In a smart room buzzing with locals, the dishes at Bala Nayak and Nidhi Joshi’s new restaurant lean toward the south of India. Unique combinations of flavors bring originality to the food, which includes battered and deep-fried kale and samphire scattered with jewelled pomegranate seeds, light and textured crab kebabs, and spicy pork vindaloo. The thalis at lunch are a particularly good value.

Korean Table is tucked away in a quieter part of Stoneybatter, one of Dublin’s hippest neighborhoods. There, Vivian Cho serves a concise menu in a smart, narrow room with raw-plaster walls, tumbling green foliage, and festival lights. Meals start with complimentary banchan including pickled seaweed, zucchini tempura, and kimchi. Prices are incredibly keen and you won’t go wrong with a warming hotpot or a tofu bibimbap.

The best durum wheat is produced by an ancient grain called senatore cappelli according to Roberto Mungo, who ensures that all of the handmade pasta at his wonderfully convivial restaurant in the hip enclave of Stoneybatter follows his mother’s recipes precisely. Grano is incredibly popular, so you’ll want to book your table here well in advance, and failing that, you’ll find lighter food and plenty of wine at Afianco, Mungo’s vineria next door.

Argentinian Florencia Matan and her husband, Benjamín Pugliese, started selling facturas (Argentinian pastries) door-to-door, and demand soon pushed them to find a permanent spot. In 2021 they opened their bright-yellow bakery and daytime cafe in the middle of the Liberties. The facturas and alfajores are baked fresh each day, and there are numerous variations of both displayed on the counter, along with empanadas, medialunas, cañoncitos filled with cream or dulce de leche, glazed buns, and fried pastries.

Brothers Aaron and Keelan Higgs recently opened a shiny 30-seater premises next door to the original location of their Michelin-starred Variety Jones. Head chef Keelan makes extensive use of live fire and a wood-burning oven. The tasting menu, which always includes a stuffed pasta, turns family style when it gets to larger courses of grilled fish and meat.

Note: A fire broke out in the new location just a few days after it opened, forcing the team to operate out of their old space for now. 

Slightly outside downtown (but definitely worth a trip), Barry Fitzgerald and Clairemarie Thomas’s Michelin-starred 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. 

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.

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. 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.

Drinkers covet the tables at Enrico Fantasia and Thibaud Harang’s 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.

Vanessa Murphy and her Spanish partner Anna Cabrera are part of the beating heart of this side of town. Regular diners queue for tables at Las Tapas de Lola to work their way through Spanish tapas and a smart wine list, which also includes some interesting sherries and vermouth. Nearby on Montague Street, you’ll find more ambitious dishes (like chuletón or lamb sweetbreads in port sauce) at the duo’s bodega restaurant, La Gordita, where the barstools are the most coveted spots.

A gloriously fun interior with columns of neon light, a hammered gold bar, and a blazing-red ceiling with two black fans indicates what to expect in Robert Hayes and Alex Zhang’s Chinese-inspired restaurant. Creativity, energy, and vibrant flavors are lined up on a tick-the-box menu, which includes lobster and wagyu beef tucked into a squid ink bao, cheeseburger dumplings, corn ribs, and feather blade steak with fermented bean and Urfa pepper. Sip clever cocktails, such as She Sells Sichuan, made with gin, Aperol, lychee, hibiscus, and Sichuan pepper.

Look for the neon “Ca$h 4 Gold” sign, venture through the dive bar that looks like a pawn shop — where there are good pints and cocktails — and head to the back where Ian Cairns has found a home for his Mexican-inspired pop-up, Órale Street Food. Tacos, tostadas, and burritos sit alongside more sizable main courses on a menu that is perfect for sharing and casual dining.

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 Sunil Ghai’s menu. The beloved goat keema pao is 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.

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 open for a sneaky good lunch on Friday.

At the sister restaurant to Ryon Wen and Ian Keegan’s equally good Hakkahan in Stoneybatter and more upscale Nan nearby, spring for the plate with one of each dumpling on the menu. If you’re going full-in, order the smashed cucumber, prawn toast, and black fungus salad, and ask for the secret Little Sichuan menu with nose-to-tail dishes like steamed chicken claws and garlic ribs.

