The Restaurant

The steak was absolutely amazing, but the service was just so-​so. They didn’t tell us the specials, the soup of the day, etc. and asked for our food order before asking if we wanted anything to drink. You probably can’t go wrong on a Tuesday night though — 20 for a 3 course meal.

We popped in here on sat, a nicely bedecked place with a good atmosphere, lots of natural light and overall comfortable.
The staff are friendly and professional and the menu (we got the brunch menu) is a great mix covering everything from a fry-​up to steak… I’m sure there’s stuff there for the veggies among you too but not being one of those (says Q with a little distain) I didn’t look.
One look at us as we came through the door was all it took for a member of staff to shoot off and grab a high-​chair for our son, great, he was mercifully tied down and secure within seconds. Parents breathe a sigh of relief and wait for stage 2… my son wondering just how far he can throw a slice of buttered bread and if it really will fit into his fathers water glass.
Apparently it does.
The food when it arrived was ok… definitely nothing to rave about. I had the full irish; the pudding was just blobs of appropriately coloured meat and the sausages were about 70% not pork… overall a poor performance. Herself had bangers and mash which was much better but still missed the mark in mine own humble opinion.
I don’t want to focus on the negatives too much here, despite the food I liked the restaurant and there’s a good chance I’ll be back, just don’t expect a gourmet dining experience and I think you’ll have a fine time!

Few people know that the proprietor of Donnybrook Fair, Joe Doyle has family in the meat business. So, when I came to The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair I knew I was going to order fillet steak no matter how much it cost and in spite treat they had to tempt me away on the menu.
It was sublime, the tenderest, melty in your mouthiest, juiciest thing ever, it didn’t come cheap but it was durn worth it. The other thing worth mentioning is how good the espresso is, well worth dropping in for a coffee over the Café Java next door.
Nowadays the menu in The Restaurant is weirdly reasonable with great set menus and early bird offers. They also open for breakfast with delicious sounding cinnamon and honey porridge and a full Irish making an appearance.
So, four stars for The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair, don’t overlook this place it’s not as expensive as you’d think and the food is top notch.

One good thing that has come out of the recession is Early Birds. I went to The Restaurant above Donnybrook Fair for dinner and had a really nice meal. The restaurant is funky but a little cool for me, it doesn’t really have the atmosphere it could even though there were lots of people there.
My meal was super nice though. Three courses for € 25; goats cheese tart, followed by chicken & leek pie (with mashed potato — yum) with ice-​cream to finish me off. Good food, well cooked. Nice staff too. We took our time though and sat on over dinner, you could tell they were itching to close up! They also do breakfast and lunch.