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The 38 Essential Dublin Restaurants

Where to find burnt-end rendang spring rolls, pear and bacon sandwiches, and Chettinad chicken dosas that regularly sell out in the Irish capital

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Dublin has long been a must-stop on any proper European trip. The Irish capital, which is bisected by the scenic River Liffey, has much to offer travelers: Its streets were once wandered by literary stars like James Joyce, while Trinity College houses centuries-old texts like the famous Book of Kells. Most notably, Dublin has always been a great place to drink, whether you’re grabbing a pint at a local pub or touring the Guinness Storehouse. But these days, Dublin is where you go to eat.

There was a time when young chefs had to leave the country to get experience, and for years Dublin’s leading restaurateurs looked to fashionable Nordic cuisine for inspiration. That influence has faded, as incredible local produce has become the driving force of restaurants in town. There is still plenty of global culinary exchange, though, and the city is constantly seeing overseas chefs coming to work in top kitchens and opening places of their own. Meanwhile, for a city known for beer, some of Dublin’s most exciting meals can be found at the many small wine bars opening up, where tasty small plates come paired with carefully selected low-intervention wines.

Update February, 2022:

Like most large cities, Dublin was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with a long period of lockdown. It has emerged with fewer closures than expected, but hasn’t been immune to the staffing shortages that have hit other hospitality sectors, forcing some restaurants to limit their hours, open fewer days per week (often Wednesday to Saturday), and reduce lunch services. While hours and offerings are ticking back up, many in the restaurant community remain committed to ensuring a healthy work-life balance for hospitality workers. For now, restaurants still aren’t back to full capacity, face masks are mandated, and proof of vaccination (or recovery from COVID in the last six months) is required for indoor dining.

There are plenty of reasons to get excited about dining in Dublin, including the 38 here.

Price per person, excluding alcohol

$ = Less than €20 (less than $22 USD)
$$ = €20-€40 ($22 - $45 USD)
$$$ = €40-€60 ($45 - $68 USD)
$$$$ = More than €60 (more than $68 USD)

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

Corinna Hardgrave is a restaurant critic and food writer for The Irish Times. She is an international food and wine judge, and the winner of the Food Writing Award at the inaugural Irish Food Writing Awards 2021.

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Potager

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“Potager” is the French word for a kitchen garden so it’s the perfect name for this restaurant to Dublin’s north, in the city’s garden heartland. The sandy soil around the village of Skerries has long been used to grow vegetables for the capital and beyond. At Potager, housed in a former bank, chef Cathal Leonard does offer meat, but the best dishes combine hyper-local fish and seafood with vegetables grown nearby, like Howth crab and Rush tomatoes. [$$$]

From above, a dish of broccoli, sardines, and fried crispies on a textured background
Vegetables shining at Potager
Potager

You’ll be tempted to order so many things at this Middle Eastern restaurant, so here’s a game plan: Start with some cocktails, followed by the mezze platter, and then perhaps the chargrilled smoked aubergine. Then dig into the meats. There are serious grills in action here, and the aroma of shawarma wafts through the air. The outside seating area is particularly fun. [$]

Hands reaching into various colorful dishes on a sunlit wooden table
Digging into that mezze
Shouk

Chapter One

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It was practically front-page news when the celebrated two-Michelin-starred chef Mickael Viljanen moved from the Greenhouse to take over as chef/patron at Chapter One. The cooking is as precise as you’re likely to get, with top-quality produce given the classic French treatment. There is of course a tasting menu, but you can dine for a reasonable sum if you opt for the excellent lunch; unlike many daytime menus at top-end restaurants, this one actually does reflect the kitchen’s abilities. Bookings open on the first of each month, and you need to be lightning quick to snag one. Otherwise ask to be added to the cancellations list. [$$$$]

Mr. Fox

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In a workaday part of Parnell Square, chef Anthony Smith has put together a punchy set of plates at his smart basement restaurant. Look for the signature meat tartare (venison or beef), luscious meat jeweled with red currants and topped with sunchoke crisps. Desserts are clever riffs on sweetshop staples and childhood favorites. [$$$]

