Hearth-charred octopus
€19Slow-braised for four hours, then finished directly on the embers. Romesco made with Wicklow hazelnuts, burnt lemon, a lot of good oil.
Stoneybatter · Dublin 7
One hearth, twelve tables and a wine list with more natural bottles than we can reasonably justify. Dinner Tuesday to Saturday, long lunches at the weekend.
Our story
In 2016 we took on a damp 1890s coach house off Marlowe Street with a collapsed roof and a chimney big enough to stand in. We kept the chimney. Everything else — the oak floor, the zinc bar, the twelve tables — was built around it.
There is no gas line in our kitchen. Every plate that leaves the pass has met the fire in some way: charred, smoked, ember-roasted, or warmed on the stone beside it. It makes us slower than most restaurants and considerably more particular about wood.
From the hearth
The menu changes with what arrives on Tuesday morning, but these have earned their place and rarely leave.
Slow-braised for four hours, then finished directly on the embers. Romesco made with Wicklow hazelnuts, burnt lemon, a lot of good oil.
Beetroot buried in the ash overnight, dressed like a tartare with capers, shallot and a horseradish cream that will wake you up.
Shoulder from Ballyknocken, cooked eight hours beside the fire until it gives way to a spoon. Wild garlic when it's in, salsa verde when it's not.
Brown butter pastry, honey from the hives on the Cabra allotments, caramelised until it is very nearly too far. Crème fraîche to cut it.
Opening hours
We are a small room and we fill up. Weekends book out roughly ten days ahead; midweek you can usually walk in before seven if you don't mind the bar.
Illustrative map. Swap this block for your Google Maps or OpenStreetMap embed — see the README.
The room
Low light, loud enough to talk, quiet enough to hear the answer.
“We came for one glass and stayed four hours. The octopus is the best thing I have eaten in this city, and I say that as someone who eats out for a living.”
“Booked for our anniversary. They remembered, and left a little card on the table. Small thing, made the night.”
“I'm coeliac and normally braced for a negotiation. Here it took one sentence and the whole menu opened up.”
“Took a table of eight for a work dinner. Aoife matched every course without once making it feel like an upsell.”
Reservations
Tables are released thirty days ahead. Parties of seven or more, and anything involving a cake, are best arranged by phone.
Walk-ins welcome at the bar · Last kitchen order 21:45