Bite

Closed January 2014, with promise of resurfacing elsewhere. Watched that space and it seems to have slowed to a crawl. Shame. It was fun.

Nice place. Food good standard. Would be good place for a group

Some nice touches like the Thai-​butter popcorn and innovative cocktail list but unfortunately the food was not great The menu does look good and I love fish but they either made the food far too plain, such as the tuna, or they coated it in loads of batter or cheese. Shame!

The food is good. The service is another story.
After been handed a printed sheet of a menu, I assumed it was the specials and asked for their main menu. This was the main menu. Oh! On previous occasions I had been here it was mid week and before 19:00, when they have a completely different menu. A more permanent one that wasn’t printed out that day. I didn’t realise this and I was a little disappointed as had been looking forward to the menu I was used to. Oh well.
The food was very tasty and the cocktails too. I am not the biggest fish fan, but places like Bite are great for the Irish culinary scene and bringing more people like me on side when it comes to eating fish.
However the service amuses me. They forget things or make mistakes, but when its pointed out to them they go above and beyond making amends for it. For example, two of our group ordered the same dish that should have, for example, four pieces of fish. But one of the two dishes only had three. To make up for it they brought us a whole portion of four pieces of fish! Then when one of the desserts was forgotten, a discount was applied to the bill. By the end of the meal, service was a bit slow. This and the mistakes I don’t get, as there seems to be more than enough of floor staff to avoid them all being run off their feet. I dunno, it’s just an observation.
Also, I am still not a fan of the layout, however on this latest occasion I was surprised to be seated in the first dining room. Which I’d always assumed was reserved for Dublin’s beautiful elite.
I will be back, I hope the service improves by then.

Probably the best seafood meal I’ve had in years and just a 5 – 10 minute walk from Grafton Street shopping. We split the cockles and mussels as a starter. They were just what you’d want. I had the monkfish tacos and my wife had pan-​fried cod. The fries («chips») that came with my tacos were (my wife pronounced) the best french fries she’d ever eaten (and she knows her frites). The tacos themselves were truly awesome, though not really «hand food» — they required fork and knife.
My wife’s cod was delicious, served on a bed of peas, spinach, carrots, in a cream sauce. We basically split both dishes and were hard-​put to say which we preferred.
We passed on dessert (brownie looked good) but our Americanos were better than many I’ve had in specialty coffee shops.
Our waiter was a high-​energy bleached-​blond guy who gave us good recommendations on both food and wine.
Note: the lobster burger, which I was considering, went to the next table. On reflection, I was glad I didn’t get it — it looked like a monument to excess (including covering the chips in cheese or something). But I understand it’s a best-​seller.
And finally, the sea-​bass was actually my wife’s first choice, but it’s an endangered fish and we’re trying to be at least a bit sane about that. Worth thinking about when you order your fish.

We ran an office party at BITE last week. The staff were super helpful in lead up, on the night and even with helping clean up our party supplies and leave them neatly stacked for pick up the next day. The food was spot on for the occasion and the cocktails were LOVELY. I would totally recommend having a party here to anyone.

I went to Bite for a friend’s going away dinner last night with a party of ten. We opted for the 2 and 3 course pre-​gig menu, which were € 22 and € 25 respectively.
It was a very enjoyable night, however the service was quite slow and a bit clumsy. A few things went awry: my initial cocktail order was forgotten; the wrong entrée was brought out to my friend and she had to wait for the kitchen to prepare the correct one while everyone else started eating; and at the end of the meal there was an extra € 22 charge on the bill for an eleventh pre-​gig menu order that shouldn’t have been there. I totally understand that being a large party it takes a bit longer to serve us all, but quite a few things just didn’t seem to go well.
The chicory and baby gem salad with pear, pumpkin seeds and blue cheese was alright, however none of the flavours seemed to stand out and the dressing was a bit thin. Also, I had four chunks of blue cheese on my salad while my friend only had one.
What bumped Bite up from a 2-​star to a 3-​star rating was the lobster burger. I can’t begin to describe how well the flavours of the sweet lobster, the tangy citrus mayo and pickled cucumbers, and the smoky paprika onion rings came together. It was so delicious, and well-​worth the € 6 supplement. It was served with parmesan truffle fries, an irresistible combination. Also, the Elderflower Collins cocktail was delicious!
The space was really cool, a bit of a maze, and there were lots of small dining rooms which gave the restaurant an intimate feel. The terrace bar was really nice and seems like a great space for cocktails and apps on a summer evening.
I’ll definitely give this place another chance — I feel a lobster burger craving coming on in 3…2…1!