Courtesy of Mr. Fox

Grano Restaurant

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Handmade food is the heart of this small Italian restaurant in Stoneybatter. When owner Roberto Mungo’s mother Roma came from Italy to oversee the opening of the restaurant, she flew with dried grass stalks, used to roll curly tubes of fileja pasta. You’ll find it cooked and teamed with charcuterie, sauces, and especially vivid vegetables. [$$]

A pile of bottoni pasta on a copper-rimmed plate topped with breadcrumps
Bottoni with cime di rapa, burrata, anchovy butter, and spicy Calabrian breadcrumbs
Grano Restaurant / Facebook

Head through this impressive pub — all dark wood, vaulted ceilings, and original floorboards — to get to the coolest beer garden in Dublin. It’s lush and green, with cascading creepers and tropical plants, and a retractable roof to keep things cozy. The garden kitchen houses a large green Pavesi pizza oven, turning out a simple menu of six pizzas, which arrive at tables in cardboard takeaway boxes. There are plenty of great beers on tap, including White Hag, Whiplash, and Kinnegar. [$]

From above, a pizza topped with singed tomatoes, streaks of sauce, and basil leaves
Pizza with tomato, fior di latte, jalapeno, ventricina, nduja cream, basil
Bonobo/Facebook

This busy corner of Smithfield got a blast of color with the opening of Soup 2, housed in the former home of an old-school boozer (dive bar). The sister restaurant to Soup Ramen in Dun Laoghaire, Soup 2 offers a buzzy room with cool tunes and an affordably priced menu of Asian-inspired dishes like tonkotsu ramen, prawn laksa, and banh mi, with plenty for vegetarians and vegans. The deep-fried kimchi is not to be missed. [$]

From above, a colorful clay bowl filled with cured salmon, noodles, and various pickled vegetables and other toppings
Salmon poke bowl with house noodles
Soup 2/Facebook

Fish Shop

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Sitting on a high stool at one of the marble counters in this compact room is one of life’s little pleasures, whether you’re on your own or seated next to some interesting company. Start with the snacks, a gilda perhaps, and a glass of fino. Or delve into the low-intervention wines on a list worth investigating. As you’d expect, it’s all about the fish, which is pristine and cooked simply, either deep-fried in batter or whole-roasted. You won’t get better fish in Dublin. [$$]

Fried fish on a pile of fries, with a glass of white wine nearby and a bottle
Quintessential fish and chips
Fish Shop

Bread 41

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Every city needs a destination bakery like Bread 41, a place that doesn’t just produce great sourdough but takes pure pleasure in surprising customers with creative, exciting pastries. Eoin Cluskey’s cafe, which is tucked under a railway bridge, now has a smart upstairs dining area, making it more of a destination lunch and brunch spot. Among the rotating list of specials, the kimchi fritter is likely to be the big hit of any meal. [$]

A baker arranging dough in bread baskets to rise
Bread in the works
Bread 41

Cloud Picker Cafe

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Frank Kavanagh and Peter Sztal, the couple behind Cloud Picker, chose the name for their coffee roasting operation after a trip to Thailand, where they ascended above the clouds to see coffee bean pickers at work. They set up Cloud Picker Cafe in a lovely piece of Dublin history, the projector room of the long-gone Academy Cinema. They offer delicious coffee from flat whites to pour overs, along with excellent salads and dishes from Sztal’s childhood like stewp, a hearty mix of soup and stew based on Polish goulash. [$]

A tube-shaped cafe sign on a cement building exterior
Outside Cloud Picker
Cloud Picker Cafe

Piglet Wine Bar

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Drinkers covet the tables at this wine bar at the upper end of Temple Bar. Far from the touristy streets further down, Piglet is incredibly atmospheric in the evening, with regulars who all seem to know each other. The set lunch menu (cacio e pepe, pork ragu, duck gizzards) is pretty affordable, making it easier on the wallet to justify a bit of a rummage through the impressive wine list. [$$]

Bartenders work behind a bar covered with bottles, beside another large shelve of bottles, with an upstairs seating area visible above
Inside Piglet
Piglet Wine Bar

