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Odessa
Odessa and the hungover brunch go hand in hand, but this stylish eatery's dining credentials have long been maintained by its excellent dinner menu, which combines solid favourites like the homemade burger with more adventurous dishes like roast fillet of hake, served with chorizo, clams, white bean stew and Serrano ham. Although it's been around for more than a decade, the loungy atmosphere have kept it a perennial fave with the cool crowd.
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Peacock Alley
Super-chef bad-boy Conrad Gallagher runs this super-posh operation in the modernist Fitzwilliam Hotel. Original and wildly energetic, Gallagher puts an innovative spin on traditional French cuisine with tastebud-tingling results. However, his burgeoning restaurant empire means he's not always in the kitchen.
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Pizza Milano
There are four branches of this large and pretty stylish pizza emporium spread throughout the city centre, all sharing a similar menu, but this one is our favourite because of the al fresco dining area on Dawson St and the on-site free child-minders on Sundays, who entertain your little ones while you eat.
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Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud
Few disagree that this exceptional restaurant is a leading candidate for 'Best in the Country', not least those good people at Michelin, who have put two stars in its crown. This is the most prestigious restaurant in the country, where the service is formal, the setting elegant, the wine list awesome and the fare proudly French. While the food is innovative it's rarely too fiddly, just beautifully cooked and superbly presented.
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Thornton's
Kevin Thornton shrugged his shoulders when Michelin saw fit to strip him of one of his two stars, and replied by ordering a refurb of his über- trendy room on the 1st floor of the Fitzwilliam Hotel overlooking St Stephen's Green. The food - a mouth-watering Irish interpretation of new French cuisine - remains as good as ever, offering a mix of succulent seafood and gamey dishes like roast woodcock. Want to watch a grown-up squirm? Ask for ketchup.
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Town Bar & Grill
You're likely to share the low-ceilinged basement dining room with a selection of Ireland's most affluent and influential people, who conduct their oh-so-important affairs barely above a murmur. But the slight stuffiness of the place is swept aside by the simply mouth-watering food, which ranges from basics like lambs' liver to slow-roasted rabbit or sweet pepper-stuffed lamb. Our favourite meal in town.
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Unicorn
Saturday lunch at this Italian restaurant in a laneway off Merrion Row is a tradition for Dublin's media types, socialites, politicos and their cronies who guffaw and clink glasses in conspiratorial rapture. At lunch many opt for the extensive antipasto bar, but we still prefer the meaty á la carte menu - a particular favourite are the kidneys on a bed of risotto, but there are pastas and fish dishes to cater to all palates.