I came to Bite on a trip with my Mom to Dublin and it was amazing! The waiter was so friendly and helpful when it came to ordering. We had a fresh salad with blue cheese dressing, pears, fennel, and grape tomatoes. As a main course we shared the lobster burger and the john dory. I had never had john dory before and this was the PERFECT first experience. It was incredible, light, full of flavor, and served with just the right portion. The meal was so good we felt the need to have the berry crumble for desert. On our way out, the owner stopped us to say goodbye. When he realized we were tourists he was thrilled to give us tips about the city. Overall this was an amazing experience! I highly recommend Bite.

Brought some visiting guests to Bite, one of the guests had an 11-​year old daughter. We were welcomed warmly, and the had a table for 6 of us, even though it was a bit cosy. The complimentary popcorn was a nice touch. The Christmas set menu was really nice. I had the smoked salmon with truffled organic leek, grain mustard and tarragon. That was delish. It was followed by roasted cornfed chicken w/​pumpkin, field mushrooms, serrano ham and sage. Again, totally yummy. And I had to get the popping candy ice-​cream. As my friend commented, it was like having a party in my mouth. We were like giggling school kids. We got some complimentary mince pies as well. The service was great. The guest’s daughter was treated really well and we were pretty much very impressed all round. I will totally come back, and would recommend it.

Wow! We just had dinner here last night and it was fantastic! It is fairly new, cozy, intimate, and although the menu is small, the choices are big! Monkfish, bass, lobster linguine, hake and for starters a creamy, smooth, luscious pumpkin soup, and my choice, prawns on a dollop of spicy chili hash. I enjoyed the hake, which was beer batter dipped and served with mushy peas, which I asked to substitute with glazed carrots, as I am NOT a lover of peas! My husband had the sea bass which tasted just as amazing as it looked. There is only one meat choice, chicken, so if you fancy a juicy steak, this may not be the right place for you. We have lived in Dublin for over a year now, and have traveled extensively throughout the country, but I can honestly say BITE is a little gem right in the city that is very much worth a try!

I went some time back to try this place, as a friend recommended it (⁵⁄₆ months ago at this stage). I wrote most of the review and forgot to post so here it is now.
The food was tasty enough, and reasonable value over all. We had the BBQ chicken, battered cod, truffle fries and roast beet salad. BBQ chicken and fries were good, battered cod was a little bland and I don’t think the beets were roasted which was disappointing.
However down side, we booked a table for the 5.30 seating (although told them we wouldn’t be able to make it till 5.45) and were told we’d have to be done at 7, this was no problem as we thought as they’re were giving a 5.30 booking that the service must be quick. We arrived promptly at 5.45 and ordered quickly, however our food was very slow coming and wasn’t served till almost 6.30. Half an hour later and with indigestion we were finished and ready to pay up but it was clear as we left there were many seats still free.
The place itself lacks atmosphere too. It’s a pity because most of the food was tasty and not expensive but on the whole I doubt I’d rush back. (5 months on I can confirm I’ve kinda forgotten about this place).

Went to Bite for the first time at the weekend, really enjoyed the place.
I only had a main course of Monk Fish and Mussels, but it was an amazing dish.
We had some sides of fries with truffle shavings and sweet potato chips. They were also very nice. Note 4 people would need at least 3 of the sides to go with the dishes.
I had wanted the lobster burger but they had been let down on ingredients, which was a bit disappointing as I had already decided about two days before I got there that was what I wanted. But the Monkfish made up for it!
Service was very good, nice waiters and very quick as well.
The menu isn’t massive, which I always find is a good sign of a quality restaurant.
Price wise it was mixed, the price for my dish wasn’t bad I guess for monk fish at 22 euro (included some potatos), but the normal fish and chips was a little expensive I thought. (hence the 4 stars). At 15 euro without chips or sides, you are talking 20 euro for fish and chips. That’s expensive although apparently it was very nice. But Stoop your head in Skerries does it for a lot less and that is equally as good.
The restaurant itself is really nice and quite quirky in its design as it appears to have loads of different rooms and floors, but isn’t that big. It gives quite a nice quiet environment for couples and small party’s to have an evening without shouting over the crowds (unlike Seagrass for instance).
The cocktails were apparently quite nice and not too expensive, although I had a Bulmers which wasnt to expensive either.
Overall a very enjoyable night out. I will be back to try the lobster burger one day which sounds amazing.