Variety Jones

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Variety Jones consists of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it dining room on Thomas Street. There’s no name over the door, but the restaurant does boast a citywide reputation for wonderful family-style dishes like the tenderest venison loin and salt-roasted celeriac. Chef Keelan Higgs mans the kitchen at the restaurant, while his brother Aaron runs the front of house, and together they brought a Michelin star to Dublin’s south inner city. The kitchen cooks much of the menu over fire, partly out of necessity, since the Higgs opened the restaurant without a gas connection. [$$$]

Tiller + Grain

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Clair Dowling, the brains behind this lovely cafe, worked in London with Yotam Ottolenghi and Skye Gyngell, and her experience shows in intricate salads and plates of cheerful food. It’s worth making time to sit down with the fresh, vegetable-focused dishes, as the rest of busy Dublin drops in for takeout. At every turn Dowling finds ways to make pristine ingredients even more delicious, amping up purple sprouting broccoli with miso almonds or serving comforting dal with orange-zested couscous. [$$]

A plate heaped with carrots, beets, cabbage, herbs, and flowers on a wooden table
A pile of colorful veg
Tiller + Grain

The Pepper Pot Cafe

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The balcony of Pepper Pot Cafe overlooks the lovely interior courtyard of the Powerscourt Centre shopping mall, a view that can inspire an epic line on the weekend. But the wait is worth it for Dublin’s best bagels, nutty and elastic, fresh baked in-house each day, as well as other baked goods and dishes. The pear and bacon sandwich will convert you to that curious combo, the crumbly scones are held together with a large dollop of clotted cream and a teaspoon of house-made raspberry jam, and the Victoria sponge is the best in the city. [$]

Library Street

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Irish chef Kevin Burke worked for years in London, including as head chef at Michelin-starred restaurant the Ninth, before returning to town as part of a wave of chefs bringing exciting venues to Dublin. At Library Street, in the former Allta space, he’s knocking out some very exciting food. Start with the char-grilled langoustines (just get right in there and let those juices drip down your face), then the risotto, followed by meat from the grill. Whatever you do, leave room for the spectacular desserts, and dive into the low-intervention wine list where there are plenty of options by the glass. Plates are designed to be shared, but after one taste you may not feel like it. [$$$]

A plate of grilled langostines with colorful garnishes
Langostines
Naoise Culhane Photography

Gochujang is at the heart of this chic chicken restaurant, where great free-range chicken is given the Korean-fried treatment. The spicy funky paste anchors their Korean hot sauce, one of several dips for crispy fried chicken along with house-made lime mayonnaise and sriracha caramel. Expect a wait for a table at busy times but it will be worth it. [$$]

A hand holding a plate bearing a fried chicken sandwich, dripping with cheese and sauce
Chicken burger
Chimac

Uno Mas

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Gildas, tortillas, squid a la plancha, and flan de queso are just a few of the dishes on the menu at this smart, award winning restaurant. Come with a good appetite to try the salt-aged Delmonico steak, served with bearnaise, beef-dripping potatoes, and Bordelaise sauce; it’s the stuff of legends. The wine list here is particularly good, featuring some of Spain’s most acclaimed small producers and an impressive selection of grower Champagnes. Vegetarian dishes are available, and the kitchen can cater to vegans with advance notice. [$$$]

Spitalfields

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There’s a real mix of upscale restaurant dishes and gastropub comfort foods on the menu at this old, City Centre pub. Husband and wife team Stephen McAllister and Andrea Hussey recently took over the bar, put in a new kitchen, and started turning out a list of instant classics, like the beef cheek and bone marrow Parker House roll, which consists of milky, buttery brioche segmented into triangles for dipping into bone marrow sauce. It’s food to warm the cockles of the heart. [$$]

A white restaurant exterior with striking red borders around the entrance to the restaurant, with the words ‘Spitalfields’ and ‘pub’
Outside Spitalfields
Spitalfields

With sustainability and carefully sourced produce at its heart, this small, daytime cafe is a popular spot for brunch or lunch. The menu is chalked on a blackboard, and you can see the bowls of beautiful salad, beetroot hummus, and tzatziki as you queue to order. The biggest decision: whether to get all this goodness in a bowl or wrapped in a flatbread. [$]

