Italian Connection

I absolutely love this restaurant! Great value for money and tasty food — I would recommend the pizza! Staff have always been lovely :) I go here at least once a month and it has never disappointed.

Very rude service.
They take advantage of foreigners who do not understand English well.
They charged us 11 € for a beer (A beer!!!).
We felt as we were stolen.

Went there only to try the banofee pie. I ended up trying the starters. Well a true Italian family run restaurant. I do t recommend except for the pie. You can find better.

Three stars is about right for this place. While the staff can be a little off (I’ve been here maybe a dozen times and never been served by the same waitress twice) and the décor and music are a wee bit tired, the lunch special of a starter and. main for a tenner is pretty unbeatable. This is all I ever go for in here as the value is spot on, it’s filling and usually pretty delicious (the odd time they appear to absolutely load up everything with copious amounts of garlic which I love but I’m sure everybody else I meet doesn’t agree haha)

There is certainly no «Connection» to «Italian» at this restaurant! If I was an Italian eating here, I would be pissed and probably would slap the chef.
I have to say that the staff is a major problem here. You never know who your waitress is. It’s fine if it’s a group effort but with no communication, things like getting the same plate twice happens and so on. Plus absolutely no warmth from them, no smiles. They hate their job and they hate you (probably a little over dramatic). Getting their attention is extremely hard.
The next big problem is the seating. I understand restaurants want to fit in as many people as possible but when you have play Tetris to let someone out to leave or use the bathroom, it interrupts everyone’s meal. It was crazy!
So the BIGGEST problem is the food. Sorry to be so mean but this chef can’t cook. The chicken was dry, under seasoned, and way overcooked. The fish was the same and I still worry about the freshness of both. Funny (but maybe smart) we didn’t enough to get sick which I’m sure we would have. One note, why would you serve chips for the side on a chicken entrée? Although, the chips were the only edible things on the plate. I won’t even tell you how much they over charge for all of this.
fyi– The wine is more then awful! It probably sits there all day, it’s like drinking vinegar.

I’ve been here twice. The first time I ordered pizza and it was good. Second time I had the special which was chicken, shrimps in a creamy white sauce. It was utterly delicous however it came with a glass of wine that ruined the whole thing. My friend nor myself could even finish it. So good food, crappy wine. (I guess it’s to be expected at that price but it was just shockingly bad)

We wanted to go to another restaurant; but decided to go here, since the other restaurant was closed for the New Year. What a big mistake!
First: We were on top of the surrounding customers. Don’t get me wrong, I love the bistro feeling, but this was ridiculous. I could have reached over and ate off the man’s plate next to me.
Second: We ordered the caprese salad, which claimed to have beef steak tomatoes. No beef steak tomatoes here! Because of this, the taste of the fresh cheese was altered.
Third: The wine… below house wine. Reminded me of drinking something similar to rubbing alcohol.
Fourth: The chef had no clue how to cook poultry nor fish. Both were extremely dry and leather like. Also, who would serve chips with Italian food? That should have tipped us off there.
Fifth: The service was awful. Our waitress kept switching; and when we wanted to leave, no one would approach our table, nor make eye contact with us.
What ended up happening?!? I started a napkin on fire (On accident, of course!) and almost burned the joint down. OOops!
If I visit Dublin again, I will make sure to as far away from this place as possible! What a waste of culinary time, calories, and money!

Yum!
Came here for breakfast while on holiday. I ordered the eggs florentine and my companion had the big Irish breakfast. Service was relatively quick and our waitress was friendly. The food was good but wasn’t spectacular or anything but prices were reasonable.
It seemed popular with huge crowds of boys though (who all ordered the big breakfast).

Good pizza and pasta, friendly staff. Perhaps service too quick, but we were not rushed despite the fact that we had nothing left to eat after 20 minutes!

I’ve had a slip of paper in my wallet since 2002, Oktober. I cleaned out my wallet today to find the address of the Italian Connection, why you my ask, because of the way I was treated here, my wife and I were visiting from Germany at the time, we had enjoyed Dublin, we had to wait for an hour or two to get our ride from the comfort Inn talbot st, a few doors down, they suggested by no fault of their own, that we have a coffee down a few doors at Italian connection. The place was dead, it was 10:45 or so, me and my wife sit down in the restaurant when a nice young asian girl give us a menu, we order some coffee, cappuccino. Then a Russian/​Ukrainian girl starts out nice to take our order, When we ordered deserts (Which is common this time of day at home) She got a look on her face that said it all, F… You. Then Stated, I have to ask the chef/​owner if we can even do this order. I said“if its a problem, we will go somewhere else” mind you, I’m now in my 18^th year of employment in Hotel/Catering.She says no. no…just let me see.gee.thanks I guess? She returns, says its ok, when she returns with our Deserts. I ask for the bill, she say’s“NO, no its ok, it ok, I insist, its the only time in my life I’ve never tipped, even in Europe, I felt like we were pieces of shit here, service sucks, maybe the owner sucks, but we never saw him… The food was outstanding! the drinks Great! Maybe I will go here again Next time I’m in Ireland, I’ll ask for the owner/​chef first though to see if We are worth serving/​Spending our money here.

Grotty Talbot Street may not be the first place that pops into your head when you think of Italian cuisine, but the Italian Connection is a very serviceable little spot on said thoroughfare.
I say serviceable rather than fantastic, as the Italian Connection doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel or anything, but they do a fairly tasty dish of pasta. All of their pasta dishes are around ¹¹⁄₁₂ euro, and I recommend the fettuccine with broccoli and bacon, it hits the spot.
In contrast to the food, which is always at least enjoyable, the restaurant itself isn’t that nice to eat in. They need to stop stingeing and hire more staff, as it takes a while to get served, and the restaurant is very small. And not small in an intimate, cosy way, but small in an elbows-​banging, cramped way.
Even so, there a few places that I’d rather eat lunch in that part of town. This is partly a reflection on the good food served at Italian Connection, and partly due to the dearth of restaurants in the area.

I have to totally agree with you here Jo, fab pizza and garlic bread, good sized portions and good price but would it kill the staff to smile?

Cute little Italian restaurant tucked away from the Talbot St madness. The pizza is divine but the staff leave something to be desired… If they were a little friendlier I might consider going back. But until they are, I won’t waste my time or money.
They have a good lunch special though — 10.95 for a few courses.

Very cheap and cheerful. There’s not a lot of choice on the menu but the pizza is good. The staff aren’t the friendliest but its a good place for a casual meal. Worth a visit if you’re in the area but there are better Italian restaurants in the city.