Service, food and cocktails were great! Highly recommended. Can get quite pricey though.

Yes, I’m a fan!
The service, however, was poor. We had a delightful waitress but the bar service in particular, was very slow. And when they eventually arrived the cocktails and coffees were disappointingly sub-​standard.
And, I suppose I also expected Fish and Chips to be revolutionised in the same way Crackbird revolutionised chicken… but not so. The menu really isn’t that ‘different’ and is quite limited.
And despite all of this I will definitely go back. The food is good, it’s buzzing every day of the week, there’s a brilliant atmosphere and the waiting area is a great space to hang out.
Definitely worth a visit!

Came at the tail end of lunch and was seated perilously close to another table in an otherwise nearly empty joint = annoyance.
Food made up for the difference and we got to eaves drop on the locals order and questions, so all good in the end. We opted for the fried haddock, grilled brooke trout, parmesean chips, & the aioli & churrasco sauce.
Didn’t care for the popcorn. No flavor there.
The flavored salts, however, struck the right note as well as the sauce options and clean, simple presentation of properly prepared fish. I will mention that I found a number of small, softish bones in my trout. But that may just be because I go neurotic around fish.
Lunch is a better value but overall found the menu expensive.

Also came for the Foodie club event and it was a great choice. The staff must of knew of Unilocal because they gave us free shots at the end!
Being vegetarian here is not too easy – only one entrée and it’s couscous (which I don’t like) so I got split the cheese balls appetizer and got some sides – fries with parm and truffle and spinach with garlic. The mozzarella cheese balls were great, as was the sauce, but it did not really complement it – maybe another one of their sauces would be better (but I didn’t try them). The fries were great and huge! The spinach was good… but I didn’t taste any garlic on it. They gave us lots of sides and I tried the fennel (okay), baked beans (okay), mushy peas (great) and sweet potato fries (great). I got the Raspberry Collins which was good, but, as someone else said, not strong at all.
It is a maze to get in and out, but I think thats just a thing a lot of Dublin restaurants have to deal with. The décor is cute (a lot of IKEA, no problem with that!) – fish pained on the wall going into the doorway or floorboards and jars around the lights coming from the ceiling. It was easier to hear the table next to me than the others at my table though.
The bill was a bit confusing, so we were not sure if they charged us for all the sides we got or not.

You had me at fish and chips and cocktails!
So we were here for a foodie club event and the choice was very good. The layout of this place is weird — I felt very lost on entry as its full of little alcoves and quite windy. All the smartly dressed people seemed to be seated at the front of the restaurant (we were not seated there!). I think the acoustics of where we were sat were bad, or maybe the people at the table around us were very loud. Either way I have to say I had trouble hearing the conversation on our table and yet felt like I was in the conversation at the next table. Pluses of the venue have to be the covered outdoor area (a blessing for smokers I’d say), the funky décor and the location.
I thought the food was great though. There’s complimentary popcorn for the table in three flavours… which resulted in a lot of sampling to see if I could actually get one that tasted of chili squid. I wanted the Sea Bass but it wasn’t there, so I had the Green Cod. It was really beautiful and not actually green! The sides were pretty tasty and I thought the mozarella balls were awesome. I have no idea what the sauces were!
For the boozo I went for the raspberry bellinis which went straight to my face — oh I was thankful for the dim light then with my neon pink face! They were still awesome and I regret nothing!
Overall I think a good choice if you like fish.