A hand holds a dark bowl filled with various vegetable, chickpea, and herb dishes piled together
A veggie-packed bowl of goodness
Tang/Facebook

Dosa Dosa

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Karthik Thiru was missing the taste of home, so he opened a South Indian food truck, selling dosas in a parking lot close to where he worked. It’s now so popular, diners need to get there early before items sell out. The dosa fillings range from potato masala to Chettinad chicken, paneer, and mixed vegetables. They are, of course, even better when dipped into the spicy sambar, with its sour notes from tamarind. Parottas and homemade masala chai are also on the menu. The truck is currently open Saturday and Sunday, but Thiru is expanding hours, so check Instagram for updates. [$]

A stuffed dosa cut in half on a plastic plate with three small plastic cups of dipping sauce
Dosa with sauces
Dosa Dosa/Facebook

It’s small and noisy (especially as the night lengthens and more wine is poured), but Etto has been crammed with happy eaters since it opened. The energetic Italian menu includes fiendish flavors like pig trotter carpaccio and mussels with nduja, fennel, and samphire. The wine-soaked prunes with a dollop of putty-thick mascarpone are a city favorite. Book in advance if you want to be sure of a table. [$$]

The Fumbally

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Part cafe, part food shop and deli, the Fumbally has been a hub for this cool part of town, where many small businesses focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing — and increasingly fight off encroaching development. Coffee, breakfast, or lunch at an upcycled table is a convivial affair, as is dinner on Saturday nights. It’s all very laid back, with seasonal dishes that reflect the fresh produce, house ferments, and natural wines you’ll find for sale on the shelves. [$]

Las Tapas de Lola

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Named after owner Vanessa Murphy’s mother, this restaurant is a love letter to all things Spanish and flavorful. Murphy and her Spanish partner Anna Cadrera make regular pilgrimages to Spain for inspiration and ingredients, and pack it all into a lively menu of small plates. Their pork cheek with red pepper sauce is a must-eat dish, and be sure to take staff recommendations on wine, sherry, and vermouth pairings. [$$]

The Commons at MoLI

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In 2019 the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) opened in the old Newman House of University College Dublin. The old university common room in the basement now houses this lovely, literature-themed restaurant, run by chef and food writer Domini Kemp and her sister Peaches. The food is vehemently Irish, and the Commons offers some of the city’s greatest examples of hearty dishes like free-range pork with buttery mashed potato and barbecued cabbage. [$$]

A restaurant interior, lit by soft sconces and light pouring in through a large window, with small wooden tables, a vinyl banquet, and large, dark, glossy art
Inside the Commons
The Commons/Facebook

Hang Dai

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School friends Will Dempsey and chef Karl Whelan added a clubby Chinese restaurant to Dublin’s roster with Hang Dai. The entrance appears like a takeaway joint, but the restaurant expands into a back room that looks like a mash-up between a disco and a subway train. The vibe is fun but the food is serious, especially the duck special (preorder it when you book). The duck’s is glass-crisp, and it comes on a platter served four ways, including the severed head, from which you can taste a scoop of duck brain if you’re so minded.  [$$]

Dax Restaurant

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Graham Neville is Dublin’s best chef without a Michelin star. In 2017, he teamed up with French owner Olivier Meisonnave of Dax, a basement restaurant named after Meisonnave’s home village in southwest France. The partnership transformed what was a reliable business lunch spot for those with flush expense accounts into something a lot more creative. Neville’s prawn-stuffed courgette flower is a true summer treat. [$$$]

Mister S

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The robata-style grill brings an extra dimension of flavor to every dish at Mister S. To start, you need to order the burnt-end rendang spring rolls, made with beef that has been brined, barbecued slowly, shredded, and mixed with Malaysian spices. Follow that up with smoked Angus short rib, Andarl Farm tomahawk pork, or grilled fish. The restaurant is also open for a sneaky good lunch on Friday and Saturday. [$$]

A hand holds a whole fish above a wood-fired grill
Whole fish go on the grill
Mister S

