. It’s the ugly side of the Celtic Tiger. The predominantly Thai grub is inventive and excellent, but you get the impression you’re paying for the company and it ain’t worth it.
reviewed
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Winding Stair
This Dublin institution has simple décor and warm atmosphere along with an excellent wine list and wonderful Irish menu – creamy fish pie, bacon and organic cabbage, steamed mussels or Irish farmyard cheeses – all prepared with much TLC.
reviewed
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Tea Rooms
Designed to resemble a church, the Clarence’s Tea Rooms are spacious with a soaring ceiling and double-height windows, flooding the room with natural light. Appropriately, Mathieu Melin’s innovative menu commands respect, with an ambitious marriage of classic French cuisine and typically Irish produce. How about traditional Cork city crubeens (pig’s trotters), soft quail eggs and potato salad topped with mustard dressing followed by chartreuse of red leg partridge, smoked sausage, savoy cabbage and carrot, and juniper flavoured jus? The three-course Market Menu, available before 8pm Monday to Thursday, is excellent value at €39.
reviewed
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Peploe’s
Lots of air-kissing and comparing of shopping-bag contents takes place at this sophisticated and sumptuous wine-bar, which is basically Dublin’s answer to London’s Ivy Rooms. It’s all about elegance and attention to detail – check out the sumptuous tableware – and not really about the perfectly adequate continental cuisine, which is merely a complement to the superb wine list.
reviewed
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Bang Café
Bang Cafeé has justifiably earned a Bib Gourmand (good food at moderate prices) from those Michelin folks. The modern European grub – created by chef Lorcan Cribbin (ex-Ivy in London, don’t you know) – is sharp, tasty and much in demand. Thai baked sea bass, medallions of beef and melt-in-your-mouth roast scallops are just a selection. Reservations are essential.
reviewed
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Soup Dragon
Eat in or take away one of 12 tasty varieties of homemade soups, including shepherd's pie or spicy vegetable gumbo. Bowls come in three different sizes, and prices include fresh bread and a piece of fruit. Kick-start your day (or afternoon) with a healthy all-day breakfast selection: try fresh smoothies or the generous bowls of yoghurt, fruit and muesli.
reviewed
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Johnnie Fox's
Ireland's highest-altitude pub is about 45 minutes from Dublin in the Wicklow Mountains. Some people find it kitsch and overdone, but it's actually an authentic old place full of bric-a-brac, gnarled benches, sawdust floors and crackling open fires. The fabulous (but pricey) seafood and nightly Irish music are another draw.
reviewed
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Cake Café
Dublin's best-kept pastry secret is this great little cafe in a tough-to-find lane just off Lower Camden St. The easiest way in is through Daintree stationery shop (61 Camden St); through the back of the Daintree is the self-contained yard, which in good weather is the best spot to enjoy a coffee and a homemade cake.
reviewed
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Il Baccaro
Want a free Italian lesson? Drop into this fabulous trattoria and eavesdrop in this rustic piece of the Old Boot, where the food is exuberantly authentic, and includes bruschetta, homemade pasta, Italian sausage, cannelini beans and the like. The Italian wines are buonissimi.
reviewed
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Bistro
The real draw at this place in summer is its outdoor seating, set on a lively pedestrianised strip behind the George’s St Arcade. An excellent menu of fish, pasta and meat specials, a well-stocked wine cellar and efficient service make this the warm-weather choice for alfresco dining.
reviewed
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Yamamori
Hip, inexpensive and generally pretty good, Yamamori rarely disappoints with its bubbly service and vivacious cooking that swoops from sushi and sashimi to whopping great plates of noodles, with plenty in between. It's a great spot for a sociable group – including vegetarians – although you'll have to book at the weekend to be one of the happy campers. The lunch bento is one of the best deals in town. There's another branch north of the river.
reviewed
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Govinda’s
An authentic beans-and-pulses place run by the Hare Krishna, with three branches in the city centre. Its cheap, wholesome mix of salads and Indian-influenced hot daily specials are filling and tasty.
reviewed
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Gruel
For its regulars, Gruel is the best dish in town, whether for the super-filling, tasty lunchtime roast-in-a-roll – a rotating list of slow-roasted organic meats stuffed into a bap and flavoured with homemade relishes – or the exceptional evening menu, where pasta, fish and chicken are given an exotic once-over. Go, queue, and share elbow space with the table behind you: it’s worth the effort. Bookings not accepted.
reviewed
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Wongs
This top-rated Chinese restaurant, 5km from the city centre, is a family-run classic with subdued décor and friendly service that raises the bar on warmth and courtesy. The menu is not especially adventurous – it sticks to tried and tested dishes that won’t offend the conservative Irish palate – but what it does serve is generally excellent. Our absolute favourite is the duck in a carved-out pineapple shell surrounded by pieces of the fruit and dripping with sauce. Upstairs is a teppanyaki room – a private dining room where the food is cooked in the middle of the seated group – for that special occasion or business dinner.