I wanted to like this place, but to be honest it was just ok.
We had 2 starters, the potted crab and the chili prawns. The prawns were great, loads of flavor and well cooked. The crab was the opposite, not much flavor at all here, even when mixed with the fennel on the side.
For mains we had the chicken kiev. I find the one in Fallon and Byrne is much better. This one was ok, but nothing to shout home about. The same goes for the cod in batter. The portion was quite small and it’s done better in a lot more venues around Dublin.
I think the whole point of the place is to build up your meal. You get a main, add a few sides and then sauce to match your dish. Unfortunately this wasn’t explained to us when we were ordering and we were left wanting when our mains came out. We had ordered chips but there was no sauce, or veg with the mains. This is probably a teething problem and I’m sure that it will improve in the future.
The price was great value. I might try it again in a few week to see if things have improved. As I said, teething problems could have been the excuse for some of my issues. Worth a look though.

Very cute from the outside, I really like the logo and the homage whether implied or not to PAC Man, this generation can never seem to get enough of retro references.
So we walked in and they happily seated us quickly, we figured that we would not need to make a booking for a Monday. It was busy enough which is great for them.
Quite small inside and they have a lot of service staff in smart uniforms. Having said that it took far too long for our order to be taken. I got the lemon sole. When asked how would it like it done, I said:
«How can I have it done?»
I was then told that you can have it battered, grilled and I forget the other, I assume pan fried. It would of been nice to have been told the options instead of asking.
It took too long for our tap water and we were not topped up for the rest of the meal.
The bill also took too long. I didn’t find the service overtly friendly, I do like a bit of banter with service staff and as an ex waitress it really does make or break your tip.
The tunes were great, the right amount of bass, maybe too loud but that’s hard for staff to judge sometimes when they are running about.
I ordered a Patron and grapefruit cocktail. Far too much juice and ice in the large tumbler style glass so the beautiful kick of Patron was lost. I thought it would have been served in a cocktail glass as that would of retained the flavours better.
I opted for the grilled lemon sole which came with fries. The fish was far too salty, I could not eat it. Such a pity as the cut of fish was fantastic, I do think over salting is a sign of poor confidence. The chips were good.
The buttered popcorn at the start was a cute feature.
It is very reasonably priced and that’s great. It is still very new so I expect that a lot of tweaking etc will happen. I will go back but I will give it a few more weeks. Maybe for the Unilocal Foodie Club although that’s assuming I’m not broken after Unilocal’s Backyard Bazaar…

I saw that Bite, officially opening tonight, had a sneaky test run last night after they tweeted about it (
). I went with a friend to check it out and because I had a need for good food, a glass of wine and a chat. I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s a nice and quirky building in a central part of town. Big space, tables aren’t packed together, staff are attentive and friendly and the building it’s in is quirky and interesting, with a decent smoking space, bar and comfy places to sit.
We had the Haddock (€ 9.95), the Sea Bass (€ 11.95) and then the VVIP fries — string chips with truffle and parmesan (€ 2.99). Decent size food servings and VERY tasty — though it was 9.30pm and we were starving. The fish is great quality and they’ve put effort into thinking about how to cook and present it — not in a wanky way, just in a easy to eat way. It is fish and chips after all.
Bottle of wine as well and then two cocktails to finish — we spent around € 70 and it was well worth the money for the comfort, the food and the chats. It seems like a great place you’d go with friends to have a bit of food and drink and either stay or head out to whatever. It’s in a really great location.
They have a small bit of work to do — more plug sockets would be handy and obviously, because they just opened, there was still some tidying to do but overall I liked it and can see myself going back there. The food was definitely worth having.
They say it’s «Hip, not hipster» and I have to give it to them — there’s no evidence they’re trying too hard or being different for the sake of it — unlike a couple of places in Dublin that I just wouldn’t be bothered about going back to, however good the reviews. A big plus is obviously the prices. The food and drink was worth the money, though my friend said she’d have paid more for bigger portions. That’s a good sign.
A place like this — however different to Joburger, Bear, Crackbird, Skinflint, 777, Yamamori, Pygmalion and so on it is (they’re just the places I know are popular in Dublin) — will attract the foodies, the folks who just want a bit of unpretentious but tasty food, a few drinks and a comfortable place to spend some time and those who like something different.
It’s a good one. I think you’ll like it.