Delahunt

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The building housing this bistro-style restaurant is a time capsule of old Dublin. For decades it was a family-run off-license shop selling wine, beer, and spirits. The Delahunt team kept much of the old shop, including the gorgeous mahogany counter, which they raised to make a bar, but they didn’t rest on the laurels of the beautiful building. Real thought and effort goes into dishes like hearty artichoke soup, roast pork with pear, or venison haunch with dark chocolate. There’s also a beautiful cocktail bar upstairs, accessed through a tiny door at the end of the bar.  [$$]

Step into this atmospheric restaurant for the best North Indian food in the country. The express lunch tiffin box is a perfect quick bite if you’re eating on your own, but it’s better to turn up with a group of friends in the evening to really work your way through the menu. The goat keema pao has become a bit of a signature dish, a slow-cooked wonder in which minced goat meat melds with black and green cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, mint, ginger, garlic, onions, Kashmiri chillies, and kalpasi moss. It’s delicious mopped up with maska pao, a brioche-style bun. [$$]

Bibi's Cafe

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It’s hard to think of a better example of a neighborhood cafe than Bibi’s, nestled in the quiet redbrick residential streets of Portobello. Sisters Maisha and Petria Lenehan originally opened the cafe as a side business to a clothes shop. But then designer Petria moved to Brooklyn, and Maisha expanded the cafe into the shop space with her brother Geoff. Their soup is terrific, and they bake a delicious tart of goat cheese, onion marmalade, and red pepper. [$]

Gaillot et Gray

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The home of Dublin’s best pizza, this place is run by a Frenchman married to an Irish woman. He imports flour from France and tops wood-fired pizzas with French ingredients like Emmental cheese rather than mozzarella, and merguez rather than Italian sausage. The sourdough bread and fluffy buttery brioche sell out as soon as they come out of the oven. Plan ahead if you want to snag a loaf. [$]

Bastible

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Slightly outside downtown (but definitely worth a trip), Barry Fitzgerald and Clairemarie Thomas’s restaurant is decorated in low-key decor that belies the quality of inventive cooking in the kitchen. While there are some Nordic influences including ferments and foraging, the tasting menu (the only option) is based on seasonal, Irish produce. Featured dishes might include poached oyster with elderflower and tomato dashi; mackerel tartare with fermented gooseberry; and lamb neck with pointed cabbage and sheep’s yogurt. A vegetarian menu is available and there’s a well chosen low-intervention wine list. [$$$]

Clanbrassil House

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A new chef and a new team in 2021 changed everything at this popular restaurant on the edge of town. While you can get in and out for an affordable a la carte meal much of the week, stop by for the 65-euro six-course tasting menu on Friday and Saturday. Dishes change often, but you’re likely to find roasted onion tortellini and baked cream with wild berries. A full vegetarian menu is available with vegan options on request. [$$$$]

From above, a blue ceramic bowl filled with cream and heaps of berries
Baked cream with fennel and wild blackberry
Clanbrassil House/Facebook

Richmond

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This small, handsome restaurant was once one of the city’s best-known dives, a pitstop between town and the student apartments in Rathmines’s faded Victorian mansions. Back then it served fried breakfasts and wine from midnight until 6 a.m. In recent years, it was reinvented as a super smart neighborhood restaurant, with good food replacing the fried soakage, all keenly priced to lure people to the slightly out-of-the-way location. The Tuesday tasting menu easily competes with many more expensive restaurants. [$$]

Sunday lunch is a bit of an industry secret at this lovely canal-side restaurant, where you’ll find the room filled with off-duty chefs. Locks has always served good food with comfortable vibes, but things have kicked up a notch with the arrival of Andy Roche, who previously worked at two-Michelin-starred Aimsir. A few recent tasty morsels included ox tongue on tiny waffles with pickled girolles; dry-aged beef tartare with smoked marrow; and Castletownbere lobster with burnt onion. [$$$]