The celebrated chef Mickael Viljanen took over Chapter One as chef/patron in 2021, and now many consider the restaurant to be the best in Ireland. The cooking is precise and detailed, 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.

Shane Windrim’s New York-style slice shop, which features 48-hour fermented dough with blistering hot toppings, is one of the most popular places in Dublin. Grab one of the high stools or a spot on the bench outside, and choose from one of eight pizzas, which change regularly. The stars of the menu are the Sicilian-style burrata square slice and the Hot Pep with cheese, pepperoni, jalapeno, and hot honey. Wash it down with the house beer, or spring for a glass of grower Champagne.

You’re unlikely to find a better cheese toastie anywhere in the world. But you’ll need to grab a daytime stool, since the toasties come off the menu once the clock strikes 5:30 p.m. After that you can have some charcuterie and cheese plates, along with one of the iconic bottles from small producers that line the shelves at Dublin’s original natural wine bar. If you don’t feel like paying the corkage fee, try a few different glasses from Brian O’Caoimh and Kevin Powell’s regularly changing by-the-glass list. Walk-ins only.  

On one of the best people-watching streets in Dublin, La Maison sports a convivial, sizable terrace, along with a cozy interior. This Gallic institution serves classics like a French onion soup generously slicked with molten Gruyere. The early evening menu is an exceptionally good value with options like duck confit and gnocchi, but you could find yourself running up a bill as you tuck into the a la carte later in the evening.

Hawksmoor may be a London institution and rated as one of the world’s best steakhouses, but the newly opened Dublin outpost in the city center is solidly Irish on the plate. Options for larger cuts of beef from the country’s top producers are chalked on a board daily, perfect for sharing after you’ve worked your way through some Flaggy Shore oysters, bone marrow with onions, and local lobster. Dublin’s finest dining room, in a meticulously restored landmark building designed by William Barnes in the mid-1840s with a soaring 40-foot dome, adds to the drama. Sunday lunch is a steal, and the corkage is only 5 euros (about $5.50) on Mondays.

With sustainability and carefully sourced produce at its heart, Stephen O’Dwyer’s 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.

You’ll be tempted to order so many things at Alon Salman’s restaurant, Shouk, so here’s a game plan: Start with some cocktails, followed by the mezze platter, and then perhaps the chargrilled smoked eggplant. 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.

One of the most charming places to eat in Dublin is at the entrance of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a contemporary art museum. During the day, Jess D’Arcy and Killian Durkin offer soups, sandwiches, and salads. The mood changes in the evening, transitioning from coffee shop to smart wine bar. Small plates include Calabrian anchovies, burrata with seasonal vegetables, and poached halibut with crispy chicken skin, all of which can be washed down with choices from the enviable wine list.

In-the-know diners, and there are plenty of them, head to Dax for a true taste of French fine dining from talented chef Graham Neville. His stuffed zucchini flower in lobster bisque is a signature dish, and you’ll also find classically cooked red mullet, lamb, and sweetbreads. Co-owner Olivier Meisonnave is one of the country’s top sommeliers, overseeing an enviable wine list. This is a spot with wonderfully polished service.

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.

Seasonal produce is central to the menu at this casual trattoria. Ross Lewis, former head chef of two-Michelin-starred Chapter One, takes a simple approach, focusing on pasta, pizzas, and meats cooked in the wood-burning oven, including a formidable shoulder of suckling pork. The sharing menu is particularly good value and includes two starters, two pasta dishes, a main course, and a dessert.

You wouldn’t expect to find a two-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.

A trip to the seaside town of Skerries should include a booking at Cathal Leonard’s fine dining restaurant, particularly if you’re looking for somewhere special for Sunday lunch. The room is smart, with white linen-clad tables. The produce on the menu, with locally landed fish and seasonal vegetables, has a radius of meters rather than miles. The wine list, from sommelier Maire McHugh, is impressive.