The 38 Essential Dublin Restaurants
A local Dublin food critic’s favorite restaurants, from fish and chips to Michelin-starred fine dining
Dublin is a village as much as a city, with the feel of a tight-knit community spread along the River Liffey. It’s incredibly walkable, especially if you want to pop from pub to pub following in the footsteps of James Joyce, Brendan Behan, and Oscar Wilde on a guided literary pub crawl. It’s also a great base for a tour of the Irish seaside, with villages like Howth, Blackrock, and Dún Laoghaire well worth a 30-minute train ride.
Famous for its pubs, Dublin now punches well above its weight when it comes to restaurants, and not just with fine dining. Young chefs, many coming off stints at Michelin-starred restaurants in London and other European food capitals, take casual approaches to their menus, bringing a lot of energy and creativity to the city. Local ingredients (native oysters, lobsters, fish plucked from the Irish Sea) fill a lot of tables, alongside grass-raised beef and lamb from the wild hills of the countryside. While Ireland doesn’t get as much attention for its wine, the bar scene continues to grow, and there are now enough cellars stocked with biodynamic and low-intervention bottlings to rival New York, Copenhagen, or Paris; pro-tip: those wine bars are where you’ll find some of the most creative food in the city, too.
New to the map in 2025: High-end record bar Sister 7; Forêt, a proper French bistro; family-run favorite Hong Kong Wonton; buzzy, sourdough pizza hangout Reggie’s; ideal Italian restaurant Lena; outpost of Indian purveryor Andhra Bhavan; classic Sichuan specialist M&L; popular cafe Tang, now with dinner; Thai stunner Achara; bold Kickys from a Chapter One vet; and Allta, where a nine-level grill turns out wonders.
In this latest refresh, we’ve revamped our write-ups to include even more relevant info for diners, including a rough range of pricing for each destination — ranging from $ for quick, inexpensive meals with dishes largely under $10 USD (or the equivalent in euros), to $$$$ for places where entrees exceed $30.
Corinna Hardgrave is a restaurant critic and food writer for the Irish Times. She is an international food and wine judge, the winner of the Food Writing Award at the inaugural Irish Food Writing Awards in 2021, and the Restaurant Writing Award in 2022.