Liath Restaurant

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You wouldn’t expect to find a Michelin-starred restaurant in a market in a coastal Dublin suburb, but if you get a reservation, it’s worth jumping on the train to Blackrock, to pull up a seat at one of the few tables at Liath. The five elements of taste form the framework for Damien Grey’s precise menu, starting with bitter flavors and moving onto sour, salty, savory, and finally sweet. [$$$$]

Overends Kitchen at Airfield

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This special cafe comes from a dream team collab between a mixed farm and a talented chef. Beef, lamb, and pork are reared on the estate, a clutch of happy hens lay the eggs, and a small herd of Jersey cows supplies the milk for chef Luke Matthew’s dulce de leche. The Airfield garden and nearby organic growers provide just-picked organic salads too. Sunday lunch is a family favorite. [$$]

Volpe Nera

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Barry Sun was the chef in City Centre wine bar Etto before moving to the suburbs to open his own restaurant. The name Volpe Nera is Italian for “black fox,” a play on the names of the two adjoining districts of Foxrock and Blackrock. Sun deftly combines big flavors and small touches in dishes like slow-cooked beef short rib with a slash of grated fresh horseradish and a buttery wedge of crisply fried polenta. [$$]

From above, a plate of oysters on ice, topped with geometrically cut garnishes of vegetables and herbs
Dressed oysters
Volpe Nera

Potager

“Potager” is the French word for a kitchen garden so it’s the perfect name for this restaurant to Dublin’s north, in the city’s garden heartland. The sandy soil around the village of Skerries has long been used to grow vegetables for the capital and beyond. At Potager, housed in a former bank, chef Cathal Leonard does offer meat, but the best dishes combine hyper-local fish and seafood with vegetables grown nearby, like Howth crab and Rush tomatoes. [$$$]

From above, a dish of broccoli, sardines, and fried crispies on a textured background
Vegetables shining at Potager
Potager

Shouk

You’ll be tempted to order so many things at this Middle Eastern restaurant, so here’s a game plan: Start with some cocktails, followed by the mezze platter, and then perhaps the chargrilled smoked aubergine. Then dig into the meats. There are serious grills in action here, and the aroma of shawarma wafts through the air. The outside seating area is particularly fun. [$]

Hands reaching into various colorful dishes on a sunlit wooden table
Digging into that mezze
Shouk

Chapter One

It was practically front-page news when the celebrated two-Michelin-starred chef Mickael Viljanen moved from the Greenhouse to take over as chef/patron at Chapter One. The cooking is as precise as you’re likely to get, with top-quality produce given the classic French treatment. There is of course a tasting menu, but you can dine for a reasonable sum if you opt for the excellent lunch; unlike many daytime menus at top-end restaurants, this one actually does reflect the kitchen’s abilities. Bookings open on the first of each month, and you need to be lightning quick to snag one. Otherwise ask to be added to the cancellations list. [$$$$]

Mr. Fox

In a workaday part of Parnell Square, chef Anthony Smith has put together a punchy set of plates at his smart basement restaurant. Look for the signature meat tartare (venison or beef), luscious meat jeweled with red currants and topped with sunchoke crisps. Desserts are clever riffs on sweetshop staples and childhood favorites. [$$$]

Courtesy of Mr. Fox

Grano Restaurant

Handmade food is the heart of this small Italian restaurant in Stoneybatter. When owner Roberto Mungo’s mother Roma came from Italy to oversee the opening of the restaurant, she flew with dried grass stalks, used to roll curly tubes of fileja pasta. You’ll find it cooked and teamed with charcuterie, sauces, and especially vivid vegetables. [$$]

A pile of bottoni pasta on a copper-rimmed plate topped with breadcrumps
Bottoni with cime di rapa, burrata, anchovy butter, and spicy Calabrian breadcrumbs
Grano Restaurant / Facebook

Bonobo

Head through this impressive pub — all dark wood, vaulted ceilings, and original floorboards — to get to the coolest beer garden in Dublin. It’s lush and green, with cascading creepers and tropical plants, and a retractable roof to keep things cozy. The garden kitchen houses a large green Pavesi pizza oven, turning out a simple menu of six pizzas, which arrive at tables in cardboard takeaway boxes. There are plenty of great beers on tap, including White Hag, Whiplash, and Kinnegar. [$]