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Lock’s
When chef Troy Maguire left the immensely popular L’Gueuleton in early 2007 to team up with ex-Bang manager Kelvin Rynhardt to take over one of the steady stalwarts of the Dublin dining scene, the bar was suddenly set very, very high. Would Lock’s shake off its old-town dust? Could Maguire recreate the informal-but-superb French campagnard cooking that made his former kitchen such a huge hit? Would Lock’s be as cool as Bang used to be? And would the prices stay this side of decent? Thankfully, yes on all counts, and while it’s still early days, Lock’s promises to be one of the most sought-after tables in town for years to come.
reviewed
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Aya
Aya looks like it belongs in downtown Tokyo, with its chic, designer ambience and revolving sushi bar favoured by shoppers laden down with bags from the attached Brown Thomas store, and anyone else looking to gossip over raw fish and sake. Problem is, the sushi belt consists mainly of fruit plates, desserts and mostly non-sushi bites; the few bits you do get are generally of the salmon and fake-crab type. If you want the real deal, you have to order à la carte, and even then it’s not that brilliant. Still, it is a great place to meet and greet and it looks just fabulous.
reviewed
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Alilang
With elements of Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisine, this Korean restaurant on multicultural Parnell St has plenty to whet Western appetites. Tasty dishes like padun (a seafood pancake), cod-and-tofu hotpot and barbecued meats are brought to your table with gas burner, skillet and spicy marinade, for you to tuck in DIY-style, making the food a talking piece. Although the bright and shiny décor may not be conducive to romantic first dates, the atmosphere at Alilang is strangely inviting. Steer clear of the dull wine list in favour of the Korean Hite beer.
reviewed
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Ely HQ
As part of the ongoing development of Dublin’s docklands, Ely opened a branch of its successful city-centre restaurant in what they assume will be one of the hippest spots in town. The new restaurant is suitably impressive – lots of exposed concrete coupled with modern designer touches more often seen in a high-end Bangkok restaurant – and the food is made to match, even if the menu isn’t all that adventurous and you won’t eat anything that will absolutely blow your socks off. Still, it’s a good spot to eat off a hangover.
reviewed
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Chez Max
Guarding the main gate to Dublin Castle is a French café that is Gallic through and through, from the fixtures imported from gay Paree to the beautiful, sultry staff who ignore you until they’re ready and then turn the sexy pout into a killer smile. The lunchtime tartines – basically open sandwiches – are good enough to get us misty-eyed for Montmartre, but its coffees are a timely reminder that while the French do an awful lot really, really well, they still don’t know how to make a decent brew.
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Tiger Becs
Below SamSara, this long and cavernous restaurant serves high-end Thai nosh to Dublin’s beautiful young things. The lamb massaman, a mild curry from southern Thailand, is a popular choice on a menu that sparkles but doesn’t often shine. You’ll probably feel you’re paying a little too much for the sense of style, but nevertheless this loud, buzzing venue has oodles of atmosphere and is a great place to launch yourself into a night on the razzle.
reviewed
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Jo’burger
A playful, kids-in-the-70s theme (the menus are pasted into children’s almanacs), DJs playing great music loud enough to hear but not too loud to be annoying, and a sensational burger menu make this the coolest, hippest, best burger joint in the city. The organic burgers – beef, lamb, fish, veggie – come in a variety of options, all with funky names. The mapetla has beetroot salad, rocket and relish; the zondi comes with green thai curry mayo, coriander and chilli.
reviewed
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Café Bardeli
With two branches in the south city centre, the folks behind Café Bardeli have created a winning formula: great crispy pizzas with imaginative toppings such as spicy lamb and tzatziki, fresh homemade pastas or salads like broccoli, feta and chickpea, all served within the stylish environs of what were once branches of Dublin’s most beloved café, Bewley’s. No reservations allowed, so prepare to wait on a busy night. There’s a second city branch and another in Ranelagh.
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Café Bardeli
With three branches in the city – including a spectacular one in Dublin’s most beloved cafe, Bewley’s of Grafton St – the folks behind Bardeli have hit the nail firmly on the head: great crispy pizzas with imaginative toppings such as spicy lamb and tzatziki, fresh homemade pastas, and salads such as broccoli, feta and chickpea that you’ll dream about for days. All in a buzzing atmosphere at prices that won’t break the bank. No reservations, so prepare to wait on a busy night.
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