The Best Restaurants in Dublin

Barry Fitzgerald learnt his craft in some of the best restaurants in Dublin and around the globe before opening Bastible, named after the cast iron pot which once sat on the hearth of every family home in Ireland. It’s a stylish spot that’s bang on-trend and run with wonderful conviction by the experienced and talented chef-owner. Seasonal and understated, the dishes are a showcase for Barry and his team’s ability to balance contrasting flavours with a deft touch.

When Mickael Viljanen took over the reins of the long-standing Chapter One in 2021, it didn’t take the Finnish chef long to put his stamp on the place, or to win the restaurant its second Star. Building on Viljanen's repertoire from past years, the cooking demonstrates sophistication and elegance, along with a good degree of complexity. Enhancing the offering is the dishes’ stunning visual appeal and the incorporation of an array of luxury ingredients to ensure a special night out.

D'Olier Street landed on the Dublin restaurant scene towards the end of 2022 and, having won its first MICHELIN Star less than two years later, is now a firmly established member of the city’s culinary top table. Overseen by Chef James Moore, it’s located on the ground floor of a gorgeous Victorian corner site just across the road from Trinity College. The kitchen delivers beautifully presented dishes that wisely allow the superb ingredients to shine thanks to the uncluttered, finely balanced cooking.

The most recently crowned of Dublin’s MICHELIN-Star restaurants, Forest Avenue is found a little further from the city centre than many of its peers, and therefore has an appealingly relaxed, local feel to go with its stand-out cuisine. Chef John Wyer cooks everything on his appealing, accessible menu with the confidence of a cook who knows when a dish is complete. Over-adornment is eschewed in favour of pared-back yet cleverly conceived flavour combinations that accentuate the ingredients’ natural deliciousness.

Explore the Forest Avenue experience in more detail with our Inspector's report.

The art deco interior adds a certain elegance to this restaurant inside The Fitzwilliam Hotel, providing the ideal setting for Chef Andy McFadden’s eye-catching and elegant cuisine. His dishes are notable for their intensity of flavour, derived from produce of the finest quality, with a dose of expertise and a well-judged level of modernity. The lunch menu offers particularly good value, presenting the coveted opportunity to savour MICHELIN-Starred cooking without denting your bank balance.

A short distance from the city centre, Liath is located in the coastal town of Blackrock, within the local market. Entering the dining room feels like walking into Narnia, such is the cosiness of the space and the air of magic to the cooking. Damien Grey and his team offer a surprise tasting menu that takes you on a culinary journey focused around the five tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and savoury/umami. The level of creativity employed in the dishes is truly impressive, displaying outstanding technical skill alongside passion and precision.

Without doubt the most celebrated restaurant in all of Ireland, Patrick Guilbaud has been a Dublin institution for over 40 years. For the greater part of this time, ‘home’ has been The Merrion hotel, an oasis of calm in the heart of the city and the recipient of Two MICHELIN Keys. With trusted disciples of Guilbaud both in the kitchen and front of house, the level of consistency over the decades has been magnificent. The cooking itself is fiercely French in the technique, showing just enough modernity to ensure it moves along gently with the changing times.

When brothers Keelan and Aaron Higgs opened Variety Jones in 2018, it was a breath of fresh air for the Dublin dining scene, and doubtless helped to make The Liberties one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the city. Keelan is the chef of the pair and is influenced by his father, who did most of the cooking in the Higgs household; in both the food and the service, the fundamental principles of providing warm hospitality and nourishing the soul are the cornerstones. The chef’s choice menu shows originality and generosity in both flavour and spirit.